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Embrace the Light: Hanukkah 5785 at Kol Ami - A Celebration of Community, Tradition, and Giving!
Shabbat Shalom! Hanukkah is afoot.
Dec 13, 20244 min read
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People suck, so proclaims the Lord.* But you do not have to.
This isn't just my proclamation about human nature; it's God's voice in our parashah this week. Both stories found in Parashat Noach,...
Oct 30, 20243 min read
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We all get to choose. Thank God!
We are not confined to a predestined reality. The world was not created so that it could be destroyed. We are not born sinful. None of that
Oct 25, 20245 min read
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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...
Sep 21, 20232 min read
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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...
Feb 24, 20232 min read
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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...
Oct 18, 20223 min read
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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...
Mar 31, 20223 min read
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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...
Jan 23, 20221 min read
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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...
Aug 30, 20214 min read
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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...
Jul 25, 20215 min read
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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...
May 30, 20214 min read
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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....
Mar 14, 20212 min read
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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...
Jan 28, 20213 min read
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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...
Dec 17, 20204 min read
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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...
Dec 3, 20203 min read
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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...
Oct 8, 20204 min read
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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...
Sep 16, 20203 min read
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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...
Aug 19, 20206 min read
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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...
Jul 29, 20207 min read
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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”...
Jul 22, 20205 min read
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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...
Jul 14, 20203 min read
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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...
Jul 8, 20204 min read
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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...
Jul 1, 20202 min read
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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....
Jun 23, 20206 min read
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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...
Jun 3, 20205 min read
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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...
May 27, 20204 min read
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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...
May 19, 20203 min read
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May 12, 20201 min read
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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...
Apr 29, 20205 min read
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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...
Apr 22, 20206 min read
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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
Apr 15, 20206 min read
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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...
Apr 8, 20203 min read
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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...
Apr 1, 20204 min read
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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...
Mar 26, 20203 min read
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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...
Mar 18, 20204 min read
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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...
Mar 11, 20205 min read
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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...
Mar 9, 20203 min read
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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...
Mar 4, 20204 min read
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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...
Mar 3, 20203 min read
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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...
Feb 12, 20202 min read
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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....
Feb 3, 20203 min read
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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...
Jan 26, 20204 min read
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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...
Jan 22, 20201 min read
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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...
Dec 4, 20192 min read
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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...
May 21, 20183 min read
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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...
Dec 24, 20177 min read
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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...
Jun 13, 20176 min read
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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...
Jun 11, 20176 min read
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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...
May 9, 201711 min read
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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...
Jan 8, 20172 min read
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