Swoon of Shechinah

February 26, 2021 Irwin Keller

Esther Before Ahasuerus, by Artemisia Gentileschi, ca. 1630.

Unlike some depictions, Esther had no need to swoon when she entered Achashverosh's throne room. After all, she was garbed in Shechinah.

Robed in Malkhut: The Hidden and Revealed in Esther (and Us)

February 21, 2021 Irwin Keller

Esther reveals as much as she conceals. Take this drag queen’s word for it. (A piece written for Evolve.)

Read it Here

In the Oasis

January 29, 2021 Irwin Keller

We are in a kind of oasis moment right now. A place of respite does not need to be the perfect place or the best place. It just needs to be enough. And the relief and rest we feel will be real.

Ordination and Lamentation

January 15, 2021 Irwin Keller

Screenshot by Lisa Rüth.

Laying of hands. Screen shot by Lisa Rüth.

Laying of Hands. Drawing by Arielle Breeze Jorgensen.

Streaming in Wilmette, Illinois. Photo by Helene Rhodes.

Streaming on Sonoma Mountain. Photo by Beth Field.

After years, months, weeks, days of anticipation, I was ordained as a rabbi last Sunday, wearing a tallit that had belonged to my beloved lifelong rabbi, Mark S. Shapiro. The next day, the world lost Steve Shapiro – his son and my friend.

Ordination and Insurrection

January 9, 2021 Irwin Keller

The author as a 14-year old summer camp rabbi in Oconomowoc, WI. Photo by Dawn Weiner-Kaplow.

Tomorrow is the simcha of my smicha – my rabbinic ordination. It means so much to me after a wait of more than half a century. But history waits for no simcha, and we have to also look at this week’s insurrection in our capital.