Tag: High Holidays
Setting the Table with My Self: Food, Choice, and Identity
It was Erev Rosh HaShanah, the evening beginning the Jewish New Year. Guests were starting to arrive after services, and my apartment was filling up with the sounds of their laughter and the scent of... Read More
One of These Jews Is Not Like the Others: A Progressive Jew at an Orthodox Yom Kippur
It was raining at dusk. I decided not to ride my bike to the progressive Yom Kippur service on the Boston University campus. If I rode my bike, I would get too thirsty coming home and I wouldn’t ke... Read More
Working T’shuvah – What is Forgiveness?
I grew up in a non-religious family, and then became Christian as a teenager, and then converted again to Judaism as an adult. I learned as a teen that forgiveness is freely and completely given. It i... Read More
Elul in the time of Black Lives Matter
This shabbes, Elul starts. Elul is the Jewish month of reflection and preparation that leads us into the High Holidays. For some of us, we begin our process of t’shuvah (repentance) during the ... Read More
An Improvised Family: Yom Kippur with Rome’s Progressive Jews
Normally people do not go to Rome to refrain from eating. But it was Yom Kippur, and I was on my way to afternoon services at Beth Hillel, Rome’s new progressive Jewish community. My long walk to th... Read More
When in Rome, Do as the Progressive Roman Jews Do
I was late to Rosh Hashanah services at Beth Hillel, Rome’s new progressive Jewish community. I meant to leave my apartment at 6pm but I scooted out the door by 6:45pm, realizing that the mistake wo... Read More
“Who by Fire, Who by Water:” What the High Holidays Can Teach Us About Beginning Graduate School
For many people, September is a time of endings. The weather cools, the days shorten, leaves turn brilliant colors, then fade and die. For students, teachers, and anyone else involved in the world of ... Read More
Rosh HaShanah – The Day of Infinite Possibilities
Each year we have the opportunity read the text of our lives differently according to the vowels we supply. Rosh Hashanah invites us to gently and lovingly bring ourselves back to God, the eternal mot... Read More