Rabbi's Corner

Like many of you, I imagine, I have been glued to this year's Winter Olympics. I can't wait to cheer on Israel's first ever bobsled team (nicknamed Shul Runnings!) when they compete next week, I was devastated when the US women's hockey team shut out the Canadian...

As the world swirls around us, it can be hard to determine where our focus should be. What is worthy of our emotional energy? Of our grief, of our rage? How do we cut through that grief and rage to find moments of joy, or to merely go through the motions of everyday...

I've been thinking lately about Jewish life on the margins. Those Jewish communities, like ours, outside of or on the periphery of larger Jewish population centers like Toronto, New York, Los Angeles. The kinds of towns and cities where, when you say you're from...

A beautiful contemporary midrash imagines Moses, a young prince growing up in Pharaoh's palace, ignorant of his Jewish heritage and family. Every night, Moses wanders outside the walls of the palace, feeling restless, and seeking something that he can't name....

I spent most of yesterday driving back to Hamilton from a family simcha in New York, a welcome respite from being glued to the news and to social media reports from Sydney of increasing fatalities in the aftermath of yesterday’s terrorist attack in Bondi Beach at a...

With Hanukkah on the horizon, and the gift-buying season upon us, it is easy to focus on the material elements of this time of year. We face a deluge of commercials - on TV, on our social media feeds, and beyond - trying to convince us that if we buy one more thing,...

As the days get shorter and the nights longer, you may be looking for your next great read, listen, or watch to enjoy and inspire as you cozy up on the couch. As the People of the Book (and note that this month is the 100th Jewish Book Month!), there are always great...

One of my favourite parts of my work as a rabbi is studying Torah with our b-mitzvah students. Several months before each young person's ceremony, we begin meeting to study their Torah portion, always starting from a point of: "What questions do you have about your...

At Torah study a few weeks ago, I shared with the group how delightful it is to be back in Genesis in our Torah reading cycle, to be able to immerse ourselves in the foundational narratives of our people, rather than wrestle with the legal minutiae of the second half...

This weekend, we have the opportunity to celebrate that rare, North American Jewish holiday of Challahween, when Halloween coincides with Shabbat. (And of course this year we have the additional conflict of Game 5 of the World Series!) Families may face a choice - do...