Wilshire POV

In this week's Shabbat message, Rabbi Nickerson shares the not-often-thought of origins of Valentine's Day and invites us to reflect on the origins of our core Jewish values from this week's Torah portion Parashat Yitro. These core principles such as dignity, healthy disagreement, loving kindness, and responsibility guide our community through challenging times and inspire action to...

This week's Shabbat Message reflects on the overwhelming challenges faced in the present moment, comparing current crises—such as ongoing fires, a fragile ceasefire in Israel, and political shifts—to past periods of struggle, particularly the aftermath of the destruction of the Second Temple. In this time of uncertainty, we must stay connected, acknowledge the heaviness of the moment, and sup...

Rabbi Leah Fein shares this week's parsha, Shemot , which includes the most famous story of fire in the entire Torah: the Burning Bush, where Moses answers God's call with " Hineini " ("Here I am"), signifying readiness to act in times of crisis. Rabbi Fein reflects on how this spirit of Hineini  has been embodied by the the community that has come together to provide...

This week we begin the Joseph saga in our Torah. Chanukah may seem like an unlikely time to think about forgiveness. The author, Stephen Mitchell, associates Joseph’s journey and character with the quality of forgiving in his retelling of the Joseph story, Joseph and the Way of Forgiveness . Each week, a member of the clergy offers their personal perspective on a topic of their choice, such as the...

Many of us will have the blessing of sitting around a Thanksgiving table next week with members of our family with whom we share great joy and love. But others will be mourning the loss, and even death, of certain familial relationships. They will be looking across the table, maybe even smiling or laughing externally, but inside, they will be sitting with a pain that punctures their hearts. ...  ...

“An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” -Sir Isaac Newton Baked into the basic laws of physics, there is a fundamental truth that is being felt across the country, as we prepare to enter Shabbat this week. There exists a natural tendency to resist change in one’s state of motio...

This week, we read of someone who exhibits a strong sense of agency over his own future in the face of forces beyond what he can control. Not long after God has created the world, corruption and lawlessness filled the earth. So God decides to send a flood to destroy it all, save for Noah, a man “righteous in his generation” (Genesis 6:9), along with Noah’s family and two of each animal.  God instr...

When do you stop saying, “Shanah Tovah”? This is a question that clergy are commonly asked around this time of the Jewish year.  Rabbi Hannah Elkin answers the question and offers an inspiring interpretation. Each week, a member of the clergy offers their personal perspective on a topic of their choice, such as the week's Torah portion, a Jewish holiday, ritual, custom, or history. Facebook:...

Each week, a member of the clergy offers their personal perspective on a topic of their choice, such as the week's Torah portion, a Jewish holiday, ritual, custom, or history. Facebook: Wilshire Boulevard Temple Website: wbtla.org Youtube: Wilshire Boulevard Temple Instagram: wilshireboulevardtemple

It wasn’t supposed to end this way.  He was supposed to come home. We saw her on TV, listened to her on podcasts, watched her and her husband, Jon, give speeches, and I even met with her this summer with a small group of us rabbis in Jerusalem.   Rachel Goldberg-Polin inspired us with her strength, her faith, and her mantra, “Hope is mandatory.” She represented every Jewish mother, fighting to the...

Right now, we are in the final book of the Torah, Deuteronomy, as Moses prepares the Israelites to enter the Promised Land.  He outlines the values, priorities, and pitfalls they will face as they settle in this new land.  This week’s portion, Re’eh, begins with Moses presenting the Israelites with two choices - “See, this day I set before you blessing and curse…”(Deut. 11:26). The Israelites can...

Nachamu, Nachamu ami, yomar eloheichem Comfort, Comfort my people, says God… Tonight begins Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of Comfort, named after the first few words of the Haftarah portion this week: Isaiah 40:1-26 . Shabbat Nachamu directly follows the somber commemoration of Tisha B’Av (9th of Av), a day of mourning for the Jewish people, as we recall the destruction of the first and second temp...

In this week's Shabbat message Rabbi Hannah Elkin comments on the theme of Teshuvah in this week's portion Devarim, in the world today, and in our personal lives.  One definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again, and expecting a different result. One definition of teshuvah is realizing that you are doing the wrong thing again and again, but then choosing to act differe...

Cantor Kerith Spencer-Shapiro contemplates the links between generations in this week's Shabbat message.  The Chatam Sofer taught, “There is always a difference between the older and younger generations…In the past, when the chain of the generations was stronger, the links more tightly intertwined one with the other…there was a more powerful spiritual connection between the generations.” Each...

I’ve been counting doorways this week. Yesterday I walked through over 50 thresholds. As I invited our meditation class to take a moment and think back through the day, envisioning all of the doorways we passed through, I took on the practice of treating every doorway I passed through this week as if it had a mezuzah installed upon it.  When we take the time to pause in a doorway, to reach out and...

It was when my daughter, now thirteen, was part of the infant and toddler program in her Early Childhood Center that I gained a new appreciation for the ‘fight or flight’ response of human behavior. It is a term that I had always heard but never truly understood. That is, until I was there myself and had an opportunity to watch these new crawlers learn to navigate their way with through their shar...

At a certain point, freedom without structure turns to chaos, and Moses has been tasked to turn this rag-tag bunch into a people, into a collective, into a community. But the journey from independence to a stable collective is hard. Rabbi Elkin leads us through this week's Torah portion, Korach , and some of its modern parallels. Each week, a member of the clergy offers their personal perspec...

One of the first pieces of music I ever learned was from the musical “South Pacific.” For those of you who may not be so up to date on your American musical knowledge, I will summarize. The plot centers on an American nurse, Nellie Forbush, stationed in the South Pacific during World War II. Nellie falls in love with a middle-aged expatriate French plantation owner, but struggles to accept his mix...

I just returned from a week-long silent Jewish mindfulness meditation retreat. Yes, you read that correctly - Jewish and silent. So, what do 50-some Jews ranging in age from their early 20’s through their 70s do when we come together in silence? One of our practices was to engage in a blessing practice. I’ve often wondered why we aren’t also known as the people of blessing along with being called...

Despite the continued presence of “May Gray” in the mornings, summer is undeniably on its way. And as the weather warms, I’ve been reminded of a game that my cousins and I used to play in the summers growing up. Swimming in the pool, we would each take turns holding our breath and seeing how far we could swim underwater on that single breath. One by one we would swim as far as we could, and then s...

This year, as we make our way through Passover, it feels as though we are in our own wilderness. We may feel secluded, without a real sense of direction, almost shell-shocked, as we view images and videos of these terrible campus protests, complete with anti-Israel sentiment, overt antisemitism, and a brewing storm of frustration, chaos, and anger. Each week, a member of the clergy offers their pe...

Each year, we perform bedikat chametz , searching and cleansing the house of bread products, as the first ritual of Passover. We go around to each shelf of the pantry, the refrigerator and freezer, and scrape away the crust that has built up over the last year to start fresh. This ritual acts as a spiritual cleansing as well, and it gives us concrete baby steps in this season of freedom: before we...

The Story of Esther, with all of its twists and turns,  knows this painful truth about life, and I believe our tradition gives us the keys to navigating the darkness around us.  Each week, a member of the clergy offers their personal perspective on a topic of their choice, such as the week's Torah portion, a Jewish holiday, ritual, custom, or history. Facebook: Wilshire Boulevard Temple Websi...

A pillar of hope and a dark cloud frame Rabbi Joel Nickerson's Shabbat Message this week.  Each week, a member of the clergy offers their personal perspective on a topic of their choice, such as the week's Torah portion, a Jewish holiday, ritual, custom, or history. Facebook: Wilshire Boulevard Temple Website: wbtla.org Youtube: Wilshire Boulevard Temple Instagram: wilshireboulevardtempl...

I was delighted to lead a micro-mission to Israel with 4 of our congregants. The trip was designed to coincide with the ceremony in which my 21 year old son completed basic training and received his red paratrooper’s beret from the IDF. With the many twists and turns of the ongoing war with Hamas, the ceremony was delayed by a week. The volunteering and solidarity mission healed small cracked fiss...