Forgiveness Laura Finfer Families are complicated. Mine is especially so. My mom passed away in May; she had borderline personality disorder. It is a condition that made her moods unstable,…
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Trauma Transformed Mike Otterman Yom Kippur 2016 I struggled with this essay more than I thought I would. I understood the brief that Rabbi Peter gave me — or…
Yom Kippur 2016 Rabbi Peter Schweitzer Shanah Tovah, Happy New Year, Gut Yontiff. As I have done regularly to open our High Holidays services, I’d like to share a…
Tashlikh 2016 Rabbi Peter Schweitzer There’s a very old custom associated with Rosh Hashanah. It’s called tashlikh, a practice in which Jews shake crumbs into streams and rivers. It’s…
Rosh Hashanah 2016 “MAKE US A KING” Rabbi Peter Schweitzer The Jewish pessimist is the one who says, “Oy, things couldn’t get any worse,” The Jewish optimist is the…
Jewish Identity and Individuality Amy Goldin Thank you Rabbi Peter for thinking I had something to say on the matter of individuality. After all who am I? A humanistic Jew…
DESPAIR Jennifer Naparstek Klein, Psy.D. When I heard last year that Robin Williams had taken his life, and in such a desperate seeming way—with a dress belt to his…
Rosh Hashanah 2015 Rabbi Peter Schweitzer For many years I had a favorite sign that I saw posted on a Catholic church in Cincinnati. It read, “Noon mass, 12:10pm.”…
Tashlikh 2015 Rabbi Peter Schweitzer Normally, we use this moment in the service to talk briefly about the Tashlikh ceremony, a practice in which Jews symbolically cast off sins…
Rosh Hashanah 2014 Rabbi Peter H. Schweitzer This past May I made a call to a well-known chain store that specializes in houseware and furniture. I had read about…