Was it the summer of 2015 or 2016? On one of those first Fridays, Ilene Safyan was at it again, lending her voice and her spirit to our Erev Shabbat service. She had asked me if it was okay to play her own setting for the lovely Hashkiveinu prayer.
One of my favorite cookbook authors died this week. Edda Servi Machlin was one of the generation of Italian Jews who survived the fascist Italy of World War II before making her way to the United States. She had grown up in the small but ancient Jewish community of Pitigliano (in Tuscany), and recorded many of her childhood memories in her first book, “The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews.”
Have you ever wondered if Labor Day was a misnomer? After all, it is the last time, until Thanksgiving, when many people don’t have to work. Be that as it may, the professional staff at CNS has been working at full bore, preparing both for the upcoming holidays and the programming year.
How should we respond to a world enflamed with toxic rhetoric aimed at sowing division? Is there a particularly Jewish way to carry ourselves in an age of debased discourse? When and in what manner ought we respond to statements that disturb us?
A quick message to you as I spend time with my family back east. This Shabbat, we have the juxtaposition of two events. One is the beginning of the book of Deuteronomy, and the other is the 9th of Av, or Tisha B'av. Tisha B'Av represents the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, as it commemorates the destruction of the Holy Temple.
Recording from Shabbat Services, August 3, 2019 D’var from Saturday, August 3, 2019 – Rabbi David Kosak *If you would like to download the recording and listen later, right click on the link then click “Save as” and it will save onto your computer for later listening. Recorded and edited by Ed Kraus. Click here for an archive of past recordings
GK Chesterton was an extremely prolific author of over 80 books, and a highly influential Christian thinker. His best books are demanding and chewy. He died in 1936; while he had a profound influence on another Christian author, CS Lewis (author of the Narnia series), my suspicion is that Chesterton is not widely read anymore.
