Author Archive | Rabbi Heidi Cohen

Rabbi Stephen J. Einstein The Olympics are coming to LA in 2028!  This is big news for our region.  I remember the 1984 Olympics.  I was so fortunate that I was serving as a Camp Rabbi that summer at Camp Hess Kramer, and the entire camp was privileged  to  attend an Olympics soccer match, held […]

Rabbi David N. Young In his TED Talk, “The Psychology of Your Future Self,” Harvard Professor Dan Gilbert explains the phenomenon of the “End of History Illusion.” He explains that humans think that at any given moment in our personal development, we are finished developing. We believe that our taste in music, our favorite vacation, […]

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker In Deuteronomy (30:11-14) we find the following teaching: “Surely this Instruction (Torah), which I enjoin upon you this day, is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach.  It is not in the heavens, that you should say, ‘Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it […]

U’netaneh Tokef is considered one of the most challenging prayers of the High Holidays.  Many have a hard time with its simple reading, that our lives are not really determined by the choices that we make, but our fate is “written on Rosh Hashanah and on Yom Kippur it is sealed.”  Yet, the core of […]

Rabbi Brad Levenberg As I reflect upon my most recent visit to Israel, I was struck by the fact that we visited the coastal town of Akko in the same day that we made our way to Yad VaShem, Israel¹s official memorial to the Holocaust. The crashing sounds of relentless waves dancing in the shadows […]

Why My Mother Cried April Akiva, R.J.E. Each year, while preparing for the High Holy Days, my mother would blast Avinu Malkeinu over the stereo and sob.  I can clearly remember her sitting on the edge of the stairs crying her eyes out, as if someone had just passed away.  She would set the table […]

Rabbi Nico Socolovsky ..The chief of the police asked: “How am I to understand that God, who is omniscient, asks Adam, ‘Where are you?’” The rabbi replied: “Do you believe that scripture is eternal and encompasses every age, every generation, and every person?” —- “Well now,” said the Zaddik, “in every age God addresses every […]

Rabbi Stephen J. Einstein Sometimes when I want to explain the concept of midrash, I will simply say, “Father, I cannot, tell a lie.” Every American child has grown up hearing this famous story from the boyhood of the Father of our Country, our first President, George Washington.  Along the way, some teacher probably informed […]

Rabbi Sarah DePaolo Maimonides taught that in order for a person to successfully complete the process of t’shuvah, she must confront the same situation in which she erred, or find himself in a situation when he has the potential to transgress again, and, “abstains and does not commit it because of T’shuvah alone” (Mishneh Torah, […]

Cantorial Soloist Jenna Sagan Elul is the time in our year for accountability and return. It is a time for deep examination and teshuvah; a chance to dig into your soul, and explore the opportunities you have to return to your truest self. As a clergy member, I am often asked how I connect to […]