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Parashat Vayechi / Jan 6 / Challahs in the Ark: Believing in the Games of God
Parashat Vayechi / Jan 6
Rabbi Ed Feinstein — Visiting Scholar
Challahs in the Ark: Believing in the Games of God
We're overjoyed to welcome some of the most engaging, powerful teachers in the US and Israel. Many are long time Kitchen favorites, some newer to us but all known for their ability to connect Torah to our lives right now. We'll spend a whole shabbat with these thinkers, like a retreat without having to pack.
Hanukkah & Parashat Vayeshev / Dec 16 / Ineffective Altruism
Hanukkah & Parashat Vayeshev / Dec 16
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Ineffective Altruism
But never mind that, the angel was right, is right
There is something divine in those dreams of Joseph’s
Don’t doubt yourself, Joseph
Don’t doubt all that was and is in those dreams
Don’t doubt your ability to complete your missions in life
Parashat Vayishlach / Dec 10 / Room for all
Parashat Vayishlach / Dec 10
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Room For All
Jacob was standing close by and could hear it all
Esau’s pain at not receiving his intended blessing, true, but also
Esau’s determined insistence that he be blessed nevertheless
That there is always another blessing
That there is room for us all
Parashat Vayetze / Dec 2 / Praying in the Dark
Parashat Vayetze / Dec 2
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Praying in the dark
What is the kind of prayer we can only pray as ourselves, and not if we are pretending to be someone else?
What is the kind of prayer we pray when we are stopped, unable to run towards the next destination?
What is the kind of prayer we most need in the dark?
Parashat Chayyei Sarah / Nov 18 / Is Anyone Home?
Parashat Chayyei Sarah / Nov 18
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Is Anyone Home?
And this kind of epic repetition, death and life, and death and life again is so fundamental, it is so enormous we don’t even see it
Even when it is framing one torah portion
Even when, especially when, it is framing our lives
Parashat Vayera / Nov 12 / Now We Start From Here
Parashat Vayera / Nov 12
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Now We Start From Here
Whatever it was that we encountered,
It sends shock waves through our lives
And now our lives have a new starting point
A new origin
We used to start from “there”
But now we start from “here.”
Parashat Lech Lecha / Nov 4 / Who Hates Us Now?
Parashat Lech Lecha / Nov 4
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Who Hates Us Now?
And I really want to know because in this moment in history,
I'm increasingly worried that we may be carrying the wrong things with us
And leaving behind some of the ideas we really, really need.
The Dawn of Righteousness / Kol Nidrei 5783
Kol Nidrei 5783
Rabbi Noa Kushner
The Dawn of Righteousness
It’s as if the angels are saying:
“Get out of here! If you linger too long on this place and what it did to you, you’ll never make it.
Stop thinking that if you only did this one thing you could fix it,
Forget combing through the ashes one more time,
Rehashing the arguments — we’re telling you, there’s nothing left!
It’s time to go! Deliver yourself! Emerge, escape and be born!”
The Crown of Truth / Yom Kippur 5783
Yom Kippur 5783
Rabbi Noa Kushner
The Crown of Truth
And it turns out truth doesn’t need a lot of fanfare, it doesn’t need a fancy room
It can be said plainly,
It doesn’t need private planes
It changes us
Once said out loud, truth is like a shot heard round the world.
Run / Rosh Hashanah 5783
Rosh Hashanah 5783
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Run
There are times when we are open enough
When we are sitting in the doorway of our tent, the doorway of the doorway / פֶּֽתַח־הָאֹ֖הֶל
There are times when our eyes are open enough
To realize the ladder in the corner is going somewhere we need to go
And so we run, like Abraham did, to greet any messenger who comes our way
There’s no time for signing wavers or downloading apps
You either go up the ladder or not
You either run to greet the messengers or go and hide inside
Sent / Erev Rosh Hashanah 5783
Erev Rosh Hashanah 5783
Rabbi Michael Lezak
Sent
I want to think about how we might set our lives up in such a way so that we regularly and reliably and freely are in an unimpeded way giving our gifts, magnifying the light, the love, the compassion, the righteousness, the joy, the flow of holiness in our hearts and outside.
How we might carry one another in the sweetest and most sacred ways?
High Holiday Melodies
High Holiday Melodies
A series of prayers all about mercy and forgiveness.
We Are Marked
Parashat Bo
Rabbi Noa Kushner
We Are Marked
The mark, the reminder in the Torah is that we left Egypt once and so we will leave it again
That even this plague will end
That even this plague will end
That even this plague will end
Little Vessels: Hanukkah 2021
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Little Vessels: Hanukkah, 2021
Vessels of oil / small, vessels, cruises of oil
The kind of vessels that once, long ago, gave us just enough hope to try to change everything in our world
Just enough hope to get us to the next miracle
Nothing is Lost
Parashat Toldot
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Nothing is Lost
There are two life changing prayers in the parasha, one from Isaac and one from Rebecca. Both ask, “If this is the way it is, then why am I here?”
Name It
Parashat Lech-Lecha
Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer
October 15th, 2021
The Day the High Priest shared the Secret of Forgiveness
R. Jessica Kate Meyer
The Day the High Priest shared the Secret of Forgiveness
September 16, 2021 / Yom Kippur, 5782
Revealed
R. Noa Kushner
Revealed
September 15, 2021 / Kol Nidrei, 5782
But I have come to believe that this social crisis, this economic crisis
This crisis of unimaginable disparity
Is so pervasive and so, accepted
It requires our spiritual attention
It requires us to reveal all the lies we’ve been telling ourselves for so long.
Living Through Creation
R. Noa Kushner
Living Through Creation
September 7, 2021 / Rosh Hashanah Morning, 5782
I’m talking about the kind of creation that assumes chaos is already here
The kind that assumes things need to changeI’m not talking about a shiny new creation
I’m talking about re-creation It’s already started
This re-creation has already started The only question is: What kind of a creation story is it going to be?
Teshuvah from the Undertow
R. Jessica Kate Meyer
Teshuvah from the Undertow
September 6, 2021 / Erev Rosh Hashanah, 5782