Welcome

Koppell_portraitRabbi Bonnie Koppell is the Associate Rabbi of Temple Chai in Phoenix, AZ, where she also directs the Deutsch Family Shalom Center.

Rabbi Koppell was one of the first female Rabbis in the United States and holds the distinct honor of having been the first female Rabbi in the U.S. Military.  She served in the US Army Reserve for 38 years and retired in 2016 with the rank of Colonel.

Rabbi Koppell’s writings have been published in numerous books and journals. She is a frequent newspaper columnist and a much sought after speaker.

A Time For Introspection

         I want to invite you to take a breath.  A deep breath.  Let it out slowly and luxuriously.  Pause now, and, at your leisure, inhale once again.  The average person takes 23,000 breaths a day, virtually all of them completely unconscious.          What is it like when we hold our breath?  It becomes very …

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BaMidbar and COVID-19: Forty Days? Forty Months? Forty Years?

         According to the Torah, we are just now, with this week’s parsha, entering Bamidbar/the wilderness.  According to us, it feels like 40 years of wandering aimlessly, hoping to reach the promised land with no idea how to get there, when we will arrive, and how we will survive along the way.  It’s one thing …

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Tazria, Metzora, and Social Distancing 2020

Tazria, Metzora, and Social Distancing- 2020 Rabbi Bonnie Koppell          An unknown illness erupts.  Waiting for a diagnosis, and then, quarantine.  Have the symptoms dissipated?  Keep checking and continue to stay isolated from the community.  Examination by a healthcare professional to determine if it’s safe to be with people.  If so, purification rituals and cleansing …

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Nadav, Avihu, and COVID-19

Nadav, Avihu, and COVID-19 Rabbi Bonnie Koppell          I trust everyone had a good Pesach and our Torah reading this week, Shemini, finds us exactly half-way through the Torah.  It is AMAZING that the rabbis so loved the text that they counted every letter, determining that the letter vav in the word “gachon,” appearing this …

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