July 26 - 27, Shabbat Pinchas
Candle lighting 7:56pm
Friday Night Service 6:30pm
Shabbat Morning Service 9:15am
Shabbat ends 8:59pm
Sunday Minyan 9:00am
236 Kane Street /
Brooklyn, NY 11231 /
718 875-1550
The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish
Discussion: Wednesday, September 4, 7:00pm, Kane Street Chapel
Facilitated by Retired Brooklyn College Professor of English and American Literature, Julia Hirsch
Set in London of the 1660s and of the early twenty-first century, The Weight of Ink is the interwoven tale of two women of remarkable intellect: Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi, just before the plague hits the city; and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history.
Stay tuned for a full calendar of the fall reading list. Contact [email protected] for more information.
The long held custom of studying Pirkei Avot between Passover and Shavuot offers the perfect time to join one of multiple study groups learning this mishnaic collection of ethical teachings. Groups of community members are meeting on Shabbat afternoons, before work, during Hebrew School, evenings and more. Sign up to join a study group, learn with your family, or ask us to connect you with other learners. Read more about the learning and schedule. Contact Rabbi Jason Gitlin for more information.
Complete Registration here.
Have your children join a stimulating and welcoming atmosphere that makes Judaism come alive for students from all types of Jewish backgrounds. Our Hebrew School encourages open questioning and helps students and their families find their own personal meaning in our rich Jewish traditions. Many parents also find great comfort knowing that their children will maintain friendships with the same group of children over many years at Kane Street, even if they go to different schools during the day. Register now or contact Hebrew School Director Rabbi Valerie Lieber for more information or if you have questions.
Our Kane Street Kids preschool is now accepting applications for enrollment for the 2019-20 school year. We embrace families from all backgrounds and cultivate a connection to Jewish traditions and values. Our classroom teachers are warm and nurturing, and provide an environment where children can grow and develop cognitively, socially, emotionally and physically. For more information or to tour the school, contact Preschool Director Rivka Seeman.
Shavuot: The Giving of Torah and the Search for Truth
Recently, I was in the Sanctuary teaching a member how to perform Hagbah, the honor of raising and displaying the Torah at the conclusion of the Torah reading. In the course of the brief tutorial, he told me that he felt that the Torah itself had become an idol to some Jews.
The comment struck me. Although made during a lesson focused on the public adoration of Torah, I felt that my friend had hit on something real. Indeed, the tendency of people to grossly simplify or distort the meaning of Torah has been a concern of Rabbis for centuries.
Maimonides, the greatest Torah scholar of the last thousand years, wrote a lot about this. He composed his monumental Moreh N’vuchim, “The Guide to the Perplexed”, largely to address the literalization of Torah, which he felt entrapped people in primitive and harmful understandings.
Maimonides believed for example that the Torah refers to G-d in corporeal terms because during the time of the giving of Torah the Israelites were still imbued with a mentality which could only conceive of G-d in this way.
“The minds of the multitude were… guided to the belief that G-d exists by imaging that G-d is corporeal.”
While the ultimate goal was to free people from this pagan mindset, in reality people continued to conceive of a G-d with a mouth, nose and fingers.
Let us not be too quick to judge. After all, what is more familiar and comforting than the symbols and stories of one’s early education, the “Torah” of one’s youth? It is threatening to question the sacred stories, the images and teachings, which have guided us, sometimes since infancy. We may fear that if we give up these old beliefs, we will be left with nothing to hold onto.
continue reading
Rabbi Weintraub’s Reflections on Social Issues
Confronting American Anti-Semitism
Jacob’s Ladder and the Decline of Conservative Judaism
Solidarity Shabbat sermon following the Pittsburgh Synagogue attack
Response to the Attack on the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue
Listening around Rosh Hashanah
Restoring a Moral Agenda to America: The Poor People’s Campaign
Me’avdut L’cherut – From Slavery to Freedom
“To Work and to Preserve” Judaism and the Environment
Spirituality and Politics, Social Change, and my Trip to Israel
Michael Brown and Eric Garner – A Jewish Perspective
Torah text, the Tribe of Dan, Ferguson and Baltimore