This is The Way (?) … “Something within you will tell you: Continue … on your way.” Have you ever been asked, “What does it mean to be a Conservative Jew?” Since my path crossed and merged with the Masorti (Conservative) movement decades ago, I have been asked this question frequently. One of my teachers […]
Hanukkah: Agony, Peoplehood, and Promise Megillat Antiochus, recounting the Hanukkah story, tells of the Seleucid decree to ban Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh, and circumcision. This was intended to weaken the Jews and punish them for following their distinctive ways. Those practices are portrayed as the foundation of the Jewish people. Circumcision and Shabbat express peoplehood and […]
Rising to the Challenge of Mighty Waters In the Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat service we hear the words: “the thunder of the mighty waters”, describing God’s greatness. Beyond the sound of the “mighty waters” and the “breakers of the sea” … “YHWH is majestic on high” (Ps. 93:4). But when I hear these words I […]
Lift Your Eyes … From Your Screen “I will praise God with my life.” – Psalms 146:2 Not only prayer or mitzvot — life itself can be an act of praise. I think of this every Sunday when my iPhone tells me how much time I spent staring at its screen in the week prior. […]
The Language of Your Soul In the coming weeks, each weekly parasha begins with a dream. During the month of Kislev (in the northern hemisphere) we experience a decline in our energies, and lights. We withdraw inward. The external hibernates; the internal awakens. One of the characteristics of human consciousness (as opposed to AI) is […]
The Main Thing Is … To Hope “Optimism and hope are not the same. Optimism is the belief that the world is changing for the better; hope is the belief that, together, we can make the world better.” ~ Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, To Heal a Fractured World (page 166) Rabbi Sacks’ words, said years […]
Now, you are to take exceeding care for yourselves [le-nafshoteikhim] … or as Robert Alter renders the clause, “And you shall be very watchful for yourselves” (Deut. 4:15). With these words Moses warns the Israelites against worshipping idols, the work of human hands. Over time, the Sages broadened the mitzvah of self-care, which may be […]
We Await the Rainy Season, and Healing Last week, here in Israel, we began to pray for God to “give us dew and rain to bless the earth” in our daily Amidah. We now find ourselves, after a long, hot summer, waiting for the Yoreh, the first rain of the season — a rain that […]
Seeing Hagar, expelled and wandering, encounters a messenger/manifestation of God, who promises her a son who will thrive. She exclaims: “You God of Seeing!” and adds “Have I actually gone on seeing here, after his seeing me?” Is this just surprise at surviving the encounter? Or has she also learned something? Harold Kushner suggests she […]
“From the darkness, we plead — to arise tomorrow morning and start again from ‘In the beginning.’” ~ from a popular song by the late Israeli songwriter Naomi Shemer Over the past two weeks, we have finally been privileged to witness the return to Israel from Gaza of the remaining living hostages. Not all of […]