Please join me for six weeks of meaningful study on the themes of the High Holidays
The Bat Mitzvah sits next to me fingering her new gold bracelet It was her grandmothers, who she’s missing today more than usual, I’d imagine I watch her connecting to a lost loved one through a tangible item, left behind for her, and I find myself missing my grandfather not yet gone a year I
I have never not felt safe wrapped in my tallis in one of my many colored tallitot Like being wrapped in the very wings of God Tachat Kanfei haShechina What better armour could I need? I might have asked you yesterday. But today I know better Know that men can be murdered while at prayer
Tachat Kanfei haShechinah Read More »
My Papa was a pretty unassuming guy. He was quiet and sweet and relatively humble. So I think he would have been pretty surprised to know that his Yahrtzeit would fall on Shabbat Chukat, and thus his death will be recalled each year along with those of Miriam and Aaron. This week, in the hazy
Brownies in the Wilderness (Chukat 2014) Read More »
This day makes me sad. Friends mourn children who never came to be while others turn their children into monsters such that we celebrate their death sentences. How can I mourn for murderers while Jewish potential died on train tracks this week? The world is filled with those who hate (and those who love, surely)
A Eulogy for Today Read More »
This is a time of counting Not a holy day or a week-long festival, but a season – a season for counting Once it was about the grain; about the priests; about counting from one harvest to the next A season full of anxiety and hope anxiety because the prosperity of the year was at
The Omer in Verse (49 lines for 49 days) Read More »
On Shabbat anger lines are suspended and estranged parents bless children together We are a village again – Raising each other’s children; Praising each other’s achievements; Laughing together We leave our baggage at the door – All of our petty and legitimately painful histories; All of our irritations, grievances and jealousies; We pretend For the
Accept that this year probably won’t go as expected; that your family won’t suddenly be less dysfunctional; that true change – t’shuva requires hard work and not just best intentions. Accept that you cannot go back; that you don’t get a re-do; that you can only move forward and hope that you might do better
This year I’m a little resentful of Elul It shows up demanding spiritual discipline Drop everything! Begin T’shuva! it declares But I am not ready I am very, very not ready I am exhausted. Relaxing summers are for children and the retired (and I suppose, the wealthy) There are sermons to write and laundry to
Breathe in. A new beginning is on the horizon, fast approaching, ready or not. Breathe out. It is okay to be anxious. There is much that is unknown. It is okay to question: Will you make it through? Breathe in. Elul tells us it’s time to prepare; brace yourself; pace yourself; steady and ready yourself;