Beyond Go Down Moses
Beyond Go Down Moses - Newish Jewish Music to Enrich Your Passover Seder Please check out the following resources. The family resources are followed by recent publications addressing Pesach in light of our post October 7 world. I hope that you and your families will...
Keep the Fire Going
Cantor Jacki Down the Shore - Keep the Fire Going! Shabbat Shalom
Down the Shore – Ruach, Writings, and So Much More!
It felt like a sign
This morning I woke up earlier than usual and went to fill the dog’s empty water bowl. Still groggy, I turned around slowly and glanced into the back yard and then I saw this light in the sky. I stopped in my tracks. It felt like a sign. Sometimes you need a reminder....
Bring Him Home
Bring Him Home from the Benefit Concert for Israel at Congregation Rodeph Shalom
On The Road
After four and a half years of daily rabbinical school classes, one of the new found joys after completing my academic coursework has been the ability to represent Shirat Hayam in a variety of different settings. Earlier this year, travels to three different states during one week in January reminded me how deeply we can still be connected, even after years of physical distance from one another.
Down The Shore
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Holding Both Joy and Grief: A Jewish Perspective
Holding both pain and joy with gratitude may seem inconceivable if not impossible. Yet, our tradition teaches that a funeral and a wedding may process toward the intersection of life at precisely the same time. And when that occurs, the heartache of loss makes room, at least for a moment, to celebrate with the bride and groom first.
When Words Fail
Today was the first day in almost a week in which tears began to fall. Since learning of Hamas’ brutal terror attack, murder and kidnapping of innocent Israeli civilians of all ages, like all of you, I have been unable to sleep. Out of physical and emotional necessity...
‘Between the Straits’—an evolving perspective on the 17th of Tammuz and the ‘3 Weeks’
These days are referred to as the period “between the straits” (bein hametzarim), in accordance with the verse: “All her oppressors have overtaken her within the straits” (Lamentations 1:3)
Mother’s Day the Jewish Way
I remember my grandmother, Rita Bernstein z”l, writing out the Yiddish for me in order to sing this song to her when I was a teenager (many years ago). It became part of the “repertoire” over time and was often requested at family gatherings, life cycle and community events.
Do Not Be Afraid of the Journey
Many years ago I attended a retreat for clergy led by the Renewal Rabbi and Hebrew chant specialist Shefa Gold. I was uncertain about the program which was outside my comfort level as a Reform cantor