Tag: Hope
Seeking Freedom Behind the Partition
I arrived at Gate 6 in Terminal 3 at JFK an hour before departure to Tel Aviv. It was technically yesterday, but due to the flight and the travel I’ve only scraped together some shallow dozes, and t... Read More
Erev Israel
I lived in Indonesia during the summer of 2010. When Indonesians meet someone new, they ask two questions: What is your name? and What is your religion? I was startled one day when a wizened Indonesia... Read More
Embracing Darkness, Kindling Light
The lighting of Chanukah candles can be seen as a ceremonial process through which we enact the destruction that necessarily precedes rededication. We place our candle in its holder, light its tiny fl... Read More
Seven Types of Scholarship
What are scholars for? I offer for your consideration seven types of religious scholarship: priest, scribe, gnostic, revolutionary, rabbi, scientist, and contemplative.... Read More
The Gift of Interaction
I am working in downtown Boston again. My workplace is great and I really love that I walk through the oldest park in America every morning. What I don’t love seeing are the homeless men and wom... Read More
The Samaritan and the Nittany Lions
The tragic events at Penn State have captured the nation’s attention. The question that is at the center of it all seems to be: “Did they do enough?” Did the then graduate assistant, Mike McQu... Read More
Love and Weight Loss
Weight. The very word is heavy, overweighted. Weight on my plate. Weight in my gut. Weight in my heart. Weight of the world. Heavy, heavy, heavy…it’s such a bad word. It’s something none of ... Read More
Lines through the Heart of this City
These past two months living in Jerusalem have been an experience of witnessing the struggle—in this city and in my own heart—between forces that seek to dismember us into discrete parts, and forc... Read More