Tag: Judaism
The Value of Discomfort: Why I won’t make peace with my Parsha
I have encountered many mitigating interpretations of the most painful texts in my Torah portion (Lev. 18:22 and 20:13), some more rigorous and thoughtful than others. However, academically and religi... Read More
Sukkot, the Feast of Booths
On the fifteenth of Tishrei, we begin the seven day observance of Sukkot or the Feast of Booths. The mood and character of Sukkot is starkly and dramatically different from that of the Days of Awe. In... Read More
Assert Your Authority
If on Rosh HaShanah we gain a picture of what can happen when we submit blindly to authority, Yom Kippur is our opportunity to choose another path.... Read More
Some Thoughts As We Approach Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. Yom Kippur is one of the most widely observed of Jewish holidays, marked by a solemn, 25-hour fast and abstinence from w... Read More
A Jewish Autumn
This post is based on the poem “A Jewish Autumn,” written by Avraham Halfi. I studied this poem this week in the Hartman Institute Seminar for Rabbinical Students. It was originally wr... Read More
Asking the Right Questions: from the Keystone XL Hearings to an Occupied Wall Street
At the hearing, I sat and listened. Underneath the noise, all I heard was fear, pain and loss. From union workers, I heard a steady litany of suffering: we need jobs; we need homes; we need to feed ou... Read More
Living in Israel, Longing for Peace
Out among the scraggly brush of the desert, the Sulha began at dusk and went late into the evening. We gathered together: Jewish and Arab Israelis, Palestinians, our small contingent of American Jews,... Read More
A Prayer for the Opening of Gates (in the Middle East)
Awareness of insecurity and surrender to it can soften us to let Eternity in, can humble us enough to receive that which is beyond our false sense of control. This is what The Days of Awe, and the Jew... Read More