June 10, 2020 We are excited to announce that CBI Child Development Center will reopen on Monday, June 15th, after closing on Friday, March 13th due to COVID concerns. For the past few weeks, the staff have worked to clean, sanitize, and disinfect the entire school. This included all toys and materials both inside and…
Dear Amazing Families, I am excited to inform you that Camp B’nai Ruach will be providing virtual camp this year. While it is very disappointing that we are not able to meet in person due to the current COVID-19 situation, there will be so many amazing opportunities virtually. As a parent myself I worried about…
Celebrating the End of our School Year! May 14, 2020 As we enter our final week of Religious School for the year, none of us could have imagined it would end this way. This also marks the end of my 25th year in Jewish education – a momentous milestone ending with the biggest challenge I…
Our teens have really risen to the occasion during this strange time. Despite the disappointment many of them feel with events they’ve been looking forward to all year canceled, they’ve pulled together as a team to create incredible distance programming for CBI USY. Our teens are coming to Zoom lounges and finding ways to make a…
The CBI 2020 Annual Gala Tribute Journal Thank you to all who contributed to the 2020 CBI Gala as sponsors, with donations or by putting an ad in the tribute journal. Please enjoy your copy of the tribute journal now by clicking here. We appreciate all the support that you have shown to CBI as we…
Zoom is a free technology for calls & videoconferences. You don’t need a personal Zoom account to use it. Zoom has step-by-step instructions on how to use it here. We will be doing many of our social events and classes by zoom during our coronavirus closing. Zoom Directions: You have lots of options with Zoom. https://zoom.us We…
In Hebrew the phrase hadur mitzvah, means the beautification of a mitzvah. The concept is linked in the Torah with the holiday of Sukkot and the command to take a “fruit from a beautiful tree” -“pri eitz hadar” (Leviticus 23:40). The sages of the Talmud (Sukkah 35a) will identify that fruit specifically with the etrog,…
Dear Friends, Thanksgiving celebrates the many gifts in our lives. Please consider adding some sharing with those around your table beginning with “I am grateful for…” May your harvests of gratitude add to your days of happiness. The prayer below, composed by Rabbi Naomi Levy, is a good way to sum up the words that…
Let’s Play More – Rabbi Elie Spitz Play is vital to life. Consider the following imagining found in the Talmud [Avodah Zarah 3b]: “Rav Yehuda says, there are twelve hours in a day. The first three-hours God sits and learns the Torah, the second three-hours he sits and judges the world. The third three- hours God…
High Holy Days 5779 Erev Rosh Hashanah: Takeaways from Sabbatical Travel Rosh Hashanah Day 1: Shofar as Vessel of Judaism’s Call Rosh Hashanah Day 2: Humble: What Does Moses’ Defining Adjective Mean for Us? Kol Nidre: Our Families are Our Builders of Peace- with Interviews. Yom Kippur: Why Ritual? Yom Kippur Testifies Yom Kippur Closing…