Categories
- Adar
- Annual Meeting
- Av
- B-Mitzvah
- Chanukah
- Cheshvan
- Classes
- Community
- Contemplative Practice
- Cuba
- Days of Awe
- Divrei Torah
- Education
- Elul
- Events
- From The President
- From The Rabbi
- Guest Posts
- Inclusion & Diversity
- Israel
- Iyar
- Jewish Holidays
- Jewish Values
- Labyrinth
- LGBTQ+ Rights
- Music
- Newsletter
- Nissan
- Omer
- Pandemic
- Pesach
- Pollinator Garden
- Prayer
- Purim
- Resilience
- Response to Tragedy
- Reverse Omer
- Rosh Hashanah
- Runway to the Days of Awe
- Sermons
- Shabbat
- Shavuot
- Shevat
- Sivan
- Social Action
- Spiritual Life
- Sukkot
- Tammuz
- Teshuvah
- Tevet
- Tikkun Olam
- Tisha B'Av
- Tishrei
- Tu BiShvat
- Uncategorized
- Video
- Volunteering
- Yizkor
- Yom HaShoah
- Yom Kippur
Congregation Beth Israel
53 Lois Street
North Adams, MA 01247
1-413-663-5830
Subscribe to our newsletter:
Follow us:
In the Now: Erev Rosh Hashanah 5786
Days of Awe, Divrei Torah, From The Rabbi, Rosh Hashanah, SermonsA while ago I went looking for a New Yorker cartoon. I don’t subscribe to the magazine these days – I used to, maybe ten years ago, but they arrived more quickly than I could read them. After a while the stack of un-read issues made me feel like I was falling down on the job of being a well-informed poet! Still, many of the illustrations are available online, so I went hunting. I knew exactly what the cartoon looked like. And I couldn’t find it. No one else could seem to find it, either. Maybe it didn’t exist.
From the Rabbi – September 2025
Days of Awe, Elul, Events, From The Rabbi, Jewish Holidays, Newsletter, Rosh Hashanah, Runway to the Days of Awe, Tishrei, Yom KippurEvery year, I try hard to find the right balance in high holiday planning. Some things are the same every year, and they should be! High holiday nusah (the melody-system associated uniquely with this season) and familiar melodies are a spiritual touchstone. They reach us in our hearts. They are a musical carrier-wave that can bring us to our deepest selves. And some things are different every year, and they should be!
September 2025 | Elul 5785 / Tishrei 5786
Community, Days of Awe, Events, From The President, Jewish Holidays, Newsletter, Sukkot, Volunteering, Yom KippurWe send warm greetings to the CBI community as we enter this sacred season of the High Holy Days. Our devoted rabbis and choir have been working with care to ensure that our services are both meaningful and uplifting, and we look forward to gathering with you to worship and for our community Break-the-Fast.
From the Rabbi – August 2025
Av, Events, From The Rabbi, Newsletter, Runway to the Days of Awe, Spiritual Life, Tisha B'AvThe choir is rehearsing high holiday melodies. My teen has begun attending his final summer camp of the season. The roads are lined with blue chicory blooms and frothy Queen Anne’s Lace. I’m about to start eating corn and tomatoes at every meal I can, because there’s nothing like sweet corn in season or a tomato ripe off the vine. And now that we’ve made it through Tisha b’Av, we’re on the spiritual upswing toward Rosh Hashanah! Happy August.
August 2025 | Av 5785
Community, Events, From The President, Newsletter, VolunteeringThe summer is zipping by, as it always seems to do. We hope you are enjoying all that the Berkshires have to offer. Our rabbis and lay leaders have been busy planning for the upcoming year and have some exciting ideas for the coming year.
Return: Matot-Masei 5785
Divrei Torah, From The Rabbi, Israel, Response to Tragedy, Spiritual LifeIt never fails: we reach this Torah portion, Matot-Masei, in high summer and I go, “Wait, what? Already?” The words in this single verse are like hyperlinks. נֶדֶר, vow. שְׁבֻעָה, oath. כָּל נִדְרֵי וֶאֱסָרֵי וַחֲרָמֵי, וְקוֹנָמֵי וְכִנּוּיֵי, וְקִנּוּסֵי וּשְׁבוּעוֹת… Surprise! It’s a reminder of Kol Nidrei.
From the Rabbi – July 2025
From The Rabbi, Newsletter, ShabbatIn recent weeks, I’ve been paying visits to someone in a skilled nursing facility who has a copy of this very Rosie the Riveter “We Can Do It!” poster propped up in the room. I think it’s an excellent reminder that even when life’s challenges might seem insurmountable (and even when simple physical tasks might feel insurmountable), we can persevere… especially if we focus on what we can do, instead of what we can’t.
The Best We Can Be: Korah 5785
Divrei Torah, From The Rabbi, Israel, Response to Tragedy, Spiritual LifeThis week’s parsha, Korah, begins with a rebellion. The titular Korah gathers 250 of his friends and they “rise up against” Moshe and Aaron, accusing them of “raising themselves above God’s congregation.” In response, Moshe falls on his face: he lowers himself to the ground, a gesture of humility. The rebels rise up against; Moshe does the opposite, bending to the earth.
Rise and Shine: B’ha’alot’kha 5785
Divrei Torah, From The Rabbi, Israel, Resilience, Response to TragedyLast night as I was studying Hebrew with my son, a friend texted me to let me know that Israel had attacked Iran. Many of us expect retaliation over Shabbat. None of us know what is coming, and I don’t have wisdom to offer. All I have is this prayer: may the day come soon when the Iranian people, the Palestinian people, and the Israeli people can all live in safety and peace.
From the Rabbi – June 2025
From The Rabbi, Newsletter, ShabbatSummer is a quiet time on the Jewish calendar. Now that Shavuot is behind us, the next big thing on the horizon is Tisha b’Av in late August, followed by the seven-week runway to the Days of Awe.
Counting the Irreplaceable: Bamidbar 5785
Divrei Torah, From The Rabbi, Israel, Response to TragedyThis week’s Torah portion begins with an instruction to take a census for the purpose of knowing how many soldiers could be called-upon to bear arms. There’s a long list of numbers: from this tribe came this many people; from that tribe, that many. In years past, these verses felt dry and kind of irrelevant. This year they’re landing differently against the backdrop of current news.
From the Rabbi – May 2025
Events, From The Rabbi, Newsletter, PesachDuring the Passover seder, we name the ten plagues listed in Torah, and remove a droplet of wine or juice from our glasses as we recite each one. The tenth one is “death of the firstborn,” and Torah tells us that before that happened, our ancestors were instructed to kill a lamb and paint the doorposts with blood so that the angel of death would “pass over” our houses, leading to the name of the festival Passover. (The wordplay works in Hebrew too.)
Justice: Shmini 5785
Divrei Torah, From The Rabbi, Jewish Values, Social ActionI had already written a d’varling for tonight, about Aaron’s response to the death of his son and how the silence of those who suffer invites us to respond with care. And then a congregant reached out to me this morning and asked if I could speak tonight about a breaking news story, the FBI’s arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan in Wisconsin, and what our response to this as Jews ought to be.
Yom HaShoah 5785
From The Rabbi, Yom HaShoahYom HaShoah arrives every year, and yet for many of us this year feels different than any other.
Two Truths for Entering the Sea: Seventh Night of Pesach 5785
Divrei Torah, From The Rabbi, Nissan, PesachThe familiar words of the haggadah landed differently with me this year. We speak every year of freedom from Mitzrayim – meaning not only מִצְרַיִם / مصر / literal Egypt, but also more broadly all of life’s narrow places and times of constriction. But this year I’m keenly aware of constriction and lack of liberty in ways that go beyond the metaphorical.