”One local spiritual leader, Reb Irwin Keller, of Ner Shalom in Cotati, responded to the president's comments with a poem, which he chanted in our studios…”
Read MoreOath of Disloyalty
I am not loyal to a political party.
Nor will I be loyal to dictators and mad kings.
Retelling Kristallnacht
It is our task to tell this story lovingly, enchantingly; Scheherazade beguiling the prince or, in that story’s Jewish counterpart, Esther, full of charm, speaking truth to power. Scheherazade and Esther don’t win. They don’t defeat the king. They recruit the king. It is our task to tell this story in a way that recruits all of America.
Read MoreThe Persistence of Shabbat (After Pittsburgh)
We don't always say yes to what Shabbat offers. Maybe we say no more often than we say yes. But she never gets the hint. And she never gives up on us. She keeps showing up at the door in all her beauty, the Shechinah robed in time, with the fierceness of lions and the voice of songbirds. And so it is also after a week like this one. A horrible, unthinkable week, here she is again. Despite it all.
Read MorePep Talk: Do Not Be Afraid
They say that in a moment of great unsettling, the Holy One issues forth two angels – one on the right and one on the left, to hold the disconcerted person by the elbows and keep them from falling. In other words, the al tirá is not an instruction but a conjuring of Divine support. The moment of al tirá
Read More