Rabbi Bruce's Reflections on Life

  Dear Friends, As we prepare to complete our Fall Holidays, I encourage you to search for Shemini Atzaeret and Simchat Torah on the My Jewish Learning.com site. Shemini Atzeret gives us a time to remember our loved ones as we complete our intense schedule of the High Holidays and Sukkot.  This is a day when we gather together to reflect on the meaning of the Holiday and Festival season in what is referred to as the Day of Solemn Assembly. Simchat Torah is the day on which we complete the reading of the Torah and begin the cycle of reading it again.  This was the day in 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel and the world changed forever.  It will be a complicated celebration this year because we all have had to reflect on what the attack and subsequent war mean for the future of Israel, Jewish values, and our hopes for peace.  As a rabbi I pray for peace and the safe return of the hostages.  As a professor, I teach about building bridges and hopes for d...

 Dear Friends, There are certain days that one will always remember.  Yesterday was one of them. Celebrating Yom Kippur a year after the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7.2023, in the midst of a presidential election, and surrounded by many personal and societal challenges was quite intense. I want to share a few reflections with you.   Elie Wiesel raises the following question which I saw in a quote on a website from Temple B'nai Israel in Panama City , Florida. “The Gaon of Vilna said that   ve-samachta be-chagekha   (You shall rejoice in your festival; Deuteronomy 16:14) is the most difficult commandment in the Torah. I could never understand this puzzling remark. Only during the war did I understand. Those Jews who, in the course of their journey to the end of hope, managed to dance on Simhat Torah, those Jews who studied Talmud by heart while carrying stones on their back, those Jews who went on whispering   Zemirot shel Shabbat   (Hymns of Sabbath) while p...

 Dear Friends and Family, As we prepare for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, I wanted to write a brief note to share where I am turning for inspiration this year. I was attending a Selichot service at a local congregation last Saturday night (a service that helps folks prepare for the new year) and the following lyrics were part of the service. (See below)  When I had my heart attack almost four years ago, my Dentist told me that she thought that the reason I survived was because G-d had a purpose for me and that I needed to fulfill that purpose.  As I celebrate Rosh Hashanah, this song encourages me to do what I can do to create a more peaceful and just world.  As I write this, Iran has attacked Israel and the Middle East is teetering on the brink of a more wide spread war. Our thoughts and prayers are for peace and security for Israel and for all in the Mideast who only want to live together peacefully. May all who are reading this find the courage to make ...