Help! I am trapped inside the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes, looking out onto the world. Vanity of vanities, says Kohelet, it’s all…
Holy War: Moses v. Joshua
Joshua, Moses’ trusted assistant, has exactly three spoken lines in the Five Books of Moses, a.k.a. the Torah. After the…
Dove Territory
Crows have colonized Vancouver. Superimposed on the human city is an entire crow city, divided into family territories. During the…
The Blind God
A night time dream, July 8, 2014: We arrive home from a trip. Our little cat Keely, a lively green-eyed…
Rabbi Laura's Day Off
Our 21 year old daughter has invited her parents to The Intention Gathering, a “self-sustaining, all-ages, ethnically diverse superfragilistic-art-dance-creative community.”…
Where is God's Glory?
We’ve had a week of heartbreaking events. Where, where is God? On the banners of one or another army? In…
Special Person, Special Time
Last Thursday, Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal movement, passed away, leaving his bodily existence for…well, for whatever…
Suffering: Why Does God Allow It?
This week, I happen to be teaching a course to rabbinic students called Losing God, Finding God: Jewish Responses to…
Letting Go of Literalism
A Biblical story, from parshat hashavua: The king of Moab approaches the prophet Balaam, hoping to hire Balaam to curse the…