Rabbi Alison Adler

Good evening, gut yontif.  I want to tell you something… just between us, you and me.  Ready? I like you just the way you are! Really.  I do. I like you just the way you are! It may surprise you a bit to hear me talking like Mr. Rogers on Yom Kippur. And it may surprise you to hear me say how much I like you as you are.   After all, Yom Kippur is NOT a time to be satisfied with who we are. It’s a time to take a hard look at who we are and ask ourselves how we might become better. It’s a time to take stock of our souls and our relationships and do what we must to fix what needs fixing. Many of us practice the tradition of knocking on our hearts as we recite the litany of things that we, as a community, have done wrong, like we will be doing a little later this evening.  “Ashamnu bagadnu – We abuse , we betray , we destroy , we gossip , we . . . spend too much time on Facebook.” And yet, in the midst of all of this soul-searching an...

Shannah tovah. Our liturgy Declares: HaYom Harat Olam: Today we celebrate the creation of life itself… and we read Torah and Haftarah passages about the birth of two precious children, Isaac and Samuel. And so, I thought it would be appropriate to speak about children. I so love the children in this community and I like to think some of them, at least, love me, too. It does my heart good when a child shows a little affection. One little girl, for instance, often comes to Tot Shabbat and when the service ends, she always runs up to me and gives me a big hug. And she always says, "Don't worry rabbi! When I grow up, I'll give you LOTS of money." I've always chuckled, but one recent Shabbat, had to find out what exactly was in her head. So, as usual, she jumped into my arms and said, "Don't worry rabbi! When I grow up I'll give you LOTS of money!" But this time, when I hugged her back, I said, "That's very sweet of you, honey. But w...