Barbara Greenleaf: The Sunday School of Grandma and Grandpa When our younger daughter saw that Sunday school was not going to reopen due to the Coronavirus, she asked her father and me if we would take over her boys’ religious education. We just looked at each other blankly and, frankly, a little panic-stricken. Neither of [...]
Elizabeth Gaynes: A Thanksgiving Prayer Thanksgiving in any other year would bring its share of blessings and challenges. This year, thoughts such as what to prepare, who to spend time with, how to make this Thanksgiving meaningful, high and low feelings, missing loved ones, and just plain getting through the week are even bigger, somehow compounded, and can be [...]
Stacy Baron: A Spoonful of Sugar A tribute to Judy Meisel . . . The recent passing of Judy Meisel, such a remarkable woman, brought back meaningful memories for so many of us in Santa Barbara. Judy’s children and grandchildren spoke so eloquently at her recent memorial on Zoom just a few weeks ago. Her [...]
Daniel Sulzberg: Smile Now From a global pandemic, climate change, systemic racism, and other challenges there is no doubt that 2020 has been a stressful year filled with change. From a Jewish standpoint, I found myself asking why would God let these kinds of things happen? Maybe it’s the world’s way of saying that [...]
Sharon Davidson: A Caregiver’s Prayer Master of the Universe, As I wake each morning to the heartbreaking tasks of providing care to my loved one, I pray for the energy and patience to meet the challenges of the day ahead and the days to come. I pray that I can perform these duties with kindness and respect, in order to maintain his dignity and honor his humanity. I pray [...]
Sharon Davidson: My Unetanah Tokef [This post shares the beautiful blessing poem by new CBB member Sharon Davidson. It was originally recorded and aired as part of her other Jewish home of Congregation Beth El in San Diego for their online High Holy Day services this year. We share it here today, thrilled to have [...]
Rabbi Malka Drucker: A Different Four Questions My father wasn’t a religious man. I don’t know what he believed, only what he behaved. Along with suggesting that I not take everything so seriously, he advised, “What happens, honey, isn’t important; it’s how you deal with it. When I had a heart attack at 54, it [...]
I’ve been thinking recently about CBB’s Mission Statement: “a diverse, inclusive community of individuals and families building together a warm and vibrant house of living Judaism.” I like the mission statement but when I read it closely, I see many words – ‘community, building, house’ – which imply a physical space. How, in this time of Covid and social [...]
Judy Karin: But the zucchini, of course, will be fine. Lately my attention span, never particularly long, has shrunk to roughly the same length as that of a puppy. Whether I can blame this on the stress of the pandemic or not, I can’t say for sure. I just finished jigsaw puzzle #16. The first [...]
Barbara Greenleaf: The Fifth Commandment in the Age of Covid While gathering information for my new book, Parents of Adult Children: You Are Not Alone, I found that while most of the older generation takes the fifth commandment, “Honor thy father and mother,” quite literally, the younger generation puts a different and much more casual [...]