Jewish Holidays

This is not going to be a sad story, I promise. But it does start out with the process of going through my parents’ condo after their passing.

A Conversation with Author Rabbi Joseph. B. Meszler on his new book.

As part of the URJ Reflection Project, a new set of offerings and experiences for the High Holidays in a time of social distance, we’ve also developed three short essays that allow you to go deeper into the essence of Jewish wisdom that grounds these rituals. 

Meet 88-year-old Murray, an astounding man. Quiet, sometimes reserved, Murray became my father-in-law 31 years ago, when God softly whispered to me, “Don’t wait.” I confess I didn’t appreciate him fully until recently. 

During the 2020 uprising for Black lives, Yehudah was the lead organizer of the 40 Days of Teshuvah action that created a space of mourning the destruction of Black communities and crying out to the Heavens for spiritual co-conspiratorship in the fight for racial justice.

On Tishah B’Av, as we grieve for the Earth and the countless lives lost to climate change, we must also harness our power to limit the scale of future tragedy. Even as we feel the effects of climate change in our daily lives, we still have the chance to stave off worst-case scenarios.

On Shavuot, the holiday when we celebrate receiving the Torah marks the completion of counting the omer, we are reminded of the historic and nation-altering moment our ancestors experienced in the desert when God revealed God’s self.

Three years before the COVID-19 pandemic response sheltered millions of people at home and drove us to do all things virtual, the URJ was crafting online communities of learners as they journeyed together through our 21 sessions of Introduction to Judaism Online.   

Today we celebrate Yom Yerushalayim, the anniversary of that fateful day in 1967 when the Israeli paratroopers reached the Western Wall and announced: "הר הבית בידנו" -- “The Temple Mount is in our Hands.” That moment ushered in the the promise for Jews everywhere, after years of dreaming and longing, to come and pray before this sacred space.