Cantor Jacki Down the Shore - Keep the Fire Going! Shabbat Shalom

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 from the Benefit Concert for Israel at Congregation Rodeph Shalom

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.

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.

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...

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)

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.

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

Anyone following the current news cycle would be forgiven for feeling helpless, impotent, anxious and/or depressed as they sipped their morning coffee. The uptick in gun violence throughout the United States blazes across our devices non-stop, revealing scenes of horror so shocking, that the images could be described as “biblical.”