Noah 5785 (II)
Make ma an ark O God Only please don’t make it from acacia I don’t want it to catch when the world starts to burn Make me an ark O God Only please don’t make it from glass I don’t want it to break when stones get thrown Make me an ark
Noah 5785 (I)
Make me an ark I’m ready to get away for awhile It’s too easy to forget that Noah’s journey wasn’t a pleasure cruise The world was drowning while he floated above And here I am dying to get away from all this Dying Make me a shelter to
We’ll Try Anyway: B’reishit 5785
It only took two humans at the Beginning for blame to come into existence He pointed at her She pointed at the snake (who slithered away without a word) And their children were no better Trying to best each other Playing out their sibling insecurities theologically To the point of fratricide, and over
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Memory & Meaning (Yiskor 5785)
When we lose someone, there is a list of things to do. There are “death-logistics”. There are phone calls to make, document to find, and sign, and file,there is a body to collect, and then bury. There are prayers to say – the shema and vidui and psalms. There is a funeral or a memorial
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Trauma in My Inbox (and what we can learn from it) – YKAM 5785
This poem, by Rabbi Evan Schultz is possibly all too relatable. It speaks to how fragile we have become in recent times. Everyone around us is so similarly shaken, that we imagine even God is weeping with us. And for good reason. This year, for Jews all over the world, everything has changed. Rabbi
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Hope, Even Now (Kol Nidrei 5785)
.Picture this: The rabbi sits down to begin writing her sermon. The topic is: “Israel: Is there hope even now?” She types out the question. She stares at the screen. She doesn’t know how to answer. She doesn’t even know where to begin. Ok, I know you get it. The rabbi is me. The question
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Cries of Sorrow, Shouts of Joy (Rosh Hashanah morning, 5785)
A reading, found in our machzor : Dwell on each sound of the shofar; contemplate its meaning. T’kiah – (BLOW) One whole note Sh’varim-T’ruah – (BLOW) Three broken notes; nine staccato notes T’kiah – (BLOW) One whole note . . . T’kiah – Once I was whole Sh’varim-T’ruah In the wear and tear of living,
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Erev Rosh Hashanah 5785: Divided We Fall
Before we existed, the story goes, God convened a heavenly council—calling on the angels, each representing a different facet of the divine. There was the Angel of Peace, calm and serene, who spoke first. “Don’t create them,” Peace said, voice steady but firm. “Humans will bring strife and conflict, they will tear at each other,
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Reverse Tashlich
We come each year to draw Our sins out of the sea. Some years we walk up and down scanning for trash, or sitting and sifting in the sun but this year there’s no need We can stand in one place where the tide rolls in and turns to crash back out and each
Elul 20: Returning to You
Returning to You doesn’t have to be complicated It can be a moment A pause Noticing the sunbeam of light falling softly across my bed in the morning A miracle if I notice it A tragedy if I do not (The power of the miracle and the tragedy lies within me as much
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