- 5784, Bereshit, Genesis, Haftorah, Hope, Isaiah, Israel, Lekh Lekha, Palestine, Parsha, Strength, War
Can We Rest From Weariness?
The last three weeks feel interminable, moving like a dense fog and whirling us around all at once. News of deaths, illness, injuries, human suffering and crises, hostages held during this entire span…
- 5784, Bereshit, Captives, Collective, Evaporation, Flood, Freedom, Genesis, Israel, Noach, Noah, Palestine, Parsha, Peace, Prayer, Shalom, Wholeness
Waiting for Evaporation
There are times that feel like a deluge – of information, emotions, tasks, and other things over which we cannot control. I found some encouragement in this current flood of pain, loss, confusion,…
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תהו ובהו
For a week where words fail us…I wanted to reflect on the bookends of this parsha that speak to our despair and devastation. בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃ When G!d began…
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Unraveling
Three days in, and I don’t have any words to offer that can give voice to the scale of death and destruction happening in Israel/Palestine. This makes sense – the actions defy reason,…
- 5783, 5784, Bereshit, Brooklyn, Creativity, Deuteronomy, Devarim, Flood, Genesis, High Holidays, Moses, Parsha, Pharaoh, Rain, Repentance, Rosh Hoshannah, Simchat Torah, Sukkot, Torah, Yom Kippur
Brooklyn’s River of Joy, Sorrow, & Everything in Between
This season of the year’s turning, I’ve reflected a lot on the changes during 5783 and how to step forward into 5784. Through the contemplative space provided by Malkhut during Rosh Hashanah and…
- 5783, 5784, Brooklyn, Chevrutah, Friends, High Holidays, Lifelong Learning, Music, New Year, New York, Relationship, Rosh Hoshannah, Talmud, YIVO
I’ll Stop the World & Melt With You…
A gut, gebentsht, zis, umbagrayflekh yor!! In the next few days, I hope to get into a few topics more deeply (like Hagar, sharing about my Yom Kippur learning session that will incorporate…
- Deuteronomy, Devarim, Dissertation, Judges, Kings, Messiah, Moses, Parsha, Priests, Prophet, Redemption, Sacrifice, Shoftim
Prophets, Priests, & Kings
Shoftim has it all…every popular messiah-type, that is! After declaring how the shared responsibility of community judgment should be directed, along with an all-too-familiar helping of laws to keep the community pure, the…
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Hope & Fear
What a year, now bringing us to Devarim and so near to the beginning again of our parshiyot, the Torah renewed each year so we can turn over all the facets of teachings,…
- Aaron, Bamidbar, Brooklyn, Egypt, Exodus, Forgiveness, Lamentations, Masei, Matot, Miriam, Moses, Numbers, Parsha, Priests, Slavery, Tisha B'Av, Voice
What’s in a Voice?
Last week, I gave the D’var Torah on the double parsha Matot-Masei for Shir HaMa’alot, an independent minyan/chavurah in Brooklyn. The main text follows. ********* Some of you may remember that in last…
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Re-Location
The third parsha of the year, Lekh Lekha, sends us into the unknown – or at least, begins that journey for our textual ancestors. In Debbie Friedman’s Lechi Lach, the simple words remind…