Relationships & Family / 22 Nov 2022
Three Last Minute Recipes For A Happier Thanksgiving
Beyond cooking, here are some new “recipes” to add to your repertoire
Art & Culture / 16 Nov 2022
Dave Chappelle And The Unconscious
Reflecting on Dave Chappelle’s monologue on SNL.
Breaking False Dichotomies, Daily Life, Hold Dualities Together, Inspiring Story, Longform, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized, Weekly Parsha, Wisdom Warehouse / 11 Nov 2022
“Birah Doleket”
Monday night, I saw Ani DiFranco in concert. For those of you who don’t have lyrics from “If He Tries Anything” as your yearbook quote, she’s a folk rock singer-songwriter whose powerful lyrics about feminism, abortion rights, and fighting oppression have buoyed many Gen X and elder Millennial feminists. She was like a beloved older cousin who taught me that being fierce, feminist, and angry were a-okay – and, in fact, that anger was an appropriate response to the world around me. The last time I saw her live was in 2004 on the Mall in Washington D.C., as part of the March for Women’s Lives, a pro-choice rally of over one million people. That rally convinced me to move to Washington after graduation and work in progressive politics. I never imagined I’d see her almost 20 years later, on the eve of an urgent midterm election, on the backdrop of an American political landscape rife with white supremacy, antisemitism, and sexist oppression embodied by the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. I have to admit that I shed some tears at the concert. She reminded me of who I was in my teens and twenties when I carried a protest sign and breathed the gentle floating fumes of tear gas more times than I can list, and I felt a surge of energy to return to the rawness of that work. Putting my body on the line was, in some ways, simpler and more direct than what I feel like I do now, trying to change a culture of individualism and cruelty one person at a time. These weeks, we are deep in the stories of Abraham. The Torah doesn’t spend so much time on why God specifically picked Abraham to spread God’s message. Midrash fills in the picture, imagining…
Spirituality & Faith, This Week In Wisdom, Turning The Mundane Into The Sacred, Uncategorized / 10 Nov 2022
Witnessing Evangelical Awe in Israel
Removing the gaps between faiths that can lead to Antisemitism
Which one of these sites would you more likely visit??Science is Awesome or I Fucking Love Science? Now, be honest. Well, It turns out these two sites are identical and are curated by the Canada-based self-made social media celebrity, Elise Andrew who recently was a guest speaker for close to one thousand ticket buyers at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC . According to Facebook, as of today the site Science is Awesome has 533,404 likes and 188,089 talking about this while the less elegantly titled site has 6,920,076 likes......
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When you think about what it means to be spiritual, find spirituality, or anything remotely approximating those experiences, what do you think of? Do you find your attention turning to experiences and images of relative solitude? Of solitary walks on the beach or perhaps, lonely mountain peaks? That is certainly one spiritual type. But not the only one. Perhaps, when you think of being spiritual, you imagine yourself amidst raucous crowds, at home in messy scenes replete with food and wine and loud singing. Do you find that your most spirited moments......
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Business & Education, Wisdom Warehouse |
September 17, 2013
Trading Technology for Top Teachers Isn’t the Answer
They say that doing the same thing over and over again, while expecting a different result, is the definition of insanity.? “They” are not always right, but when it comes to how we spend money on public education in this country, they may be. We spend a great deal of money on education in this country – both in total, and on a per student basis – and over the last 40 years, that number has doubled.? With all that, we are not getting the results we need and kids are not......
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Keeping track of the Syria crisis these past couple of weeks has one’s head spinning. In a span of days we have seen the following: The President unilaterally ordering the bombing of Syria for crossing the red line of using chemical weapons, The President delaying military action, ceding presidential power and seeking approval from Congress, The American people?- tired after the failures of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya?- decisively rejecting military involvement, The President on the brink of not getting approval from Congress, Secretary Kerry’s offhand remark about Syria getting rid of all......
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Spirituality & Faith, Wisdom Warehouse |
September 13, 2013
Yom Kippur: The Truth About One’s Truths
Yom Kippur is the most sacred day in the Jewish calendar. Simply put, it is a day-long exercise in Reality Therapy. For 25 hours or so, the practice is to neither eat nor drink, nor make love, nor enjoy the comforts and conveniences of life – be it a shower or a smart phone – but to reflect and contemplate our mortality, to feel deeply there is no guarantee that we (or anyone in our life) will even be here tomorrow, to be on our deathbed but be fully conscious. Have you......
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Relationships & Family, Wisdom Warehouse |
September 12, 2013
Does Poverty Destroy Families, or Is it the Demise of Family that Increases Poverty?
We know that the gaps in both earning and in education are widening in America.? A new Ohio State University study by Zhenchao Qian, Divergent Paths of American Families, suggests that the two are closely related: those possessing better educations and greater earnings are more likely to live in two parent stable families, and those with less education and money are less likely to get married, or stay married, and have kids being raised by only one, or even no, parents. The analysis and commentary of the study run toward the assumption......
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I live in New York City. Two friends, including someone at whose wedding I had recently been the rabbi, died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. The acrid smell came through my apartment windows for days and sacred ashes, which I wiped away with tears, fell on my window sills for weeks. That day, my children who were 13 and 10 could not get home from school because the subways were closed. They have grown up in the shadow of 9/11 and the fog of war. The world seems far less......
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Daily Life, Wisdom Warehouse |
September 11, 2013
The Reward of Regret: Why Looking Back Can Actually Help Us Look Forward
Thank God for regret. Yes, that is right. Regret has become one of my most important sources of wisdom. Though, I can’t yet say I look forward to the inevitable feelings of regret that arise?- when I miss an opportunity or worse, when I do something I am ashamed of?- I can honestly say that regret does not mess me up anymore. Regret seems to be built into our human condition, for none of us lives up to our ideals completely. It isn’t only that we act less well towards others than......
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No, it’s not Disneyland, though they do issue passports.? The “correct” answer is Denmark, followed in descending order by Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden.? And just to make sure that the likely readers of these thoughts don’t get too depressed by worrying about being at the bottom of the list, Rwanda, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Benin and Togo — all nations in Sub-Saharan Africa – are bottom 5, so no worries there…unless of course you live in one of those countries.? The US?? Number 17.? For added texture, Canada came......
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If you’re like me, your smartphone has become your boss. More than I care to admit, I am barraged by an onslaught of pings, and I find myself obsessively checking (if not chasing) every text, email, tweet, Facebook status and myriad updates I get throughout the day. Unplugging is the answer for some. But not everyone. I’ll share a coping tip: The book Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now,?by media theorist Douglas Rushkoff, has changed my life. With great insight, the author explores how being always on (always connected) affects our behavior,......
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Latest Video
Listen To The Names Of The Victims First
A video where Brad Hirschfield lists the victims names in the recent Orlando shooting. Because first we need to internalize a tragedy before we jump to speak.
