SB Right – 4 Column
Shavuot
June 4, 2019 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: shavuot •
Shalom Aleichem. In Tales of Hasidim, by Martin Buber there is a teaching I thought I would like to consider this week: The Rabbi of Kotzk was asked: “Why is Shavuot called ‘the time the Torah was given’ rather than the time we received the Torah?” He answered: “The giving took place on one day, but the receiving takes […]
Bechukotai
May 26, 2019 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: Bechukotai •
Shalom Aleichem. What gives our lives meaning and purpose? Do you get up in the morning and look at your day planner – electronic or handwritten or printed? Do you look at today’s appointments within the larger context of the week – or even a month? Do you make grocery lists? Or, do you wake […]
B’har
May 20, 2019 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: b'har, Behar •
Shalom Aleichem. God owns the Land – God is our landowner and property owner, and in B’har, God is teaching us basic land husbandry. The Israelite people could work the fields for six years, but in the seventh year, the land was to have a Sabbath of complete rest. Dever notes, “The people could work the […]
Emor
May 15, 2019 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • Uncategorized • Tags: emor •
Recently I attended a workshop on the Jewish soul, led by one of our esteemed congregants, Dr. Elior Kinarthy. After Elior provided descriptions of the reality of the soul, he invited us into a guided meditation, a visualization of our soul. My role was primarily that of time-keeper, but I joined the group as we […]
Kedoshim
May 7, 2019 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: kedoshim •
Shalom Aleichem Kedoshim is a sidra dense with instructions about how to bring holiness into our lives –to bring ourselves closer to the Divine. These mitzvot are also, dare I say, designed to create an envelope of trust, for what could be closer to holiness than trust?
Acharei Mot
April 30, 2019 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: Acharei Mot •
Shalom Aleichem Acharei Mot. This is a complicated sidra especially for the LGBTQ community. Leviticus 18:22, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination,” is often used as an example of how Torah can be used and abused as a religious smorgasbord – what to choose to observe […]
Pesach
April 17, 2019 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: notre dame, pesach, seder •
Chag sameach everyone, I hope you all have a freilech, a joyous Seder and Pesach. Even as some of us may be scrubbing corners of cupboards and thinking about menus for the coming week, I have suggested that this is also a time for us to take a spiritual inventory, an opportunity for cleaning out the inner shmutz that […]
Naso
June 14, 2019 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • Uncategorized •
Shalom Aleichem, Many years ago, one of my students celebrated his Bar Mitzvah with Parashat Naso. I remember his reading of Torah as if it were this morning. M. was called to Torah, and all of us – the rabbi, his parents and me, his teacher and gabbai sheini, leaned in to help as needed […]