Saying Goodbye to a Beloved Mentor & Family Member

By Rabbi Or Rose
Director, Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership of Hebrew College 

In the brief reflection below, Rabbi Or Rose, founding director of the Miller Center, reflects on his relationship with the late Rabbi Dr. David Ellenson (of blessed memory). Rabbi Ellenson (right) was a source of love and light to so many throughout the Jewish world and beyond. As we enter the Hebrew month of Tevet and continue to celebrate the festival of Hanukkah, we mourn the passing of this great leader and rededicate ourselves to carrying forth his legacy of compassion.

Last week, I traveled from Salzburg Austria—where I am spending much of my fall sabbatical—to Israel. I did so to celebrate the first days of Hanukkah with my brother and his family and to see friends, colleagues, and students. Making this trip became an urgent priority after the October 7th terror attack by Hamas and the ensuing war. While seemingly impossible, my experience in Israel became more emotionally fraught when I was told of the unexpected passing of my beloved mentor, Rabbi Dr. David Ellenson.

Read Rabbi Rose's reflection...

Kindling Light Together

During this time of grief and heartbreak, we have been gathering as a community on Zoom to kindle the lights of Hanukkah together, to seek comfort, strength, and hope in each other’s presence and in our shared sense of purpose. Hanukkah reminds us that we are all lamplighters; for a few minutes each weeknight of Hanukkah, join us as we come together to dispel the darkness and shine a little more light into our world. 

2 more nights. 2 more kavanot for light in a time of darkness.
5-5:10 p.m. EST | Zoom | RSVP for the Zoom link

Wednesday, December 13
Sharing the Light of Our Teens
Rabba Claudia Marbach will lead candle lighting for the seventh night of Hanukkah with her students from Hebrew College's Teen Beit Midrash.

Thursday, December 14
Sharing the Light of Sustainable Energy
Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld welcomes special guest Yosef Abramowitz, president and CEO of Energiya Global Capital, to talk about the future of solar energy in Israel and Gaza.

The Book of Psalms: Calling Out From the Depths

Psalm 6: "Prayer and Healing" by Jerome E. Goodman, MD

The Miller Center's new site, Calling Out from the Depths, is a unique collection of contemporary interreligious reflections on the Book of Psalms. Here is a preview from our lesson on Psalm 6, which speaks to suffering and prayer as it might relate to this moment.

For more than four decades, I have cared for very ill people with cancer, blood diseases, and AIDS. And for several years during those decades, I also experienced my own medical illness in the form of prolonged pain from failed spinal surgery. The words of Psalm 6 speak deeply to the psychological core of patients’ fears, and to how prayer can surmount fears and provide focus and direction when we are most bereft...

It is rightly said in our tradition that God works through the healers. And in an age of advancing and powerful technologies, of genomics and protein crystallography and computer modeling, prayer tells us we have the divine gift of concerted thought to more effectively address complex diseases, to turn to science and create cures, to make hope a reality.

Read more... | Explore more about Psalm 6

SEVENTY FACES OF TORAH
How to Predict the Present

By Rabbi Matthew Ponack `20, Spiritual Counselor 

Parashat Shoftim (Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9)

What a gift it would be to see into the future! And yet, in reality, most of us are barely able to gain clarity on what is happening right now. 

This human life is so precious. Gathering around the menorah with loved ones this time of year is one way we can really feel it. The glow of the Hanukkah candles reminds us of the light that is present even in the darkness and, the mystics say, the spiritual radiance which is always in our world but so easy to overlook...

Read more... | Share your feedback with the author

Kavanah in 60

By Chaim Spaulding, Hebrew College Rabbinical Student

We pass through Rosh Hodesh Tevet after passing through arguable the darkest night of the year. Not quite the longest solar night, but the longest night with no moon. Suspended in darkness as the small flames of the Hanukkiah tremble and burn down, we wait.

This time of year, all of my unfulfilled longings feel especially keen. Perhaps, because there is so little time to bring them into the sunlight and work on them. And there's so much time to sit with them in the darkness...

Watch Chaim's kavanah...

Support Jewish Learning & Leadership

We couldn’t be prouder of our JTFGB (Hebrew College’s Jewish Teen Foundation of Greater Boston) teens. As they worked together to identify the core issues to focus on for the year (they selected mental health and housing), they recognized and committed to supporting Israeli nonprofits in each of these categories. We’re grateful to the donors and other supporters who make this program and the teens’ work possible! — Emily Snider Glasgow & Gail Merken, JTFGB Advisory Committee Co-Chairs

As the calendar year comes to a close, please consider investing in Jewish learning and leadership for teens and adults by making a gift to Hebrew College before December 31, 2023. Gifts of any amount make an impact.