Conversations with the Rabbi

Soulfulness is about allowing the soul to unfurl, to blossom, to unfold - to experience self discovery and to be seen for the divine image in which we are made. This is what we seek to do at CSK.

For thousands of years, Jewish wisdom has invited us into understanding that every one of us needs motivation for moving forward. Help with breaking the bonds of sleep so that we can become blessings to ourselves and to the world. Check it out!

Enjoy Thanksgiving, giblets and all!

This Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, was the parashah for my Bar Mitzvah. Back then, 43 years ago today, I couldn’t possibly have seen this parshah with these eyes in this way. And that is precisely the point. Torah remains as a singular beacon calling out to our souls...

Why I signed the letter opposing Zohran Mamdani by Rabbi Scott Hausman-Weiss

Find the good - the hostages are home.

Rejoice! by Rabbi Scott Hausman-Weiss

Millenial survival against all odds (the story of the Jews) isn’t at all the only reason we should observe our rituals and traditions, but it’s a good start. Showing up, inviting ourselves into the moment, freeing ourselves from only rational measures of the successes and failures of our lives is what we are called to, and especially because we can do so without fear of missiles and rockets rainin...

For anyone old enough to remember where they were when the towers came down on September 11, 2001, we still live with the shock. Maybe we learn from our past. May we learn from our strength and resilience.

And there we are, on Rosh Hashanah, check in hand, with a list of what we have consumed over the past year: how much credit have we drawn upon and how much did we reinvest? How much stability have we weakened, and how much have we shored up? How much optimism have we squandered and how much hope have we reinstilled?

If the RPMs of your brain waves keep getting interrupted by a record scratch that repeats phrases like, “Why me?” or “What about me?” or “When is it my turn?”, you may have fallen into the circle of control. To climb your way out, just try to remember, “It’s always your turn. You just need to remember to take it.” Then reexamine your yearning in terms of what you can actually do – what power is in...

One of the lighter discoveries I’ve come to appreciate while traveling is the simple joy of “scootering” around a city. Yes, scooters carry their share of controversy—safety concerns, cluttered sidewalks, and general urban chaos—but in Tel Aviv I found them both useful and delightful. They are also highly regulated. For example, as I cruised down the boardwalk one evening, my scooter automatically...

We are looking forward to an inspiring High Holy Days season and can’t wait to welcome you. One highlight: on Kol Nidre (Yom Kippur evening – October 1), we are thrilled to welcome the Divisi Strings Quartet to our bima, joining Daphnee Johnson, Kelly Dean, Andrew Lienhard, and our soloist (in her 8th year), Hannah Madeleine Goodman. Together, they will lift our spirits higher than ever before. At...

I’m not going to craft another list of facts to defend Israel’s moral military restraint or highlight the IDF’s legal and ethical accountability systems. I won’t recite doctrine or try to sanitize reality. Mistakes have been made—some unbearable. But I will point out that 381 million people live in the Middle East, and just 8 million Jews—.02% of the population—live in Israel because they are not...

Some of you have suggested that I am naïve—perhaps willfully so. Others have told me I don’t truly understand Israelis, or that I’ve grown too “tribal.” Some have even gone so far as to imply that, by aligning myself too closely with the State of Israel, I’m complicit in something genocidal. These are heavy times. These are heavy words. And I know that for some of you, there’s a real disconnect be...

Sometimes, everything DOES depend on you.

Not every itch needs scratching, not every critique is worth airing. At least not now.

So much news, so much contradictory testimony, so much politically motivated, depending on which source you follow, depending on your particular algorithm. US Army Veteran George Schwartz and Rabbi Scott Hausman-Weiss believe that cooler heads should always prevail. This podcast, "Cooler Heads" relies upon provable and rational understandings of the events of the world and particularly how they im...

The reward is watching them grow independent. The reward is seeing that they no longer need us the way they once did. Not to stop traffic. Not to hold their hand. Just to stand there and cheer them on. So every year, I do just that—with a lump in my throat and enormous gratitude. Because mentoring these students brings Torah to life for me. And that is the life I set out to live as a rabbi and a t...

Cooler Heads Ep 4 with Rabbi Scott and George Schwartz - "Lox and Loaded?" by Rabbi Scott Hausman-Weiss

The vitriol has to stop. Violence against we Jews is the logical outcome of virulent spewing of hate against Israel.

12 years and still growing!

Important links referred to in the recording can be found in the written blog: https://www.cskhouston.com/hearourvoice?post_id=1641449&edit=true%27#

Today is Yom HaShoah, the day we, the Jewish people, set aside to remember the Holocaust. There has long been debate over whether the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, was a direct response to the Holocaust. Some argue that in the wake of the unimaginable horrors – thoroughly reported and documented throughout the world, the usual default to anti-Semitism momentarily faltered. Amid tha...

Here is a blurb, click to listen for more: It’s the middle of Passover, and I’m deep into my ancient Atkins-like, no-chametz regimen—basically, a protein-heavy, bread-free diet that, let's be honest, I should probably be following year-round. Still, let’s not pretend matzah feels like the “Bread of Freedom” when it’s more like the “Break of constant-anticipation for the end of Passover.” (And if y...