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.
Date-Fig Bars
This recipe is adapted from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion's recipe for Bakery Date Squares.
What are the Seven Species?
Hockey, Family, and Greed
It’s winter in Michigan. The cold weather has moved in, and sports traditions are firmly in place. The Detroit Lions are terrible (they set the NFL’s only negative perfect record of 0-16 in 2008). The Pistons will make the playoffs and lose in the first round.
Listening for the Voice of Homelessness
While most readers of the Torah consider Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac as his most troubling deed, his treatment of his firstborn son, Ishmael and Ishmael’s mother, Hagar, is also deeply disturbing.
The Challenge of Righteousness
The wording of the verse gives rise to this debate. The text states that “Noah was a righteous man,” but immediately follows with the phrase “in his generation, he was above reproach. . . ” All of us, including the ancient Rabbis, are left to wonder if Noah is exceptional or not, if his righteousness would be universally righteous or simply righteous in his time.
Isaac: Why Is This Patriarch Different from All Other Patriarchs?
This week's Torah portion begins with the phrase, V'eileh toldot Yitzchak ben Avraham, "This is the line of Isaac son of Abraham" (Genesis 25:19), indicating that the text is now going to focus on Isaac, the second of the Patriarchs of our tradition.
The Power of Names and Naming
Elie Wiesel has written, "In Jewish history, a name has its own history and its own memory. It connects beings with their origins.