Yesterday, on October 26th, 2018, the American Jewish community experienced what I am calling an American Pogrom. Historians and scholars may rightly object to my appropriation of this term, but I’ll make my argument nonetheless. As most of us know, the site of the pogrom was the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill […]
Life Lessons
What is Scripture?
I didn’t realize it until a few moments ago, but for the last couple of years (maybe longer), I’ve been thinking about the question: “What is Scripture?” Now that I realize this has been a foundational question for me, I also realize the answer I’ve been living with for just as long. Here’s my answer: […]
Life Lessons from The American Hebrew Academy
I recently spent a beautiful Shabbat with the students and faculty of The American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, NC. It was a wonderful experience for me and I am so grateful to have had a chance to meet the people there and offer a few teachings along the way. I learned a lot during […]
What’s it like to be a rabbi?
I have a cherished colleague. Her name is Dr. M. Cathy Harmon-Christian. She teaches in the theology department at Marist. Among other things, she and I have a chavruta, a study-based friendship. It’s a lot of fun. An offshoot of that chavruta is that every so often she’ll send along a question asked by her students. “What’s […]
We’ve gotta keep the world big.
During the opening “rant” of Episode 830 of his bi-weekly WTF Podcast, Marc Maron said something that resonated with me. He said, “We’ve gotta keep the world big.” I like that. I like it because, for at least a little while, it seems like lots of people have been trying to make the world […]
Death (Day 3)
Everyone else in the hotel has their plans for the day and we have ours. People look at you a little funny and with a tinge of pity when they see you dressed in funerary garb. The limo arrives at the house. We check to see if it has lathes for car seats. We head […]