Message from the Chair
Message from the Chair – September 2021
Ever since I became a student of Mussar in 2009, the High Holidays have had a different resonance for me. In my pre-Mussar days, I appreciated the month of Elul, and particularly the Selichot service, as an opportunity to...
August Message from the Chair, Nancy Axelrod
As the sun starts rising later in the morning, enabling me to awaken early enough to catch it on the beach when I am there, it also gives me the bittersweet reminder that summer is coming to a close. I hope you are enjoying your summer; maybe you are catching up on...
June/July Message from the Chair, Nancy Axelrod
I love hearing when CCM students exclaim that Mussar has transformed their lives. They may say their relationship with their spouse or their adult children has improved, or that they have reconciled a broken friendship or that they have achieved a level of trust and...
April Message from the Chair, Nancy Axelrod
I don’t know about you, but in my family, it was always a struggle to get the kids to sit still through a meaningful seder, but I wanted to teach them the central message – that “In every generation we are obligated to see ourselves as though we personally had escaped...
March Message from the Chair, Nancy Axelrod
I am so pleased to share a number of pieces of good news with the CCM community. First, we are excited to announce that Rabbi Joshua Boettiger will be joining us as Associate Rosh Yeshiva in July. Rabbi Boettiger has been the Rabbi at Temple Emek Shalom...
January Message from the Chair, Nancy Axelrod
It will be a long time before the enormity of the year 2020 can be fully absorbed and integrated into our psyches, but from the vantage point of just a few days into the new calendar year, we can reflect on the highlights (yes there were some!) of the year, at least...
November Message from the Chair
As I write these words at the last minute before the newsletter deadline (I admit that I’ve been rather distracted by obsessing over election coverage), I am struck by how much I have called on Mussar over the past week. I continue to remind myself to look for the Tov...
October Message from the Chair: Nancy Axelrod
I have a confession, not exactly a sin, but not something I’m not particularly proud of. It’s that I’m not very good with money. I don’t mean that I’m a reckless spender, I’m actually rather frugal; it’s just that I don’t understand things like monetary policy and the...
September Message from the Chair – Nancy Axelrod
This summer has been a time of awakening for so many of us. In the wake of the killings of George Floyd, Armaud Arbery, and countless others, as well as the Black Lives Matter protests that have propelled people across the globe to confront racism, I have been...
August Message from the Chair, Nancy Axelrod
Growing up, Pollyanna was one of my favorite books. I so loved the little girl who saw the bright side in everything. It was until I got older that I realized that the word “Pollyanna” had become a pejorative, as in “You’re such a Pollyanna,” or “That’s a bit...