“There are moments when we need to change our lives, even if that means going beyond everything we know”. Rabbi Jill Hammer Elul is the month of change where our courage allows us to be lifted and carried by the storms of summer to new places on the wings of Shechina, our Beloved. Teshuva is a time of inward turning to face ourselves, letting go of memories and past mistakes, we can be a brand new being in this moment. Through mindful forgetting and re-creating ourselves, we renew the...

As I abide in the shade of Shaddai, I feel Your sheltering Presence. There is a chant in psalm 91 for walking to the grave where El Shaddai provides a canopy of protection, but there is no joy here in the fire of Av in the narrows of constriction. I can barely breathe. But I can hear Hashkiveinu as a lullaby softening my existential cries. Listen with curiosity and awe listen as if a new organ of hearing had been planted inside this spiral of flesh gifting me with song, manna for my soul....

How good it is to see the light of a new day To witness the separation of darkness from light To give thanks every morning for all the wonders of Bereshit the Infinite One has stretched forth the earth upon the waters, brought order out of chaos. we acknowledge every act of creation as miraculous. Uttered by the lips of one sent to curse us, we sing mah tovu as part of our morning blessings “How goodly are your tents” Yes, our encampment is a place of holiness inside ourselves and within our...