Author: Rabbi Lia Bass

This coming week we welcome the Hebrew month Elul, the last month of the Jewish civil calendar. Being the month before the New Year infuses it with meaning, and with special observances. The month of Elul pushes us to start, ever so gently, rethinking our actions

I have a cousin who is a filmmaker and a writer in Brazil. When I was in Brazil this summer, I was not able to meet with her, because she is writing the most viewed soap opera in the country,

Dear Friends, We are looking forward to ushering the Jewish New Year together with you! We will gather as a community, with services being both in-person and online.

I walked on the beach today and saw a beautiful conch sticking out of the sand. The sea had just retreated, and I could see the perfect spiral glistening, beckoning me to pick it up—which I did.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was: what seems light to you might feel very heavy to others. I was a young teacher in one of the Jewish Day Schools in Rio de Janeiro.

The United States is going through a difficult moment. There’s much polarization, entrenchment of ideas, and consolidation of opinions, which in turn create barriers for real conversation.

These are very unpalatable words for us, Americans. We want what we want, when we want it, and we believe that we should have everything we want. Limitations are just obstacles that we need to overcome. Yet boundaries are important if we want to live in society. Our tradition thinks…

I am putting the final touches in a tallit I am making for a friend. A tallit is a prayer shawl, with four corners, each with a tzitzit (ritual tassel). The commandment to wear the tzitzit is found in the Book of Numbers 15:37-41, where we learn that we must see the tzitzit, (therefore using it only during daylight…

We are in the middle of the counting of the omer, a yearly journey through the Jewish calendar from Passover to Shavuot. We count 49 days, saying a blessing and then proclaiming the number of that specific day, and how many weeks and days have already passed.

On the second night of Pessah we will start counting the omer. The omer is understood as a measure of the first harvest of barley to be brought, in ancient times, to the Temple as an offering of gratitude.