Jon Spira-Savett, at The Blogs

Jon Spira-Savett

Apr 22, 2024, 12:41 AM

The 4 children of North American Jewry at this year’s seder

At our North American seders this year, many of us will want to talk about Israel and own situation as Jews since October 7. How do we do that in conversation, not a fruitless debate? How can we use...

Sep 14, 2023, 11:23 PM

5 reasons to bring your kid to High Holy Day services

Photo by Gilad/Licensed from Adobe Stock

Hours in synagogue on the High Holy Days might the obvious to spend time together as a family. Even if you have a synagogue you feel at home in, and even if most of the year, it’s child-friendly, Rosh...

Jul 3, 2022, 6:14 PM

Featured Post

Parashat Ki Tisa: Give ideas a chance

Science teaches that we are subject to our hormones and neurotransmitters, but we are more than the sum of our biological parts when it comes to truth and wisdom

Aug 1, 2021, 8:08 PM

Wholeness, Not Brokenness: What Simone Biles Actually Taught Us

Simone Biles, 2016 Olympics, Photo by Julian Finney/Getty published on texasmonthly.com

I don’t have a great track record with Olympics-related sermons. During the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, I talked about the Olympic spirit and the language in our prayers of shalom al kol yoshvei tevel, peace for everyone on...

Dec 14, 2020, 10:57 PM

The Dreidel: Four Ways to Hope In a Difficult Time

I think we can learn about hope from the dreidel – nun נ, gimel ג, hay ה, shin ש. The definition of hope that comes closest to the matter for me is from Czech playwright and dissident and eventually president...

Jul 23, 2020, 7:40 AM

Your Two Personal Spiritual Assistants Toward the New Year

Each year as the new moon of Av arrives, I think about what I’ve come to call our two personal trainers. Their names are Moshe and Yeshayahu, and they are the voices of the biblical books that accompany us...

May 5, 2020, 3:46 PM

Featured Post

No large High Holiday services this year. There, we’ve said it. Now what?

Illustrative: Rodef Shalom Rabbi Aaron Bisno, center, delivers his sermon with soloist Molly May, left, during an Erev Shabbat service that is being streamed live on Facebook. Friday, March 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

At a time of year when our prayers ask 'Who will live and who will die?' we would be demonstrating that we take responsibility for life and death

About Me

Rabbi Jonathan Spira-Savett serves the Jewish community of southern New Hampshire and nearby Massachusetts through Temple Beth Abraham in Nashua, New Hampshire. He is co-host of "Tov! A Podcast About 'The Good Place' and Jewish Ideas", available on podcast apps and tovgoodplace.com. He blogs at rabbijon.net and Rabbi Jon’s Podcasts are available through Apple and Podbean. He is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship and the organizer of howtobepresident.org, an initiative to transform how we choose a president by asking better questions.