Toward Shabbat

It’s been 195 days but for me (and I imagine many others) it’s still October 7. With millions of people in Israel and Gaza embroiled ...

Toward the end of his life, Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, a prominent German rabbi and Jewish thinker in the 19th century, insisted on traveling by ...

I joined the BJ Hebrew school program as a shy fourth grader. Since my parents took a couple of years to find the right synagogue, ...

I have been in Buenos Aires this week visiting my father. Though we FaceTime every day, it is a special joy to hug him, to ...

One of the great things about working with children is that I am constantly re-learning to see the world not as the big moments I ...

Growing up in an interfaith family, we went to church on Christmas every year to support our family members in their faith. These holidays may ...

“If a woman had written the Torah, the creation story would have been a birthing story.” These words were spoken by an Orthodox feminist scholar ...

It’s Friday evening a few weeks ago, and we’re about to kick off our very first brand new Aviv Kabbalat Shabbat and dinner for folks ...

We were immersed in learning a dance for our wedding. And not just any dance, but one that my saba, now a retired Israeli-dance teacher ...

In Smashing Pumpkins’ iconic song Zero, Billy Corgan sings, “I’m in love with my sadness.” When I first heard that lyric, all I could think ...

This Shabbat we delve into Parashat Yitro, a pivotal moment in our history when we received the Torah at Mount Sinai. Although this is a ...

On the Sunday of MLK Weekend, I was sitting in the pews at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, surrounded by BJ teens and several hundred ...

I got choked up the moment I saw the land of Israel from the tiny airplane window. The sun shining over the splotches of green ...

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously said, “I am an optimist against my better judgment.” In general, I tend to sit in the space of optimism. ...

My wife, Miranda, and I recently had the pleasure of attending our friend Molly’s wedding. In her vows, Molly lovingly quoted a verse from the ...

When we bless our children on Friday nights with the priestly blessings, my husband and I combine the traditional openings referencing both male and female ...

It felt dishonest to walk many of my students through an exploration of Judaism, finding ways for them to love and embrace what it means ...

Last year, my partner and I spent the eighth night of Hanukkah in Portugal just after I finished a semester of rabbinical school in Jerusalem. ...

We shouldn’t be here. We should have disappeared long ago like the Hittites and the Babylonians and the Assyrians and all the other ancient peoples ...

I am a hopeful person by nature, an “optimist against my better judgment,” as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once said. Like so many, since October 7 ...

“I’m really tired of living in historic and unprecedented times. I would like to go back to precedent, please.” Six weeks after the horrifying events ...

For me, and I know for many of you, joy feels hard to come these days and is particularly diminished by our social media feeds. ...

My younger sister and I have always been very close. In middle school, after spending a summer apart, we missed each other so much that ...

I had seen the profound images of the empty Shabbat tables in Tel Aviv and around the world, set for the 200+ Israeli hostages who ...

On Shemini Atzeret, we begin adding a phrase to the Amidah prayer asking for rain. For centuries, we’ve said these words. But this year, Shemini ...

As the horror and enormity of the news was unfolding from Israel this past Saturday while we celebrated Shabbat and prepared for Simhat Torah, we ...

Nine years ago I was outed and fired for being gay. Aside from the practical question of how I would pay next month’s rent, I ...

“Double your pleasure, double your fun…” While many of us may know this expression as the catchy jingle from the old Doublemint Gum commercials, it ...

I don’t usually talk about being gay. The reason I avoid it is twofold. When I was first coming out (and even sometimes today), I was ...

My first trip to New York City was when I was 10 years old, back in 2001. As a family we walked all over town, ...

I was ordained 24 years ago. Two days after I became a rabbi, my father went in for open heart surgery. Just a couple of days ...

It’s May of senior year and I feel stuck. I’m stuck between caring and not feeling motivated. I’ve already been accepted to college—do I really need ...

I’ve been thinking a lot about ego recently: the role that it plays in my life; and my ongoing efforts to infuse accomplishment with humility, ...

“Watch out, Mommy!” my two and a half year old will say. “There’s a monster behind you!” Then she yells “run away!” and signals for ...

We have just completed the yearly succession of holidays and commemorations that take us from Pesah to Yom Hashoah to Yom Hazikaron and to Yom ...

On Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Day of Remembrance of Fallen Soldiers, the sadness and grief in the country is palpable. In the U.S., by comparison, our ...

Without a doubt, Parashat Shemini includes one of the most heart-wrenching, devastating narratives of the Torah. In the midst of our learning about the process ...

I distinctly remember the archeology class I took during my junior year abroad at Hebrew University. We would study the Tanakh in the classroom and ...

I was seven years old when my youngest brother was born, old enough to participate in marking his many milestones on his “Baby’s First Year” ...

I spent last weekend in Washington, DC, with 18 BJ Haverim (7th-grade) students. After a beautiful Shabbat, we welcomed the new week with Havdalah. On ...

“Heavenly Jerusalem, earthly Jerusalem. Never has a city been so beautiful and so blemished, so revered and so reviled, so easy to love and so ...

In this week’s parashah, Tetzaveh, God outlines to Moshe the priestly vestments that Aaron will wear as the high priest of B’nai Yisrael. Aaron is ...

As the Israelites are in the early stages of their long journey through the desert, which we read in this week’s parashah, God gives the people ...

“Finders keepers, losers weepers” is a well known (if morally questionable) children’s adage. But while this argument might win a dispute on the playground, it’s not a ...

It is chilling to read this week’s parashah in light of the earthquake that devastated Turkey and Syria this week: "Now Mount Sinai was all ...

On an evening in June of last year, Judith, a BJ volunteer, and I had the privilege of welcoming a Guatemalan refugee family to NYC, ...

I was 7 years old when I decided I wanted to be Jewish. That’s right. This rabbi began her life as a Catholic. The epiphany happened ...

This past weekend, I was blessed to be with our BJ Teens in Arizona, learning about immigration in America. In our first moments of the ...

I distinctly remember the first time I picked up a book of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s in the library of Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. ...

Last Saturday night, my family and I brought in the new secular year with 4,000 of our closest friends. At 11:30 PM, the four of ...

One of the most powerful Jewish rituals for me, is the ritual of immersing in a mikveh—a Jewish ritual bath made of “mayyim hayyim” (living ...

The World Cup final between Argentina and France this past Sunday in Qatar was spectacular, exhilarating, and electric. Definitely not for the faint of heart. ...

On a good night, in the midst of our despair trying to rock a crying baby back to sleep at 3:00 AM, either my husband, ...

Every month I’m fortunate to meet with a “spiritual director”—a practitioner who is trained to guide people through questions pertaining to their spiritual lives. No ...

Have you heard? Shabbat is all the rage. Just this week, a New York Times article reported on what appears to be a growing trend ...

In the past few weeks, we’ve lived through antisemitic rants and conspiracy theories dominating news headlines, exposing the pervasiveness and rise of Jew hatred in ...

Throughout our Back Home Shabbaton, I was struck not only by the diversity of stories that our members brought into our synagogue but also the accents ...

An old, popular Spanish saying, “Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres”—“Tell me who you walk with and I’ll tell you who you ...

At one stage or another in our lives, we’ve all experienced the feeling of being stuck in a rut. We may look around at our ...

Shabbat wasn’t always a part of my life. It was when I was a child: Growing up, Shabbat was a constant, a day joyfully distinct ...

When my children and I walked home from shul on Simhat Torah, I felt exhaustion and relief deep in my bones. It’s been three years ...

I celebrated becoming a Bat Mitzvah with a Minha service surrounded by family, friends, and a community of people, many of whom had known me ...

As I come to the end of my time as a MTM Rabbinic Fellow at BJ, I’ve been reflecting on what it means to be ...

Some of the most vivid Jewish memories from my childhood took place in the social hall of Lower Merion Synagogue. Every week, after we sang the ...

The very first thing we learn about us humans in the opening chapter of Genesis is that every person is made in the image of ...

On Wednesday morning I received an alert with new information about the mass shooting in Uvalde: The 19 children and two teachers that were murdered ...

In some ways, last Shabbat was like every other Shabbat I have celebrated with You. It was framed by the light of the Shabbat candles ...

On a family trip to England many years ago, we visited the famous hedge maze at Hampton Court Palace. At one point I became separated ...

At the age of 74, the State of Israel is still considered to be a young nation. Israel and its people have accomplished much, and ...

As we transitioned out of Passover this past week, I felt a bit of the letdown that comes from going from a time of freedom ...

I have a vivid memory of being in my childhood house the morning of Erev Pesah (the night before Passover). The windows were slightly open ...

The rabbi of my childhood was a man of the “Greatest Generation.” He would ascend to the pulpit to give a sermon, ceremoniously take off ...

Heschel articulated the devastation of 1943 in the following terms: "There has never been so much guilt and distress, agony, and terror. At no time ...

The central event of Parashat Shemini is the death of Aaron’s sons Nadav and Avihu. As a traditional understanding of the story goes, God kills ...

Throughout the 1970s and 80s, my Jewish community in Philadelphia was very active in the Soviet Jewry movement. In school we learned about refuseniks, and ...

Last Shabbat started like every other Shabbat for me, with the lighting of candles. However, unlike most Shabbatot, I was not standing with my family. ...

On Purim, we are invited into a topsy turvy existence of our own making, putting on masks and reveling in the hidden. In a much ...

For two years, the pandemic has forced us to disconnect from the lives we used to live. We are all fatigued, and discouraged by the ...

Fearing that Moshe will never return from the mountain where he speaks with God, the Israelites fashion a golden calf—combining their resources in much the ...

It’s true that football is a brutal sport. But if you reduce its attraction to being a modern equivalent of gladiator events at the Colosseum, ...

The physicality of welcoming Shabbat each week during “Lekha Dodi” is a magical moment and one in which many of us can relate to. There ...

One of the most humbling aspects of the rabbinate is accompanying people through the literal or figurative valley of the shadow of death. In my ...

What are we supposed to do with so much fear? We are in the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, frustrated and beyond tired of ...

This reading of Miriam’s prophecy cast the concept of “prophecy” itself into a new light for me. Rashi's take on Miriam’s dance caused me to ...

Two years ago this week, on January 5, 2020, I joined a very special club. For most of its existence, this club was fairly exclusive. Women’s ...

Tonight, we usher in the New Year on Shabbat, which means that my ritual countdown in front of the tv will be replaced by another ...

We human beings can feel profoundly vulnerable at times, wounded by what life foists upon us and what we inflict on ourselves. Sometimes, we feel ...

There were a few minutes within one of the concerts—a strange work based on mystical texts set to a combination of Persian music with rock, ...

This week, we entered into the month of Tevet. This is a time of year when many people struggle with feeling down, perhaps more so ...

Getting to Yes, the “bible” of negotiation by Roger Fischer and William Ury, has sold over 2 million copies since its publication in 1981. It’s ...

Pirkei Avot teaches us: "Who is wealthy? Those who are happy with their portion." We live in a consumerist society that constantly reminds us that we ...

We have labored each in our own way to find a way through this pandemic. We’ve learned. We’ve mourned. We’ve been afraid. We’ve been humbled. ...

It has been a darker week since daylight saving time ended last Sunday. Night now comes so early, and it lasts longer than day. And ...

Three shots were fired at Yitzhak Rabin’s back on the Saturday night of November 4, 1995, ending the Israeli prime minister’s life. Rabin was assassinated ...

When my grandfather died in the spring of 2003, I was nearly 10,000 miles away. Privileged with an opportunity to travel in Southeast Asia, I ...

The midrash teaches that in her laughter after the birth of Yitzhak, Sarah “increased the light of the luminaries.” Rashi explains that she laughed on ...

As the children pray, they look intently at us as they try to follow the motions while they sing. “Shema”—we place our hands next to ...

We don’t hear much of Noah’s worry in this week’s parashah. In fact, he doesn’t say one word from the moment he was chosen to ...

For many years now, I have been quite obsessed with the origins and the story of my family. Before arriving in Argentina in the early ...

Borne out of this narrative is an ethical directive: to protect and care for the stranger, the parentless, and the widow, because the Israelites were ...

Ready or not, the month of Elul is upon us. The High Holy Days are just around the corner... It is the season to reflect ...

When I first began to pray regularly several years ago, the second paragraph of the Shema—which we read this week in Parashat Ekev (Deut. 11:13-21)—was ...

A week after reading Lamentations by flashlight, sitting, grieving, and feeling the depths of despair, the Shabbat of Comfort comes just when we might need ...

As Shabbat comes to a close, we will move to mourning as we mark Tisha Be'Av, the ninth day of the month of Av. On ...

Like the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, I have now completed an incredible journey. One where the path was not always paved, where I ...

Nina and I recently celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, just weeks before our oldest child Aaron’s marriage. As a country, we will be celebrating Independence ...

As I reflect on the profound privilege to serve as a Marshall T. Meyer Rabbinic Fellow here at BJ these past two years, I find ...

Beginning in the mid 1800s and to this day, June 19th...is a day when African Americans celebrate their independence and freedom and we all celebrate ...

Is there really a place for me in the Jewish community? This question emerged because Max had recently come out as non-binary, identifying as neither a ...

How can one integrate such a violation of morality, systematic dehumanization, and the eradication of 6 million of our people and the instability of living ...

We are able to begin the process of seeking those second chances for korban—and yet, we may feel a sense of being adrift as we ...

My parents did not start blessing me on Friday nights until I was in high school. What inspired the change? The “aha” moment for them ...

On Sunday evening we will begin our celebration of Shavuot. May they be quiet days of rest, of breath-taking and reflection, and of receiving the ...

The celebration of Lag Ba-Omer turned into a devastating tragedy at Mount Meron in Northern Israel when dozens were killed and injured. We pray for the healing ...

“Rise up, Judge of the earth, give the arrogant their requital. How long shall the wicked, Adonai, how long shall the wicked exult?”—Psalm 94:2-3 Tuesday, ...

I have always said that I would not be the person I am today, had I not been born and raised in New York City. ...

I sat surrounded by a cloud of hundreds of other kids and adults, each wearing all white, singing and praying the words of poet Haim ...

My favorite Pesah joke is the oldie but goodie that goes like this: How many psychologists does it take to change a lightbulb? Only one...but the ...

Who will ever forget the fear of the Angel of Death, roaming outside? We worked hard to elude him, and still do, by isolating, masking, ...

Early in my rabbinate I met with a bat mitzvah girl who declared she was born at the wrong time. The roaring ‘20s would have ...

I often think of Shabbat as a homecoming at the end of my week. Just as after a long day of work or school or ...

As Shabbat approaches, Purim 5781 draws to a close; and thus, so too do we close out one full cycle of haggim in the era of ...

Exactly one year ago today in the Jewish calendar, at 7:04AM on the 7th of Adar, I received the following text from my childrens’ school: ...

משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה When the month of Adar arrives, we increase in joy.  —Babylonian Talmud Ta'anit 29a When the month of Adar arrived last ...

In these winter months, being ready to welcome in Shabbat is not always an easy feat. As the sky rapidly darkens through the late afternoon, ...

When my husband Jeremy first mentioned the idea of using cloth diapers for our daughter, I laughed. After quite a few back and forths, a ...

It seems hard to believe that, a little over two weeks ago, a mob of insurrectionists stormed the Capitol intent on overturning an election, subverting ...

For the past ten weeks, an incredible tension has been eating at my heart.  In the days immediately following November’s election, Biden’s call for unity ...

In stark contrast to 2020—a year of horror and despair—2021 is a year full of hope. We have arrived, at long last, to the end ...

Last Wednesday began like most school days this year. I woke up, davenned, made breakfast for my kids, and then walked them to school accompanied ...

One of my favorite Hasidic tales is about the wandering brothers, Rabbi Elimelech of Lizensk and Rabbi Zushe of Anipoli. The two brothers were often ...

Today we mark the final day of Hanukkah, and in doing so, mark our final holiday in the cycle of a year of hagim at ...

Last January, I began studying Daf Yomi, a seven and a half year journey through the entire Babylonian Talmud, at the rate of one page ...

7:45AM- I turn my computer on and sign into Zoom. I put on tallit and tefillin and recite a couple of quiet prayers in preparation ...

The Talmud (Berakhot 54b) declares that there are four types of people who must offer thanks to God with a thanks-offering and a special blessing: ...

My husband, Jeremy, and I both agree that, whenever we move into a new apartment, it doesn’t quite feel like home until we have hosted ...

This past Shabbat, my family and I were called to our kitchen window by the sound of crowds cheering, cars honking, and noisemakers of all ...

This was said to be the election of a lifetime, the most consequential and fateful of presidential elections in a very long time, maybe ever.

The first time I saw a sky full—really full—of stars, I was 19 years old. I was in the tiny mountain village of Las Delicias ...

Each year, when my Tuesday lunchtime class starts up again, it finally feels like the long holiday season has come to a close and “regular” ...

Since I first came to Kabbalat Shabbat at BJ several years ago, I have been moved by the music, tefillah, and spirit of your community, ...

Who are the vulnerable in our community who need to be surrounded with care and love? You know who they are—the sick, the elderly, the ...

After these many months of communal and personal isolation, we will soon greet a new Jewish year. These weeks before the High Holy Days are ...

By this time next week, we will have begun the month of Elul that leads us into Rosh Hashanah. There are many ways for us ...

On Tisha Be’Av, it is customary to read from the Book of Lamentations...This week, as I read about my people’s past, my mind began to ...

Honestly, listening to the voices of the next generation has not been easy for me this summer. I don’t necessarily feel that they are listening ...

In high school, I decided that I was going to become shomeret Shabbat, to keep Shabbat in a more traditional way. When I made this ...

A few months ago we had canceled our plans for what would have been our first Pesah in Israel. We were aiming to bring our entire ...

The global pandemic—four months old—and our country’s ingrained racism—400 years old—have together exposed the frailty and dysfunction of our society. Our healthcare “system”, our hyper-capitalist ...

Two hundred and forty-four years ago this weekend, the Second Continental Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence, freeing the 13 colonies from subordination ...

To be clear, Judaism is a religion of structure and discipline, and protecting this rigidity provides necessary stability for many. But Judaism is also a ...

I am so grateful for the relationships fostered by this community that has taught me that a shul does not stop at the sanctuary walls ...

Would I have reacted in the same way had she not been Black? I wondered. Was it the color of her skin that caused an ...

I am not living in a Black body and therefore today I want to give voice to one of our beloved staff members Denisha Green, ...

As I sit writing this, I am aware that this is my last Shavuot as one of your rabbis, that this is in fact my ...

In a time of unprecedented “normals” and as new paradigms emerge, we need the Torah to awaken our imagination, creativity, and courage.

For better and for worse, the last few months have challenged many of our assumptions and disrupted many of our behaviors.

During this period of blurry time, I am finding Shabbat more precious and necessary than ever.

I found the wisdom within this week’s Sefirat haOmer practice to be particularly helpful in navigating and leaning in to my life as it is ...

My son Aiden turned double digits last week. The number celebrates his ten years of life and mine as a parent. It’s hard to believe.

To save human life is to do God’s work. You—doctors, nurses, technicians, EMTs, nursing home aides, pharmacists—are God’s messengers in the battle between life and ...

Like many, I have been obsessively following the news since the coronavirus pandemic exploded. My attention is split between two places: the United States and ...

No, this museum visit was not a look back to yesterday; it was a mirror of today. And it was brutal to meet its gaze, ...

Whether we gather virtually or in person, we remain a community committed to prayer and study and caring for one another.

I have just returned from a trip to Israel and Berlin. It was important to me to pray all three daily services—shaharit, minhah and arvit—with ...

I’ve been thinking a lot about these soundtracks and what it means to be a religious person amidst all the noise. Not only because there ...

No, this museum visit was not a look back to yesterday; it was a mirror of today. And it was brutal to meet its gaze, ...

We all tell single stories, at various moments and for various reasons. Sometimes we don’t know any stories other than the one we are telling—like ...

For many of us, the need to address climate change seems obvious and yet, all too often, the crisis seems slow-moving and distant from the ...

The events marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz came to a close this week... With this momentous anniversary behind us, a new ...

Last Thursday, 27 BJ eighth and ninth graders, four BJ educators, and I traveled to Arizona to study issues of immigration with Tzedek America.

As you read this, I am probably somewhere on I-95, sitting on a bus with our 7th graders. We are headed to Washington, D.C., for ...

At a moment of intense polarization within the Jewish people, the practice of Daf Yomi pushes us to see Jewish learning and tradition as a ...