Tag: Torah
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Where Are You @?
Yesterday was my scheduled monthly contribution to the Rabbis Without Borders blog on My Jewish Learning. Here is my post: Where Are You @?
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Can You Teach an Old Calf New Tricks?
This week’s Torah portion Ki Tissa tells the famous story of the Golden Calf. The Israelites, having escaped Egyptian slavery, are encamped around Mount Sinai. Moses is up on the summit receiving the Torah from God. When he is late in coming down the mountain, the Israelites begin to worry and ask Aaron, Moses’s brother…
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The One Biblical Verse We Need to Remember When We Discuss Guns
The New York Times did something extraordinary this Saturday—it ran an editorial on the front page. This was extraordinary in both senses of the word. On the one hand it was unusual in that this is the first time since 1920 that the Times ran an editorial on the front page. And on the other…
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Here We Are Again, For the Very First Time
This was one of my favorite phrases to come out of my recent 18-month program on mindfulness and embodied spirituality for Jewish clergy, run by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. One of my teachers, Rabbi Jonathan Slater, spoke them as we came to one of our last mediation sessions of the program. I echoed these…
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The “Fake News” and the “News Fake”
I love the Daily Show. And hearing of Jon Stewart’s departure is sad, but we know it is not imminent, and he is going out on top. And while I don’t watch TV news that much, I respected and enjoyed Brian Williams, who is now on a six month suspension from NBC News. I had…
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The Significant Anonymous
As a rabbi, people often ask me who my favorite character from the Torah is. Well, actually, no one has ever asked me that. But I will answer anyway. And while it is hard to choose, my vote for one of my favorite characters is the mysterious man in the Joseph story. Who, you may…
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Atlas
This year I spent a very non-traditional Shavuot on the road, driving north on U.S. Highway 93 from Las Vegas to Wells, Nevada, a drive of almost 400 miles. When we planned this trip, we knew it would take us over the holiday. We were in Vegas at the time visiting family, and although we…
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Mountains and Canyons
There is one blessing I have been saying a lot this trip: Baruch atah Adonai eloheynu melech haolam oseh ma’aseh bereshit Blessed are you, Adonai our God, sovereign of all time and space, who creates the works of Creation. It is the blessing our tradition teaches we say whenever one sees an object of natural…
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Blotting Out (And Putting Back In)
Last week I spoke about writing, this week too I’ll reflect on writing. Last week it was memoir authors, this week it is Torah scribes. Last Tuesday we had a rare treat at TBH, a sofer—a Torah scribe—came to TBH. He was there to inspect and appraise our Torah scrolls, something which we haven’t had…
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