If you have not checked your calendar… the Rosh Hashanah is fast approaching! Dig out the brisket recipe, practice your round challah braiding skills, make the honey cake with the kids, it is time to welcome a brand new year! My favorite ritual of Rosh Hashanah is Tashlich. I take my day old bread down to the river and tear it into little pieces. Those pieces represent all of the things I would like to let go of from this past year. I cast those pieces into the water and watch as they float away. In shul, we come together as a community and admit our wrongdoings as individuals and as a people; we ask our community, our friends, families and God to forgive us. Our fixed prayers do not necessarily guide us to ask for forgiveness from ourselves. Tashlich is the final step of the prayers we have been sending and singing in synagogue. This ritual gives us a physical outlet to let go of the things that we have done wrong to ourselves and to others. When we take a breath and stretch … [Read more...]
Confirmation of Our Future
This Friday night, I would ask that you make a real effort to come to our Shabbat services. Even more than usual, I strongly suspect that they will move you, inspire you, and connect you. Why? Because this one Shabbat each year, I find myself especially effected in a way that I would label ‘profound.’ Why? Because our services this Friday night will be led by our graduating Confirmation class of 10th graders. Stop. Please take a moment to pause on these last words. You might think I’m asking you to come to services to support our 10th graders who have been studying together for these past two years every Sunday with me in my office, who have volunteered together in our community feeding the hungry, who have committed to leading our Jewish Community, and who have traveled together to our nation’s capital to lobby our elected politicians on matters that are priorities for the Jews of Georgia. Sure. Yes please. Come support them. But I’m asking you to come to Temple Emanu-El this Shabbat … [Read more...]
Friday With Family
I can recall many beautiful moments from the prayer experiences of my early years. As a child, my family and I would head to synagogue, about once a month, and join with the congregation in prayer and song. These sacred memories are still dear to my heart today. I recall the rabbi inviting my friends and me to open the ark for Aleinu L’Shabeiach: we would race forward to try to be the first one to grab a door and be helpful! I recall my parents sitting on my left and right, pointing to the words in the prayer book: as an eager reader, I practiced sounding out words and trying to keep up with the pace of the congregation. I recall the community clapping in unison during everyone’s favorite Mi Chamocha (and the rabbi never getting the rhythm quite right). Finally, I recall feeling a great sense of joy, purpose, and pride: Joy in singing with my family and friends; purpose in knowing that my voice added to the sound of the community; pride in my Jewish identity and feeling … [Read more...]
Rabbi Max, what will we do to make a change and end gun violence?
This past Sunday we gathered as a synagogue family with children as young as 12 years old to raise our voices, share our feelings, and learn what meaningful action we can take to reduce gun violence in our community. This was a hard, heart-wrenching conversation. The feelings of fear, anger, and sadness expressed by our middle school and high school students cut to the very core our being. We reinforced the need to voice these feelings, and that as their rabbis and cantor, we will always be “safe adults” to whom they can turn. We know our Temple Emanu-El family does not stand alone in the need to give voice to these feelings or take action. The Atlanta Rabbinical Association (ARA) has organized around the cause of gun violence prevention, and Temple Emanu-El is working collaboratively with each synagogue in the Atlanta area on this issue. Just over four weeks since the shooting in Parkland, Florida and a movement of citizens fed up with unmitigated gun violence is beginning to … [Read more...]
Friday With Family
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