By Randy Tritell Half a year after leaving my job as Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Office of International Affairs and embarking on a new phase of life misleadingly called “retirement,” I find my Jewish identity playing a central role in providing direction and meaning in a way I never would or could have Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Josh Beraha The first time I remember longing to make aliyah, I was in high school spending a semester abroad in Israel. I lived some of the time with a family in Gilo, a neighborhood outside of Jerusalem, where conversations with my host brother, Yoav, awakened these feelings of longing that linger to Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Stephanie Crawley A number of years ago, I was sitting in a lecture with Rabbi Donniel Hartman of the Hartman Institute. On a large easel pad, he drew a tiny dot in the center. And around it, along the edges of the paper, he drew a large circle. This small dot, he said, Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Daniel Zemel I do not know how not to love Israel. The very street names sing the song of the Jewish story: Hillel, Shammai, Bialik, Ben Yehuda. Louise and I once lived in an apartment on Ahad Ha’am and was thrilled to be living on the street named for the early twentieth-century founder Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Stephanie Crawley On the first day of our New Year, I gave this blessing—for anyone who has had an abortion, or helped someone access one. You can learn more about our decision to offer the blessing in Rabbi Zemel’s column in the November/December 2022 edition of the Vine. What we originally thought would Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Marc Lee Raphael When I visit the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, and walk to the Mark Rothko room, I pass by a lot of modern art. I see artists who combine real and unreal objects; who employ the cubist technique of breaking up nature into half-abstract, angular planes; or who explore the Continue Reading »
By Mckinley Edelman This past July, thanks to Temple Micah, I had the special opportunity to participate in an eight-day intensive hosted by Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies at their campus in Jerusalem. Our group of twenty-two North Americans was made up of museum guides, Religious School Education Directors, March of the Living Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Josh Beraha Who hasn’t had the experience of sitting in a movie theater, a lecture, or yes—services at Temple Micah—when an intrusion from the digital world robs us of our focal point? Even as we try to give our full attention to something, that moment of intrusion understandably diverts it. We might keep Continue Reading »
By Rielle Miller Gabriel, President What does it mean to be a Modern Jew? This is a complex question. It deserves deep thought and scholarship. While I am not such a scholar, I offer this small contribution to the dialogue— one I learned through the teachings of our Temple Micah clergy. Many years ago (seven Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel At “Ask the Rabbis” on Yom Kippur afternoon, one congregant asked how Temple Micah clergy members consider taking stands on public issues. The question addressed a common concern about mixing politics and religion. Of the five rabbis on the bimah (including our two rabbinic fellows), four provided a response, which Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Josh Beraha The Jewish new year is the holiday of apples and honey, or if you grew up in a synagogue and went to children’s services on the high holidays, the holiday of slightly browning apples and honey. The apples–red ones, rarely green–cut into slices, arranged on thin, white paper plates, were distributed Continue Reading »
By Rielle Miller Gabriel, President The High Holy days are upon us, and I am thinking of oranges. No, I’m not erroneously comparing apples and oranges, nor am I confusing my Jewish holiday food symbols. You see, when I was in elementary school we would each be given an orange on our last day of Continue Reading »
A Poem for the High Holy Days By Rabbi Stephanie Crawley Blessed is the One who hears the wordless voice of the shofar, the language of each cry. Tekiyah // Shevarim-Teruah // Tekiyah Shout // Grasp-Gasp // Rage Tekiyah // Shevarim // Tekiyah Continue Reading »
An Interview with Friendship Place’s Chris Cannedy By Martha Adler with Jeannelle D’Isa If you’re new to Temple Micah, you may wonder…underwear? For the past 22 years, Temple Micah’s 6th graders and their families have partnered with Friendship Place, a nonprofit dedicated to serving D.C. residents experiencing homelessness. The Underwear Drive, held annually from the Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel In introducing the Shabbat morning Amidah (standing prayer), our Mishkan Tefillah prayerbook offers two words that never cease to capture my imagination and spirit: “Prayer invites.” Shabbat morning regulars know that I like to say that prayer is an invitation for us to delve into the deepest parts of our Continue Reading »
Written by Steve Weisman The reopening of Temple Micah’s beloved sanctuary has also revived the in-person music that lifts our spirits. This summer a new voice will be added as Temple Micah welcomes Isaac Sonett-Assor as a Star Fellowship cantorial intern. He is a fourth-year cantorial student at the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Susan Landau Moss Springtime is about to bloom, though up here in New England it often comes in fits and starts. It feels even closer in Israel, as our calendar reminded us at Tu B’shevat. And Pesach preparation once again monopolizes our to-do lists. We are invited to channel our ancestors and feel Continue Reading »
By Michael Feuer A riddle from Jewish folklore asks about the difference between optimists and pessimists. The mischievous answer is that pessimists have more data. This wry bit of wisdom can help us understand the condition of civic life and prospects for democracy here and elsewhere. Pesach is a good time to think about freedom Continue Reading »
By Jan Gordon with the Sukkat Shalom Committee Refugees seek liberation and find new freedoms. They are also strangers in a new land and feel the melancholy of missed loved ones and worry when family members who remain in their home country face danger and hardship. Temple Micah’s work with Sukkat Shalom (Shelter of Peace), Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Stephanie Crawley Praying in a Pandemic Sometimes Egypt is a place on a map for us to trace its borders And sometimes it is a space held in time for us to always leave And sometimes it is a mythic adversary in the battle of hard hearts And sometimes it is my open Continue Reading »