How Prayer May Bring Change – Not How You Might Think
I’m writing to share the remarks I delivered at this past week’s Friday night Shabbat service, which you are always encouraged to attend — a peaceful conclusion to the week and initiation of Shabbat, celebrated through song, community, reflection, and prayer, and then, of course, food: I’ve shared a lot about my own personal prayer […]
Aheinu — Holding Space for One Another
One English word used today to describe the work of a rabbi is “pastoral.” Pastoral is a word whose origins derive from the nomadic, shepherding origins of our people, and today it refers to a form of accompaniment — to, as Rabbi Dayle Friedman writes, offering “a spiritual presence to people in need, pain, or […]
A Time for Wailing, A Time for Dancing
These verses from Ecclesiastes come to me in this moment that feels like both “a time for wailing and a time for dancing.”
A time for dancing because, after 15 months of war, hostages will be reunited with their families, rockets — at least between Israel and Hamas — will stop firing, families will return to their hometowns. Peace, albeit limited, tentative, and fragile, will reign.
Israel and Community, and the California Fires
I’d like to share a reflection flowing out of a monthly course I’m teaching here at Society Hill Synagogue on Zionism: Understanding The Yearnings For A Jewish State. For the moment, I don’t want to get hung up on defining the word “Zionism;” people often mean different things when they invoke the word, oftentimes when […]
What exactly is a miracle?
I’m writing to wish you all a healthy and happy Hanukkah season, this Festival of Lights, and to share with you some reflections that I offered this past Shabbat on the question: what is a nes — Hebrew for miracle? What do we mean when we invoke the existence of miracles on Hanukkah and when […]