Blog

In March, 2020, our congregation first implemented policies and protocols designed to safeguard our community against what we had hoped would be the short-term impact of Covid-19. Nearly 2 years later, we find ourselves moving from pandemic to endemic.
 
A large percentage of our community has become fully vaccinated and boosted (mitigating against the effects of Covid) and our understanding of Covid and its variants has evolved,...Read more...

February is my favorite month of the year for many reasons. Yes, I am partial to Valentine’s Day chocolates, and yes, February is my birthday month. And yes, who doesn’t love watching AJFF films?! However, I also love February because it marks something about which I am very passionate - Jewish Disabilities Awareness, Acceptance & Inclusion Month (JDAIM).

In the Book of Isaiah, we are taught: "For my house...Read more...

As this week’s Torah reading covers Parashat Terumah, translated as “gifts” and referencing the gifts that the Israelites were to bring for the construction of their tabernacle, I found myself particularly compelled by the image offered by Rabbi Aaron Panken, of blessed memory:

“Imagine the image. You go up into your attic and you find a fantastically wrapped, absolutely beautiful, unbelievably...Read more...

This week we are centering our Shabbat around the topic of Reproductive Freedom. Repro Shabbat is an opportunity for us to highlight the critical importance of reproductive health access, reproductive rights, and reproductive justice, and to learn more about Judaism’s approach to these issues.

Along with over 700 institutions, congregations this week are centering their messages, sermons and music around this very important and...Read more...

My son Ben forwarded a tweet to me this week: “Moses wandered the desert for a shorter time than Dawg fans waited for a natty. Wow.” 

For UGA alumni and Georgia Bulldog fans everywhere, Monday’s long-awaited national championship has been a source of understandable jubilation.  The last time UGA ended its season atop the college football mountain was in 1980 and the enormous, shared sense of relief and release...Read more...

This summer I went to Israel for the first time through the Merrill and Sheila Wynne Judaic Scholarship. I chose to use the scholarship towards the Jewish National Fund’s Roots Israel trip. Teens from around the US gathered...Read more...

As 2021 draws to a close with the realities of Covid-19 and all its variants continuing to wreak havoc in our lives, many might be challenged to find much that is positive in what this year has wrought. While the end of a calendar year typically elicits joyful reflection on the past year’s accomplishments along with a list of personal resolutions for the secular new year ahead, the conclusion of 2021 undeniably finds us in great...Read more...

I do so love when holidays intersect, and this Shabbat is no exception. While Jews around the world gather with friends and family to welcome Shabbat, a ritual complete with well wishes, with blessings, with an embrace of light and good and kindness and compassion, our Christian friends and siblings gather with family and friends to celebrate Christmas, a ritual complete with those same heartening and heartwarming values. This Friday night...Read more...

While Martin Luther King sat in a Birmingham jail, he penned a letter to his fellow clergy explaining why he thought it necessary to engage in civil disobedience. He criticized their vocal opposition to his efforts, saying that religion must serve the cause of justice rather than maintaining the status quo. In King’s lengthy “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” he wrote:

“But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from...Read more...

The more often and the more regularly we receive any blessing, the less likely we are to be aware of or fully appreciate it.  What is constantly granted is easily taken for granted.  “I have often thought,” Helen Keller wrote, “that it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during their adult life.  Darkness would make him more appreciative of light; silence would...Read more...

Celebrations are wonderful things, and even more special when they are richly deserved.

Lauren Mahady has been with the Temple Sinai Preschool as a music teacher since it first opened 35 years ago. She has used her considerable gifts generously and with patience, inspiring our youngest learners to find their way into music and to sing the timeless songs of our people. I, like so many parents, relished the days when my children would...Read more...

How could I not write about the Atlanta Braves and their World Series victory this week – it is such a source of excitement for Atlanta and for Braves fans everywhere!  Post-game analyses and other sports commentators have noted that in addition to the obvious talent of the players, the Braves’ unanticipated and truly spectacular victory can also be attributed to the excellent leadership and direction of Head Coach, Brian...Read more...

One of the things that is most striking about being back in the book of Genesis is how it centers on families-couples in particular. When we pray the words of Avot v’Imahot in every prayer service, we are reminded how God had a unique relationship with each generation introduced in Genesis: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob, Leah and Rachel. Each couple had its own strengths and challenges, and for each, God was present and part...Read more...

This week, we read one of the most well-known Torah Portions of all, the story of Noah’s Ark. This torah portion’s iconic images are hung on nursery walls, depicted on stained glass windows, and are framed in museums,  all across the world. The story of Noah is one that I think about all the time, so much so that we chose the name “Noah” as Rafi’s middle name. 

While there are many...Read more...

Friends,

No doubt many of us have heard about the recent acts of antisemitism that took place at Pope High School and Lassiter High School, both schools in Cobb County, and the disappointing response from the administration and the Cobb County School Board. Clergy colleagues in Marietta convened almost immediately, with Rabbi Larry Sernovitz (Temple Kol Emeth) meeting at length with the principal of Pope High School. Though the...Read more...