Having just completed my first institute with Cathryn Berger Kaye I want to take a moment to process some of my thoughts on service learning. In that spirit here are a couple possible definitions of service learning as I currently understand it. I wonder what other folks that joined me at the seminar or who […]
My NPR Debut
Yesterday my blog, The Rabbi’s Pen, was quoted on NPR’s fabulous program, On Being with Krista Tippett. How this came to pass is kind of a nice story. Here it is… On April 14, 2012 my good friend, Matt Coffman, and I saw Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. After […]
A (hopefully brief) reflection on “reflection”
I’m in the midst of a 3 day seminar on “Service Learning” lead by Cathryn Berger Kaye. We’re covering a lot of ground and the entire experience might best be summarized as a “feast of inspiration.” Today we took a deeper dive into the topic of reflection. Kaye argues, persuasively (and to an admittedly sympathetic crowd), […]
If there was no prayer
If there was no prayer There would be no pray-er There would be no Being Worth Praying To There would be no conversation No relationship or correlation No dialogue between the finite and the Infinite The broken and the Whole (or sometimes the Breaker). The soul and the Fountain from whose waters the soul first […]
Happy are those
A personal approach to Psalm 145. Ashrei yoshvei vetecha, od y’halelhu selah. All the people that have impacted my life. Blessing my children on Friday night. Coming to work at a place that I love and believe in. Different experiences I’ve had that have shaped me. Ego humbling moments when I’ve learned that the world […]
Daily Miracles
Either you believe in miracles or you don’t. If you don’t, you’ve got to be prepared to explain all of the miraculous things, small and large, that happen every day. And you have to explain them without using the words: miracle and miraculous. If you do believe in miracles then you’ve got less explaining to […]