Sarah is upset. She wants Hagar and Hagar’s son Yishmael out of the household. Avraham resists, upset on behalf of…
Year: 2013
Grief as Spiritual Seeking
Dreams: I am a university student, returning to my residence (dorm) after an evening party. A kind security guard welcomes…
Spiritual Yearnings of American Jews
As Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz writes at Rabbis Without Borders, statistics in the Pew Research Center’s survey of American Jewish attitudes and beliefs are…
Unicorn
For perhaps the first time, I received a message in a dream. A direct message in words, that is, not…
Culinary Spirituality
Some years ago, a bar mitzvah student reframed for me the rivalry between twin brothers Jacob and Esau. This young…
Sylvia's Kaddish
Who will say Kaddish for my sweet Aunt Sylvia? Not the husband or brother she had outlived, when she passed…
Shall We Pray?
Occasionally, a book about Jewish prayer will tell you that Judaism discourages spontaneous prayer. That magic of Jewish prayer, the…
Tale of the 13 Attributes
When faced with a particularly weighty problem, the Baal Shem Tov would go to a particular place in the woods,…
We Are As Clay
Ki Hiney Kachomer: We Are As Clay. A beloved piyyut, Hebrew liturgical poem, from the Yom Kippur service. A poem inviting us…