Category: Featured
The Presence and Absence of Women: Reflections Upon The Rape of Dinah
In this week’s parsha, Parashat Vayishlach, we read one of the Torah’s most difficult and upsetting narratives—the rape of Dinah, the only daughter born to Jacob and Leah, by Shechem, the son of... Read More
Love Those Whom You Study: the Legacy of Sarah Hammond and the Ethic of Critical Empathy
Last Thanksgiving, the field of academic religious studies lost one its brightest young luminaries. Sarah Hammond had just begun her career as a professor of American religious history at the College ... Read More
Hawaii the Beautiful and the Truth About Militarization and Colonization
Last week I was privileged to visit the beautiful island O’ahu in Hawaii. On Tuesday I volunteered with a friend of a friend at the ocean; they say it was actually a pond! For 3 and a-half hours... Read More
Racism and Pluralism: Two Sides of an American Coin
It is an early Tuesday morning and the sun has just peeked from behind the mountains in the not-so-distant backdrop of my classroom. The course is Inter-Religious Dialogue and Leadership, and today’... Read More
The Triple Goddess: India, the Ganges, and the Maiden Path
The solo journey is an archetype across myths, cultures, and religious traditions. This past year, I took my own earth-spiritualist, goddess-focused, pilgrimage-journey in India. Preparation involved ... Read More
Worthy is the Cat: Reflections on Feline Mortality and Psychological Mercy
More so than when beloved humans in my life have died, as I prepare for my cat's death I find myself needing to believe—against any rational argument, against my significant philosophical problems w... Read More
From The Place Where We Are Right: A Thanksgiving of “Doubts and Loves”
The Place Where We Are Right by Yehuda Amichai From the place where we are right Flowers will never grow In the spring. The place where we are right Is hard and trampled Like a yard. But doubts... Read More
Giving thanks when the trees are no more
This week, the United States will celebrate Thanksgiving. Turkeys will be roasted. Pies will be shared. Families will come together. And, just maybe, we will all pause for a brief moment before the me... Read More