Behold our dining room table: Tonight we pushed back some of the stuff of daily life to make room for Shabbat. Hence our dining room table is 1/2 Shabbat and 1/2 the stuff of daily life. Two kids, two jobs, Amazon prime, birthday party supplies, unpacking from recent Israel trip: the […]
Judaism
Things I learned in Arkansas
I just got home from a wonderful weekend serving as an artist and scholar in residence at Congregation B’nai Israel in Little Rock, Arkansas. Here are some things I learned and/or was reminded about myself, Arkansas, and life in general. 1) It’s good to meet new people. 2) It’s good to see new places. 3) […]
Box of Rain Allegory
Yet another chapter in the Grateful Dead Passover genre… A few months back I had a chance to share the world-changingly beautiful tune, “Box of Rain” with a group of middle school students. In looking at the lyrics I asked them what they saw. Since they were Jewish kids at a Jewish school, they saw […]
Grateful Passover
So I’m a not-so-secret Dead Head. Which means that every once in a while there’s a Grateful Dead lyric or tune that gets stuck in my head. Here’s an example… “Big boss man, can’t you hear me when I call? You ain’t so big, you just tall, that’s just about all.” Big Boss Man […]
As Passover approaches…
As a rabbi, I lament the fact that so many Jews feel that Judaism is a stuffy, boring, repetitive tradition. I lament (and sometimes even resent) this because it’s simply NOT true. It’s actually dead wrong. Jewish rituals, Jewish holiday observances, Jewish worship– all of these, in their truest expressions, are the opposite of stuffy, […]
3 things too many Jewish people get wrong about Judaism
There’s a disconnect between Jews and Judaism. As a rabbi it’s frustrating because I know, for a fact, that the disconnect is based in part of some common misunderstandings that Jews have about Judaism. Here are a few… 1. Judaism encourages questioning. Forget Jews and Judaism, a lot of people reject religion in general because they are […]