PAST ARTICLES AND SERMONS FROM RABBI BAIR
Rabbi Ethan Bair
Rabbi Ethan BairJULY 2013 TO JUNE 2018
Email: RabbiBair@tbsmb.org
Rabbi Ethan Bair grew up in Boston where he was raised by spiritual seekers who rediscovered their Judaism through the Jewish Renewal movement. A graduate of Oberlin College and a former Fulbright scholar to Germany, Rabbi Bair was ordained at the Reform seminary, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles, in 2011. He wrote his Rabbinic thesis on “Re-Envisioning Reform Jewish Prayer,” with Dr. Rachel Adler. While in rabbinical school, he was a recipient of the prestigious Schusterman Rabbinical Fellowship, which brought together future Reform and Conservative rabbis to learn about volunteer engagement, strategic planning and synagogue management. Stemming from this experience, Rabbi Bair would describe himself as a member of a new generation of Jewish leaders for whom denominations are secondary to transformational Jewish experience. For more than 11 years he has served congregations in Ogden, Utah; Vancouver, British Columbia; Sun Valley, Idaho; and San Rafael, CA. Most recently, he worked at American Jewish World Service, a global Jewish non-profit working to realize human rights in the developing world. Before that, he served as Campus Rabbi at the University of Southern California Hillel.
Rabbi Bair served Temple Sinai as our Senior Rabbi for five years before moving on to an an Assistant Rabbi position at Temple Beth Shalom in Miami Beach, FL. Rabbi Bair is committed to creating a participatory and authentic Jewish prayer culture; promoting inter-faith social justice work; and integrating Jewish studies with traditional Jewish sources into his repertoire of teaching. He enjoys running, hiking, singing, and welcoming Shabbat guests into his home with his wife, Nadya who has a PhD in Art History.
Learning from One Another
Warm greetings to you and your family from New Haven, CT! I hope you have enjoyed the beginning of a meaningful Pesach, and are feeling freer and freer with every crunch of matzah. I look forward to seeing many of you at services and at the Bat Mitzvah next Shabbat! In the meantime, here are […]
Rabbi Bair’s Parental Leave
Dear Temple Sinai Community, Firstly, if you are considering attending the Temple Sinai Annual Passover Seder at the Atlantis (my last with the congregation), please book your tickets by this Friday and avoid the late registration fee. If you need help affording it, simply call or email me or Passover Seder Planning Committee chair, Suzy […]
Betzalel Models Leadership from the Middle
In this week’s parsha, Vayakheil-Pekudei, God fills the visionary leader Betzalel with “Godly spirit, with wisdom, insight and knowledge, and with every craft” to perform the design and oversee the construction of the Mishkan, the traveling Sanctuary in the wilderness. While Moses and Aaron led “from the top” [famously, Moses oversaw leaders of thousands, hundreds […]
Holidays and Justice
This week’s Torah portion, Mishpatim (“laws”) names many of the ethical principles that lie at the foundation of Jewish civilization throughout the ages. These laws include ethics such as not taking a poor person’s coat as surety for a debt (because “in what shall he lie down?”), not taunting or oppressing a stranger, widow or […]