Limnot yameinu. Let us know how to assess our days. It’s a good one to bring to mind at this time of year, even though it is not a passage particularly tied to the sefira/omer period, the time of counting the 7-times-7-plus-one days from Passover to Shavuot. I am drawn to this psalm, and its message, for […]
For the ten years I lived in Philadelphia, I was blessed with a wonderful next-door neighbour. Carolyn embodied generosity, openness, and caring – qualities one truly appreciates with the person with whom one shares a patio, and who could say gesundhayt through her open door to a spring sneeze from our kitchen! It was a particular delight […]
Last month, I wrote about the deep meaning I find in working with a candidate for conversion, and the questions it raises for those of us born into this tradition/tribe/religion. (See: How Do You Jew?). Apart from those of us whose professional lives are demarcated by the time we devote Jewish learning and teaching, when and […]
I am sometimes asked: “How did you become a woman rabbi?” On occasion, I can have fun with the interlocutor, and make jokes about discovering, at that moment – with shock, shock! – that I’m a woman! Next weekend, I get to be a human “book” with the joint CBC/OPL Human Library project. Folks who participate will […]
Among all of the deeply rewarding elements of the pulpit rabbinate, none has been as meaning-filled, for me personally and on a broader communal level, as guiding the study and rituals of those who choose Judaism and the Jewish people as their own. Each of the individuals who have invited me to join them — […]
Early this month, a New York City-based philanthropy called The Covenant Foundation announced the recipients of a total of $1.6 million in grants. What does this have to do with us? From their mission statement: “The Covenant Foundation recognizes the diversity of strengths within the field of Jewish education in North America, across all denominations […]
What is the most awesome, inspiring, jaw-dropping moment of all? This may be as close to a universal accord as one can find. Surely the answer must be: the birth moment. The moment a baby comes into the world; the first tender slips of a bud; the emergence of infant mammals; the transformation of the chrysalis. To […]
Individuals, communities and nations are exercising compassion these days, on a global scale. To have compassion is to expand one’s consciousness beyond limits. It is a pouring out of the ineffable capacity to care-beyond – beyond one’s own needs, beyond one’s own identity, beyond one’s own tribe, beyond one’s own benefit. We sometimes call such […]
I pen these words today bathed in the light of the full moon of Kislev, figuratively speaking. This is the 14th day of the Jewish month, and so if the clouds permit, tonight we’ll really be en-light-ened by the reflected light of our winter sun. The leap from the light of the Kislev moon to […]
When preparing class outlines for Introduction to Judaism courses, I sigh each time I see the heading “Jewish Calendar.” It’s complicated, as we often say about so many difficult matters. We – and the majority of Jews in Canada and the U.S. – do not necessarily live in “Jewish time.” We overlay or integrate Jewish […]
