By Karli Efron  Karli Efron loves to watch true crime documentaries and consistently gets crushed at Scrabble when playing her husband, Jay. She has been known to host epic dance parties with her daughters, Adele and Miriam. She has lived in Maine since 1999 and has found a real home

Sam Spinrad Religious School Director As a Jewish parent of young kids, I often felt like my observance of the fourth commandment was half-hearted.  Until recently, I found it easy to “remember Shabbat,” but challenging to “keep it holy.”  Attending services familiarized my children with the liturgy, symbols, and their

Lynn Urbach Do you know why you belong to a Reform Congregation? Is it a conscious choice, or one of convenience? To me, the difference between the theologies of the Reform Movement (and Bet Ha’am) and the Conservative Movement (Temple Beth El, TBE), is significant. I belong to Bet Ha’am

Rabbi’s ColumnMar-Apr 2021 Chadashot Dear Friends, We are approaching one full year of this global pandemic, a year apart and yet, we’ve still found paths to be together. Just less than a year ago, we gathered for Purim without a real sense of the tsunami that was coming. A week

by Rabbi Saks and the Bet Ha’am Garden Committee Please join us on January 27, 2021 at 7:00 PM.Registration details will be in the Thursday weekly email. Ordinarily we would be celebrating our Tu BiSh’vat seder at Bet Ha’am with seder foods prepared by the garden committee and with a

by Rabbi Jared H. Saks In November 1885, a group of Reform rabbis held a gathering in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that birthed a document that would come to be known as the Pittsburgh Platform. This platform was the first of four platforms of the Reform Movement, each of which made a

by Catherine Share, congregant Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality and a Deeper Connection to Life-In Judaism, by Sarah Hurwitz Some part of every person’s journey to conversion is filled with hours of self-examination, study, and questioning. At least that was the way it was for me. But after reading

By Lynn Urbach, President Every summer when my brother and I were young, my mom would drop us off in Birmingham, Alabama, to stay with our grandmother for two weeks while she travelled the world by herself. In the 60s and early 70s it was unusual for a woman to

by Rachel Lefkowitz, Synagogue Administrator In early December, I was able to attend the online conference of the National Association of Temple Administrators (NATA). I am really grateful to Bet Ha’am for giving me this opportunity to learn from and with synagogue administrators from all over the United States. I

by Sam Spinrad, Education Director Looking ahead to 2021, like most people I anticipate the reopening of schools, businesses, and life as we knew it. As the education director at Congregation Bet Ha’am, reopening the religious school will be a major milestone that I’ve been looking forward to for nine

This year, on each night of Chanukah, some of our congregants shared written reflections of the holiday. They are gathered here for all to enjoy. Early Chanukahs at Bet Ha’am by Toby Rosenberg I am remembering two Chanukah anecdotes from Bet Ha’am’s early days and I realize both of them

by Toby Rosenberg, congregant Throughout this entire growing season, the garden committee and volunteers have continued to look after Bet Ha’am’s garden and grounds. Caring for our beloved home, even though we could not access the building, helped each of us feel connected and anchored as we kept Bet Ha’am

By Catherine Share, congregant My ex-partner and I came to Maine in 2006 with our adopted daughter. I was not Jewish, but Cindy was, and we had decided to raise our daughter as a Jew. We joined Bet Ha’am because, as a lesbian interfaith couple, we felt the Reform tradition

by President Lynn Urbach Upcoming sabbatical Gardeners and farmers know that giving land a year off is of great benefit to the soil. Letting the land rest allows it to replenish itself; it reduces pests; and it improves water retention, thereby improving future growth. This method of renewal has been

by Rabbi Jared H. Saks In the Talmud (Shabbat 21b), the Gemara asks, “What is Chanukah?” which honestly sounds like a strange question for the Sages to have asked. I mean, don’t they already know what Chanukah is? Of course they do, but that’s not really the point of their

by Sam Spinrad, Education Director When I attended elementary school in the 1990s, I studied Torah stories with my father. I enjoyed the scripture battles and family drama stories, and had many questions. Did this story really happen? Why would this matriarch make this certain decision? Being a humble and

by Rachel Lefkowitz, Synagogue Administrator “I am troubled by the scarf that arrived in yesterday’s mail with a suggestion that it could be used as a mask and with $4.20 in postage: that’s a lot of money for something that is too loosely woven to make a good face covering.

Have you noticed that we haven’t been lighting Shabbat candles at our services on Zoom? In part, it’s because Shabbat and holiday candle lighting are traditionally a home ritual, not a congregational ritual. The Shabbat song Shalom Aleichem is rooted in a text from the Talmud (BT Shabbat 119b) that says that

by Catherine Share, congregant This past Sunday, 23 Tishrei, Simchat Torah, I completed my second cycle of a daily meditation on Psalm 27 that I had started on 1 Elul. My first cycle was in 5780 (last year) and I mentioned in a previous blog post how challenging that first

by Rabbi Jared H. Saks Yom Kippur 5781 When the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, saw that the Jewish people were threatened by tragedy, he would go to a particular place in the forest where he would light a fire, recite a particular prayer, and ask for a

by Rabbi Jared H. Saks Kol Nidre 5781 Perhaps you know the story of Korach. Korach was a Kohathite of the tribe of Levi. While the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land, Korach, along with Dathan and Abiram, assembled a band of 250