I was once speaking on a panel at the Pentagon, along with a dozen or so other religious leaders. We were sharing our respective traditions with Pentagon leaders, who in turn could support religious pluralism across the military in collaboration with its chaplaincy staff. The gathering took place in a large auditorium, with a much fuller audience than I would have expected. Many of the officers seemed exhausted from their tireless work to keep our country safe. Some were even dozing off – or trying their best to avoid doing so. The......
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Compassion and Empathy, Longform, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized, Weekly Parsha |
May 13, 2022
Responding to Unscrupulous Leadership
Scandals involving clergy abound today, from misappropriation of funds to inappropriate personal conduct and outright abuse. Could this week's Torah portion provide guidance about how we might respond? ...
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Compassion and Empathy, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized, Uncategorized, Weekly Parsha |
April 27, 2022
Who you are in the field…
Several weeks ago I was teaching Torah to a group of students from around the country that has met weekly for several months. As the sessions meet in the evening time, it usually means that I’m occupied with bedtime routines for our three children right up until 6:59 PM, at which point I make a mad dash into the bedroom to start the class, and wish my wife godspeed for the remaining half hour (on a good night) of the various rituals, routines, and meltdowns that accompany bedtime. About 10 minutes into......
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Building New Identities, Historic Profiles, Inspiring Story, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
April 13, 2022
Pesach 2022
This week, we welcome the holiday of Passover, the holiday of freedom. During the Passover seder, we act out the story of our ancestors being redeemed from Egypt. In the Talmud, there’s also the idea that we are supposed to understand ourselves to have been redeemed from slavery, too. And there are those who take it one step further. Our ancestors were redeemed in ancient Egypt, we too were redeemed, and not only that: The 19th-century Chassidic Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (commonly known by the name of his influential book, The Sefat......
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Compassion and Empathy, Longform, Spirituality & Faith, This Week In Wisdom, Turning The Mundane Into The Sacred, Uncategorized |
April 07, 2022
Hospitality After Pandemic
Holding space to acknowledge that this time is like no other....
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Compassion and Empathy, Grief & Coping, Inspiring Story, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized, Weekly Parsha |
April 01, 2022
Contagion is Universal
Looking at how we all need help sometimes...
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Bring The Sacred Down To Earth, Compassion and Empathy, Longform, Longform, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
March 24, 2022
Silence Might Be Golden, But Shouting Goes Platinum
Birds Of Paradise, Strange Fire, And Separating The Signal From The Noise...
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Another Way Of Looking At Things, Daily Life, Longform, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
March 16, 2022
To Forget And To Remember
There are some dark times that we commemorate in a ceremony with the reading of names. And there are some that result in celebrating with oily foods and candles. And there are some where we were so terrified, and now we are so out of our minds to have averted the decree, that we drink. We drink to forget. We don’t ever want to remember it was so awful. Blot out the memory. Forget the darkness. This is Purim. We tell our story of what we went through, and we are commanded......
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