Congregation Beth Mordecai
Congregation Beth Mordecai
An inclusive congregation affiliated with the Conservative Movement.
Your Jewish Home for the Soul!
An inclusive congregation affiliated with the Conservative Movement.
Your Jewish Home for the Soul!
April 28, 2016 By bethmordecai no comments.
Dear Hevreh,
If you think sometimes we struggle to get a minyan, you should come by the New Jersey Veterans Home. Every other Tuesday I go with Sherry Webber and other members of the community to the Veterans Home near Menlo Park Mall to talk and learn with Jewish residents. Usually about 4 or 5 come to the meetings and though we often find these meetings interesting and engaging, we often talk about the challenge of getting other Jewish people in the Home to join us for our sessions (sound familiar?).
Yet there we were, only two days ago, in a room full of thirty residents and staffers exploring the wonders of the Passover Seder. By Veterans Home Chaplain Jan Koczera's[...]
Category : Passover Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Tag : interfaith Jewish Wisdom passover rabbi rabbi's journal seder Veterans Home
November 20, 2015 By bethmordecai no comments.
Reflection on working last weekend with interfaith families in Faithful Families & Grandparents Circle
Dear Hevreh,
"Discomfort." If I had to name the single most intractable challenge for interfaith families to overcome, it would be "discomfort." In particular, it's the discomfort of Jewish parents in knowing their kids and especially their grandkids are being exposed to the traditions of other faiths, and it's the discomfort of those intermarried kids (many of whom are now parents) in engaging with a potentially contentious topic without the unilateral support of their family and clergy. The result of the discomfort for the former is that in order to remain in relationship with their families, the Jewish parents tread very carefully on the[...]
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Tag : Faithful Families Grandparents Circle interfaith interfaith families rabbi rabbi's journal
August 7, 2015 By bethmordecai no comments.
(8/7/15),
Somewhere between mile two and three on the beautiful Green Trail of Cheesequake State Park, Reverend Anne-Marie Jeffery of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Perth Amboy and I were talking about the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is analogous to comfort -- when life is good to us, we feel happy; when we are worry free, we feel happy; when we can sit back and relax in our favorite easy chair, we feel happy. When things are easy, we feel happy, But when things are hard -- when we are engaged in a difficult or challenging task -- can we feel happy?
Take for instance a hike in the forest. Not one of those strolls on wide dirt roads, but[...]
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Tag : Hiking interfaith joy nature rabbi rabbi's journal Reverend Anne-Marie Jeffery
August 6, 2015 By bethmordecai no comments.
דינא דמלכותא דינא
The law of the land is the law
Babylonain Talmud (Nedarim 28a, Gittin 10b, Baba Kamma 113a, Baba Bathra 54b and 55a)
Dear Hevreh,
Jews have almost always lived in lands not under their control. In such an environment, it's been incumbent upon the Jewish community to negotiate with the ruling powers to secure the Jewish population. From the very outset, Abraham had to negotiate burial rights for his wife; Joseph had to negotiate his way into power; and Moses had to negotiate for Israel's release from Pharaoh (with God's heavy hand behind him). In the times of the Babylonian Talmud, the Jews lived under control of many foreign governments including the Sassanids, who conquered Babylonia from the Parthians in 226[...]
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Tag : america diaspora interfaith rabbi rabbi's journal
August 1, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
This is the third of a 3 part journal series previewing different aspects of this Friday night's special Shabbat by the Sea -- Family and Community Edition. The theme for this journal is: wordless music.
Dear Hevreh,
When I was in Israel, I spent some time learning in a small one-room orthodox yeshiva in which the long table which acted as a m'hitzah separating the men from the women. However, the rosh yeshiva allowed for special sessions just for non-orthodox rabbinical students in which this restriction was discarded. The reason? Learning, unlike prayer, is more open to all.
When I was in New York I participated in an interseminary dialogue group with eight different Jewish and Christian seminaries (four each). We spent a good amount[...]
Category : Ari-archive Tag : God's Army Ministries interfaith music niggun rabbi rabbi's journal shabbat by the sea wordless
June 16, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
JEWISH CURRENT EVENTS -- Et tu Presbyterians?
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Post by Congregation Beth Mordecai.
Category : American Jewish News Israeli News Jewish Current Events Social Media Tag : america american jewish news BDS boycott facebook interfaith israel israeli news jewish current events presbyterians social media
March 26, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
Dear Hevreh,
Yesterday, I talked about how, in interfaith contexts, sharing meaningful objects from our faith traditions help us share ourselves with one another. Tonight, I will be engaging in another interfaith encounter in which we will share part of ourselves with one another...as clergy.
Tonight I will be co-leading a training/meeting for the Perth Amboy Chaplain Corps with a wonderful pastor, Bernadette Falcon Lopez of God's Army Ministries. The purpose of this training is to begin the process of building the collective mission for the Perth Amboy Chaplain Corps, which unites the largest collection of clergy in Perth Amboy. We are beginning this process in the similar manner that Reverend Anne-Marie and I began the interfaith session on Sunday, through sharing our[...]
Category : Perth Amboy Chaplain Corps Perth Amboy News Rabbi's Journal Tag : clergy interfaith Pastor Bernadette Falcon Lopez perth amboy chaplain corps perth amboy news rabbi rabbi's journal Reverend Anne-Marie training
February 6, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
Dear Hevreh,
The last time I wrote to you, I was on my way to a retreat for the purpose of "refresh[ing] my energy and creativity" with some "rabbinic 'soul food'" (DAY 582: Excited For Some Rabbinic "Soul Food"). Well, I'm happy to report that the retreat certainly delivered on its promise. Through talking, socializing, davening, learning, brainstorming, and relationship building, the retreat helped give me that sense of renewal I was looking for.
Each one of us has hopefully experienced a similar sense of renewal when we go away on retreats/trips/conferences and other similar opportunities. Certainly the setting of "getting away from it all" helps make experiences like these so powerful,[...]
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Tag : interfaith rabbi rabbi's journal rabbis without borders refresh retreat
November 10, 2013 By bethmordecai no comments.
Dear Hevreh, After God created Adam in the second chapter of Genesis, the process of creation seemed to be complete. Yet as God looked around at all the beauty that was created, God turned to Adam and realized that creation was not complete: "Lo tov heyot adam l'vado -- it is not good for man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18). And thus God created Adam's partner, Eve. It's as if God realized that the only way for humanity to fully enjoy and take advantage of all the potential imbued in creation is when we have partners to work with us because it's not fun to do things alone. Today is all about partners. From 1-5 pm today at JFK hospital in Edison, our community[...]
Category : Rabbi's Journal Tag : genesis health fair interfaith interfaith families MEAICA Metuchen-Edison Area Interfaith Clergy Association partners potential st. peter's
July 5, 2013 By bethmordecai no comments.
2013/5773 (Triennial III) -- The Torah's Evolving Understanding of "Others" Double Torah portion: Matot/Ma'asei Much of the Torah focuses (understandably so) on the special relationship between God and Israel. This relationship though is set amidst a background of many other peoples and while some are sympathetic to God and the cause of the Israelites, the majority worship "elohim aheirim," other Gods and act as a terrestrial proxy to the war against God. We will discuss whether these are the only kinds of relationships that Israel and God can have with the nations of the world or whether the Torah itself hints at an evolving relationship among God, Israel, and humanity.
Category : Online Learning Online Parashah Class Tag : God interfaith israel ma'asei ma-asei matot nations parsha parshah weekly torah portion