Tze ulemad. Go and learn. This is how the “long” section of the Exodus story begins in the traditional Haggadah. After the initial blessings and rituals and songs, including the Four Questions and the first “short” answers, the retelling of the escape from Mitzrayim is retold. As attached as I was as a child to the […]
It’s Adar, Purim approaches, so of course I’m thinking costumes! And, of course, amidst the merry-making, there are serious themes, compounded this year -not for the first time – by our awareness of wider-world issues. There is also an overlay within the tradition, and that is the attention paid in this week’s parsha to the […]
Jewish practice is often identified by two overlapping cycles – the life cycle and the year cycle. Along with core values and text basics, these rubrics form the topics of our Exploring Judaism program. And it’s likely that most Introduction to Judaism courses make use of these rubrics as well. Many adult students of Jewish […]
Most years around this date I write about the anniversary of the United Nations (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UHDR), passed by that new institution’s General Assembly on December 10, 1948. Last year, I noted: A parallel document, the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide, passed on another date this month […]
Sukkot is, without question, the most embodied of Jewish festivals. Yes, we light candles throughout the year, smell sweet spices, bow and bend in prayer, taste sweet things or varied fruits and nuts, and – how could we forget – hear or sound the blasts of shofar. So we are not without sensory experiences in […]
There are so many features of the High Holiday, including themes, that resonate or overlap with our “other” civilization. In Reconstructionist-speak, drawing from the work of Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, we live in two civilizations, our civic and Jewish cultures. So while there is no secular new year in September, it is a time when […]
This is a moment when finding the words is hard. Which word first, which heart chamber is pumping what emotion, and in what mode. This is a moment both unprecedented and in continuity with the epic, existential, ongoing battle in the state of Israel that to some is and will always be Palestine. (I know, […]
These things are possible. One. It is possible to sustain a synagogue community where every member has a home, and no one is subject to a “tzitzis check.” Translation: no one’s beliefs or non-beliefs are examined to see whether or not they are kosher! There are plenty of synagogues where dissenting views – on God, […]
For many of my waking hours, and for too many hours that should not be waking hours, I ponder this: what do folks want their rabbi to be saying right now? I know what I would prefer to be offering: creative and uplifting visions about the Passover seder; creative and uplifting invitations to count the […]
Here: the memes proliferate, the slogans fly, the protests surge. There: the suffering mounts, intolerably. Here, in our non-war torn lives, it’s hard to know how much to tap into the enduring torment that prevails over there – amongst those struggling to survive in Gaza, or those waiting for their loved ones taken hostage on […]
