My Summer To-Do List: 1. Take a long walk. 2. Read a good book. 3. Make a new friend. Advice I learned from Rabbi Lisa Greene, who often quoted her father, Rabbi Barry Greene’s annual summer to-do list (and no we are not related). Take a long walk. I hope to take many long walks. I love summer in Chicago. When the weather is nice, I try my best to be outside. I think Rabbi Barry Greene’s advice was poignant -- for what happens on those long walks? My mind wanders, and yet I appreciate my surroundings. Sometimes I notice beautiful flowers or a spectacular tree. Sometimes I get lost in my own thoughts. Sometimes, I have no idea where I ended up or how I arrived. Often I find myself in a moment of awe and wonder, or as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel called it Radical Amazement. Think about...

“Your trip can be just another vacation, or it can be the journey of your life,” writes Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman in his book Israel: A Spiritual Travel Guide. I still remember my first trip to Israel. I was 18 years old, a senior in High School. It was a teen trip through my home syangogue. I still remember the first time I stepped off the bus. That first breath of fresh air. I’d always heard stories of people kissing the ground upon landing in Israel. The Tel Aviv airport had recently been remodeled. But my friends and I still wanted to kiss the holy ground. So we walked off the bus, onto the Jerusalem stone, knelt down and kissed the holy land. I still remember the first time I saw the Old City, in person. Our trip began at the most perfect look-out point. The Dome of the Rock shone...

As a young child, I loved the holiday of Purim. I would dress up, usually as Queen Esther, head to temple, watch the Purim Spiel and win prizes from playing games at the carnival. One year, dressed in a poofy 80s pink dress, I even ended up in the local newspaper! But, likely, between the ages of 9-22, with the exception of one celebration in Israel, I forgot about the holiday. It seemed, after all, to be a children’s holiday. My love for the holiday of Purim returned when I entered rabbinical school, and discovered the importance of the holiday as an adult. Purim for adults looks quite different from Purim as a child. There’s no carnival or prizes, but the theme of the day remains the same. For all year long, we take ourselves seriously, don’t we? We dress “appropriate” for holidays, for services. Our worship is serious, the...

When you enter the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, you have a choice to enter through one of two doors: a door marked PREJUDICED or a door marked UNPREJUDICED. A door marked PREJUDICED or a door marked UNPREJUDICED. Which door would you choose? What if the doors were marked with the character traits GENEROUS and GREEDY? Which attribute describes you? Which door would you go through? Or what about MERCIFUL and JUDGMENTAL? Which door would you enter? Chances are, you picked the good doors. If you are like most people you would choose to enter the doors marked UNPREJUDICED, GENEROUS, and MERCIFUL. But cutting edge research shows us there might be a gap between who we say we are and who we actually are.  “Everybody Lies,” was the beginning of a title of a book that came out this past Spring.   The title of this book is compelling, and...

March 11, 2000. The day I became a Bat Mitzvah. The Torah portion was Pekudei, the very last Torah portion in the book of Exodus. I chanted both my Torah and Haftarah, and then I delivered my very first d’var Torah. My Torah portion was about building the Tabernacle and all of the details needed to set its foundation. That morning I shared with my family and friends that my Bat Mitzvah was the foundation of my Tabernacle, for it was only the beginning of my Jewish journey... I was only 12 years old. Over the past two years, I have officiated a little over 20 Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies and attended countless others. Each Saturday morning, I find myself proud of the young man or young woman as they lead the congregation in worship, read from the Torah and deliver their d’var Torah. The liturgy for Shabbat morning,...

CCAR Journal| Winter 2017 ~   The Meaning of Life:  An Intergenerational Literary Conversation among Max Fitzgerald, Rabbi Greene, Amanda,  and Rabbi Seth Limmer (Chicago Sinai)

Hinei Mah Tov U’mah naim, shevet achim gam yachad. How wonderful it is to be here today, to stand beside you, to stand amongst our Christian and Muslim brothers and sisters. For at its core, this is our Jewish obligation, to not only stand beside our partners in faith, but to stand WITH you. And that is why I am deeply honored to be here this evening to stand WITH you -- Our Jewish story teaches us over and over again the story of redemption. 36 times in our Torah, in the Five Books of Moses, we read, “You shall not oppress the stranger, for you know what it felt like to be a stranger.” 36 times! And we repeat this weekly in Shabbat prayers too. Not simply to recall the history of the Jewish people and not simply to celebrate our freedom from bondage. No -- 36 times over...

Chicago Sinai Torah scrolls are filled with many stories... But, most recently, I learned that one of our Torah scrolls stands tall in the American History Museum in Washington, DC. Chicago Sinai Torah scrolls are filled with many stories. Not just the stories of the five books of Moses. Or the stories about our students reading from the sacred texts. Not just the story of the journey our Torah scroll made from Selma, Alabama to Washington, DC last summer. But, most recently, I learned that one of our Torah scrolls stands tall in the American History Museum in Washington, DC. In the beginning of December, I spent a weekend in Washington, DC with a few of our confirmation students at the Religious Action Center L'taken Seminar. For an entire weekend, our students learn about important issues in our country and learn about the Reform movement's position on these issues.The weekend...

I don’t know about you, but lately, all I keep hearing and reading is how horrible this year, 2016 has been. Just a week ago, my facebook newsfeed flooded with the following statements:  “Seriously 2016, I’m so done with you. RIP George Michael.”  “2016 you are the worst. We love you George Michael.” This wasn’t the first time I saw these remarks, and it wasn’t the last. Only two days later, when we learned that Carrie Fisher died, I actually chose to not look at facebook. I knew what I would see. On the one hand, beautiful tributes to a beloved actress who inspired so many others. And another slew of “2016 I’m over you” or “see in ya 2017” statements reiterating a need for new year, one much better than 2016. A day later I saw a GoFundMe page to “Protect Betty White from 2016.” You get the picture...I...

A blackboard stood in a park in Brooklyn with the question: What is your biggest regret? For an entire day, New Yorkers opened up about some of the deepest, most intimate parts of their lives. As the day went on, the blank board quickly filled. “Not saying I love you” “Burning bridges” “Not staying in touch” “Not being a better friend” By the end of the day, the production team who created this project, noticed a common theme among nearly all of the responses. The regrets people shared were all about chances not taken, words not spoken, dreams never pursued. Of course, regrets aren’t the sole reserve of New Yorkers. We all have them...   The origin of the English word regret comes from Old French and means “to look back with distress or sorrowful longing.”[1]  And the word in Biblical Hebrew is nachem. It’s that feeling of disappointment, distress over...