Displaying 1 - 10 of 11
Every Tu BiShvat Is a Second Chance
Tu BiShvat, the precursor to Earth Day, should make us alert to our air, water, animals, and foliage – and all that we’re doing to destroy them.
Tu BiShvat: How Israel Has Planted New Seeds in the Jewish Soul
The way we celebrate Tu BiShvat has changed over the years – a case-in-point of how Jewish life and observance has been transformed in our day, due in no small part thanks to the successes of the State of Israel.
Galilee Diary: Rainy day
Moving from the Midwest to the Mideast involved looking at rainy days in a new way. It took me a number of years to internalize the concept that rainy days are not an inconvenience, but rather a blessing.
Galilee Diary: Old Time Religion
Rabbi Shimon fled to the cave to escape a death sentence for publicly criticizing Roman culture. According to folk tradition, during his twelve years of isolation, he engaged in mystical meditation and wrote the Zohar, the central work of Kabbalah.
Tu Bishvat: Doing Something About It.
I consider myself an environmentalist. I write about the earth, think about the earth, care about the earth. I wrote my rabbinical thesis partly on Judaism and the environment, and I helped found en environmental advocacy committee in my synagogue.
An Omer Meditation
The opening moments of Passover are behind me, and I'm left with a sense of something momentous having passed with it. There's a dryness in my mouth and heaviness in my gut that has nothing to do with the matza I've consumed.
Lag BaOmer Turns Tragedy into Triumph
There are various explanations for why this particular date is special. One suggests that a plague that caused the death of thousands of Rabbi Akiva's students ended on Lag BaOmer.
Lag BaOmer: A Highlight of My Life in Israel
After Passover, we noticed that our 11-year-old son disappeared after school for hours at a time. When we asked him about what he was doing, he divulged few details.
Oops, I Forgot to Count the Omer!
What to do? Give up? Sigh and think, “I’m a bad Jew”? Never!
Why Count the Omer? Five Reasons (and Counting!)
Counting the Omer is a mitzvah through which we count the days from, Passover to Shavuot.