Rabbi 360

I delivered this d’var Torah at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Reconstrucionist Rabbinical Association on March 6, 2022. Thank you for this opportunity and this honor, and so good to be with colleagues today. We have just passed Rosh Chodesh Adar 2, since this year being a leap year in which we add an…

As we come upon the two year anniversary of the Covid pandemic, I am, for the first time, by desire and necessity, taking a step back from my work at my congregation. Suffice it to say, I know that we are all hurting from this time. It has not been easy. And I do not…

On my first day back at the syangogue after Colleyville, I (what else) made a TikTok video. Here it is, with a transcript: Hi friends. So it’s my first day back in the synagogue after the events at Congregation Beth Israel in Texas and I just wanted to come up to the sanctuary and reflect…

I wrote the first part of this prayer on Saturday as the events at Congregational Beth Israel in Colleyville were still playing out, and I shared it on TikTok, Facebook and at a congregational gathering that evening. I returned to it after and worked on it a little more, and offer it as a general…

In Jewish tradition we are taught that there are four “new years.” Two are familiar to us: Rosh Hashana, our calendar new year and a time of introspection and atonement, and Tu Bishvat, the new year of the trees, which we now observe as a celebration of our environment. The Talmud also teaches that there…

There is a custom that, upon finishing a book of the Torah as part of the weekly reading cycle, the community says “hazak, hazak, ve’nithazek!” “Be strong, be strong, may we all be strengthened!” We have the opportunity to practice this this Shabbat, as we finish reading the Book of Genesis. In this week’s Torah…

Jacob in our Torah is known for his spiritual experiences. Earlier in his life, we are told, he had a vision of angels ascending and descending a ladder, and receives a blessing from God. In this week’s Torah portion, we find him wrestling with an angel, leaving that encounter with a limp, a new name,…

The famous story of Jacob’s ladder is found in this week’s Torah portion. Our spiritual ancestor Jacob is on his way to Haran from his home in Beer-Sheba when he stops to sleep for the night. The text reads: He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had…

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket went up into space again this week with four passengers, including (Jewish!) actor William Shatner, best known for playing Captain Kirk on the original Star Trek. Putting aside any opinions on private space travel and the priorities of billionaires for the moment, it is worth noting how Shatner was clearly…