Until Then Until then Until the day when we really have to say goodbye forever, Until then Let us live tomorrow as a perfect promise of what we still hope to achieve today. Until then Fill us with the love we need like oxygen to breathe life in fully. Until...
Prayer from Rabbi Sussman May We Be Healed May we be healed by those who attend to us. May their experience, knowledge and kindness help restore our bodies and spirits. May the genius of modern science work hand-in-hand with the ancient wisdom of the human heart. May the doctors, nurses...
I have always loved watching movies and since March 2020 have probably watched more online movies than in any other comparable six-month period in my life. Like everyone else, I go to Netflix or Hulu and begin my search for a “good watch” by going to a “Genre” and proceed...
Along with Louis Brandeis, Ruth Bader Ginsburg shares the distinction of being one of the two most important Jews in American history. While Brandeis was the first Jew appointed to the court, was the leading champion of Progressivism and led the American Zionist movement, Ginsburg was the judicial pioneer for...
Rabbi Lance J. Sussman, Ph.D. wrote a series of prayers for the Family High Holy Day Services. This is the 2nd in the series. FORGIVENESS God of my ancestors, God of all people, On this Day of Atonement, teach me to be more forgiving of others and myself. Forgiving can...
Rabbi Lance J. Sussman, Ph.D. wrote a series of prayers for the Family High Holy Day Services. This is the 1st in the series. THE NEW YEAR Our God and God of our ancestors, as the New Year 5781 begins, we turn to You. Guide us as we move forward...
The first part of this week’s Torah portion, Shof’tim (Magistrates) begins by providing a constitution for the state, which our ancestors were instructed to set up in the Land of Israel at the end of the Exodus. It provides for two branches of government, executive and judicial. On the other...
Yesterday, I met Cantor Amy, Ross Levy (videographer), Adam Guth (sound engineer), Jeff Miller (trumpet and shofar) and Marlene Adler (photographer) to tape the Shofar segments of the High Holy Day services and take pictures for the holy day videos. It was just six of us in our giant 900 seat...
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and American Jews have a long-shared history. Last week’s viciously anti-Semitic posting by Minister Rodney Muhammad, head of the Philadelphia Chapter of the NAACP, has thrown relations between Americans Jews, African Americans, and the NAACP into disarray. First and unequivocally,...
Both the Torah Portion (Pinchas, Numbers 25:10) and the Haftarah (I Kings 18:46) include expressions of extreme (religious) violence. In the former, Pinchas, a grandson of Aaron, publicly slays a mixed couple. In the latter, the prophet Elijah, some four centuries later, slays the priests of Baal and then dismembers...
