Do Your Spiritual Homework for the High Holidays
We cannot walk into the gym for just a few days a year and expect to be in shape. Students cannot step into school without reviewing the material and expect to ace the test, nor can lawyers walk into a courtroom without preparing arguments and wow the jury.
How the Scapegoat in Leviticus Can Help Us Find the Truth Within Ourselves
We journey through the Torah discovering truths. Sometimes we need to look hard in the Torah and in ourselves to discover the necessary truths to properly guide our actions. Sometimes the truth appears in the most unsuspected places.
Chocolate Smooths Transitions into High Holidays
How Will You Reflect on This Year?
The 10 days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur are a time for sincere reflection.
Why Are Forgiving and Asking Forgiveness So Difficult?
Everywhere I look, I am surrounded by apologia.
Return Again: A Poem for Yom Kippur
Return.
Again.
I have returned again
to this place of
Fullness,
this place of everythingness;
and I feel empty.
Hollow.
Again.
I fling my sins,
all bright copper
and colored feathers,
out into the heavens -
Which is separate from the earth,
Keep Moving…
I joined America’s Journey for Justice in North Carolina during the week of Nitzavim, a portion that will be read again on the morning of Yom Kippur. It describes for us that moment when our ancestors stood at Sinai to enter into covenant with God.
The Music of Avinu Malkeinu
In the game “Truth-or-Dare,” I choose “truth” nearly every time. I’m not much of a dare-taker. Thus, if you and I were playing “Special Edition Truth-or-Dare: High Holy Days,” I would confess that the prayer Avinu Malkeinu provides me with both my second-favorite liturgical moment and my second-greatest pet peeve of the year’s liturgy. (Note: Even though I may have to repent for it, I will leave you in suspense about my favorite liturgical moment and my greatest liturgical pet peeve. Also, “Special Edition Truth-or-Dare: High Holy Days” is fictional, although I hereby declare copyright in the event Mattel or Hasbro comes knocking at my door.)
Alphabetical Food Drive
Stretching to Make Sense (And Not Fully Succeeding)
This week's Torah portion, Acharei Mot, "After the death" [of two of Aaron's sons], continues the focus on ritual purity that began earlier in Leviticus, and begins the section of the book known as the Holiness Code.