When I was about twelve years old, I opened my younger brother’s textbook, just out of curiosity. This textbook from…
Category: God
Circumcision: Whose Initiation?
You may know the contemporary arguments for and against a brit milah, ritual circumcision of infant Jewish boys. For: It’s traditional. It affirms…
Kabbalah as Theology
“To my mind, Kabbalah is the theology of the Jewish People.” — Adin Steinsaltz, The Thirteen Petalled Rose At the…
Super Psalm 23
Psalms: spiritual poems set to music. Music, says the Torah, was invented by the world’s creatures. After the Garden of…
Malchut-Shechinah: Divine Mother
Though a human mother might forget her children, I never could forget you. See, I have engraved you on the…
Eternal Light
A teaching for Parshat Emor When non-Jewish groups come to visit our synagogue, they are usually quite impressed with the…
Hod: Gratitude & Majestic Beauty
Week Five in the journey of self-examination we call “Sefirat Ha-Omer”: observing the “sefirot” (Divine attributes) within us. The Hebrew…
Finding Spiritual Meaning
A week filled with senseless public events is a good week to look for meaning. Rabbi Rachel Barenblat found meaning…
Hearing into Speech
Yesterday, I sat out on Sophia Street and listened. I heard: A woman talking loudly on her cell phone. A…