Please join me for six weeks of meaningful study on the themes of the High Holidays
Darknesswas the ninth plague For the Egyptiansit preceded unimaginable suffering and devestationThe death of so many beloved childrenBut for us for the Israelitesdarkness preceded salvationFreedomThe darknesswasn’t just an absence of lightit was an absence of hopeA physical and spiritual manifestation, we are taughtAnd so it seemsperhapsthat what we do in the darknessis what makes all
May there always besummer nights where cultured people appreciate culture and gather murmuring sighs and politely clapping for talented hands and feet and voicesMay there always be art andhistory and may we never forget how to sit under stars in roundamphitheaters that could be any where or whenMay there always be strings and grand pianos
May There Always Be Music Read More »
We learn: After Pharaoh’s first refusal, after the Jewish people’s burden increases because of his words, Moshe can’t imagine redemptionWe seek Redemption now, too but it’s getting harder and harder to imagineTyrants abound Elevated to the highest offices of powerlike kings or God-forbidgodsI fear the future.I too, ask God to make me sureof speechworthy of
Redemption Revealed (Vaera 5785) Read More »
I was never an Esther (until now)I wore my Jewish pride with prideBejewelled and armed with learning shared with anyone who would listenMy Jewishness is often first through the door“Rabbi” preempting my given name on desks and lanyards and at the bottom of poetry and divrei TorahI never thought to hide it (until now)Why would
For Moses there were many homes The home of his birth and the home of the people who raised him And, like Avram, God points him toward a land he’s never been to And calls it Home Having many homes means you never really know whether you’re
That I Might Follow You (Sh’mot 5785) Read More »
There is always a past behind us, a future ahead of us. If we are alive there is at least one breath taken or left to take on either side And each breath, a blessing, If we choose to see it so A father, dying, blesses his boys
Blessed (Vayechi 5785) Read More »
Joseph and Judah and Benjamin and all the rest And me I’ve got mine too so I know what anyone knows if they came from a womb that some other human also inhabited That there is no escaping where you came from; That family reunions are never simply
Brothers (Vayigash 5785) Read More »
Lately I have been walking in Joseph’s shoes. I too came to be a stranger in a strange land through circumstances not completely of my choosing making the best of the cards dealt to me by life and hoping God had a plan. I couldn’t quite see it but I was being
Joseph’s Shoes (Miketz 5785) Read More »
After a hard life all Jacob wants to do is settle down in the Land of his hard-won inheritance but he can’t escape destiny its seems or family patterns Despite all he should know of favouritism he favours And so begins the dominos that will fall One
Dominoes (Vayeishev 5785) Read More »
God says Go Find Yourself Go to the Land Come to the Mountain And we go And we come And we find ourselves trembling Revelation comes with
For Yitro (As I Contemplate My Future) Read More »