Most members and friends of Chochmat HaLev, a Jewish Renewal-style community, had hiked a lot. Many had prayed or meditated. Some had done both together. more

A Novel Way to Teach Torah

by Jerome M. Segal

Judaism is the world’s oldest and strangest book club. Essentially we Jews have one book, and when we finish reading it, we turn back to the beginning and read it again, and again and again. We do this throughout our book club’s thousands and thousands of chapters, and we’ve been doing so for over 2,000 years.
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Here comes the Blessing of the Sun

David Kalb

NEW YORK (JTA) -- I have this internal iPod in my head that provides theme music for my life. Lately my theme song is “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles. Not only is it my theme song, but this year it is the theme song of the entire Jewish people.

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Workshop on Welcoming GLBT Jews

Rachel Pomerance

ATLANTA (JTA) – Let's say you get a memo from work, a Jewish organization, instructing you to leave home any part of your identity that doesn't conform to Jewish tradition. Sure, there's room for interpretation. But let's just say you're gay. Or lesbian. Or transsexual. And you're pretty sure you get the subtext. Then what? read the article...

Mekor Chaim: Source of Life

Devarim by Rabbi Beryl Padorr

In recent days, we have seen many disappointments, situations where people could see their dreams almost come to fruition, and then were not realized:  The Boston Celtics almost becoming the National Basketball champions; some of the top seated tennis players at Wimbledon were out early; the U S Soccer team, after coming up with last minute winning goals, finally out of the World Cup; and Abby Sunderland from Thousand Oaks, California who started off with the intentions of becoming the youngest to sail solo around the world, but who did not make it because her mast broke in a storm.

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Weekly Torah Portion

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(Provided by Hebrew Academy of Tidewater--a UJFT recipient agency.)