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Retaining the Scent of Heaven / Rabbi Michael Lezak / Yom Kippur 5785
Yom Kippur 5785
Rabbi Michael Lezak
Retaining the Scent of Heaven
Rafi called us. He said, ‘I know you are passing the rolling fields on your way to Beersheva. Please tell Michael about ‘Adom Darom’ the festival in February where thousands of people make pilgrimage to our kibbutz and the surrounding area to see expansive acreage of blooming Kalaniot / red anemones, the Israeli national flower. Tell Michael that the kalaniot will bloom again…and so will we
Four Entered the Orchard, One Returned in Peace: The פַּרְדֵּס of 10.7 / Rabbi Noa Kushner Kol Nidrei 5785
Kol Nidrei 5785
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Four Entered the Orchard, One Returned in Peace: The פַּרְדֵּס of 10.7
In fact, it seems to me
All four of these rabbis, and their perspectives
Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Elisha ben Abuyah, and Akiva
are within each of us
And so, if we want to find our way through this severe chapter in Jewish history,
this particular orchard, what I am calling the פַּרְדֵּס of 10.7
We will need to go with them, to see their versions of the פַּרְדֵּס just as they see it
To go and, in the end, like Akiva, try to return whole
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אֵ֥ל רַח֖וּם וְחַנּ֑וּן / God of Mercy: Being Jewish in San Francisco, 2024 / Rabbi Noa Kushner Rosh Hashanah 5785
Rosh Hashanah 5785
Rabbi Noa Kushner
אֵ֥ל רַח֖וּם וְחַנּ֑וּן / God of Mercy: Being Jewish in San Francisco, 2024
One thing, however, got very clear
There was no denying our involvement in the Jewish project
or even our involvement in Jewish history
because, like it or not, we were and we are, unmistakably, a part of it