Author: Rabbi Lia Bass

Pessah is a multi-faceted holiday. We celebrate the Exodus from Egypt (after the Israelites smeared the doorposts with blood to avoid the tenth plague), the freedom from slavery, the arrival of Spring, and the eating of matzot.  There are a few things we must do to prepare for the holiday, so here is…

Last week was the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that ruled that according to the Constitution a woman had the right to choose to have an abortion. This decision has been overturned by the current Supreme Court in 2022. Following the 2022 decision, abortion became…

Today, in Brasilia, there was an attempt to oust the current elected president, Lula Inacio da Silva, and his government. I expected something like that to happen. I expected that the Brazilian right wing was going to attempt to create some chaos.

Now we are enjoying the holiday of Hanukkah, by lighting candles, eating special foods such as latkes or jelly doughnuts, playing with dreidels, and/or singing with our families and friends. The holiday of Hanukkah commemorates two miracles,

It is the time of the year when presents are exchanged, and I find myself questioning my ethics of consumption. I always believed in the Jewish concept of bal tashchit, a prohibition against wanton destruction.

Talmud, Massehet B’rachot 57b Three things restore a person’s good spirits: beautiful sounds, sights, and smells.  It is Saturday night. It is time to make Havdalah. I gather the wine cup, the special candle, and the Bessamin (spices) tower. I start with the verses of deliverance, then I recite the blessing over the wine, followed by…

I listened to the news late in the day on Sunday. I had just finished writing a column about Thanksgiving, when I read about the shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs. Club Q is a LGBTQ+ nightclub. The gunman, a 22-year-old male armed with two guns, killed five people…

When I think about the choice of narratives that the rabbis made for the Yamim Norayim, I am intrigued by their Biblical text selection. We start with Abraham in Rosh HaShanah and end with Jonah on Yom Kippur. 

We are now in the Hebrew month of Elul. Elul is considered an auspicious month for Jewish weddings because its letters are an anagram for Ani LeDodi VeDodi Li, which means “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.”

We are now in the Hebrew month of Elul, the last month of the Jewish civil calendar. This is a month when we prepare spiritually and culturally for the year that is about to begin. At JILLI, we hope you will join us in growing spiritually and in Jewish learning.…