Dr. Alicia Lieberman is a scientist that studies the growing brains of babies in utero through age three. At the General Assembly in Los Angeles, she explained that when babies engage in ritual, predictable rituals, the comfort of the reoccurring experience allows the child to learn in the most surprising and unimaginable ways. Meaningful ritual: knowing that a parent will tuck you in at night, listening to the same music while pregnant and then, again while playing with your child, taking moments every day to share statements of gratitude and blessing. It may be neuroscience. But it is also very…
A Bisl Torah
With Gratitude
My father is a movie star. My grandfather worked on the movie set of Plymouth Adventure. The story depicts the journey of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower. Please don’t ask me about the historical validity of the events…as a family, we focus on one scene and one scene only. The cast of the movie was missing one very important character: Oceanus Hopkins, the first baby born on the Mayflower. Alas, a star was born. My father was just a few weeks old, held the stage for a good fifteen seconds, and every Thanksgiving, our holiday dinner officially begins with watching…
White Lies
It’s a great scene in the Torah: angels of the Lord visit Abraham and Sarah. One of the divine emissaries explains that in one year’s time, Sarah will have a son. Sarah laughs to herself and says, “Now that I am withered, am I to have enjoyment—with my husband so old?” But the angel of God says back to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I in truth bear a child, old as I am?’” The angel switches the blame. Sarah references her husband’s old age, but the angel tells Abraham that Sarah only mentions her own feeble body….
Jet Lag
Just arriving home from Philadelphia, our children reminded us what it feels like to be parents to newborn babies. The past two nights, the kids have been wide awake at 3am, hungry for breakfast, leading their blurry-eyed mother and father from game to game, activity to activity, exclaiming every few moments, “Look how dark it is outside!” And we respond with irritation and fatigue, “We know…don’t you want to go back to bed?” And in trying to find the silver lining of this exhausting experience, I started to distinguish the sounds of early morning from the sounds of day. Sounds…
Sink or Swim?
This week’s Bisl Torah is featured in the Jewish Journal’s Table for Five. Genesis 8:20-22: “And Noah built an altar to the Lord, and he took of all the clean animals and of all the clean fowl and brought up burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled the pleasant aroma, and the Lord said to Himself, “I will no longer curse the earth because of man, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth, and I will no longer smite all living things as I have done. So long as the earth exists, seedtime and…
What is Your Tradition?
In just a few days, Jews all around the world will gather together for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. We will sit in synagogue, listening to many of the same melodies heard and sung by our grandparents and great-grandparents. We will partake in customs that Jews pass down from generation to generation. The customs vary. Perhaps we eat a special apple cake recipe a relative introduced into the family. Others might engage in a Rosh Hashana seder, eating foods that symbolize life and sweetness for the new year. Many will adorn white on Yom Kippur and walk to synagogue, reminiscent…
Open Your Eyes
I’m not a huge fan of heights. Understatement. I detest heights. Even when flying in an airplane, I pretend that I am somewhere else, concentrate on my book or a movie, and choose to forget how very high up in the air I actually am. But somehow, with coercing from a certain five-year- old and friends, I went on the Santa Monica Pier Ferris Wheel. As the ride swiftly carried our carriage to the very top of the wheel, my eyes glued shut and beads of sweat formed on my forehead. My friend gently nudged me and said, “You really…
Who Comes First?
My heart continues to break as I watch the destruction in Texas. And yet, it continues to be resewn again as I watch community members and strangers reach out to the stranded, homeless, injured and fallen. So many stories of humanity’s capacity for goodness are rising to the surface. One mother was found face down in a canal in Beaumont, Texas. Her three-year-old daughter was clinging to her back. The daughter survived. The mother did not. The officer that found the mother and daughter noted that this mother unquestionably saved her child. Her child came first. In your life, who…
Facing Mortality
Will you find your melody? The beginning of the month of Elul forces us to come face to face with our mortality. In just weeks we will gather as a community, hoping to find prayers and words that match the brokenness that sits within our hearts. We can all name personal fissures: grief, insecurity, disappointment, emptiness, solitude. And the chasm grows when we feel as if our faith can’t identify or address or fix the problem. In “Moadei HaRav” Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Pick gives voice to Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik’s lectures on the High Holy Days. Rav Soloveitchik analyzed why there is…
What Do You Need to Hear?
It has been a distressing, troubling week. Globally, nationally, and personally for the Sinai Temple community, the sound of hearts breaking seems constant and unavoidable. In a recent exchange, someone remarked to me, “This is going to be quite a year for High Holy Day sermons. Rabbi, have you thought about what you are going to say?” And while I certainly have some general ideas, my first response to the inquiry was, “What exactly do people need to hear?” When you feel as if the world is shattering before your eyes, what do you need to hear? When you feel…
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