TBZ Brookline

05/28/2026

From RabbiClaudia Kreiman's Shabbat Nasso Message:
"This week’s Torah portion, parashat Nasso, includes the Priestly Blessing, the ancient words the Torah commands Aaron and the priests to offer to the people of Israel. These are among the oldest and most beloved words in our tradition, words that continue to accompany the Jewish people across generations and across time. They are whispered by parents over their children at the Shabbat table, recited at moments of celebration and vulnerability, offered in sanctuaries and hospital rooms, repeated at births and before departures. At TBZ, we end many of our Shabbat services by gathering our children beneath a tallit (prayer shawl) and blessing them together; we also make sure to bless one another, no matter our age, because the need for blessing never disappears.

This week I came across a beautiful midrash (interpretation) in Bamidbar Rabbah 11:2 that deeply moved me. The rabbis imagine that although the priests are commanded to bless the people, it is ultimately God who stands with them and blesses through them:"

Read the full message here:
https://www.tbzbrookline.org/2026/05/parashat-nasso-may-28-2026/

05/26/2026

May 30, during kiddush, around 1:00-2:00 pm at Driscoll Park

Come hang out with other kids and families from TBZ! Enjoy good company, ice cream, and (weather permitting) playing outside. A relaxed, joyful way to connect and celebrate together, including celebrating another year of Beit Rabban and another year of WonderMinyan! Everyone is welcome!

05/21/2026

From RabbiClaudia Kreiman's Shavuot Message:
"I am still beaming with joy after last weekend’s TBZ Community Retreat on the Cape. Close to 150 TBZ members of all ages – the youngest just two months old – joined for a weekend of community, song, learning, rest, and joy. It is always one of my favorite weekends of the year.

In times of so much division and pain, being in community is a balm for the heart. I know that for me personally, it helps heal a heart that often feels broken by the world these days. And perhaps that is why it feels so meaningful that, beginning tonight, we celebrate Shavuot, the holiday of receiving Torah."

Read the full message here:
https://www.tbzbrookline.org/2026/05/shavuot-may-21-2026/

05/18/2026

Thursday, June 4 at 7:00pm
This spring we're celebrating ourselves, celebrating our honoree, and celebrating TBZ – and we hope you'll join us!

Get Your Tickets and Donate: https://tbz.shulcloud.com/form/spring-celebration-2026

We are delighted to announce that Beth Harris will be honored at this year's Spring Fundraiser. Since joining TBZ with her husband Mitch in 2005, Beth has been a steady and devoted presence in our community, helping to shape and sustain the life of our congregation in ways both visible and behind the scenes.

We are excited to welcome Anat Halevy Hochberg, who will be bringing her musical talents to TBZ along with TBZ's Artist-in-Residence Yoni Battat, Fabio Pirozzolo (percussion), and Evan Carley (bass). Anat is a musician, teacher, and ritual leader based in Boston. Her passions include leading song, empowering others to raise their voices, and working to reclaim the Yemeni melodies of her heritage. She has taught and led ritual at Let My People Sing!, Eden Village Camp, Hadar’s Rising Song Intensive, and Linke Fligl. She co-produced Tishrei: the end is the beginning and Elul: Songs for Turning, and her debut album, How can I keep (from) singing? was released in 2020. Her upcoming album of Yemeni Jewish song, Ahavat Hadassah, will be released late 2026. Learn more about her work at anathalevyhochberg.com

05/14/2026

From RabbiClaudia Kreiman's Shabbat Bamidbar message:
One of my favorite songs, and certainly one beloved in my family, has been playing in my head all week: Count on Me by Bruno Mars. It is one of those songs that sounds simple and sweet, but carries something deeply true about what it means to love and to belong to one another.

“You can count on me like 1, 2, 3,
I’ll be there
And I know when I need it
I can count on you like 4, 3, 2
And you’ll be there”

And later:

“You’ll always have my shoulder when you cry
I’ll never let go,
never say goodbye.”
There is something profoundly Jewish in those lyrics. The song speaks about friendship, but also about covenant. About the promise that we do not walk alone. About the sacred hope that in moments of fear or grief or uncertainty, someone will stand beside us.

This week’s Torah portion, Parshat Bamidbar, begins with counting. Read the full message here: https://www.tbzbrookline.org/welcome/spiritual-leaders/rav-claudia-kreiman/parshat-bamidbar-may-13-2026/

05/07/2026

From RabbiClaudia Kreiman's Shabbat Behar-Bechukotai Message:
"This week’s Torah portions, Behar–Bechukotai, open with teachings about shnat shmita, the sabbatical year which occurs every 7 years, and shnat ha’yovel, the jubilee year which occurs every 49 years, concepts that expand on our weekly Shabbat practice. Shabbat is a weekly opportunity of 25 hours in which we release the illusion that we are fully in control of the world. Shabbat becomes a sacred pause, a time in which we stop trying to shape everything according to our will and instead allow ourselves simply to be present. The word shabbat comes from the root lishbot – “to cease,” to stop producing, stop striving, stop managing every detail of our lives and surroundings.

Shmita and yovel take that same spiritual idea and expand it into an entire vision of society. The land itself must rest. Debts are released. Property returns to previous owners. The economic system itself is interrupted in order to remind human beings that ownership, power, and accumulation cannot become absolute. In many ways, these mitzvot (commandments) challenge one of the deepest assumptions of the world we live in – a world that constantly teaches us that the more we own, the more secure we are; that the more we accumulate, the more successful we become; that happiness is somehow tied to having more, controlling more, preserving more.

But Torah asks us to imagine another way of living."

Read the full message here:
https://www.tbzbrookline.org/welcome/spiritual-leaders/rav-claudia-kreiman/parshat-behar-bechukotai-may-7-2026/

04/30/2026

From RabbiClaudia Kreiman's Shabbat Emor Message:
"Since the second night of Passover, we have been in the process of counting the forty-nine days of the Omer. An omer was a unit of measurement in the ancient Temple, most associated with the offering of a sheaf of grain. “Counting the Omer” refers to a period of daily counting, between Passover and Shavuot, that marks the journey from Egypt to Sinai and the receiving of Torah. We read about the Omer in this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Emor, as part of the section that describes the cycle of holidays.

The Torah teaches, in Leviticus 23:15-16:

וּסְפַרְתֶּם לָכֶם... שֶׁבַע שַׁבָּתוֹת תְּמִימֹת תִּהְיֶינָה
You shall count for yourselves… seven complete weeks
and then continues,
תִּסְפְּרוּ חֲמִשִּׁים יוֹם
you shall count fifty days.

This week, as we read Emor and continue our counting, we are invited to reflect on how we relate to time in our own lives: whether we allow it to pass unnoticed, or whether we find ways to engage it with intention; whether we are overwhelmed by what lies ahead, or able to recognize the significance of what has already unfolded."

Since the second night of Passover, we have been in the process of counting the forty-nine days of the Omer. An omer was a unit of measurement in the ancient Temple, most associated with the offering of a sheaf of grain. “Counting the Omer” refers to a period of daily counting, between Passover ...

04/23/2026

From RabbiClaudia Kreiman's Shabbat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim Message:
"This week we read the double Torah portion of Acharei Mot–Kedoshim. Parashat Kedoshim opens with a call that is at once aspirational and deeply demanding:

קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם
You shall be holy, for I, the Eternal your God, am holy (Leviticus 19:2)

It is a radical invitation to shape a life, a community, a society rooted in holiness. And so the question of how holiness is pursued becomes, in many ways, the container for all of the mitzvot (commandments) that follow. Torah does not leave holiness in the realm of abstraction; very quickly, it grounds that call in relationship, in the way we treat one another. At the heart of this parasha is the command we recite as a daily kavanah (intention) and each Shabbat here at TBZ:

וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ
Love your neighbor as yourself."

Read the full message here:
https://www.tbzbrookline.org/welcome/spiritual-leaders/rav-claudia-kreiman/parshat-acharei-mot-kedoshim-april-23-2026/

11/26/2025

From RabbiClaudia Kreiman's Shabbat Vayetze message:
"Every year, as I return to this parasha (Torah portion), I am moved by the same verse:
וַיִּיקַץ יַעֲקֹב מִשְּׁנָתוֹ וַיֹּאמֶר אָכֵן יֵשׁ יְהֹוָה בַּמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה וְאָנֹכִי לֹא יָדָעְתִּ
Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely Adonai is present in this place, and I did not know it!” (Genesis 28:16)

Jacob had run away from his brother and his home, and he comes to rest, his head upon a stone for a pillow. As he sleeps, he dreams of angels ascending and descending a stairway to heaven. He wakes from his dream with awareness and amazement.

The sweetness and power of that moment are captured in these few words:
“Achen, yesh Adonai bamakon haze, va-ani lo yedati.”
“Surely, God is present in this place, and I did not know it.”

There are two inspiring messages here, which today I link to the practice of gratitude... "

Read the full message here:
https://www.tbzbrookline.org/welcome/spiritual-leaders/rav-claudia-kreiman/parshat-vayetze-november-26-2025/