Tu BiShvat: Happy Birthday, You Beautiful Trees!
My commute to work every morning is not typical. I drive through the Roaring Fork Valley with majestic, now snow-covered, mountains on my left and my right. The sky is often a clear, bright blue, and the sun glimmers off the powdery snow that shifts in the wind. I am the cantor at the Aspen Jewish Congregation, and I certainly feel blessed to live and work in such a beautiful place. This quote from Isaiah is particularly fitting for this part of the country, as the people here are very in touch with the nature around them - often finding their spiritual center while skiing a run or hiking in the hills.
In Honor of Tu BiShvat, Some Facts About Trees
Tu BiShvat, the birthday of the trees (or the new year of the trees) is a minor Jewish holiday.
Galilee Diary: Independence Day II
If you will it, it will not remain just a dream.
-Theodor Herzl
So I had a little too much to drink at the Independence Day picnic and my head was spinning so I lay down on the grass for a minuteā¦
Simultaneous Joy and Pain: The Wisdom of the Counting of the Omer
This year at our Passover seder, I experienced something deeply powerful which I had not felt in the context of Passover before.
My Life in Israel Today: Faith, Vision, and Reality
Even before I made aliyah, I celebrated Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) with my community, members of a small Reform congregation in Kerch, Crimea.