Today is July 27, 2026 /
Today is July 27, 2026 /
The hard truth I need to face during these 3 weeks is that I have become someone that I don’t want to be. I have fallen into an unhealthy spiritual routine. I have become full of anger, judgment, and self-righteousness. I have endless knee-jerk judgments. These responses are shallow, unnecessary, and do not help me Continue Reading »
The hard truth I need to face during these three weeks is that it’s time for me to get on with my life, to get back to being myself, as if I can. It’s been almost nine months since my father died and I’ve been coasting. It’s ironic that at a time of national mourning, Continue Reading »
There are few Jewish organizations today that don’t fret about changing demographics and lack of engagement among younger Jews. Data is gloomy as organizations leak members and struggle to find new ones. Busy families with small children are hard to get through the door, much less keep in the building for a program or service. Continue Reading »
What does a year of Ayeka bring? For the student, countless gifts: focused learning, spiritual reflection, exploration of the soul. And for the teacher? After a school year of teaching Torah with the help of Ayeka, educators on our faculty found that the most significant gifts emerged directly from the greatest challenges. What started as Continue Reading »
I’m a Haggada hoarder. Over the years, our family has collected dozens of different Passover Haggadot, ranging from the highly traditional to the decidedly modern. We have classic Haggadot with commentaries by the Me’am Lo’ez (originally written in Ladino by Rabbi Ya’acov Culi in 1730), Rabbi Marcus Lehman of Mainz (late 1800s) and Efrat Chief Continue Reading »
Published in The Oklahoman, April 7, 2017 by Carla Hinton With Passover soon approaching, a group of men and women from the Oklahoma City metro Jewish faith community recently gathered to explore a new Haggadah whose author has Oklahoma ties. The Haggadah is a compilation of prayers, hymns and rabbinical literature that is read during Continue Reading »
By: Adam Mayer, Ayeka Educator and Jewish Studies teacher & Beit Midrash Fellow at Kohelet High School As I approach Passover this year, like most years, I am overwhelmed! How can I possibly prepare everything in time? The cleaning and the cooking will get done; But how can I prepare myself to experience the freedom Continue Reading »
Published in The New York Jewish Week, March 28, 2017 by Steve Lipman The most published book in the Jewish world, the Haggadah has witnessed a decrease in the number of traditional, commentary-based guides to the holiday’s readings and rituals, but an increase in individualized — and sometimes humorous — interpretations of the Pesach customs. Continue Reading »
I can ask my kids the most uninspiring questions. “How was school today?” is the classic one, which usually elicits the most tepid of responses: “Good.” Or this morning’s, “Why did you take so much cereal when you never finish it!?” Then, there’s this one, when things were getting really dicey around 7:30 a.m. and we are Continue Reading »
In our tefillot we emphasize that Shavuot is the “Festival of the Giving of the Torah.” The Slonimer Rebbe and author of Netivot Shalom wrote: “However, in addition to marking an essential event and defining moment in the history of the Jewish people, Shavuot is also a time in the year when we receive the Continue Reading »
