8 Tips on How to Be a Positive Jewish Role Model
What does it take to be a positive Jewish role model?
Celebrating Shabbat in Tel Aviv the Reform Way
Last Friday night, I celebrated Kabbalat Shabbat in Tel Aviv, but not in my usual manner.
Galilee Diary: Winter
It is life we want, no more and no less than that, our own life feeding on our own vital sources, in the fields and under the skies of our homeland, a life based on our own physical and mental labors; we want vital energy and spiritual richness from this living source.
In the Desert: A Poem for Shabbat Zachor
I remember
I remember slings and arrows,
Cruel fortune that cast me into the desert
No, no-
The first desert was freedom
And faith
And miracle.
So no: not that desert.
This was a desert of
At Tu BiShvat, Digging for Spiritual Growth
While my neighbors were putting their Christmas trees to the curb, in what seems like a ritual of replacement, I was preparing to plant for Tu BiShvat.
Those Who Plant Will Reap: A Tu BiShvat Lesson
Tu BiShvat is a reminder that we spend our lives planting seeds. Time and effort are needed for our efforts to bear fruit. Wait patiently. One day, like the seed, we will be blessed.
How Shabbat is Like a Snowstorm
This morning I met again with my usual cohort of Jewish clergy who study sacred texts together each week in the coffee shop.
The Song of the Sea and Shabbat Shirah
Shabbat Shirah is on January 30th this year, and is another name for the week we read the Torah portion called B'shalach. In this portion, the Israelites have just been freed from Egypt and we read about the splitting of the Red Sea.
And When I Leave: A Poem for Havdalah
I am not ready
To leave this place
this time
this rest.
I am not ready
for the separation that
must come, not while
I still smell
the sweetness
of cardamon and cloves.
I want to linger
in this holy time
this sacred promise
And be