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Pekude
February 27, 2022 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: pekude, ritual, shemot, spiritual •
I read this recently: The word spiritual contains the word ritual. How had I not seen this before? As we read through the final words of the journey of Exodus/Shemot, I am struck by this juxtaposition of word within word. The last two books – Vaykhel/Pekude provide extraordinary detail about the construction of the Mishkan, the […]
Vayekhel
February 20, 2022 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: acts of kindness, vayekhel •
As we read through this week’s Torah reading, we cannot help but be struck by God’s wanting us to live with beauty – and precision. Everything in order, everything measured, everything in its place. B’Seder – even as we may use this phrase to mean all is okay, we are actually saying all is in order. […]
Ki Tissa
February 14, 2022 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: golden calf, ki tissa •
There is civil disobedience and there is just plain disobedience. This week, as we read Ki Tissa, we face into some of the precipitating factors that led the Israelite people to melt down gold and build the Golden Calf – and hedonistically dance around said calf in the absence of Moses. Moses was gone forty […]
Tetzaveh
February 7, 2022 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: Chevra Kadisha, Kotzker Rabbi, tetzaveh •
Last Shabbat we learned about the phrase, ”Humanly holy”; a phrase taught by the Kotzker Rabbi. The Kotzker taught that each of us holds a portion of the Mishkan, the Sanctuary built for God’s Presence on earth, in our hearts – and we create that mini-Mishkan by bringing holiness into our own choice about our […]
Terumah
January 30, 2022 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk •
Details, details, details – such is the stuff of life and certainly of Torah. We seemingly spend acres of ink – and time – to parse out what all these details signify, both in meaning and practice. I spoke on Shabbat about Torah being the social media of its day – where we learned together […]
Mishpatim
January 23, 2022 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk •
Although I am not a lawyer, Mishpatim will always be a favourite and memorable Torah reading for me. This was the parashah of my conversion, my birth-day, if you will, and I hold each specific memory of that time in 1992 as a jewel in my mind. Judaism is not anarchist by nature; our halachah […]
Yitro
January 17, 2022 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: british columbia judaism, busy, times colonist •
Some of you asked me to post the recording of the Moroccan Cantor singing the Shir HaYam: שירת הים – מילים, ביצועים, פירושים ותווים | אתר הפיוט והתפילה And, speaking of links, here is my link to the Spiritually Speaking column in The Times Colonist that was printed this past Shabbat: https://www.timescolonist.com/blogs/spiritually-speaking/finding-your-own-faith-can-be-an-inspiration-to-the-faithful-4959224 Kolot Mayim is busy […]
Vayikra
March 6, 2022 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk •
It has been quite a week. Meeting new members, hearing of a young boy needing emergency surgery and then put on life support, another boy needing surgery, a dear friends daughter died, another friend’s mother died, I met with two young couples getting married this summer, some people needed an ear as they contemplated life […]