Blog

“The most profound change came when I turned off the TV. That suddenly transformed the whole Shabbat experience. It wasn’t about the electricity; it had more to do with the noise, the intrusion of the mundane into the sacred.” 
 
“Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?”
“No soup for you!”
“How you doin’?”
“To the moon, Alice!”
“Say goodnight, Gracie!”

Surely at least one...Read more...

A few weeks ago, some friends and I went to a Braves game. None of us are particularly huge baseball fanatics, but we thought it would be fun summer thing to do together. Needless to say, there was a lot of kibitzing going on throughout the game. Our attention vacillated between the field and each other. The uninvited guests of the evening were the heat and humidity which was even by Atlanta standards pretty gross. This prompted my friends to...Read more...

Just two weeks ago, I was sitting in a synagogue in the suburbs of Jerusalem, Kol Haneshama, introducing our Temple Sinai community to this incredible Reform congregation in Israel. I was able to enjoy the service, whose melodies have been among the favorites that we use in our services here in Atlanta, and it was wonderful to have returned once again to my “home away from home” congregation. 
 
Amidst the prayers, the...Read more...

I spent the past few hours pondering my Shabbat Message for this week.  

I went through the past week, combing the days for something exciting to share or teach. As we have just finished marking Shavuot, there are no holidays to speak of for awhile. Intent on finding an exciting topic, I pondered the articles I read, the classes I attended, the powerful life cycle events, the movies and  lunch dates, the baby swim lessons...Read more...

We join together tonight in the midst of the greater Jewish people who are similarly taking stock of time, for we currently mark each day in a period known as the Counting of the Omer. This time had been marked two thousand years ago through the action of Jews in Israel bringing the first of their harvest to The Temple in Jerusalem. Over time, our people have found other ways of counting each of the days of the Omer- some through acts of...Read more...

As you know by now, Temple Sinai’s building is closed for construction. We had our first Shabbat service last week at The Weber School which was lovely and hamish (like home). Just yesterday I saw a picture of our sanctuary stripped bare. It was an empty room, and yet it wasn’t.

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Often, a member of the clergy team will use his or her Shabbat message as an opportunity to invite you to celebrate Shabbat with us AT Temple Sinai. However, this Shabbat we are telling you-please DO NOT come to Temple Sinai!  If you do, you will find a dark and quiet building, with very little furniture. Rather, we invite you to join us at our SUMMER location,  The Weber School. We sincerely hope to share many sacred moments with...Read more...

I was at Camp Coleman when the unmistakable sound of the banjo pierced the solitude of my walk. I was heading from the staff area to meet with my assigned group and knew that we had a guest artist at Coleman, but I didn’t recall that they would be warming up at the Hillman Chapel prior to the service. And, to be perfectly honest, ever since seeing the movie Deliverance, I grow a bit weary when I hear banjo in the setting of the North...Read more...

Lately, I find myself watching late-night episodes of the hit Netflix series "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo".

Kondo’s philosophy happens to fit quite nicely with the theme of Passover. She teaches: 
Keep only those things that speak to the heart, and discard items that no longer spark joy. Thank them for their service–then let them go.

Passover, as we all well know, is about redemption and freedom. It hearkens...Read more...

Raised in a small Jewish community in Texas, it was not until I started attending NFTY events that I first met a “real live rabbi.” My first opportunities to meaningfully interact with clergy did not occur until a few years after college while working as the Assistant Director of Greene Family Camp and the regional advisor for TOFTY. So when I made the decision to apply to HUC, aside from the ‘glorious’ images painted by camp faculty...Read more...

“Eight days a week, I l-uh-uh-uh-uh-ove you,” a great Beatles lyric that really emphasizes that there is no real way to articulate how much we can love. It’s beyond what we can measure, kind of like infinity. Who knew that the Beatles were so Torah-minded? I say that because this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Shemini, has in its root, the word Shemoneh, which means eight. The scene takes place on the eighth day of...Read more...

Rabbi Ron Segal will be installed as the President of the CCAR (Central Conference of American Rabbis) on Monday, April 1, and will serve a two-year term. Here he answers our most pressing questions about this new and exciting role.

1.  Tell us a bit about the...Read more...

Perhaps it's because I am so taken with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s song “Shallow”, but I have been absolutely preoccupied lately with music. Whether it is the music playing in the car on the way home that detaches me from the day, or the music that plays in the background during sermon writing, I am very intentional and deliberate about my musical choices, as I am sure is true with each of us. Our musical tastes reflect the...Read more...

Throughout middle school and high school, I was known endearingly as “Shabs.” When I finished rabbinical school and moved to Atlanta, Shabs evolved to Rabbi Sam, but the people I have known the longest still call me Shabs. I wondered what would happen to my identity if I were to adopt my husband’s last name...what would happen to the part of me that was Shabs? Would that old piece of me be lost forever? I took these questions seriously,...Read more...

In our Torah reading for this week, Terumah, we find the people of Israel standing at the foot of Mount Sinai, offering gifts of importance to help build a Tabernacle, a portable sanctuary. The people assembled were newly-freed slaves with meager resources. But when presented with the opportunity to make a difference, they gave what they could and in turn, created a thing of beauty.
 
We are once again living the words of our...Read more...