DJC Blog

In November, I released my first album of original compositions of Jewish prayersong. Over the past twenty years, these prayersongs have moved through me and outward into singing communities around the world – in shuls (including our own beloved DJC) and retreat centres, around Shabbat dinner tables and campfires and, as I found out from […]

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” -Audre Lorde. African American feminist, womanist and poet The recent National Women’s March in DC and in cities around the US was a powerful mobilization of activism and unity – fighting for all women, fighting for […]

Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, of blessed memory, used to tell this story about his 5 year old daughter, Shalvi. She woke up one morning and said, “Abba (dad), you know how when you are asleep and dreaming, it seems so real, and then you wake up and realize it was just a dream? When you are […]

Thank you to Rabbi James Jacobson-Maisels for inspiring this teaching. My home office is a mess – piles of papers, notes, scattered books that I’ve started to read or that I’ve pulled off the shelf for teaching, letters of request for donations and a smattering of articles I mean to get to. This time of […]

On October 16th we held a community conversation to discuss the DJC’s cemetery proposal at Beit Olam Gardens. I want to share some of the teachings about Jewish burial practices that animate our conversation. A Jewish cemetery is defined as consecrated ground demarcated on all sides for the purpose of Jewish burial. Historically, only Jews […]

The following sermon was given by Rabbi Miriam Margles on Yom Kippur, 5779. The first sin, the original human sin, from a Jewish perspective, is not Adam and Eve eating from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Yes, that rebellious bite was in opposition to God’s one restriction in the Garden of […]

The following sermon was given by Rabbi Miriam Margles on Rosh Hashanah Day, 5779. “Ha’dan chavero le’kaf zechut/הדן חבירו לכף זכות – Anyone who judges others favourably, danin oto le’zechut/דנין אותו לזכות – that person is themselves, judged favourably.” These are the words of the Talmud (Shabbat 127b). Le’kaf zechut is a phrase that implies […]

The following sermon was given by Rabbi Miriam Margles on Erev Rosh Hashanah, 5779. I want to think with you about judgement. Our theme this Rosh Hashana is Judging Wisely and on this Yom Ha’Din, this Day of Judgement, which sits at the centre of a whole season of reflection, self-evaluation and judgement, I want […]

I am picturing us gathering together to meet a New Year – flowing with sweetness, twinged with sadness and mysterious in its possibilities. I am picturing us standing side by side as we each sort through the past year’s dead weight, tender wounds and shining treasures. I am imagining us dying to the old and […]

In the flow of the Jewish calendar, this is the time to start waking up, again. The Hebrew month of Elul begins at sundown on Friday August 10th, and with a new sliver of moon in the sky, we begin several daily practices during this month leading up to Rosh Hashana to shake us awake, […]

I love the summer – long, sun-drenched days, the sweet smell of honeysuckle in the evening air, the juicy joy of peaches and watermelon, people gathering in parks, on patios, at lakesides and around music stages being friendlier, slower and lighter than we Torontonians seem able to be at colder times of the year. It is […]

Over the course of the winter and spring, a group of DJC members gathered on Shabbat mornings to get radical. Rather than joining together for a Shabbat morning service, we sipped tea, ate delicious challah, and talked about evolution and God. We’ve been reading a book by Rabbi Art Green called Radical Judaism: Rethinking God […]

A new conversion bill has been drafted in Israel and will be presented to the Israeli government in the next few weeks. The proposed legislation would make conversion a uniform process under the auspices of a stringent state-authorized Orthodox body. Interestingly, that means that not only are Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist conversions in Israel not […]

When we sit around our Seder tables, a stage set with various props and the script of the Haggadah, we prepare to tell a story. This is a story of transformation from slavery, oppression and constriction to liberation, freedom and expansiveness. These themes are complex, rich and layered, filled with human struggle and the hard […]

This is a powerful, tipping-point moment. From a few brave individuals to waves of women gathering bolstered strength in numbers, #MeToo has been pulling the veil of silence off of sexual harassment, misconduct and assault. More and more women have been courageously stepping forward to talk about their experiences of predatory and abusive sexual behaviour […]

I just recorded my first album. In the wide sanctuary of the Germantown Jewish Centre in Philadelphia, with a circle of microphones, an array of drums and the curving beauty of an upright bass in front the bimah, a skilled and soulful group of nine singers and musicians joined with me to harmonize, groove, listen […]

I get a little Grinchy around this time of the year. I find the Christmas lights to be pretty and I delight in seeing the homes around my neighbourhood decorated with each family’s unique flair, but as Christmas takes over public spaces, as the pull to buy stuff and to want stuff is ramped up […]

Most of the prayers of Yom Kippur and the practices of teshuvah, of repentance and return, are opportunities to ask for forgiveness. We surface remorse for the ways we messed up. We become attuned to harmful behaviours we weren’t conscious of. We take responsibility for our wrongs and lay the groundwork for lasting change in […]

Two Jewish friends meet each other on the street. Diane says to Ruth – I just got back from a meditation retreat and I tell you, you have to try it. Ruth says – It’s not for me. I can’t sit on the floor with my legs tied in an knot. It’s shmutzy. It hurts […]

Cain has just killed his brother in a fit of jealousy. It takes the Torah all of three and a half chapters – from the unfolding of the entire cosmos, to the creation of the first humans – and wham! the first murder takes place. Where Abel succeeded, Cain failed. What Abel has, Cain wants. […]