Month: October 2019

by Rachel Lefkowitz In late spring, my husband and I attended a bar mitzvah service in Connecticut at an impressive synagogue: the sanctuary towered over the satellite chapel and the nearby office and school buildings. A uniformed security guard welcomed everyone with a warm smile and friendly words. It was clearly a congregation with the ability to maintain a big campus and to employ good people.  We entered … Read more

by Rabbi Jared H. Saks Yom Kippur 5780 | October 9, 2019 – 10 Tishrei 5780 “A singular disaster; a disaster is coming. Doom is coming! The hour of doom is coming! It stirs against you; there it comes! Here is the day! See, the cycle has come round; it has appeared. The rod has … Read more

by Rabbi Jared H. Saks Kol Nidre 5780 | October 8, 2019 – 10 Tishrei 5780 Conventional wisdom tells us that mistakes are valuable teachers. They are how we grow and gain wisdom. They teach us how to behave. When we make a mistake, we should ask ourselves what lesson is in it. “We all … Read more

Lynn Urbach, President. Yom Kippur 5780. Address to the Congregation. On Rosh Hashanah, I asked you to consider strengthening your connection to Judaism by increasing your involvement with Bet Ha’am.  Afterwards, some of you thanked me for not asking for money.  Nobody wants to talk about money from the bimah, especially on Yom Kippur. The … Read more

Lynn Urbach, President. Rosh Hashanah 5780. Address to the Congregation. I like to daydream. I dream that Congregation Bet Ha’am fully lives up to our mission statement. Do you know what it is? Congregation Bet Ha’am is a welcoming Reform Jewish community providing vision, voice, and opportunity for connecting to, practicing, and sustaining Judaism. Bet … Read more

by Rabbi Jared H. Saks Rosh Hashanah 5780 | September 30, 2019 – 1 Tishrei 5780 The Gadsden Daily Times-News, in its afternoon edition, on Tuesday, September 30, 1919, ran a story above the fold. The headline read Three Negroes are lynched in Montgomery. The three black men were Miles Phifer, Robert Crosky, and Will … Read more

by Rabbi Jared H. Saks Erev Rosh Hashanah 5780 Sermon | September 29, 2019 – 1 Tishrei 5780 Somewhere in our house, Kirk and I have a small stack of legal paper with two weeks’ worth of to-do lists from the lead-up to our wedding. Each day, we had a number of tasks to complete … Read more