A Yom Kippur Message from Rabbi K
Teshuva can mean to make amends: to do better, put right. This is one of our personal tasks at this season. Especially now during the 10...
top of page
- Feb 24
- 2 min
Turn a day of hate into a day of love 2/25 10:30am 🪬💕🪬💕
This Saturday 2/25 has been marked as a national day of hate of the Jews-by people who really hate Jews. People who work in Jewish...
137 views0 comments
- Oct 18, 2022
- 3 min
Migrants coming from Texas to Seattle: How you can help with this humanitarian crisis right now!
Love the stranger...this is the most repeated mitzvah in the Torah. It is not an option for us Jews. We have been strangers in a strange...
153 views0 comments
- Mar 31, 2022
- 3 min
Community Seder is all about All Ages!
The entire Passover Hagaddah, the entire holy week of Passover, has one main goal- to pass to the next generation the story, this...
100 views1 comment
- Jan 23, 2022
- 1 min
Connecting with Rabbi Kinberg 30 minutes at a time
Shalom! A few weeks ago I invited our Kol Ami members and friends to use my new calendar site to make appointments with me to check in...
203 views0 comments
- Aug 30, 2021
- 4 min
From the Rabbi: Kol Ami Tikkun Olam/Social Action for the New Year.
So many of you have been expressing interest in ways that you can help to heal and repair our broken world through the good works of Kol...
342 views0 comments
- Jul 25, 2021
- 5 min
What to expect when you do not know what to expect: Late Summer and Fall 2021, Delta Variant Ed.
What to expect from our weekly Shabbat Celebrations? What to expect from our 5782 High Holiday Celebrations? What to expect from our Fall...
220 views0 comments
- May 30, 2021
- 4 min
I'm back! A message from Rabbi Kinberg upon her return.
Life’s random and unexpected events threw me for the past few months. I had big plans for this spring at Kol Ami. Teaching online and...
433 views0 comments
- Mar 14, 2021
- 2 min
Passover @ Kol Ami 5781
1st Night Home Seder: Invite a few Kol Ami members to do a Zoom seder in a small group if you do not already have family or friends....
113 views0 comments
- Jan 28, 2021
- 3 min
Giving and Goodness: The true meaning of Tzedakah
As a torch is not diminished though it kindles a million candles, so will he not lose who gives to a good cause. Midrash Exodus Rabbah...
121 views0 comments
- Dec 17, 2020
- 4 min
Welcome to Tevet: A lesson in becoming goat-like and reaching for the light
Judaism has a love/hate relationship with astrology. If you travel to northern Israel and tour synagogues from the Greek/Hellenized era...
182 views0 comments
- Dec 3, 2020
- 3 min
Gathering Sparks, Growing Light: This is Our Heritage
A Pandemic Hanukkah-who would have thought? Oy vey. Here we are. We have made it through Purim, Passover, the High Holidays, and now...
127 views0 comments
- Oct 8, 2020
- 4 min
New Shabbat Schedule: Ch-ch-ch-changes!
During Pandemic times Shabbat has become even more important in the life of our community. Creating sacred time, reflection time, family...
226 views0 comments
- Sep 16, 2020
- 3 min
5781: Festival during Pandemic Times
This is the season of balanced light. Day and night hours become equal and move towards greater darkness. This is the season of our new...
77 views0 comments
- Aug 19, 2020
- 6 min
This is Elul: Month of self-reflection, transformation and self-love.
Glint By Cathy Cohen Beneath a sky of stars in this time of great answering I will sing my own brief poem. If the bowl of the sky is...
206 views0 comments
- Jul 29, 2020
- 7 min
This is Av: A time for weeping and lament
Five misfortunes befell our ancestors … on the ninth of Av. …On the ninth of Av it was decreed that our fathers should not enter the...
38 views0 comments
- Jul 22, 2020
- 5 min
We have direction. Follow the Mizrach
Walking through Target the other day I looked longingly as the clerks set up the back to school sections and the “moving into your dorm”...
152 views0 comments
- Jul 14, 2020
- 3 min
What if Israel annexed Palestinian Territories? A moral challenge for Jews who believe in democracy.
It looks like the situation has cooled off. The Trump administration gave the emergency government formed by Prime Minister Natanyahu the...
125 views0 comments
- Jul 8, 2020
- 4 min
A prayer for our time or Onwards! Towards the Promised Land.
Every day is a new day. The world is always moving and changing, in small and large ways. A leaf drops. A baby is born. A garden is...
48 views0 comments
- Jul 1, 2020
- 2 min
Mazel Tov! It is our first anniversary in Kirkland.
This week last year we moved to Kirkland. A year ago we packed up our little congregation in Woodinville and around 40 of us began a 14...
105 views0 comments
- Jun 23, 2020
- 6 min
21 Weeks of Consciousness Raising: Undoing, unlearning, upending Racism
Last week Kol Ami kicked off 21 weeks of anti-racist learning and doing. It is not too late to join us. This is Jewish practice....
201 views0 comments
- Jun 3, 2020
- 5 min
We are anything but powerless: Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter. Before last week writing these three words might have been a career-ender for some rabbis in this nation. Before last...
357 views2 comments
- May 27, 2020
- 4 min
Torah and Dairy Products: A unique and highly maternal combo for Shavuot
It is the season for blintzes. And cheese cake. And icd cream. And Torah. Shavuot, which we celebrate this Thursday night when the sun...
88 views0 comments
- May 19, 2020
- 3 min
What about Havdalah?
Havdalah is the Jewish ceremony which ends the Sabbath day, giving us enter into the work week ahead. The creation story in the book of...
159 views0 comments
- Apr 29, 2020
- 5 min
A Resurrection Story Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg
In between the last global pandemic of 1918 and the pandemic we are currently in the midst of, the Jewish people have added several new...
140 views0 comments
- Apr 22, 2020
- 6 min
Humbling ourselves before Creation: Science and Religion are our sacred heritage
By Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg What I am offering in my blog this week was written by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983), the founder of...
116 views0 comments
- Apr 15, 2020
- 6 min
Pivot towards Wisdom: The Ethics of our Ancestors
The Jewish people know how to walk through massive disruption and make it onto the other side. But never in our history have we made it to t
167 views0 comments
- Apr 8, 2020
- 3 min
A Night of Questions
This Thursday we will gather for our 2nd night community Seder—as we have for so very long as a community. Last year we had our Seder in...
156 views1 comment
- Apr 1, 2020
- 4 min
Preparing to celebrate a Passover like no other
The first night of Passover is next Wednesday, April 8. Time is particularly fluid these days. So many bench marks and scheduled events...
200 views0 comments
- Mar 26, 2020
- 3 min
This is a test
We will survive. Our species. Most of us will live. Too many will die. We will make it to the other side. But none of us will go...
108 views0 comments
- Mar 18, 2020
- 4 min
The faithful step: walking blind in a time of unknowns
We are being told exactly what to do. Stay home. Wash hands. Practice social distance. Our options have become very limited and our...
146 views0 comments
- Mar 11, 2020
- 5 min
You got this! Spiritual strength in a time of societal adversity
For the spiritual practitioner...this is what one prepares for through practice. We prepare for: Instability. Uncertainty. Weathering the...
123 views0 comments
- Mar 9, 2020
- 3 min
Stay Home Purim: 5 ways to make merry at home!
How is this Purim different from every other Purim? Covid-19. And Kirkland, WA (of all places) is the epicenter? Oy vey! Our only option...
106 views0 comments
- Mar 4, 2020
- 4 min
Stay Home Shabbat: Responding to Communal Safety Needs
This week, in respecting the King County request for organizations to avoid large gatherings, Kol Ami is canceling all programming for...
239 views0 comments
- Mar 3, 2020
- 3 min
Blessings for Peace and Health: May you feel safe. And know the love of community and the Divine.
Covid-19 has come into the world. Spread from one land to the next, one hand to the next. Invisibly. We can’t see it and yet we know it...
166 views0 comments
- Feb 12, 2020
- 2 min
Universal Love and Valentine’s Day
I think true love is not only true personal love but the totality of love, universal love - to be in love with everything manifest and...
65 views0 comments
- Feb 3, 2020
- 3 min
Jews have always loved an early Spring-an almond tree is blooming somewhere!
Spring is technically weeks and week away. But little signs of it are popping up all around. It is subtle. But those signs are there....
72 views0 comments
- Jan 26, 2020
- 4 min
Time to vote for the future of the Jewish State: get your Zionist vote ON!
This Friday I will speak at our Kabbalat Shabbat about how to participate in the World Zionist Congress and make your own personal mark...
37 views0 comments
- Jan 22, 2020
- 1 min
Forming: Kol Ami World Music Shabbat Band
Have you ever wanted to be in a band? Do you love Jewish music and world rhythms? Kol Ami: A Center for Jewish Life is dedicated to...
41 views1 comment
- Dec 4, 2019
- 2 min
Rabbi Kinberg’s tips for making the most of the darkest time of the year.
Rabbi Kinberg’s Seasonal Recommendations: 5 tips for the best December ever. The only “December dilemma” should be which fun and joyful...
53 views0 comments
- May 21, 2018
- 3 min
Are you serious about ending sex abuse by Rabbis?
The Jewish community is embarrassingly behind when it comes to holding male Rabbis accountable for sexual violations. The Jewish...
351 views0 comments
- Dec 24, 2017
- 7 min
Pushing Back Against Moral Depravity in the Age of Trump
"In order that we will not have cruel hearts..." A Jew is taught to be delicate with the world. To tread lightly and consider that which...
78 views0 comments
- Jun 13, 2017
- 6 min
The Shabbat Stick Gatherer: A Lesson in the Ills of Capitalism
I cannot claim to be anti-Capitalist. Target is my safe space. Amazon is my right hand man. Shopping is one of my hobbies. I like to...
203 views1 comment
- Jun 11, 2017
- 6 min
What is a Rabbi? Hint: Not a Priest
We have a problem in American Judaism. A big one. We do not share a common sense of the role of the rabbi. "The rabbi should not wear...
203 views0 comments
- May 9, 2017
- 11 min
When we can't simply agree to disagree... Or claiming my rabbinic authority as community gate keeper
Gate Keeper. In rabbinical school we were presented with the notion of rabbi as gate keeper. The rabbi is the one who stands at the gates...
190 views0 comments
- Jan 8, 2017
- 2 min
The Winter of My UnSettled Reality
"[answering the phone] Hello, you've reached the winter of our discontent." - Troy Dyer (Ethan Hawke) This Shabbat I am thinking about...
14 views0 comments
- Nov 1, 2016
- 3 min
BERESHIT: Genesis and Economic Justice
For myself economic justice is a deeply religious and spiritual issue. In our Torah portion this week, Bereshit/Genesis, we read the...
22 views0 comments
- Jun 15, 2016
- 4 min
Restitution, Legislation and Faith in God: Orlando and Beyond
How does one make a wrong, a right? How do you heal and seal a wound? How do we restore the faith of those we have hurt? In society? In...
21 views0 comments
- Nov 12, 2015
- 4 min
Toldot: Digging and Receiving Shalom
Isaac does not do too much in his life. He is considered to be the most passive of all our ancient anecestors---male or female. A...
28 views0 comments
bottom of page