Posts by Cyril

SUKKOT GAINESVILLE Americans have a deep desire to either be happy, pretend we are happy, or make everyone else happy! In Teen Academy class, during a very spirited discussion of suicide and the Jewish texts around that difficult subject, one of the students suggested that it is our job to talk someone into happiness and…

Yom Kippur Morning Rabbi Cy Stanway American society loves to assign names to significant and, oftentimes, not-so-significant events. Every month brings with it a whole set of “Whatever Appreciation of the Month.” There is everything from Cheese Appreciation Month to Hug Your Podiatrist Month. I am not sure who pays attention to all or any…

Shir Shalom – Gainesville Temple Shir Shalom: Gainesville
 Rabbi Cy Stanway When I became an American many years ago, someone told me that it is now my duty to pay attention to baseball.  Taking their admonition to heart, I did what I always do when I need to expose myself to something: I bought a…

Rosh Hashanna Morning 2025 – GainesvilleRabbi Cy Stanway  Several years ago, the tabloids had a field day when the beautiful, young, troubled Christina Onassis committed suicide, leaving behind her five-year-old daughter. In a phrase that probably encapsulated much of her tragic depression, the papers defined her as the “heiress to the Onassis fortune.” In other…

Gainesville, 2025 Even though I pretty in the dark about baseball, even I know the iconic picture of Babe Ruth from Game 3 of the 1932 World Series against the Chicago Cubs. In the fifth inning, Ruth stepped up to the plate, gestured toward the outfield, and hit the next pitch over the wall. This…

Nitzavim – Gainesville I am not sure why, but this week’s portion is my all-time favorite. I have tried to understand why I like it so much. The only thing I can think of is its striking imagery.  Atem nitzavim hayom – You are standing here together today, all of you…” With these words, Moses…

Ki Tavo – Gainesville I sometimes wonder how many love songs have ever been written.  Hard to know.  So I asked ChatGPT and here is what I found:  On Spotify alone, there are millions of songs tagged with themes of love, heartbreak, romance, or relationships. From ancient times to the present, poetry set to music,…

PARASHAT SHOFTIM – GAINESVILLE When scholars began looking at the book of Deuteronomy from a literary-critical point of view and not just as a religious text, the general consensus was that the book was written long after the first 4 books of the Torah and that it reflected a moment in Jewish history when the…

Parashat Re’eh – Gainesville In 1981, I was in my last year of college in Toronto and, out of the blue, appeared a 20 year-old who galvanized the entire country. His name was Terry Fox and he had developed an osteosarcoma in his leg with then needed to be amputated. Out of his experience he…

PARSHAT EKEIV – GAINESVILLE One of the interesting ways of reading the Bible is trying to figure out the meanings of words. It’s not always so easy.  For instance, the word Shalom is one that everyone knows.  We all know it means ‘peace.’  But what, exactly, does that mean? If you look at the Russian…