Thoughtful commentary and context for how to light a menorah responsibly and respectfully.

We all want to feel at home, somewhere, somehow....

Breathe in us, with us, and through us as we gather—one in community.

We could have assimilated but instead / we rededicate

We must be willing and prepared to dance with joy when liberation arrives.

May this chalice light guide us toward the courageous and openhearted apology, toward repair of relationships in our lives.

We are held by the great Book of Life, in which it is written that we will inevitably face deprivation and discomfort. Each among us must contemplate our own place in it all.

In ancient times, they said Dayenu It would have been enough to have been spared after the plagues. It would have been enough to have been freed of slavery, It would have been enough to have had food in the desert, Now we question, when will it be enough again? Dayenu Will it be enough to stay home?

What if you thought of it as the Jews consider the Sabbath— the most sacred of times? Cease from travel. Cease from buying and selling. Give up, just for now, on trying to make the world different than it is. Sing. Pray. Touch only those to whom you commit your life. Center down. And when your...

We honor the great mystery of the universe, the source of all, which deems everything sacred by its power to unite us, and gives us the radiance that we bring forth together as we kindle the Hanukkah lights....

Spirit of Life, Source of Love, you who know our struggles and failures as well as we know them ourselves, be with us as we enter into this time of reflection. Give us the courage to travel through a moral inventory of our lives, to notice the places where we have missed opportunities to live our...

We feel the season turning. The early sunset glancing through the red-tinged leaves. The newspaper arriving in the cool morning air. The flock of migrating swallows. A feeling of being on the edge of something new. These are the Days of Awe. A time to welcome a new year and a time to make the old...

The innkeeper isn’t part of most Nativity sets. No one sings carols about innkeepers. There don’t seem to be any paintings that include them. But we can imagine the scene: Bethlehem is crowded with people coming home for the census. It’s late at night when the innkeeper responds to a knock on...

I invite you now to join me in the spirit of meditation and imagination. Find a comfortable position in your seat and close your eyes. Take a deep breath and try to find the restorative power of air and water in the breath. We must breathe to live, but our bodies also need water to survive. Our...

We light this chalice to remember the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days.

We pray for the three Jewish congregations who meet at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA. We hold those taken too soon in our prayers even before we know all of their names – 11 people so far....

Happy new year! Happy new year for our beloved community. Happy new school year....

God of our hearts, God of our understandings, God who gives us hope and inspires us to commitment, God who commands us to remember: We come together today with hearts contrite and broken; We come together with minds awake, comprehension striving against incomprehension; We come together in hope...