Rabbi 360

Last week I made a difficult decision, a strange decision, and a good decision. And they were all the same decision. For the past year and a half I have been participating in the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program at our local hospital, Providence St. Peter. CPE is an accredited training program that trains chaplains–spiritual…

Sometimes when I teach about the origins of Judaism, I draw the distinction between “actual history” and “mythic history.” The mythic history is what we are reading right now in the Torah cycle: the stories of our ancestors, Abraham and Sarah and their descendants, who journey from Mesopotamia to Canaan. Their grandson Jacob moves the…

Do you remember the Highland Park shooting? I would not be surprised if you didn’t recall the details, considering that there are so many shootings that take place in our country on a regular basis. The Highland Park shooting, in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, took place this past Fourth of July during an…

I entered into these High Holidays with excitement, and also with some trepidation, with some curiosity. Because, I didn’t know what was going to happen tonight and the days to come. Years prior I knew what to expect, the hum of the sanctuary, the excitement of return, the convergence of all of us here in…

This Shabbat ushers in the new month of Elul, which in turn ushers in the High Holiday season. Elul is the month that precedes Rosh Hashanah and the new year, and so invites us to use these next four weeks as opportunities for reflection and preparation for the spiritual work of atonement and repentance we…

Tisha B’Av is a challenging holiday for me in a number of ways. According to Jewish tradition, Tisha B’Av (“the ninth of Av”) is a day of mourning in observance of the destruction of the ancient Temples in Jerusalem and other calamities that have struck the Jewish people over the centuries. It is observed by…

A brief note: I know I have been posting less frequently in recent times, as I have also been exploring different media. I have been putting many of my thoughts and teachings in video form on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook as of late, so you can find me there as well. Sometimes we need to…

I, like many others, especially in the Jewish community, are reeling from this morning’s decision from the Supreme Court: the 50-year-precendent Roe v. Wade was overturned, eviscerating an established constitutional right and allowing government to exert control of bodily autonomy. Today is a day filled with sadness and rage. The conservative long-game has won. Donald…

I will admit, the first portion of the book of Numbers, Bamidbar, is a little tough to sink one’s teeth into. In preparation for the journey into the wilderness, God asks Moses to conduct a census of the Israelites. Much of the portion is the census numbers of those who make up the community. In…