Cantor Penny Kessler

04/20/2024

07/23/2022

h/t Rabbi Larry Karol:

"“Pregnancy is a journey, with birth at the end of the journey as a miraculous result. Having counseled couples thorough miscarriages and stillbirths, among other complex situations, birth is not a fait accompli at the moment of fertilization/conception, which is why Judaism and some other religions consider the life of the woman carrying the developing potential life first and foremost, while still seeking to have the pregnancy end in childbirth while preserving the mother’s life and health. Laws must make it possible for people of all faiths (or no faith group) to follow their practice in this regard, rather than putting only one more restrictive faith viewpoint over all others. That does not mean that the law should be based on religion. It means that laws should preserve freedom.”

11/02/2021

Why vote on Election Day 2021?

Image Description: Black background. Photo of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, z"l, on left. On right, "A nation is strong when it cares for the weak. It becomes rich when it cares for the poor. It becomes invulnerable when it cares for the vulnerable. That is what makes great nations." - Jonathan Sacks

10/24/2021

When I was in my 30's, trying to figure out who/what "God" was, I wish I had had access to this passage by Charles M. Blow:

“Children see God every day; they just don't call it that. It's the summer sky painted with cumulus clouds by day and sequined with a million stars by night. It's the sweet whispers of sweet gum trees and the sounds riding the tops of honeysuckle-scented breezes. Children feel God stuffed into brown fluffy dogs with stitches strong enough to withstand a good squeeze, and on the lips of round women who can't get enough sugar from Chocolate.

"I began to believe that God is us and nature, beauty and love, mystery and majesty, everything right and good.”

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/6569177-children-see-god-every-day-they-just-don-t-call-it

Children see God every day; they just don't call it that. It's the summer sky painted with cumulus clouds by day and sequined with a million stars by nig...

08/15/2021

This year the United Jewish Center is partnering with Sweet Seidner's Bake Shop to offer sweet treats for the High Holy Days for you to send to your family and friends. A percentage of each sale will benefit the United Jewish Center.

Welcome to the United Jewish Center High Holy Days Fundraiser. This year the United Jewish Center is partnering with Sweet Seidner's Bake Shop to offer sweet treats for the High Holy Days for you to send to your family and friends. A percentage of each sale will benefit the United Jewish Center. Cli...

06/06/2021

My essay for the Danbury News-Times: What Jerusalem Means to Jews.

The Forum on Faith columns for the next several weeks will feature religious perspectives...

02/14/2021

Wisdom.

All theology is political.

Saying that we are all interconnected is political.

Saying we have an obligation to care for and enfranchise people who are marginalized is political.

Making claims about who holds what authority is political.

Making claims about the origin and nature of evil is political.

Making claims about the origin and nature of suffering is political.

Making claims about what texts can be interpreted and what the boundaries of those interpretations are is political.

Describing the relationship between God and community is political.

Declaring who is within the bounds of that community is political.

Declaring who is outside the bounds of that community is political.

Deciding what worship is and what its limits are is political.

Deciding who can assert what or who God is, and is not, is political.

Discerning what God might ask of us is political.

Deciding how we live that out in the world is political.

Theology is the attempt by human beings to capture our understandings and questions about the divine in words that we can understand.

It is human-created, and it has implications for human beings.

Of course it is political.

Theology necessarily reflects our understandings of power and powerlessness, agency and responsibility, relationship to the self and the collective.

Theology can be a thing that heals or corrodes.

Theology necessarily has implications for the world in which we live, other people, our choices individually and collectively.

It can, and not infrequently does, also have concrete implications in terms of how policy is shaped and passed.

Even in places where it's not as obvious, questions about worthiness and obligation, responsibility, suffering, evil and community reverberate.

Let us be honest about this.

Let us remember that no theology lives in a vacuum.

There is no human space devoid of context, abstract, pure.

This is a good thing, or at least a good opportunity.

Abstract doesn't help people, which I believe with every fiber of my being is what theology must do.

If your theology doesn't care about people, what are you doing?

Who do you serve? For whom are you responsible?

But again, these are political questions.

That's OK.

(Image: Awakening, 2017, by Harmonia Rosales)

01/20/2021

My prayer for today's Presidential Inauguration:

January 20, 2021
7 Shevat 5781

On this solemn day, our thoughts and prayers sing out for the United States of America.

Eloheinu Velohei Avoteinu v'Imoteinu, our God and the God of our ancestors ...

We pray for the men and women who will lead our country. May they be wise, compassionate, just, and honest. May they be led by integrity, dignity, and truth. May their words be thoughtful and deliberate. May their efforts to bring together and strengthen a divided nation bear good fruit.

We pray for all the residents of our country. May those who feel fear, hurt, anger, grief, and anxiety be strengthened by love and hope; may those who have been affected by COVID be healed in body, mind, and spirit.

We pledge to hold love in our hearts, use our voices wisely, and act in accordance with Your intentions and our best selves. We pledge to reject baseless hatred, bigotry, and violence. We dedicate ourselves to working together, hearing each other, and finding common ground.

May we have confidence in the future of the United States so that it can be a beacon of welcome and hope to all the nations of the world. May our place in the world be one of strength and leadership for the freedom of all people.

Y'hiyu l'ratzon imrei fi v'hegyon libi l'fanecha ...
May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to You ...
Oseh shalom bimromav, Hu yaaseh shalom aleinu v'al kol Yisrael v'al kol yoshvei teiveil, v'imru: Amen.
May the One who makes peace in the heavens bring peace to us, to all Israel, and to all the nations of the world, and let us say: Amen.

God bless America.

01/06/2021

A prayer for peace on the afternoon of January 6, 2021.

I write this as I am watching the painful chaos and crisis erupting in our nation's capitol.

12/22/2020

12/18/2020

12/08/2020

The Chanukah Candle Blessings with Hebrew and English texts sung by the United Jewish Center's Cantor Penny Kessler.

12/07/2020

So proud of our 8th, 9th, and post-Confirmation students! "The Borrowed Hanukkah Latkes," with Daryl Bain and directed by Diane Sarna.

12/06/2020

The UJC Religious School held its very first ZOOM Chanukah Family Day! Allyson Hopkins Story led us in a Kahoot Chanukah game, Diane Sarna and the 8th, 9th, and post-Confirmation students (and Daryl Bain) presented their (socially-distanced) video'd Chanukah play, Cantor Kessler led music ... and check out the Chanukah Houses that our kids made (donated by Aimee Nyarady)!!

12/02/2020

In the UJC Zoom Meeting Room. For log-in information, call the UJC 203-748-3355 or email office@unitedjewishcenter.org.

Monday, Dec. 7 at 7: Interfaith Families & the December Holidays - A Conversation.

In the UJC Zoom meeting room. For log-in information, please call the UJC at 203-748-3355/office@unitedjewishcenter.org

11/02/2020

Thoughts on the Eve of Election Day 2020.
The UJC will be holding a meditation/prayer service at 7pm tonight (Monday, November 2) in the UJC Zoom meeting room. UJC congregants, please check your UJC emails for log-in information. If you have any questions, please email office@unitedjewishcenter.org or call (203) 748-3355.

Tonight, the Eve of Election Day, at 7pm, we will gather in the UJC's Zoom meeting room for prayer and meditation  Why?