This week I dropped my son off at a new camp. In the mornings, I offer to sit on the gym steps and wait with him until a familiar face arrives. With a tight-lip and strong face, he shakes his head and stoically shoos me away. Feeling a bit negligent, I walk away. My thoughts begin a conversation: “But, he barely knows anyone.” “Stop. This is good for him. Let him figure it out.” “He’s only 4 ½. Maybe I should go back and take him home.” “He told you to leave. Let him grow up.” I always end up…
Posts by Rabbi Nicole Guzik
Head Towards The Exit
A wonderful colleague of mine is leaving for the east coast. We decided to sit down and conduct “exit interviews.” An exit interview is usually a chance to explain the positives of an organization and offer suggestions for improvement, helping the next person that takes the vacant position to flourish and grow. It allows supervisors and peers to look inside themselves and determine where and when they have been an exemplary employee and where they fall short. Because this colleague and I have been friends and co-workers for seven years, the “exit interview” became much more. We were able to…
Don’t Be A Bad Student
In my most recent guitar lesson, the teacher gently and firmly reminded me that he was the teacher and I was the student. I have no previous knowledge of how to play guitar or form chords, but I insisted he teach me according to my own preferences and what I deem important. Stubbornly, I felt as if I knew more. That I understand the way I learn best and he wasn’t following along. But at some point, he stopped the lesson and said, “I know you have many students. When you’re the rabbi, they listen to you. Now, I am…
Those People
My family and I went to see Paul Simon at the Hollywood Bowl. I grew up listening to Simon and Garfunkel, my father training our young ears as he drove us to and from school each day. When I found out Paul Simon was coming to Los Angeles for his “Homeward Bound” tour, it felt like my childhood was patting my shoulder, saying hello. My husband surprised me with tickets and off we went. It seemed like we lucked out. Almost an entirely empty row in front of us, perfect viewing of Paul and the band. The sun began to…
Are You Busy?
A few months ago, I engaged in a conversation with a retired member of our community. I was moving around the sanctuary, and it was clear to the member that I was running from one task to the next. He noticed the strain on my face as I paused in my tasks to speak for a few minutes. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to chat; I was just running against the clock, trying to get everything done before the day’s end. He looked at me in the eye and said, “Nicole, never stop being busy. Being busy is a…
Some Coffee and Some Gratitude
After your coffee, start your day with opportunity. I was recently in a conversation with a Bat Mitzvah student and she frequently used the word, “opportunity.” That to start her Bat Mitzvah studying and preparation was an opportunity. To have the ability to participate in the minyan, be counted, and improve this community with her presence was an opportunity and a gift. When I asked her what she meant, she explained that as a bat mitzvah, it will be her turn to infuse meaning in the mitzvot. It reminded me that so often we perform mitzvot, engage in obligations and…
Do You Believe In God?
A recent Pew study finds that 80% of Americans believe in God and 9% of those that say they don’t, believe in some higher power. That is a pretty high percentage of people seeking something greater than themselves. It is even more astounding that those who claim to be “non-believers,” admit to believing something when pushed a little further. Perhaps you believe in a God that is described in the Bible. Maybe you believe in a God that is all-knowing and ever-present. Possibly you believe in something that doesn’t fit the name “God,” but you feel the presence of something reverberating throughout…
If Only We Could Tell Them
Rabbi Sherman and I have developed a wonderful friendship with Pastor JP Foster from Faithful Central Bible Church, close by in Inglewood. Pastor Foster serves thousands and thousands of Christians; he spoke at our Orden Family MLK Shabbat, traveled to Israel with other Christian faith leaders, and is developing an unbreakable bond with the land of Israel. We most recently traveled together to the AIPAC conference and to experience the conference through his eyes was truly remarkable. He and I bantered through the sessions and we teased about which speaker, which moment would be the one we shared during our…
To Remember and To Teach
I stood in Auschwitz one year ago. Sinai Temple’s Sisterhood took members of our congregation to Poland on March of the Living. On the trip we met Holocaust survivors that implored us to understand how easily hatred seeps into the brain, how easily we let ignorance take over. That one can’t imagine how “this” could happen…and then it does. We are not immune to the atrocities that transpired a little over seventy years ago. The Sinai Temple Teen Center made a beautiful video, asking Holocaust survivors for life advice: how to endure ups and downs, failures and disappointments and most…
Do You Make Others Feel Powerless?
How do we translate the message of Passover into the reality of the everyday? Maimonides, in the Mishneh Torah, helps us in discovering an answer. He explains that in Leviticus 19:36 there are two seemingly disconnected ideas. The Torah speaks about not committing an injustice in the workplace and God freeing us from the land of Egypt. Why are these two ideas juxtaposed one to the other? Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller explains that Maimonides was trying to show that observing ethical behavior in one’s profession is living out the meaning of the Exodus. Not many of us have as much power…
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