Purim falls on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Adar. About Adar, we say, “When Adar arrives, our…
Year: 2013
Meaningful Manual
In Parshat Terumah, God reveals to Moshe the instruction manual for building the Mishkan. The manual contains details…lots of them.…
Essence of Judaism
Context is everything. Except when it comes to essence, of course. Then the whole point is to strip away context.…
Wonder
I wondered why everyone else doesn’t wonder, too. I saw the dead squirrel in the road and I wanted to…
Opening the Siddur
The title of the conference session seemed innocent enough: Not All Jews Say Kaddish. We received two lovely booklets of…
Mystical Fruit: Tu BeShevat
Enter the world of Pri Etz Hadar, the first published Kabbalistic Tu BeShevat Seder (c. 17th century). We learn that…
Eulogy for Sylvia
Sylvia Spector, 1912-2012 Aunt Sylvia, sister of our father Bernard Duhan, was a familiar member of our nuclear family. But through…
Life's Night and Day (Long)
Torah describes Jacob’s flight from his twin brother Esau as one long day. Jacob impersonates Esau and steals his brother’s…
Animal Magic
A dvar Torah for Parshat Bo. A dream: I am walking through a sliding glass door to someone’s backyard pool. The…