Rabbi Noa Kushner 3/5/21 Rabbi Noa Kushner 3/5/21

Back from the Dead

Parashat Ki Tissa

In that moment Moses knows

God is mistaken

For God, like it or not, is always with us

Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer 2/22/21 Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer 2/22/21

The Mask That Reveals

Parashat Terumah

If the space between the wings of the כרובים were too close, obscuring the Divine Presence titrating through the schach, the keruvim themselves would become idols--masechot--as heretical as the golden calf. Key difference? The schach.

Rabbi Noa Kushner 2/5/21 Rabbi Noa Kushner 2/5/21

Unmistakable, Irreducible, Recognizable, Treasured

Parashat Yitro

I imagine hearing that voice was like finding a long lost relative

Only, we realized, still trying to shake slavery off, we had been the lost ones

Rabbi Noa Kushner 1/8/21 Rabbi Noa Kushner 1/8/21

“How Could You Do This Thing?”: Mobs and Midwives, Then and Now

Parashat Shemot

There is one thing Pharaoh does not do —

he never appeals to the moral sense of the midwives

He never tries to make the case that he is doing the right thing,

Only that he has the power to get away with doing what he wants

Rabbi Noa Kushner 12/7/20 Rabbi Noa Kushner 12/7/20

These are the Days of Miracles and Wonder

Parashat Vayishlach

Sometimes we miss the miracles

Even really obvious ones

Sometimes we need other people to tell us:

“That thing that happened? The fact that you are a totally different person now? That was a miracle. Say the blessing.”

Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer 11/30/20 Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer 11/30/20

Father Son Rock Mountain

Parashat Toldot

Rabbi Noa Kushner 11/6/20 Rabbi Noa Kushner 11/6/20

America, America

Parashat Vayera

Maybe, just maybe, there is the America we know

And there is also a second America

An America of Not Yet

An America of the Possible

Rabbi Noa Kushner 10/23/20 Rabbi Noa Kushner 10/23/20

40 Days + 40 Nights

Parashat Noach

It couldn’t have taken God 40 days and 40 nights to flood the world. There must have been something else.

Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer 10/9/20 Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer 10/9/20

Do Not Withhold Water

For life, and not for death. May it be for satiety and not for lack. For your sake, and the sake of all your people. Do not withhold water.

Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer 9/28/20 Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer 9/28/20

No One Likes a Prophet: Isaiah Redux

Yom Kippur AM 5781

This is an interpretive reading/mashup of Isaiah 57:14-58:12, infused with/inspired by midrashic readings and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s The Prophets.

Rabbi Noa Kushner 9/27/20 Rabbi Noa Kushner 9/27/20

“All Voices Are Yours”- America in the Wilderness

Kol Nidrei 5781

It is possible
That in the strange quiet the pandemic has brought
We could all hear a great many voices we did not hear before
That in the quiet, we will be quiet
And quiet ourselves long enough to hear voices we’ve never heard.

Rabbi Noa Kushner 9/19/20 Rabbi Noa Kushner 9/19/20

Looks Like Rain

Rosh Hashanah AM 5781

Who, when they are at their most tired, most weak — insists on exploring the root causes of the lack of rain in order to address them? Who takes a draught, the anguish of thirst, and a lack of livelihood and uses it as a springboard towards justice?

Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer 9/18/20 Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer 9/18/20

Take Refuge

Erev Rosh Hashanah 5781

Our sages understood this period--Elul and the Days of Awe--as an ir miklat, a city of refuge reconfigured in time.

These 10 days, these עשרת ימי התשובה are our days of return. Tonight, the door opens for us to enter this sanctuary. In ten days, at the close of Yom Kippur, we will symbolically close the door behind us. But for now, let these ten days be our refuge. Our coming home. Our place to pray, to cry, to dream and renew.

Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer 8/21/20 Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer 8/21/20

Find Someone Who’s Turning

Parashat Shoftim

As we stand in our foggy oasis, surrounded on all sides by raging fires whose glow casts an eerie light at sunset and whose smell seeps in through our closed windows, as we see images of bumper to bumper traffic of mass evacuation, with ash falling down, and read about Torah scrolls swiftly wrapped in tallitot and whisked to safety, how do we show up? What is our responsibility?

Rabbi Noa Kushner 8/7/20 Rabbi Noa Kushner 8/7/20

Four Songs

Parashat Ekev

Because these moments in the desert are just the moments are most interested in now

Because we too are looking for clues

As to how to live in an in-between time

Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer 7/10/20 Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer 7/10/20

Greatness Thrust Upon Us

Parashat Pinchas

It’s been 38 + years since the original Israelite census, the one before everyone over 20 was condemned to die in the wilderness because they couldn’t hold onto faith for five minutes before getting distracted.

Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh 6/19/20 Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh 6/19/20

A Giant Leap of Faith

Parashat Sh’lach

Here's the missing pull quote: Faith means trusting and believing

and seeing --that just as quickly as a bad pandemic,

can arise out of nowhere,

so too there can also arise, a miracle.

Rabbi Noa Kushner 6/5/20 Rabbi Noa Kushner 6/5/20

Stealing and Lying in America

Parashat Nasso

Words like 'racism' are so euphemistic - they sometimes obscure the problems rather than reveal them. ⁠

⁠

So for tonight, instead of the word 'racism' I'd like for us to substitute: 'Stealing from people we think are less powerful and then lying about it.'

Rabbi Noa Kushner 5/22/20 Rabbi Noa Kushner 5/22/20

Remember the Everything

Parashat Bamidbar

We might not feel we deserve Torah. We might be afraid to try to receive it.

Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer 5/15/20 Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer 5/15/20

Lift your Eyes

Parashat Behar-Bechukotai

“A song for Ascending: I lift my eyes up to the mountains, from where will my help come” — Psalm 121

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