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Have Courage (Kol Nidre 5778)
My favorite part of the Torah is the end. It’s a tender and sweet moment. Moses dies, God buries Moses in a place that is unknown to anyone else. The Torah says some nice words about Moses, how he was unlike any other prophet that the Israelites has known—our liberator, our lawgiver, our defender, our…
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The Six Things I Have Learned About Life Since Last Year’s Election (Erev Rosh Hashanah 5778)
Well these are interesting times we are living in. It is always noteworthy how the High Holidays come in the fall, when so many of our other renewals and new starts take hold. In nature we transition from summer to fall, and are harvesting the last of our summer bounty. The salmon are running, making…
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Living into Your Strengths: A Cheshbon Hanefesh Worksheet for the New Year
As we pass Selichot eve towards the High Holidays, the work of self-reflection and introspection becomes all that more immediate. The act of cheshbon hanefesh–of taking a self-inventory–is the spiritual work we are called to do at this season. But it is not easy. Confronting what we did, or didn’t do, over the past year…
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Torah tl;dr: “Ki Tavo” and “Nitzavim-Vayeilech”
Two this week, since I forgot to post last week. It’s been a busy Elul! Ki Tavo: Carrot or the Stick? Nitzavim-Vayeilech: Ground Yourself. 60 SECONDS TO WISDOM. Short Teachings on the Weekly Torah Portion. Suitable for All Who Seek.
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Now That We Have Criticized Joel Osteen, We Must Do These Three Things
This piece originally appeared on the Rabbis Without Borders blog, a follow-up to my previous piece following Hurricane Harvey: Much has happened since Hurricane Harvey reached landfall and devastated Houston. President Trump rescinded DACA, another hurricane has hit Caribbean Islands and threatens Florida, and here in the Northwest forest fires are decimating the beloved Columbia…
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What the Criticism of Joel Osteen Says About Us
This post originally appeared on the Rabbis Without Borders blog on My Jewish Learning, you can read the original posting here. It’s subsequent posting to Facebook garnered a lot of conversation, which I always hope to spark through my writing. We are all transfixed and devastated by the images coming out of Houston. The tremendous level…
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The Eclipse, Elul and Envisioning a Better Future
It was quite an auspicious week as Monday a total solar eclipse made its way across the US, the first since 1979. Many piled in cars to make their way to the path of totality a state south in Oregon, others made plans to locally watch the partial eclipse. All with the proper warnings and…
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Torah tl’dr: “Re’eh”
Take the long view. Listen to the lastest episode of my podcast here: 60 SECONDS TO WISDOM. Short teaching on the weekly Torah portion. Suitable for all who seek.
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“To Bigotry, No Sanction:” Remarks after Charlottesville
In the wake of the events in Charlottesville, in which white supremacists staged a rally filled with hate, replete with racist and anti-Semitic symbols and chants, a rally that turned violent and resulted in the death of a counter-demonstrator, I joined with other clergy to hold a vigil outside Olympia City Hall. Here are the…
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