Rabbi Tow’s Weekly Message and Videos
Shabbat Shalom to the Sha’are Shalom family,
After an inspiring fall holiday season, we’re returning to the creation stories in Genesis this Shabbat.
This week we returned to the stories of October 7, 2023. At a large gathering in the JCC auditorium, we shared memories and tributes along with music of loss, suffering, and hope.
One way we can regather our strength after remembering 10/7 victims is to train ourselves to foster engagement and unity between us. Please join me on October 22 and October 29 (both online) for our Voices of Healing workshop. We’ll study the skills of identifying and addressing toxic polarization with the wisdom of Jewish tradition and the insights from the One America Movement – I’m a part of OAM’s Lead by Faith Fellowship (oneamericamovement.org). And then we’ll take our skills into our neighborhoods to share what we’ve learned.
First things first though…we need to take down our beautiful Sukkah and store it away for next year! Please join Mike Friedenthal and the Men’s Club to help on Sunday morning.
In our Torah reading we will study the Garden of Eden – a place our ancestors Adam and Eve live for some time in the early days. While the Torah explains God expels them from the garden, and prevents anyone from returning with a fiery turning sword, our ancestors still thought of Eden as an ideal existence – a place to which we should yearn to return. They describe the rest of the world as filled with “thorns and thistles”, and so Eden is a refuge. We often look for refuges, havens, safe spaces.
It is critical for us to have safe spaces. This month is Domestic Violence awareness month and we will be participating in Purple Shabbat to raise awareness for DV in the Jewish community and beyond. If you or someone you know is experiencing violence in their home, our synagogue Sha’are Shalom (Gates of Peace) is a safe space & I can help with referrals to agencies who can assist. My contact info: 571-329-8510 / rabbineiltow@shaare-shalom.org
Wishing everyone a peaceful Shabbat Braysheet – Shabbat of Creation – and a good, happy, and healthy Fall season,
Rabbi Tow
Dear Sha'are Shalom community,
In honor of Sue Aft's lifetime of giving love and filling the world with kindness, Rabbi Bruce and I talked about what she would want us to have as a lasting legacy to all she meant to Bruce, their family and friends, and all who knew her.
She would want all of you to receive a hug to remind you that there are caring people. So, I wanted to give each of you a hug and hope that 2026 will be a year of love and kindness for you and those you hold dear.
We started handing out one 'hug' per family on Sunday during the Chanukah party. We'll continue to hand them out as we see you in the near future.
Rabbi Bruce Aft & Rabbi Neil Tow
Music & Meditation
8/26/25
Welcome to the month of Elul - in 4 weeks we will welcome in the New Year. This month the sound of the shofar wakes us up to begin envisioning the year ahead - How does our heart respond to the sound of the shofar?
Music & Meditation
7/29/25
This week we're getting ready to observe Tisha B'Av, the 9th day of Av - a day for remembering the tragedies of Jewish history. Part of this observance is the chanting of Kinot, poetic musical laments. This Moroccan chanting of Kinot I find particularly meditative.
Music & Meditation
7/22/25
Beautiful choral music from Salamone Rossi - May God bless our day with peace
Music & Meditation
7/15/25
This Shabbat we will announce the upcoming month of Av (that will start the next Saturday). Av is the month when we remember the tragedies of Jewish history. To get us into the reflective spirit of this season of memory and lament, here is a niggun (song without words). This tune comes from the tradition of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev.
Music & Meditation
6/24/25
Praying for peace during these dark times - Music: Nava Tehila
Music & Meditation
5/1/25
For Israel's 77th today - a song from Israel's 60th birthday full of rhythm and life that still resonates today...
This is the chorus:
Because she* is real and not a symbol,
nor a flag or a sign.
The past is behind her -
she looks to the future.
*Israel is referred to as 'she' because 'medinah', the word for 'country' is a feminine word in Hebrew.
Music & Meditation
4/22/25
Music & Meditation - 4/22/25 - Tal/Prayer for Dew - On Passover, we stop praying for rain with the end of the rainy season in Israel, and switch to saying 'Moreed ha'tal', May the dew fall...this change recognizes a transition in nature. Dew is a lighter form of precipitation. Sometimes in life we also need to take a gentler approach - and give God, and ourselves, the space to help heal us.
Music & Meditation
4/8/25
Music & Meditation
Music & Meditation: The Exodus is a journey through a traumatic time for our ancestors. Years ago, I heard a country music song that reflects having hope through tough times, that there can be 'angels' (hopefully) to help us along the way. I hope this song can help lift us up during those tough times. Wishing everyone a meaningful Seder & Passover.
Music & Meditation
3/12/25
Music & Meditation - Purim Edition
Today we listen to Persian Jewish music as we get ready to celebrate Purim. Try closing your eyes and breathing - coming to an awareness of our breath - as we listen to this singing.
Music & Meditation
2/25/25
Today's M&M is peaceful music and beautiful views primarily of Israel's natural wonders. May God bless us all with peace.
Music & Meditation
2/12/25
Masorti message for Tu Bishvat: Rabbi Maayan Belding-Zidon, Masorti's Director of Religious Services, speaks about the relevance of Tu Bishvat in 2025.
Music & Meditation
2/4/25
When you come
one of these days
days that were sealed
at the edge of a prayer.
When you come
we will give you flowers
flowers that open
without a word.
If you are tired
and if you come wrapped in sadness
we will sing to
Music & Meditation
1/28/25
As cultures around the world get ready to celebrate Lunar New Year, the Jewish people get ready to celebrate Rosh Chodesh Shevat tomorrow evening into Thursday. Shevat is the month of Tu Bishvat, the New Year of Trees, a time that signals the first stirrings of spring as the sap in trees rises. Today's music is a prayer for welcoming in the New Month.
Music & Meditation
1/14/25
As we start reading from the Book of Exodus, a song from "The Prince of Egypt" through the voice of our ancestors asking God for help and deliverance from oppression. We also ask God to help the LA area to get through a horrific time & hopefully begin to rebuild soon.
Music & Meditation
12/17/24
Chanukah is all about light, light of hope & courage in a time of darkness. May the light of the Chanukah menorah strengthen the light inside of us.
We came to drive away the darkness
in our hands is light and fire.
Everyone's a small light,
and all of us together are a powerful light.
Fight darkness & further darkness!
Fight because of the light!
Music & Meditation
12/3/24
We just welcomed in the new month of Kislev, and in a few weeks we'll celebrate Chanukah. Ma'oz Tzur is a Chanukah song that reminds us of the power of courage, determination, and the wonder & mystery of God's miracles.
Music & Meditation 11/20/24
A spiritual lift from Matisyahu, reminding us of the power we can find in light, in giving each other strength, and being open to miracles....It's never to early for some Chanukah music, right?
Music & Meditation 10/28/24
Music & Meditation: At Sunday's Oct. 7th event - Senior Shlicha Tali Arnolf Wohlgemuth played this song for us to set a tone for the remembrance - the art in the thumbnail was created by students of the Betzalel art academy in Jerusalem. It's a picture of a field of one of the kibbutzim attacked on Oct. 7, 2023.
Music & Meditation 10/23/24
Tomorrow when we celebrate Shemini Atzeret, we will chant the Geshem prayer (prayer for rain) -- Our ancestors depended on rain for their crops to grow & Sukkot has been about hopeful praying for blessing in the New Year. While most of us are not farmers (some of us in the CSS community are farmers!), we all still hope and pray for blessing, for good health, happiness and peace in the New Year -- all these are our 'rain' that this prayer represents.
Music & Meditation 8/6/24
Looking back 100 years to the 1924 Paris Olympics and the struggles & triumph of Harold Abrahams, British-Jewish athlete who won the 100 meter dash.
Music & Meditation 7/30/24
A wonderful Hineh Ma Tov melody by Mikey Pauker - We sang this at services last Shabbat and will sing going forward. Hineh Ma Tov (from Psalm 133) means "How good it is for all of us to be together." May God bless us with unity and strength.
Rabbi's Message 7/18/24
Invitation for Chevra Kadisha
Music and Meditation 7/9/24
It's always important to remind ourselves we're created in God's image (b'tzelem Elo-him). It's important mostly because we often forget this basic truth, and as the song says - while we're made this way by God we also have to 'bring it out' in ourselves and others...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (4x)
We've all got a life to live
We've all got a gift to give
Just open your heart and let it out
We've all got a peace to bring
We've all got a song to sing
Just open your heart and let it out
Yeah!
When I reach out to you and you to me
We become B'tzelem Elohim
When we share our hopes and our dreams
Each one of us B'tzelem Elohim
We've all got a tale to tell
We all want to speak it well
Just open your heart and let it out
We've all got a mountain to climb
We've all got a truth to find
Just open your heart and let it out
Yeah!
Bereshit bar-ah (Bereshit barah Elohim)
El-o-him (All our hopes All our dreams)
Bereshit bar-ah (Bereshit barah Elohim)
El-o-him (Each one of us b'tzelem Elohim
Music and Meditation 7/3/24
Music & Meditation: Wishing everyone a day of peace & blessing. Let's continue to pray for the safe return of the hostages. #BringThemHomeNow
Music and Meditation 6/28/24
Pride Shabbat Message from Rabbi Tow
Music and Meditation 6/25/24
Music & Meditation: A beautiful & uplifting song sung by Shlomi Shabat - following up on the Haftarah from last Saturday about the power of the spirit, this song is about the spirit and will to live and be ourselves with the help of a spirit or 'wind' from God pushing us along.
What ever happens I will change things
I will fulfill my dream
The bearer of bad news, decrees and plagues
will not change who I am
You and I and God beside us will win
not because of strength
But because the spirit
and the wind that pushes me from behind
Only because the spirit in my body my mind my soul
Only because the spirit in my body my mind my soul
What ever I have to say I will shout it,
they will hear me even on the moon
Who ever doesn't believe me
will find out the I will prove my self correct
You and I and God beside us will win
Not because of the strength
only because of the wind that pushes me from behind
Only because the spirit in my body my mind my soul
Only because the spirit in my body my mind my soul