by Rabbi Audrey Marcus Berkman The sound of the shofar is, it has been said, a kind of spiritual alarm clock. With the dawn of the Hebrew month of Elul, this primal sound, seeming to encompass the entire spectrum of human emotion and experience within it, calls us to mindfulness, to wakefulness, and asks us …
by Rabbi Daniel Schaefer The new moon this weekend begins the new month of Elul. By the time the moon has waxed and waned we’ll be arriving at Rosh Hashanah, the start of a new year. Elul is a time for preparing for the High Holy Days, of awakening ourselves to do the work of …
This is Lori Berry and Donna Rubenoff. We want to introduce ourselves as the co-leaders of the new temple-wide partnership that we launched in June with The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO). GBIO works to coalesce, train, and organize the communities of Greater Boston across religious, racial, ethnic, class, and neighborhood lines for local social justice issues …
by Rabbi Daniel Schaefer The early Rabbis who codified the Oral Torah in the Mishnah and Talmud, made a distinction between religious obligations that were considered d’oraita (from the Torah) and d’rabbanan (from the rabbis). In this week’s Torah portion, Eikev, we read the source for the one and only blessing, that according to the …
by Rabbi Audrey Berkman Shabbat, as our sages understood, is a taste of the world as it should be – a pause from the busyness and noise of the day-to-day and a time to be present for ourselves and for one another; a time to bask in our blessings, focusing on the abundance of our …
by Rabbi Audrey Marcus Berkman Today, for the first time, our 175-year-old congregation marched as a community in Boston’s Pride Parade. Shehechiyanu! It was such a wonderful celebration of life and love. From our truck, complete with a replica of our synagogue’s dome on top, we cheered, waved, and returned shouts of “Shabbat Shalom” while …
by Rabbi Audrey Marcus Berkman Invocation and Reflections: Almost exactly one year ago, I stood here before you as your new Associate Rabbi, excited to partner with all of you and with Rabbi Sonia in a new chapter for this beloved community. From the time I first entered the sanctuary to meet with the Search …
Ellen Mosner The origin of my name Ellen is derived from the Greek root ēlē meaning light or bright. Perhaps that explains why I’ve always had an affinity for light. Or more precisely, fire. If you build a fire, I will be lost to it, mesmerized by the flames for hours. So, it makes sense …
Dear TOS Community, We are pleased to update you on our strategic planning and clergy search process. Strategic Planning On March 11th, we held our second community meeting. At this meeting, we examined our personal and congregational Jewish values. We then envisioned our community in the year 2023. Each table created a long list of …
