RabbicreditorThe Wisdom of Chovav
Submitted by Rabbi Menachem Creditor [Berkeley, CA] on Mon, Jun 16, 2008
Guiding well is complicated. Sometimes the best guides share their wisdom, and sometimes they provide space for trial and error on the path towards understanding. Which pedagogy do we seekers desire? And what kind of impact does a teacher's choice have on our abilities to successfully traverse personal journeys? As Moses and the Israelites are preparing to emerge from the base of Mount Sinai, we read of Moses approaching his father-in-law Chovav: read more »
Rabbi Menachem Creditor is rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA. He is also founder of ShefaNetwork: (The Conservative Movement Dreaming from Within), co-founder of KeshetRabbis (The Alliance of Gay-Friendly Conservative and Masorti Rabbis), and author of TheTisch, an electronic commentary on Jewish Spirituality. He is a popular speaker at synagogues, college campuses, and various communities on questions of Jewish Identity, Leadership, and Spirituality. As one half of Shirav, a Jewish folk-music group, he has spread passion, comfort, and joy to audiences around North America and Israel.
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Spiritual Authority in a Participatory Congregation
Submitted by Rabbi Menachem Creditor [Berkeley, CA] on Sun, May 18, 2008
In a world of individual empowerment, what is the place for authority? Is there one? Should there be? Inherited faith traditions locate the source of religious authority in text, the heavens, or a religious leader. Something tangible and limited. That is likely not the way our communities views themselves (though implicit explorations of our internal senses of 'authority' do take place when new religious leadership is sought, or when potential controversial shifts are raised). read more »
Rabbi Menachem Creditor is rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA. He is also founder of ShefaNetwork: (The Conservative Movement Dreaming from Within), co-founder of KeshetRabbis (The Alliance of Gay-Friendly Conservative and Masorti Rabbis), and author of TheTisch, an electronic commentary on Jewish Spirituality. He is a popular speaker at synagogues, college campuses, and various communities on questions of Jewish Identity, Leadership, and Spirituality. As one half of Shirav, a Jewish folk-music group, he has spread passion, comfort, and joy to audiences around North America and Israel.
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Kisses and Memory
Submitted by Rabbi Menachem Creditor [Berkeley, CA] on Sun, May 18, 2008
Yom HaShoah VeHagevurah 5768: "Kisses and Memory" There are days in which the simplest things carry incalculable meaning. Today is one such day. Yom HaShoah VeHagevurah, our Day of Holocaust and Heroism, amplifies every experience of life to a heightened place. A smile, an embrace, a bright butterfly. Each evokes, for those attuned to the holy moment, devastating heartbreak and deep hope. read more »
Rabbi Menachem Creditor is rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA. He is also founder of ShefaNetwork: (The Conservative Movement Dreaming from Within), co-founder of KeshetRabbis (The Alliance of Gay-Friendly Conservative and Masorti Rabbis), and author of TheTisch, an electronic commentary on Jewish Spirituality. He is a popular speaker at synagogues, college campuses, and various communities on questions of Jewish Identity, Leadership, and Spirituality. As one half of Shirav, a Jewish folk-music group, he has spread passion, comfort, and joy to audiences around North America and Israel.
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Tazria/Metzora 5768/2008: “Human Boundaries and Inclusion”
Submitted by Rabbi Menachem Creditor [Berkeley, CA] on Tue, Apr 15, 2008
© Rabbi Menachem Creditor read more »
Rabbi Menachem Creditor is rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA. He is also founder of ShefaNetwork: (The Conservative Movement Dreaming from Within), co-founder of KeshetRabbis (The Alliance of Gay-Friendly Conservative and Masorti Rabbis), and author of TheTisch, an electronic commentary on Jewish Spirituality. He is a popular speaker at synagogues, college campuses, and various communities on questions of Jewish Identity, Leadership, and Spirituality. As one half of Shirav, a Jewish folk-music group, he has spread passion, comfort, and joy to audiences around North America and Israel.
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What is it about Bedtime?
Submitted by Rabbi Menachem Creditor [Berkeley, CA] on Mon, Mar 31, 2008
Rabbi Menachem Creditor What is it about bedtime? On the one hand it's an in-between moment: Daylight is fading, eyelids are drooping - a gentle goodnight seems natural. On the other hand, there is the "simple task" of getting a child to bed, tucking them in, and finally going to take care of "grown-up stuff." How difficult it is to preserve this escapable sacred experience. read more »
Rabbi Menachem Creditor is rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA. He is also founder of ShefaNetwork: (The Conservative Movement Dreaming from Within), co-founder of KeshetRabbis (The Alliance of Gay-Friendly Conservative and Masorti Rabbis), and author of TheTisch, an electronic commentary on Jewish Spirituality. He is a popular speaker at synagogues, college campuses, and various communities on questions of Jewish Identity, Leadership, and Spirituality. As one half of Shirav, a Jewish folk-music group, he has spread passion, comfort, and joy to audiences around North America and Israel.
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What Does it Mean?
Submitted by Rabbi Menachem Creditor [Berkeley, CA] on Tue, Mar 11, 2008
Rabbi Menachem Creditor in memory of Scott Silberman, z"l In Dara Horn's work of spiritual fiction "The World to Come", she portrays Marc Chagall and the enigmatic Yiddish poet Der Nister (The Hidden One) as teachers at a Ukranian school for Jewish orphans. Der Nister sees a blue painting Chagall has just completed and asks "What does it mean?" Chagall's response is mystifying: "It means blue." read more »
Rabbi Menachem Creditor is rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA. He is also founder of ShefaNetwork: (The Conservative Movement Dreaming from Within), co-founder of KeshetRabbis (The Alliance of Gay-Friendly Conservative and Masorti Rabbis), and author of TheTisch, an electronic commentary on Jewish Spirituality. He is a popular speaker at synagogues, college campuses, and various communities on questions of Jewish Identity, Leadership, and Spirituality. As one half of Shirav, a Jewish folk-music group, he has spread passion, comfort, and joy to audiences around North America and Israel.
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One Rabbi's Reflection
Submitted by Rabbi Menachem Creditor [Berkeley, CA] on Wed, Jan 23, 2008
Rabbi's Reflection I love being a rabbi. read more »
Rabbi Menachem Creditor is rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA. He is also founder of ShefaNetwork: (The Conservative Movement Dreaming from Within), co-founder of KeshetRabbis (The Alliance of Gay-Friendly Conservative and Masorti Rabbis), and author of TheTisch, an electronic commentary on Jewish Spirituality. He is a popular speaker at synagogues, college campuses, and various communities on questions of Jewish Identity, Leadership, and Spirituality. As one half of Shirav, a Jewish folk-music group, he has spread passion, comfort, and joy to audiences around North America and Israel.
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VaYigash 5768/2007: "Closer, Come Closer"
Submitted by Rabbi Menachem Creditor [Berkeley, CA] on Sun, Dec 23, 2007
An often overlooked message of the Joseph stories is the theology implicit in the way he explains the story to his brothers upon disclosing his identity. Joseph says: read more »
Rabbi Menachem Creditor is rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA. He is also founder of ShefaNetwork: (The Conservative Movement Dreaming from Within), co-founder of KeshetRabbis (The Alliance of Gay-Friendly Conservative and Masorti Rabbis), and author of TheTisch, an electronic commentary on Jewish Spirituality. He is a popular speaker at synagogues, college campuses, and various communities on questions of Jewish Identity, Leadership, and Spirituality. As one half of Shirav, a Jewish folk-music group, he has spread passion, comfort, and joy to audiences around North America and Israel.
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My God Doesn't Take
Submitted by Rabbi Menachem Creditor [Berkeley, CA] on Wed, Oct 24, 2007
Rabbi Menachem Creditor I cringe every time I recite "The Lord gives, the Lord takes, blessed be the Name of God," in the Book of Job. And I recite it often, at funerals and in mourning rituals. When my mentor Rabbi Neil Gillman challenged a class of almost-rabbis to translate the Hebrew phrase "Baruch Dayan Emet" roughly "Blessed is the True Judge", also a traditional response to hearing of a death) I refused. I don't mean it. I won't mean it. But I do say it. I recite both formulae, gritting my teeth every time, at funerals and other moments of mourning. read more »
Rabbi Menachem Creditor is rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA. He is also founder of ShefaNetwork: (The Conservative Movement Dreaming from Within), co-founder of KeshetRabbis (The Alliance of Gay-Friendly Conservative and Masorti Rabbis), and author of TheTisch, an electronic commentary on Jewish Spirituality. He is a popular speaker at synagogues, college campuses, and various communities on questions of Jewish Identity, Leadership, and Spirituality. As one half of Shirav, a Jewish folk-music group, he has spread passion, comfort, and joy to audiences around North America and Israel.
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Toward A Hopeful Judaism
Submitted by Rabbi Menachem Creditor [Berkeley, CA] on Wed, Sep 19, 2007
Toward A Hopeful Judaism Potholes are rarely celebrated. Their appearances in the road as I drove with my wife to the hospital for the birth of our first child were cause only for gripped belly and gritted teeth as my imagination translated each opening of the path into a source of pain rather than an indication of a traveled (and hence, reliable) route. They were, of course, both, but I was only able to partially understand them, given my personal vulnerability and circumstance. So when I encountered a pothole on that redemptive path, I swerved to avoid it. read more »
Rabbi Menachem Creditor is rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA. He is also founder of ShefaNetwork: (The Conservative Movement Dreaming from Within), co-founder of KeshetRabbis (The Alliance of Gay-Friendly Conservative and Masorti Rabbis), and author of TheTisch, an electronic commentary on Jewish Spirituality. He is a popular speaker at synagogues, college campuses, and various communities on questions of Jewish Identity, Leadership, and Spirituality. As one half of Shirav, a Jewish folk-music group, he has spread passion, comfort, and joy to audiences around North America and Israel.
My Tools
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