DJC Blog

Baruch ata Adonai matir assurim – Blessed are You Adonai who frees the captives. I only heard about Saturday’s hostage standoff at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas when I turned my phone back on after Shabbat. Initially, I felt shocked and deeply worried until the hostages made it safely out of the building. It […]

It is a worthwhile question, as we begin Yom Kippur, as we enter this 25-hour period engaged in the central activity of kaparah – atonement – to ask, does it actually makes a difference? Does it change us? I don’t want to talk myself out of a job, so you can probably guess that I […]

I want to share a cartoon on the screen that you may have seen. I’ll describe it as well. There is a person sitting at a table in front of a lemon squeezer. To their right, are mountains of lemons and a cannon firing lemons right at their head. To their left are jars and […]

So, imagine it – you’re sitting in your bathrobe, drinking your morning coffee and looking out your garden window. A cluster of people you’ve never seen before are sauntering in and out of your garden. As they fill bowls with figs and apples from your trees, they smile and wave at you. You feel the […]

We will be gathering on Zoom for High Holyday services again this year. Of course, I would rather be physically together – singing together, crowding side by side under outstretched tallitot on the bimah for the group aliyot, and hugging in the aisles. But spiritual practice is perpetually a practice of meeting reality with an […]

I was going to give this sermon on Rosh Hashana day, when our theme was Dismantling and Building Anew, but between all the challenges with technology and timing, I didn’t share it then. I want to share it tonight. The last community-wide program we ran at the DJC before we went into Covid lockdown was […]

A cluster of 4 rabbis made their winding way to Jerusalem. When they reached Mount Scopus, they looked out across the valley and could see what was once the magnificent and holy Temple, the centre of Jewish life, now destroyed, and they tore their garments in grief. This scene takes place some time after 70 […]

Whether your connection to Jewish celebrations comes through brisket-making Ashkenazi lineage, Moroccan-heritage lamb and couscous tagine or Sephardic pastelicos (meat and rice pies), to name but a few meaty Jewish cultural delights, the upcoming chag (holyday) of Shavu’ot puts a full stop to the rich, slow-cooked fleishig/meaty festival meals. After counting the Omer each day […]

It never ceases to amaze me that whatever Torah reading or holyday we are encountering in the Jewish calendar, it conveys valuable questions and insights that seem crafted just to address this exact moment. So, with Purim around the corner (from the evening of March 9th to March 10th), I turn to Megillat Esther as […]

Our lives on this beautiful planet depend on trees for oxygen, food, medicine, shelter, climate stability, habitat for wildlife and beauty. According to scientific research, planting billions of trees around the world could remove two-thirds of all harmful emissions caused by human activity. A global tree-planting program would be one of the most inexpensive and […]

Welcome to 2020! I have, in my lifetime, occasionally counted down to midnight on Dec. 31st at large and small parties and toasted the arrival of a new secular (Christian calendar, really) year with bubbly beverages and cheers. That said, it probably doesn’t surprise you that the New Year I resonate with most as richly […]

Chanukah celebrates the Maccabees’ rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem, the Jewish people’s sacred home, and the relighting of the ever-burning menorah within the Temple, after they had been desecrated by the Syrian Greeks in 164 BCE under the oppressive rule of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Much later, rabbinic tradition ascribed the 8-day rededication celebration […]

Kol Nidrei Sermon 5780 The theme we’re focusing on this Yom Kippur is The Capacity to Change. What a valuable theme. What a challenging endeavour. On a day that is focused on repentance, renewal and change, it is important to be honest about how difficult it is to change. When we are wired for survival […]

Erev Rosh Hashana Sermon 5780 In the not too distant future, the news is announced – the environmental apocalypse is here. In 3 days, every continent on planet earth will be underwater. Religious leaders from around the world address their followers, offering words of guidance and solace to face this cataclysmic moment. The […]

Rosh Hashana Sermon 5780 This sermon was greatly inspired by and draws from We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer. Ready? Dai-dai-ey’nu… Don’t worry. I’m not confused. I know it’s not Pesach. But these words that we sing out with glee at the Pesach seder – […]

This time of the year, with the ending of summer and a turning toward fall, stirs sweetness and loss, anxiety and anticipation all at the same time. I feel myself residing in the in-between time – between seasons, between ways of being. There are still cherry tomatoes to ripen and harvest. The afternoons can still […]

We are approaching the one year anniversary of last July’s shooting on the Danforth. There are several events that will bring community together to mourn and remember, to touch back into shared support of the families whose loved ones were killed and to support everyone who has been shaken by this terrible tragedy. This has […]

Of the three pilgrimage festivals – Sukkot, Pesach and Shavuot – Shavuot, celebrating receiving Torah at Mount Sinai and celebrating the harvest of first fruits, seems to get the short end of the celebratory stick. Pesach is perhaps the most celebrated Jewish holyday (with Chanukah a ready rival, the shorter cousin trying to keep up […]

I’m writing to you from Israel. I’m here with 130 Jewish leaders from around the world working on issues of anti-Semitism and Jewish liberation in the context of working to end all interconnected systems of oppression. It is powerful to be here, during Pesach, during the time that is called “zman cheruteynu/the time of our […]

This past Friday, many of us gathered in front of the Madinah Masjid forming a Ring of Peace in shared grief, solidarity and partnership with Muslims after the white supremacist shooting of Muslims in prayer in Christchurch, New Zealand. We were a sea of people including members of the DJC, members of our Danforth Multi-faith […]