By cbsc in From Rabbi Cohen
This week’s Torah portion contains the Ten Commandments. I first saw the Cecil B. DeMille blockbuster The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston when I was around six years old. DeMille took the biblical tale and gave it the full star treatment. The actual giving of the Ten Commandments in the movie was full of thunder and lightning […]
By cbsc in Uncategorized
Congregation Beth Shalom is happy to provide you with a unique opportunity to fulfill two mitzvot of Purim this year: the giving of tzedakah and Mishloach Manot–Sh’lach Manos, or sending packages of food to friends. You can honor your Beth Shalom friends and support your synagogue while following this wonderful tradition. For more info and […]
By cbsc in From Rabbi Cohen
Today, Thursday, is the festival of Tu B’Shvat, the fifteenth of the Hebrew month Shevat, the day we celebrate the vast world of trees among which we are blessed to dwell. It’s a festival that has found deep resonance among our people for many centuries. The 16th century Kabbalists of Tsvat in northern Israel took what was mainly […]
By cbsc in From Rabbi Cohen
The central idea of the Jewish tradition is the concept of the messiah. I’m not sure how many Jews think about the messiah other than that we well know that messianism dominates Christianity. But if you’ve not considered this, trust me. It’s true. In Judaism, of course, messianism is different from Christianity, but critical nonetheless. […]
By cbsc in From Rabbi Cohen
We call him Moshe Rabbenu, Moses our rabbi. He’s been a part of our Torah reading for a couple of weeks now. You know, the little three-month-old baby set adrift in a mini-ark (teivah in Hebrew, the same word as the name of the boat Noah set sail on); saved by Pharaoh’s daughter, raised in […]
By cbsc in Uncategorized
As with all of you, I was stunned yesterday when I heard that a mob invaded the Capitol building in Washington, DC. Since that moment I’ve been glued to the media obsessed about this singular moment in my lifetime, a delusional horde urged on by the president of the United States, that sought to tear […]
By cbsc in Uncategorized
On Wednesday, we watched as a mob stormed the Capitol Building and caused mayhem. By the end of the day, four persons were dead, a Confederate flag was marched through the building, and a gallows had been erected on Capitol Hill. This open disrespect for democratic governance is terrible and frightening and cannot continue to […]
By cbsc in From Rabbi Cohen
Like the Chinese and the Muslims we Jews have two new years, Rosh HaShanah and January 1. The somberness of our own new year, combined with its many rituals, dwarfs the secular new year in its depth of meaning. Still, the new year that commences this evening, December 31 at midnight, is not without its […]
By cbsc in Uncategorized
You’re Invited to Trivia With The Tribe! Join all of your friends, family (far & wide) virtually “at” CBS for the First Annual Trivia with the Tribe! At 7:00 on Saturday, January 23, show off your knowledge of the obscure and useless during 6 rounds of trivia. For sign-up information please visit: https://cbsmo.org/trivia/ And as […]
By cbsc in From Rabbi Cohen
One night during Hanukkah in 1993 in Billings, Montana, someone hurled a cinderblock through a window in the home of Tammie and Brian Schnitzer. This act was one of many Billings had suffered in the past year. The town had become subject to a great deal of anti-Black, anti-Hispanic, anti-Indian, […]
