Tu BiShvat: Touchstones in Time
I love Tu BiShvat’s low-key preparation: no sermons, no sukkah, and no kitchen turned upside down. Quick trips for food and wine, and I’m all set.
Greening Your Congregation as One Way to Make It Holy
7 Tips for Starting a Congregational Recycling Program
Our role as custodians and stewards of God’s earth is to protect and preserve the ecology and environment as best we can.
New Beginnings: Tu BiSh’vat and Environmental Action
In this moment of transition, we will celebrate a different kind of new beginning: Tu BiSh’vat, the new year for trees. Tu BiSh’vat is an opportunity to celebrate the earth and to recommit ourselves, for another year, to environmental action.
New Beginnings: Tu BiShvat and Environmental Action
Tu BiShvat is an opportunity to celebrate the earth and to recommit ourselves, for another year, to environmental action.
How Midrash and Commentary Help Us Read Between the Lines
As Rosh HaShanah approached last year, I was living in southwestern China, where I celebrated by eating apples and explaining the Jewish New Year to my Chinese roommate.
Acharei Mot: Love and Death
The opening line of this portion, "The Eternal One spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they drew too close to the presence of the Eternal" (Leviticus 16:1), reminds us that the holy is not only attractive, but also dangerous.
The Power of Tears
Why does the Torah mention the deaths of Nadab and Abihu here in Acharei Mot, when the story of their deaths was told in its entirety in Parashat Sh'mini? What is it that the Torah is trying to teach us through this repetition?