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Kol Nidre 5785, October 11, 2024

I realized many years ago that I struggle to look people directly in the eyes.

“But it's so intimate,” I was told. That intimacy, under the right circumstances, should be desirable. Or, at least feel safe.

But it didn’t feel safe. It was enticing–alluring, even–yet also...Read more...

When I first began my tenure at Or Shalom, I learned that we are the same age.

Both birthed into this world in 1991, there feels to be something truly serendipitous in the way we’ve grown into one another.

For this means that while Or Shalom was in its incubation in Betsy Strausberg’s living room, I, too, was incubating inside of my mother, who is here tonight. When Or Shalom was sorting out...Read more...

I stand at a podium in the center of a pop-up tent. People are all around me, sitting on the hot Philadelphia pavement, masks on, eyes downcast. It is Tisha B’Av, 2021, a day to commemorate a destruction thousands of years old, that blurs time to commemorate the interconnectedness of all destructions throughout all times, in a time of its own destruction. I sing:

אֵיכָ֣ה ׀ יָשְׁבָ֣ה בָדָ֗ד הָעִיר֙...Read more...

Being able to lead the congregation in prayer, believe it or not, is one of the requirements of becoming b’nai mitzvah. In our liberal Jewish communities, we modify this to a few key points in the service: Barchu, Shema, removing Torah from the ark, perhaps kaddish, etc. When we can lead the congregation in prayer, we can support our rabbis, and be an important leader in a congregation. We can also offer this mitzvah at assisted living...Read more...

Crossing the boundary of 70 years makes one pause. Rabbi Me’irah will lead a monthly women’s group to consider, reflect, nourish our spirits as we slowly walk through this later chapter in our lives. It will not be your typical support group, but rather, one making space to care for our souls, for noticing and savoring, based on the book, Wise Aging, by Rabbi Rachel Cowan & Dr. Linda Thal. We will use various exercises such as...Read more...

How fortunate we are to have 8 days in which to immerse ourselves in the recounting of the miraculous unfolding of the Passover story. It was an event that so blew our ancestors’ minds, that it galvanized a people, and made them determined that the story would not be lost to future generations. And we can participate in a seder every night! Scroll down for a video of an art-filled, musical Pesach seder.

While most folks will...Read more...

For everything there is a Season, and a time & purpose for everything under Heaven. Kohelet/Ecclesiastes 3:1

In response to the recent death in our community of Reisel Berger, I have been rereading some texts on comforting mourners. This teaching stood out for me: “Do not comfort a mourner when their dead lay before them.” (Pirke Avot 4:18)

What could this possibly mean?

In our tradition, the period from...Read more...

There was so much enthusiasm after Rabbi David Teutsch’s presentation, that we want to carry that forward. Think about it. EVERYONE dies! All of us will have fatally ill family members, and all of us, eventually, will need to face our own deaths. Rabbi Faryn and I are discussing the SJLA forming an on-going group to discuss these issues.  Please write to RabbiMeirah@OrShalomSF.org and let me know what topics you want to learn about if...Read more...

December 15, 2023

This week, I had a dream. I found myself in a parallel universe, where every few hours, a giant tidal wave would rise up, and wash over the entirety of this human society. I found this tidal wave terrifying, destructive, a force for total annihilation. But I was surprised to discover that this society I found myself in had adapted to the tidal wave. They had somehow built a world where the tidal wave would wash over...Read more...

Rabbi Faryn's Drash from Shabbat services on November 3, 2023.

Trigger Warning: This drash, given the moment we find ourselves in in both contemporary time and Torah time, necessarily discusses the ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine, including specific losses I have experienced. Please take care of yourself as you need during this drash. The first half will...Read more...

I spoke with Rabbi Faryn and we want to establish a Crafters Guild to glorify our services and our new home with beautiful ritual objects. We could paint kiddush cups, mezuzahs, seder plates, candle sticks, sew and quilt and embroider cloths for under the shabbat candles, for challah covers, for covering the Torah when it is out of the ark, (but not being read) etc. This is called Hiddur Mitzvah, the beautification of the mitzvah,...Read more...

Thank you to each and every one of you who has reached out to me, to Amy, to Matt over the last few days, sharing of what you need from Or Shalom. I am incredibly humbled to be serving as your rabbi at a time of such deep grief, heartbreak, and fear, and I know that I – that we – are falling short. How could we not be? We are only human, staring into the face of the inhumane.

What I have been both surprised and unsurprised to...Read more...

This letter was originally read at our Rabbi Chaya Farewell Shabbat Service on 8/18/23

Dear Chaya,

You know that I know how difficult it is to enter a position as congregational rabbi. You are expected to live up to all the fantasies each congregant has of their ideal rabbi. You must be intelligent, a good...Read more...

From the Southside Jewish Collaborative Tisha B'Av Service Wednesday, July 26, 2023

When the world is burning, lament is necessary.
And boy is our world burning.
So we must lament.

But oftentimes, we don’t make time to lament. We, instead, focus on what feels more urgent. We focus on the fire. What is necessary to put it out. But this leaves us always in response mode, without time to look for what caused the fire in...Read more...