Rabbi's Corner
Messsages, blog posts, d'varim and more from Rabbi Miriam
Newsletter Post – November 14, 2024
I spent the first part of this week attending the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly gathering in Washington, D.C. This annual event brought together 2000 Jewish communal professionals and lay leaders, from throughout North America and Israel. The...
Newsletter Post – November 7, 2024
Over the last couple days (and weeks, and months), the messages I've received from dear friends and loved ones in the United States sound something like, "Well, at least you've already moved to Canada." This theme echoes our persistent Jewish response, honed across...
Newsletter Post – October 23, 2024
This Shabbat, we join Jewish communities around the world in beginning our Torah story again, as we read Bereishit, the story of creation, the origin story for all humankind. It is a fitting and symbolic Shabbat that has been designated as the yahrzeit commemoration...
Rabbi Miriam’s Yom Kippur 5785/2024 Sermon – A Year of Jewish Joy
A Year of Jewish Joy Yom Kippur Morning 5785 - 2024 As you disembark the ferry connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn, you are greeted at the Williamsburg ferry stop by a bright yellow, larger than life statue made up of the letters O and Y. Depending on which side you view...
Rabbi Miriam’s Kol Nidre 5785/2024 Sermon – Sharing a Tent with Sinners and Outcasts
Sharing a Tent with Sinners and Outcasts: Jewish Peoplehood in 2024 Kol Nidre 5785 - 2024 A story: January, 2003. Place: The Western Wall in Jerusalem. Time: Erev Shabbat. I was in Israel studying on the Reform movement’s premier high school in Israel program, then...
Rabbi Miriam’s Rosh Hashanah 5785/2024 Sermon – A Jewish Toolkit for Resilience
A Jewish Toolkit for Resilience in Times of Fear Rosh Hashanah 5785 - 2024 Hayom harat olam. This is the day the world was born. We remember Adam in the garden, the first human created, dancing around the Garden of Eden, taking in all of the beauty of creation: the...
Rabbi Miriam’s Erev Rosh Hashanah 5785/2024 Sermon – The Surge, the Core, and You
The Surge, the Core, and You Erev Rosh Hashanah 5785 - 2024 Shana tova! Here we are. On the precipice of a new year. A year ago, when we marked the beginning of 5784, all of you were here in Waterloo, and I was on the other side of the globe in Singapore. Could we...
Newsletter Post – October 16, 2024
What better way to launch our Year of Jewish Joy than with the most joyous Jewish holiday of them all, Sukkot, known in our prayerbook as literally z'man simchateinu, the time of our joy?! On Yom Kippur morning, I kicked off our Year of Jewish Joy by introducing its 3...
Newsletter Post – October 10, 2024
It was wonderful to see so many familiar and new faces on Rosh Hashanah last week, and I look forward to seeing all of you again for Yom Kippur this weekend. We are in the period of the 10 Days of Repentance, Aseret Y'mei Teshuvah, and we are collectively preparing...
Newsletter Post – October 2, 2024
Shana tova! I, along with all of the volunteer leadership at Temple Shalom, have been deep in preparations for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and I know it's going to be a very special holiday period. In between all of the services, one of my favourite ways to spend...