A Homeless Heart 5774
09/09/2013 01:06:00 PM
Every Shabbat I walk to synagogue. Sometimes I walk alone; sometimes I walk with my family. Now, it's about a mile from my place to here. I walk down Ventura passing by the stores and under the 405 underpass. Many of you see me walking, some of you, honk at me to say hello! Some others of you even pull over, offering me a ride, and I thank you for that. But what many of you don't see, what many of us have forgotten to see -...Read more...
Faces of Homelessness: Painting the Unseen Among Us- A Mission Statement
08/14/2013 03:47:00 PM
Faces of Homelessness:
Painting the Unseen Among Us- A Mission Statement
By Rabbi Noah Zvi Farkas (@RabbiNoah)
Valley Beth Shalom is proud to be known as an innovative and inclusive community that offers a dynamic Judaism expressed in learning, worship, activism, and community. As part of that expression, VBS promotes artistic expressions of Jewish values. Our new initiative will transform...Read more...
BBQ-ing for Dad
06/18/2013 03:37:00 PM
By Rabbi Noah Zvi Farkas (@RabbiNoah)
As a consummate foodie, my mind makes instant connections between food and people. It's like I'm wearing Google Glass with an app that sends me food information about everything I see, whether I know it or not. The other night, for example, I was attending a function at a beautiful home in Beverly Hills and when I got to the backyard with a highly manicured lawn all I could think of...Read more...
Turning the Tables: It's Not My Problem
05/09/2013 10:32:00 AM
By Rabbi Noah Zvi Farkas (@RabbiNoah)
Last week I walked around the tidal basin in Washington DC. It was a beautiful spring day with the famed cherry blossoms in bloom, boaters on the water, and tourists scampering about. I came to DC for a conference and ended up meeting with several legislators on a number of issues important to me and too much of the Jewish community. What was not on the docket of the conference nor on...Read more...
Passover Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me! 5773
03/20/2013 03:34:00 PM
Ever hear the NPR quiz show called “Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me!”? Well, here is my second annual Passover version of it that you can enjoy at your seder. Thanks to Rabbi Rob Scheinberg for the stories this year. (If you want to read last year's, click here).
STORIES Here are three interesting stories about Passover. Only two are true. Can you guess which one is false?
Story #1:
You may know that...Read more...
You Are Not Alone
02/14/2013 10:03:00 AM
VBS CARES " we created this newsletter for those in our community that have been touched by death to teach one simple message: “You are not alone.”
When a loved one dies the fabric of our lives tears open like an old pair of pants whose hem has become worn out. With a shriek and a cry our lives change. Just a moment before, there was a life in this world that loved and cared for us, whose very presence was gift and...Read more...
Turning the Tables: As We Eat, So We Live
01/03/2013 11:05:00 AM
If you're like me, January prompts you to reexamine a few bothersome behaviors " and make a few (or more) resolutions for the coming year. Making resolutions is a dangerous proposition, of course. A strictly goal-oriented approach gives us a flat, “all or nothing” mandate that can lead to failure. By February, our resolution has dropped off our spiritual radar, and we marinate our inertia in the guilt of giving up. As the negative...Read more...
Talking Turkey with Rabbi Noah Farkas
11/20/2012 03:01:00 PM
As the American holiday season begins in earnest this Thursday with the annual ritual of eating too much and watching football, there will be some Jews who will celebrate Thanksgiving without a turkey. For vegetarians this is not a surprise; after all, turkeys are animals and if you don't eat animals, then no turkey for you. Food activists might give up on the bird if it wasn't raised in the proper conditions and treated properly....Read more...
Bereshit 5772 " Hearing Nature's Silence
10/18/2012 09:57:00 AM
This fall we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson's “Silent Spring,” the book that launched the modern environmentalist movement. Carson's genius was in her ability to arrange opaque facts and smith compelling prose in order to make her case. She describes her habit of walking into the woods and listening the chorus of nature, and when on a particular morning, she noticed its absence:
“On the mornings that had...Read more...
Turning the Tables
09/13/2012 08:21:00 AM
My fondest memory of our Rosh Hashanah table is from even before we sat down to eat. As I was growing up, one of my chores on the Jewish New Year was to help set the table. Every year, as my mother would leave the plate of apples and honey on the table while she attended to some other kitchen task, I would sneak over and try to grab an apple slice off the pile, dip it in honey, and sneak out. The trick, of course, was making sure that pile of...Read more...
Mon, November 25 2024
24 Cheshvan 5785
