DJC Blog

There is a well-known story in the Talmud (Bava Metzia 59b) about a group of rabbis locked in a debate about whether a particular oven is pure or impure. Rabbi Eliezer insists he is right, but the other rabbis disagree. To prove himself, Rabbi Eliezer calls on miracles. Unbelievably, a tree uproots itself, a stream flows backwards, and the walls of the study hall begin to collapse. Finally, a heavenly voice declares, “Why do you argue with Rabbi Eliezer? He is correct.” One m

There are moments when the calendar feels almost too on-the-nose. As Pesach approaches – a festival of courage and resilience – our Toronto community reels from recent synagogue shootings, rising antisemitism, and anxieties about unrest in Israel, Gaza, Iran, and beyond. It’s hard not to feel the heaviness of it all at once. Many of you have shared your exhaustion: worrying about news headlines, explaining (and explaining again) antisemitism to others, and feeling the world i

A farmer stops Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yishmael in the streets of Jerusalem. She has a challenge for them: If God struck someone with an illness, who are they to interfere by offering medicine? Isn’t healing a defiance of the divine will? The rabbis point to the sickle in the woman’s hand. “Who planted your vineyard?” “God”, she says. “And yet you prune it, fertilize it, and weed it! You involve yourself in something that isn’t yours, do you not?” The farmer understands immedia

The month of February often pushes us indoors. We hunker down, move quickly from place to place, and treat the outside world as something to endure rather than enter. The Jewish holiday of Tu BiShvat quietly resists that instinct. It asks us to remember that even now, even here in Canada, life is stirring beneath […]

January gives us a little space to breathe after the intensity of the holidays. It is often a quieter month, a time when we check in with ourselves and with one another, and ask what we are carrying forward into the year ahead. It is important to say this clearly and calmly: antisemitism is real, and it deserves to be named. At the same time, it is not the whole story of Jewish life today.

This question has been with me as we turn our attention to Chanukah. The Hebrew word for awe, yirah, describes an elevated awareness that something larger and more meaningful is present. It is what we feel when the extraordinary appears in the midst of everyday life. Mussar teacher Alan Morinis writes, “Awe arises when we […]

Together, We Begin Again. It feels fitting that, just as we emerge from the High Holy Days we shared here at the Danforth Jewish Circle, the Torah itself begins again, reminding us that creation and re-creation are at the heart of Jewish life. These weeks have taken us from Bereishit’s formless beginnings to the floodwaters […]

What Keeps Me Up at Night* *(it’s Anxiety) Rosh Hashanah is supposed to be sweet. Birthday of the world. Apples and honey. Joy and light. And yet — if I’m honest — I am anxious. Not the “I had too much coffee” kind. The kind that shows up at 2:00 a.m. when the house is […]

Rabbi Alan Lew begins his book This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared with a powerful statement: Every soul needs to express itself. Every heart needs to crack itself open. Every one of us needs to move from anger to healing, from denial to consciousness, from boredom to renewal. These needs did not arise […]

The month of Elul arrives in a few weeks (August 25th), a time when many of us are soaking up long days, travelling, catching our breath, and delighting in the beauty of nature. It is a season of pause — of campfires and stargazing, of canoeing and kayaking, of long conversations, of afternoons that stretch […]

We’ve finally made it.The summer air is hot and humid—heat shimmers on sidewalks, air conditioners hum overtime, and (if we’re lucky) we take respite by a lake glistening under a star-filled sky. And yet, beneath the surface of this season, something quieter stirs. We may not feel it yet, but the Hebrew month of Elul—a […]

Pride Month at the Danforth Jewish Circle is a time of joyful celebration, collective creativity, and courageous solidarity. It is a time when we uplift the voices, stories, and resilience of LGBTQ+ people in our community and beyond—and it is also a time when we affirm, out loud and together, that we stand on the […]

Your opportunity to have a say in the future of Israel and global Jewish priorities The World Zionist Congress election is your opportunity to have a say in the future of Israel and global Jewish priorities. $1 billion in funding is at stake, and your vote for the liberal and progressive slates ensures that values […]

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on what it means to stand up with courage as a Jew. In moments of celebration and in moments of challenge, we are called to say Hineni—here I am.

The Kabbalists of Tzfat, the mystical thinkers of the 16th century, saw the world as intricately connected through the Eitz Chayim (Tree of Life). They understood this tree as a metaphor for the Torah and the human soul. Just as a tree is composed of roots, a trunk, branches, and fruit, so too does the soul possess levels of connection and expression: The roots represent our foundational values and spiritual grounding The trunk symbolizes our inner strength, the ability to st

The Kabbalists of Tzfat, the mystical thinkers of the 16th century, saw the world as intricately connected through the Eitz Chayim (Tree of Life). They understood this tree as a metaphor for the Torah and the human soul. Just as a tree is composed of roots, a trunk, branches, and fruit, so too does the soul possess levels of connection and expression: The roots represent our foundational values and spiritual grounding The trunk symbolizes our inner strength, the ability to st

The Kabbalists of Tzfat, the mystical thinkers of the 16th century, saw the world as intricately connected through the Eitz Chayim (Tree of Life). They understood this tree as a metaphor for the Torah and the human soul. Just as a tree is composed of roots, a trunk, branches, and fruit, so too does the soul possess levels of connection and expression: The roots represent our foundational values and spiritual grounding The trunk symbolizes our inner strength, the ability to st

The Kabbalists of Tzfat, the mystical thinkers of the 16th century, saw the world as intricately connected through the Eitz Chayim (Tree of Life). They understood this tree as a metaphor for the Torah and the human soul. Just as a tree is composed of roots, a trunk, branches, and fruit, so too does the soul possess levels of connection and expression: The roots represent our foundational values and spiritual grounding The trunk symbolizes our inner strength, the ability to st

I’ve been reflecting on endings and beginnings as we anticipate the start of a six-week ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas tomorrow. This agreement holds the promise of bringing 33 Israeli hostages home. Alongside reflection, I find myself praying – praying for what will unfold in the weeks ahead.

The Hebrew month of Kislev will begin in a few days, and as we prepare to enter this new month on the Jewish calendar, my family is also counting down to a deeply meaningful milestone: Joel’s Bar Mitzvah