Rabbi Forrest
Rabbi Alissa Forrest joins the clergy of Temple Isaiah after being ordained from the Los Angeles campus of Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion in May 2007. Growing up in Denver, Colorado, she was active in her local and regional NFTY youth group and spent many summers at Shwayder Camp, a Jewish overnight camp in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Rabbi Forrest attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, earning a BA in Sociology and minor in Jewish studies and spent her junior year of college at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Upon graduating, she came to Temple Isaiah where she served as the Assistant Youth Director and Administrative Assistant for the Education Department (1999-2001). During rabbinical school, Rabbi Forrest served as a student rabbi in Aiken, SC and Worcester, MA and was the rabbinic intern at Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, CA. Her training and experience also includes co-facilitating a support group for mature women, leading a monthly Jewish 12 Step Recovery Program, serving as a hospital chaplain, running a family education program, and serving as Assistant Director of Shwayder Camp and CIT Advisor at Camp Hess Kramer in Malibu, CA. Rabbi Forrest also earned a Master of Arts in Jewish Education at HUC-JIR in May 2005.
Parshat Num. 22:2-25:9
In this week’s parasha, the prophet Bilaam calls out the well-known verse “Mah tovu ohalekha Yaakov, mishk’notecha, Yisrael -How wonderful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel.” (Numbers 24:5) Balak, King of Moab, sends Bilaam to curse the people of Israel. But when Bilaam arrives at their tents and opens his mouth to curse them, this blessing emerges instead.
Pent. Num 4:21-7:89
This week’s Torah portion, Naso, meaning “lift up,” begins by God telling Moses to take a census of the Levites. The Hebrew literally translates as, “raise the heads of the Levities.” The Levites’ job is to carry the Tabernacle through the wilderness; a job that physically weighs them down. But here they are told to “rise up.” Anne Ebersman, in The Torah: A Women’s Commentary explains, “From this we learn that the things that we carry-the things that weigh us down-actually raise us up. These are our most precious gifts.”