Steven Bayar, at The Blogs

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Oct 2, 2024, 1:17 AM

They made me a better teacher… and more

Some students, you just never forget. For me, this is especially true of “firsts,” and so it was in my first congregation and my first teen confirmation class. Looking back, maybe it was luck, but maybe something more — because...

Aug 21, 2024, 10:01 AM

B’nai Mitzvah, and then what?

Now that summer is winding down, the annual family battle for post-b’nai mitzvah education will begin. While the majority of American Jewish families want their children to have a bar or bat mitzvah, for many that ceremony has evolved...

Jul 24, 2024, 3:51 AM

The special-interest rabbi

The Reform movement has lost sight of the forest for the trees. It’s immaterial whether one ideologically or practically favors or opposes the recent decision by Hebrew Union College (HUC) to accept rabbinical students who are married to non-Jews. Most...

Jul 3, 2024, 11:03 AM

It’s in our genes

There’s nothing more tragic than being unable to protect one’s family from predators. Years ago, during a time of religious strife in my town of Millburn/Short Hills, New Jersey, a local Christian pastor and I held a series of “conversations”...

May 23, 2024, 10:44 AM

This isn’t “civil” disobedience, it’s chaos

I’m no stranger to civil disobedience. Lobbying for Soviet Jewry, I demonstrated and was detained, arrested, zip-tied, tried, convicted and jailed in a federal penitentiary for my actions. So, it is with a sense of bewilderment that I’ve been watching...

Apr 19, 2024, 8:09 AM

This Passover, I am the Evil Child

What does the evil for me in my going out of Egypt." For me, and not for him. If he had been there, he would not have been saved. I am the evil child. I reject the euphemisms of...

Mar 22, 2024, 9:34 AM

A new lens on Purim

Post-October 7, I will break with my personal tradition and drink on Purim. There are many reasons to drink on Purim. Yes, we are commanded to be merry, but there are other ways to celebrate. At its heart, Purim presents...

Feb 19, 2024, 10:59 AM

An early Passover lesson

At the Passover Seder, when we recite the 10 plagues, it is our custom to dip our finger into our cup of wine and place one drop onto our plate for each plague. The traditional explanation is that since...

Jan 17, 2024, 8:41 AM

What do we do with all of this?

There is a heart-wrenching scene at the beginning of Steven Spielberg’s miniseries, “The Pacific,” where Eugene Sledge’s father speaks of the horrors of war. He says to his son, “the worst thing about treating those combat boys from the...

Dec 11, 2023, 9:44 AM

I spent a year in Israel over three days

The El Al security guard at JFK proudly showed his Israeli flag pin, which marked him as a Druze. “We are all together,” he said. Disembarking at Ben Gurion, we were greeted with a sign pointing to the nearest bomb...

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About Me

Rabbi Steven Bayar serves as Interim Rabbi at Congregation B'nai Tzedek in Potomac, Maryland. Ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, he is Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation B’nai Israel in Millburn, New Jersey, where he served the pulpit for 30 years, and formerly served as Interim Rabbi at Congregation Agudas Achim in San Antonio, Texas. He is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly and Rabbis Without Borders, and has trained as a hospice chaplain, a Wise Aging facilitator, and a trainer for safe and respectful Jewish work spaces. He’s the co-author of “Teens & Trust: Building Bridges in Jewish Education,” “Rachel & Misha,” and “You Shall Teach Them Diligently to Your Children: Transmitting Jewish Values from Generation to Generation.”