When It’s Easier to Hide: Jonah, Antisemitism, and Moral Courage

Sep 29, 2025 By Shuly Rubin Schwartz | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Yom Kippur

As we prepare for the Days of Awe, the Book of Jonah calls us not only to repentance, but to responsibility攅specially in a fractured and fearful world. In this session,Chancellor Shuly Rubin Schwartzexplored Jonah reluctance to engage, his desire to retreat, and God challenge to him攁nd to us. The Book of Jonah summons us to engage and build bridges攅ven with those who may seem distant or hostile. This session engaged what it means to be brave and morally grounded when it would be easier to turn away攁nd how, like Jonah, each of us has the power to make a difference.

Jews, Non-Jews, and the Purpose of the High Holidays

Sep 16, 2025 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur

The Amidah for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur presents a striking, even radical, vision: a world where God alone reigns, where all people擩ewish and not攍ive in peace, and oppressive regimes vanish. In this vision, the Jewish people are neither erased nor centered. Instead, they are part of a broader human hope.

The Blessing of Curses: A Rosh Hashanah Puzzle

Sep 12, 2025 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Ki Tavo | Rosh Hashanah

Here a puzzle for us to think about as we consider the spiritual work that we need to engage in over the remaining days until Yom Kippur: The Talmud tells us攊n the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar攖hat Ezra the Scribe decreed that,for all time, the Jewish people would read the blessings and curses in Leviticus (Parashat Behukkotai) prior to the holiday of Shavuot and those of Deuteronomy (Parashat Ki Tavo) before Rosh Hashanah(BTMegillah 31b). This decree is strange. Reading these graphic and threatening chapters, which detail the good that will come if we are faithful to God and the suffering that will be wrought if we forsake our relationship with God, is difficult at any time. Why insist that we read them publicly as we ready ourselves to celebrate these joyous holidays?

Beyond the Sermon: What the High Holiday Prayers Offer and Demand

Sep 8, 2025 By Jan Uhrbach | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur

We begin our High Holiday webinar series with guidance for how to engage more meaningfully in the prayer part of High Holiday services. Famously long and repetitive, services on these days may sometimes feel overwhelming, boring, or even alienating. In this session, Rabbi Jan Uhrbach, Director of the Block / Kolker Center for Spiritual Arts at 果冻传媒, offered practical strategies for participating more fully, and insight into what these services really ask of us and what they offer攅specially in tumultuous uncertain times. Along the way, Rabbi Uhrbach will share some of her favorite passages in the Conservative Movement Machzor Lev Shalem, for which she was a member of the Editorial Committee. Whether you檙e a seasoned prayergoer or showing up with hesitation, this session will help you begin the High Holiday season with openness, intention, and agency.

Black North, White West: Color, Grief, and the Geography of the Soul

Aug 1, 2025 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Commentary | Devarim | Tishah Be'av | Yom Kippur

There a tradition in ancient Semitic languages of mapping the world with colors. The north is black. The south is red. The west is white. The east攕ometimes blue, sometimes green. In Arabic, the Mediterranean is still called al-ba岣 al-abya岣� al-mutawassi峁瓟the White Middle Sea. The Red Sea is to the south. The Black Sea lies to the north.

Counting as a Spiritual Practice: Bemidbar and the Road to Shavuot

May 30, 2025 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Commentary | Bemidbar | Shavuot

Every year, without fail, we read Parashat Bemidbar just before the festival of Shavuot. This liturgical pairing is more than a scheduling convenience; it offers a profound insight into the spiritual architecture of Jewish time. Bemidbar begins with a count: “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans, by ancestral houses, listing the names, every male, head by head” (Num. 1:2; 讘职旨诪执住职驻址旨专砖值讈诪讜止转诇职讙只诇职讙职旨诇止转指诐). This act of counting seems administrative on the surface, but like so much in the Torah, its spiritual depth lies beneath.

Who Shall Cross: A Talmudic Reimagining of the Passover Narrative

Mar 24, 2025 By Jan Uhrbach | Public Event video | Pesah

In preparation for your seder, Rabbi Jan Uhrbach, Director of the Block / Kolker Center for Spiritual Arts, led a thought-provoking session, exploring a Talmudic story that reflects key themes of Passover, raising profound questions about free will, obligation, and inclusion. How do we determine our purpose? Who are our fellow travelers, and what do we owe them? This discussion offers new insights to bring to your Passover table.

The Day Is Short, but Our Story Is Long

Mar 14, 2025 By Yael Landman | Commentary | Ki Tissa | Purim

Within the book of Exodus, certain details link the golden calf story with the account of revelation at Sinai. Mount Sinai is the site of the Israelites forming a covenant with God, but it is also the site of them violating that covenant. It where God tells Moses to go up and receive the stone tablets, and where Moses carries down those tablets before he witnesses the Israelites partying and hurls the tablets to the ground. The word kol (which we might translate 渟ound,� 渘oise,� or 渢hunder�) recurs in the context of God revelation, only to recur in the account of the golden calf with respect to the Israelites� ill-advised festivities. In these ways, the golden calf story is inextricably connected to the initial moment of revelation and lawgiving at Sinai, even as it threatens to destroy that covenantal foundation.

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