Lilya's Summer Beet Borscht  Liz Alpern, Co-Founder of the Gefilteria introduces this recipe: One summer day, Jeffrey and I headed to Little Odessa in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. We were visiting our business partner Jackie’s ninety-two-year-old Russian-born great-aunt, Lilya. She had immigrated to Brighton Beach from the Soviet Union in 1989. Lilya was known for her borscht, and she’d invited us to spend time with her while she salted and seasoned three varieties of the soup.  SERVES 6 TO 8 Ingredients  2...

Roast Chicken with Barley & Vegetables Liz Alpern, co-founder of the Gefilteria introduces this recipe: This dish makes for a fragrant meal that is unique enough for Friday night and simple enough for a weekday evening. While roast chicken is a classic centerpiece on the contemporary Jewish table, the earthiness of the mushrooms and barley in this recipe give it a decidedly Old World feel. SERVES 4 TO 6 Ingredients ¾ cup pearl barley 1 dried bay leaf 3½ teaspoons kosher...

There's something special about poetry. More than any other form of writing, it has the power to make us feel. Our Jewish tradition is full of evocative poems that express our gratitude, ask for help, communicate our love and mourn.  During this time of deep preparation and reflection for the High Holidays, poetry can provide a portal into introspection. This collection features contemporary poets and liturgists as well as classic texts. We hope it inspires you. 

And We Return By Kohenet Keshira HaLev Fife    And We Return... And we return, and we move on Let go the past, and greet the dawn We cycle and we circle and we spiral and return To love ourselves and be the ones for which Becoming yearns And we return, and we move on Let go the past, and greet the dawn We cycle and we circle and we spiral and release To align ourselves with our hearts so that we...

Kol Nidre Chant By Kohenet Keshira HaLev Fife    Kol nidre is not for beating our chests Kol nidre is for returning to our best Kol nidre is for releasing every vow Kol nidre come to presence here and now At-one-ment, at-one-ment, reflect and take it slow  At-one-ment, at-one-ment, release and let it go At-one-ment, at-one-ment, return to where we start  At-one-ment, at-one-ment, aligning with our hearts  

These poems are from a series on  slicha  (forgiveness) and  geulah  (redemption) by poet Julia Knobloch.  Click here for the companion pieces on  slicha .   Geulah/Redemption I They say that when we move in silence from the blessing for redemption into the standing prayer without pause, precise, at sunrise we do as the pious would (although we’re not required to) I was driven out into these copper sands by restlessness and shame, not my intention to juxtapose the blessing for redemption...

These poems are from a series on slicha (forgiveness) and geulah (redemption) by poet Julia Knobloch.  Click here for the companion pieces on geulah .   Slicha/Forgiveness I I stand before you in brokenness and tenderness You say I don’t have dignity I don’t agree but have done wrong With you I keep repeating the same mistakes let bitterness prevail over my sense of justice intuition senses I have seen my lines dry out for years I wanted to be held all...

A new meditation — written as the year 5774 came to an end by poet Alden Solovy. May the New Year bring hope, blessing and peace. Instructions for using this meditation are found in [brackets]. May you have a year of health and happiness, joy and laughter, livelihood, sustenance, prayer and love. Meditation on the Eve of a New Year G-d, Dear G-d, We stand at the cusp of a New Year, Looking forward, looking backward, So much accomplished, So much...

This Rosh Hashanah prayer was written by Alden Solovy in 2020 as a response to COVID-19. Since the reality of pandemic and plague struck our worlds, wildly unimaginable shifts have occurred in the way we live and, perhaps, the way we see life. One lesson of these unimaginable losses and changes is the possibility that there might also be wildly unimaginable blessings. The idea for this prayer came as I signed an email to musician Josh Nelson. I concluded: “For a...

Majestic and Moist Honey Cake Adapted from Smitten Kitchen by Deborah Missel 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon of baking powder 1 teaspoon of baking soda ½ teaspoon of kosher salt 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon ½ teaspoon ground ginger ½  teaspoon ground cardamom ½ teaspoon ground allspice 1 cup vegetable oil 1 cup honey 1 ½ cups granulated sugar ½ cup brown sugar 3 large eggs, room temperature 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup warm strong coffee or tea, prefer...

Holy On My Own by Caroline Rothstein    Self-love is sobbing fetal position on the brown wooden paneled floor of my bedroom in Bushwick the night before I move out; my torso prostrating back in on myself; my body, the only G-d in sight. Self-love is waking up at 5:00 a.m. at my mother's cousins' in New Jersey on the coldest day of winter and carrying three duffle bags, 10 boxes, my hula-hoop, three garment bags, and half a dozen crates up...

Eht/Aht (את)  By Rachel Kann  For Ketzirah Lesser’s Eht/Aht (את): a Netivot Wisdom Oracle Card Deck   - If the word is made fresh, then let every alleged blemish be blessed, each individually kissed  like the exquisite mezuzah it is.  - There is a doorway  that all of creation  thresholds its way through  on its way to  the eternal-unfolding-already-was.  - Oh, All-That-Is/Infinite,  who whispered this lintel  into beginning; into becoming, - who bears witness  to this living-thing-ness, - who is this lintel,...

Prayer for Rain in the Merit of the Matriarchs By Rabbi Jill Hammer Sukkot is a time of fullness and generosity, but also a time to pray for the coming season. Shemini Atzeret, the festival when we pray for rain, is an expression of our need for water, which in the Jewish tradition symbolizes life, renewal, and deliverance. The Geshem (Rain) Prayer speaks of five patriarchs. In that spirit, I have included five verses, for Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah, and...

High Holidays in Five Senses  What do the High Holidays smell like?  They smell of freshly-baked sweet challah, the vanilla-y pages of an old book, your grandfather’s aftershave, the tang of the etrog and the perfume of lulav branches. What do the High Holidays feel like?   They feel like fists beating on chests, shifting your tush on a wooden pew in an unairconditioned sanctuary, running your fingers through the fringes of a tallit, dropping crumbs into the water as you cast...

I started giving blessings at High Holiday services at my  shul. I sat in the lobby and put up a sign on an empty chair offering blessings. Since then I've created a simple format and trained people. The "Blessing Booth" has become part of High Holiday services and many Friday evening services. Giving a holy blessing is a beautiful thing. Anyone can learn to do it. It is brief, under five minutes. It is not therapy, it is about blessing them...

By David Wolkin This is adapted from an original post that I wrote in 2010. The 10 Days of Repentance represent the window of time in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, during which time we are meant to repent on the sins of the past year. I’ve always found it tough to focus on this and properly bring it down to earth, so I developed this writing exercise to help me through it. It can work for anyone, irrespective of...

Like people, the Universe has a birthday and it falls on Rosh Hashanah. And like our birthdays, it’s a moment for us to dwell in a moment of renewal and recreation. We open ourselves up and rewrite our stories and our aspirations for the next year.  As we close our Rosh Hashanah seder, we make a fourth and final toast to Recreation, adapted from Emily Stern: “Each moment is a microcosm of who we are becoming. We bless each other and...