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Riding the Waves Erev Rosh Hashanah 5782/2021 Rabbi Cassi Kail As the High Holy Days approached this year, I struggled to find the words to address this community. I – so rarely without words—wondered what I could say that would meet our needs at this precise moment. One Facebook meme joked that every rabbi should […]
On Diversity and Belonging Rosh Hashanah Morning 5782/2021 Rabbi Cassi Kail In 1997, the novelist George Dawes Green was growing tired of poetry slams. He loved the feel of people coming together and sharing parts of themselves, but he felt disconnected from the high language of poetry. He noticed a moment of high energy and […]
On Cancel Culture Kol Nidrei 5782/2021 Rabbi Cassi Kail Elisha ben Abuya’s story is a cautionary tale. Elisha had been a well-respected scholar whose love for teaching Torah was infectious. In his lessons, he placed particular emphasis on the importance of mitzvot, the ways we act out our faith. Nearly overnight, Elisha’s reputation drastically changed, […]
Shmita: A Sacred Opportunity for Renewal Yom Kippur Morning 5782/2021 Rabbi Cassi Kail It was 5:30 in evening and I had been writing for hours, or at least trying to write. I had composed the same paragraph over and over again, unsatisfied with my work. Time ticked by and I grew more and more frustrated. […]
The Path of a Mourner Yizkor 5782/2021 Rabbi Cassi Kail Mourners didn’t just enter the temple mount. They did so in a special way, a unique way. Whereas everyone else entered to the right, they went around to the left. It sounds like such an insignificant detail, and yet the Talmud insists that it is […]
Change is Possible, After All Derek Black was born into a family of white nationalists. His father was not only the grandmaster of the Ku Klux Klan, but the creator of the popular white supremacist website Stormfront. At a young age, he was primed to be a future leader in the Ku Klux Klan. By […]
One mitzvah leads to another – A contagion worth spreading On Rosh Hashanah, many of us took part in a ritual called Tashlich, in which we toss our metaphorical sins into the water. Whether communally or individually, we took time to reflect on the year’s ups and downs, our missteps, and the choices we plan […]
L’chaim: TO LIFE! Rosh Hashanah 5781/2020 Rabbi Cassi Kail At the end of March, I received a call from my dad. He was worried about my mother’s deteriorating health. She had been struggling with COVID-19 for several days, and it was clear that her condition was declining rapidly. Dad had just put my mother in […]
Responding to Loneliness Erev Rosh Hashanah 5781/2020 Rabbi Cassi Kail It’s been six months since the first stay-at-home orders were issued in Los Angeles county. Many of us forget what friends and family look like without zoom boxes around their heads, or facemasks covering their noses and mouths. We work on zoom. We learn on […]
Rabbi Cassi Kail’s Erev Rosh HaShanah Sermon Spotlighted by the URJ Our new Rabbi Cassi Kail gave a series of moving and inspirational sermons over this year’s High Holiday Services at Temple Beth El. On Erev Rosh HaShanah she spoke of our community, its nearly century-long history, of the many multi-generational families that have been […]
