William Hamilton

Apply for a Blog

Nov 29, 2024, 4:03 PM

Another Tale of Love and Darkness

“I’m sick of telling the story because it’s important. I just want some peace and quiet.” This from 15-year-old Gali. Her adroit use of WhatsApp on that terrifying October 7 morning, provided the IDF with precise locations for hundreds...

Nov 22, 2024, 11:50 PM

Confronting Self-Doubt Pushes Me Forward

“We reach the edge of an embankment,” 35-year-old Or tells of her perilous plight as an IDF Commander that terrifying October 7 morning. “I peer my head up and see a sight I will never forget as long as...

Nov 15, 2024, 2:47 PM

What Would You Have Done?

If you’ve ever wondered, How would I have stepped up? How would I have risen to the occasion when, for example, a fugitive slave was being hunted? Would I have marched in Selma? Been as courageous as a Righteous...

Nov 8, 2024, 5:06 PM

Pain gives way to Promise

14-year-old Paulina tells of her father’s heroism. He was a courageous Israeli police officer who lost his life last October 7, rescuing fellow officers from a terrorist-overrun police station. “At Shiva, another officer told us, “I was the last...

Nov 1, 2024, 11:25 PM

Dignity Displaces Despair

Some years we drove from Tel Aviv to dinner in a mountainous region south of Jerusalem. I had decided to take what I thought was a short cut, bypassing Jerusalem traffic. As darkness descended, so did the clouds. We...

Oct 23, 2024, 9:41 PM

Doing Your Best With What You’ve Got

Limitations. We all have them. We all have to live within them. What then are we to do? A fellow-learner from our community summed things up well in a conversation last week. She said: you do the best with...

Oct 16, 2024, 6:36 PM

Our Better Selves. Our Believing Selves

Some people wave, the saying goes, but everybody waves back. Think about it. Well, actually you don’t have to think about it. Waving back is as automatic a reflex as yawning back is. What are Sukkot’s automatic reflexes, waving at...

Oct 11, 2024, 5:31 PM

Adding Eases Subtracting

It’s very foggy out there. It’s really hard to see our way forward. None of us knows where all this is headed. But what we can know for sure is where we are headed. If you’re like me, your hardest...

Sep 27, 2024, 6:44 PM

Keeping The Plot

A story from a member of our community this week. She’d gone to the dentist. A new hygienist, Ziva, was very friendly. When our member complimented her beautiful jewelry, Ziva said it was from Lebanon where her family lives....

Sep 20, 2024, 6:09 PM

Pivotal Moments

Can you recall one of your life-changing moments? A teacher’s complement. A piece of advice at a pivotal fork in your professional road? One such moment happened for our people this week. Not in September of 2024, but a long...

Load more

About Me

Rabbi William Hamilton has served as rabbi (mara d'atra) of Kehillath Israel in Brookline, MA since 1995.