Category: Uncategorized
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Torah tl;dr: “Tazria/Metzora, “Acharei Mot/Kedoshim” and “Emor”
Oy, I’m behind posting my podcast episodes here. Here are the past three.
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Remembering Rev. Rice
A few weeks ago I was saddened to hear about the death of one of my mentors, the Rev. Charles Rice. Throughout my time in rabbinical school, I had been most interested in serving in the campus rabbinate once I finished–working for Hillel or serving as a campus chaplain. I found the time that I had…
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Don’t Just Mark the Jewish Holidays, Mark the Jewish Intervals
This post originally ran on the Rabbis Without Borders blog. You can read the original here. The Jewish calendar is a bit interesting since we also live on Gregorian time. The fact that it is a lunar-based calendar means that every year the Hebrew dates shift vis-a-vis the “regular calendar” so that certain holidays, while…
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Counting Cards
In the Jewish calendar we are currently in the period of the Omer. Originally, in the Torah, the Omer is a means to mark harvests. An omer is a sheaf of barley, and we are told to count the days between the festivals of Passover and Sukkot, to count the time between harvest seasons. As…
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An Eight-Day Passover is Anti-Science
The story of Passover is anti-science: a series of biological anomalies called “plagues” that are visited upon the Egyptians each time Pharaoh refuses to release the Israelite slaves; a sea which splits based on human appeal and divine command in order to allow those slaves, once freed, safe passage out of the land. But that…
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“Thank you for the simple egg”: An invocation at the Washington State Legislature
On April 20, 2017 I delivered the following invocation in the Washington State House of Representatives: Source of All Life and Blessing, thank you for this season. We as a human family are witnessing the awakening of our world, as nature comes alive once again in spring. We delight in the buds on the trees,…
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For Passover and the Exodus, think Rivers not Seas
This column first appeared in the Rabbis Without Borders blog on My Jewish Learning. You can read the original post here. It’s spring break in our school district, so we are taking a road trip. We left our home in Olympia on the Puget Sound and drove to Boise, ID, where we have family. We…
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Creating a Progressive, Inclusive, Egalitarian Jewish People: My Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association Presidential Address
On March 28, 2017, I was honored to be elected President of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association at our biennial convention in Portland, OR. These are the remarks I delivered that evening at our Presidential Dinner. Thank you. I will admit that when I agreed to accept this position, I only did so because I thought…
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Let Us Make Them a Sanctuary
One of the quirky aspects of the text of the Torah is how much parchment is dedicated to a description of the ancient Tabernacle. A portable structure that is to be built and carried around by the Israelites, the Tabernacle is described in rich detail twice. The first description is the plans—God telling Moses what…
