
Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Samuel Kaye
Learning from Latkes
In Chelm, the city of fools, it was an undisputed fact that Rivka made the finest latkes. They were fluffy as a cloud on the inside, perfectly crispy outside, and always came out of the oil golden brown. Everyone always…

Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Samuel Kaye
חֲזַק וֶאֱמָץ אַל־תַּעֲרֹץ וְאַל־תֵּחָת כִּי עִמְּךָ הֹ’ אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר תֵּלֵךְ
“Be strong and courageous, do not be terrified or dismayed, for the…

Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Samuel Kaye
The algorithm is not our friend.
I think that’s the most important message to share this week. The internet, the news, the feed, the scroll, the ping of an update… none of that is really our friend. It is certainly useful. It’s a…

Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Samuel Kaye
Beit Midrash
The 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are meant to be some of the most reflective of our year. Like many of you, I spend these 10 days often thinking about the moments where my life was completely transformed. Every year,…

Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Samuel Kaye
The King is in the field!
This is a classic teaching of the Alter Rebbe, who taught it as a parable about the month of Elul. It is based on the feelings of many people, who felt that God was just like the King or Queen, President or Prime…

Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Samuel Kaye
Aichah. How?!
This stunned and beleaguered phrase is how one begins the book of Lamentations, the text read by Jews across the world tonight and tomorrow. At sundown, Tisha B’Av begins, the 9th day of the month of Av, Judaism's ‘worst…

Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Samuel Kaye
Voice, Vote, Veto
As Toronto has gone to the polls this week, I thought I would share something that is both election adjacent and completely apolitical.
Ask yourself this question, “In my life does Judaism have a voice, a vote,…

Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Samuel Kaye
ואהבת לרעך כמוך אני יי
“Love your fellow as yourself. I am God.”
Leviticus 19:18
Years ago, one of my closest friends came out to me over the phone as queer. A call that to them must have felt like it went across…

Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Samuel Kaye
Recently I was sitting with a couple that is getting married, and I asked them – “How did you know that you were right for each other?” And they looked back at me and said, “You know, there wasn’t one moment. It just felt like home.”
Finding…

Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Samuel Kaye
For me, it was the pickles.
During the fall, a bathtub full of cucumbers would greet me whenever I stepped into my grandparents' home in Denver. The cucumbers would lie soaking in the guest bathroom, washed and gently floating before my…