Rabbi Guzik - A Bisl Torah

My mom and I began to discuss Thanksgiving, a favorite holiday among the Guzik family. Usually, the dining room is bursting with relatives, new friends, tons of food, a warm fire giving the illusion that we experience seasons in California....

As I have watched the election unfold, I have done exactly what I vowed not to do: scroll through Facebook and Instagram. And while many comments call for action and advocate for a better world, others directly shame people, attack...

In 2004, Julia Wood, Professor of Communications and Humanities offered a new definition for communication. She deconstructed communication as “…a systemic process in which individuals interact with and through symbols to create and interpret meanings.” In her explanation there is...

A dear congregant gifted me a beautiful memoir about her father growing up Poland during the Shoah. Prior to the onset of the war, her father described the ways in which religious men would frequent the “shtiebel.” He explained that...

Our family went around the table to discuss our favorite Jewish holiday. My husband is rare in naming Yom Kippur. I love Sukkot. Our older children gave solid explanations for Channukah and Passover. And finally, with a serious expression, our...

Erez and I developed a new pattern upon entering and sitting in our sukkah. We look around, sideways, and eventually upwards. One of us says, “I love this sukkah.” The other responds, “Yeah, me too…I hope the roof doesn’t fall...

Several years ago, we inherited a beautiful sukkah from our good friends Cantor Arianne Brown and Rabbi Randall Brown. Next, we shared the sukkah with our dear colleague and neighbors Jessie Fruithandler and Rabbi Jason Fruithandler. Over the course of...

In speaking about relationships, my professor remarked, “With every first hello, there is an impending goodbye.” Meaning, with each birth, new connection, endeavor or beginning, an ending is inevitable. With a start, there is surely a conclusion. It is a...

I relay a wonderful story from Philip Goodman’s “The Rosh Hashanah Anthology”: At the conclusion of the service, the cantor approached Rabbi Vevel, the maggid of Wilna, to extend New Year greetings and to be complimented for the manner in...

Our family is in possession of an abundance of shofarot. Many, many shofars. During quarantine, our children took up chess, learned to swim, and now, blow shofar. But unlike the other somewhat delightful skills, the practice of blowing shofar is...