Assembly of Reform Rabbis & Cantors

Each of us, as we have seen, bears a very great responsibility for our teshuvah, our actions and inaction. Rabbi Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel, inspires us with the need for and hope of a repentance which can…

Some of us, when we consider our lives, may need to take ourselves apart, into nature, to find our own way of turning, teshuvah, repentance. Perhaps we have been taught not to trust our own natures, or could it be…

Rabbi Simcha Bunam distinguishes between sincere and insincere teshuvah. What might this mean for us? Rabbi Bunam was asked: “Why was the scene of worshipping the golden calf forgiven though we do not find it said in the Scriptures that…

Today’s reflection tells us that individual righteousness cannot exist without awareness and care for one’s generation. Care of trees was interpreted as meriting divine protection. [One] essential attribute of a righteous person’s proper attitude (intention/kavanah) in their actions is care…

As we come closer to the High Holy Days, the question of repentance and change draws nearer. Lucy Benjamin’s PhD thesis dissertation is on Hannah Arendt and climate change. Reflecting on the High Holy Days and teshuvah she writes: "As…

Reading this next passage might suggest that the rabbis were not especially interested in nature and what we now call the environment (as if we, too, were somehow not part of it.) Interpretations, however, insist that whatever we do should…

Martin Buber’s teachings on I-Thou emphasise how different it is to enter into a full encounter with another person rather than our more habitual mode, which he describes as I-He or I-She: here the other person is taken for granted…

We introduce this poem of Dannie Abse (1923-2004), suggested by Rabbi Howard Cooper, to reinforce yesterday’s emphasis upon consciousness, paying attention and listening. It repays repeated readings, noting the punctuation.   Mysteries At night, I do not know who I…

Rabbi M. Miller of Gateshead z”l quotes Yalkut Shimoni on Jeremiah 2:4 with its terrible warnings (prob. early 13th Century CE) in his sermons (Vol 1 p 285) As the intensity and consequences of global warming increase - floods, fire,…

These days with all the distractions we face - radio, TV, computers, smart phones, Alexa - it is difficult to find the proper kavanah (concentration, intention) for teshuvah. Perhaps it was ever thus: Rabbi Mendel of Rimanov (d.1815) often complained:…