Spirituality & Faith / 02 Dec 2022

Why This Rabbi Is Learning Arabic

The benefits of learning Arabic

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…

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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