Writings
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The Torah’s core question:
Who am I? I have so many questions. So much self-doubt. Am I the father I want to be? The friend I want to be? The rabbi I want to be? The truth is, there is no objective answer to these questions. And, taken a step further, deeper, these questions themselves are inherently flawed. Allow me to explain... Yom Kippur:
The Prayer of Silence Why is it that only on Yom Kippur we recite out loud the prayer that comes right after the Shema, Baruch Shem kevod malchuto l'Olam vaed, Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever?” For the entire rest of the year it is recited quietly, almost in a silent murmur... Dissent is at the Core of
Judaism I remember years ago, when I was in my 20s, spending hours upon hours, frustratingly trying to decode the legal minutia of the 7th Century Babylonian Talmud’s Tractate Bava Metzia: What happens when an honorary trustee accidentally comes upon a piece of lost property? What constitutes “comes upon?”... Shavuot:
Jewish Education as a Living Torah The Talmud calls the Jewish pilgrimage holiday of Shavuot, Hag Matan Torah, literally, the “Holiday of the Giving of the Torah.” The rabbis of the Talmud mandated that on Shavuot, rather than blindly accepting God’s gift, the Torah, that we to do so Bechol Levavcha, Uvechol Nafshecah, with our hearts, our minds, our very souls... |
On Prayer…To fill my heart, to think the thoughts…
Rabbi David Aaron teaches that we don’t have prayer in Judaism. That Jews don’t pray. “Pray” or “prayer” is an English word from the Latin precari which means to ask earnestly, to beg, to entreat, to supplicate. In Hebrew, however... Passover:
Rethinking Chosen Peoplehood Imagine the Israelites at the foot of Mt. Sinai, just before entering the Land of Israel. God describes who and what they are supposed to be in the world: a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. This text has been classically misunderstood as a gift of chosenness, an assumption of... Embracing Our Beautiful Human Messiness
“Moses heard the people weeping, every clan apart, each person at the entrance of his tent. The Lord was very angry, and Moses was distressed. And Moses said to the Lord, “Why have You dealt ill with Your servant, and why have I not enjoyed Your favor, that You have laid the burden of all this people upon me?... On Wonder: There is a Crack... That's how the Light gets in
The great Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain… a Brit… teaches us Americans something so core, so fundamental to the blessing that is, well, that is America. Let’s take a trip. Back to the American Revolution. To the City of Philadelphia. To Independence Hall, where the colonies declared... |
Living in the Friction of the Universal and the Particular
I love the scene in Fiddler on the Roof when Tevye the Milkman, after the news of the Tzar’s forced expulsion of the Jews of his town, Anatevka, cries out to God, “I know, I know. We are Your Chosen People… But, once in a while, can’t You choose someone else?” ... The Audacity to
Dream Our sages taught: "It is the great dreams that are the foundation of the world.” That the whole world stands only because some people have the courage, the audacity, the chutzpah, to dream great dreams. We read in our Torah, that after the death of Joseph and his brothers... Slowing Down
Time Time seems to be moving faster than ever. Fall is already here and my memories of this past Spring seem almost from the ancient past. Perhaps it is the slowing-down of my aging brain’s internal clock which makes the pace of life appear to be speeding up. Perhaps it’s the political roller-coaster of the past half-year that my psyche craves ... Words Create Worlds:
The power of language The great Medieval commentator, RASHI (1040CE-1105CE), famously asks why the Torah doesn’t begin with the Revelation at Sinai, but instead with the myths of Creation, Cain and Abel, the Tower of Babel, and the legends of Abraham? RASHI answers that this is done to make it clear that God is the God of all Creation, not only God... |
