There are many memoirs on bookshelves and available to read online. They intend to beckon the reader into the world of the author.
Wisdom Warehouse
Why A Rabbi Honors Holocaust Remembrance Day On A Civil Rights Mission
During this 80th anniversary year of the Holocaust’s murderous peak in 1944, this rabbi will honor Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day)
Rabbi Hirschfield on Busted Halo and Inside Sources
Take a listen as Clal’s Rabbi Brad Hirschfield appears on not one but two podcasts this week! First, on the … Continue Reading
On Pyramids and Impermanence
Roses, Thorns, and Buds
One of the many glues that binds our family together is our love of storytelling. We rarely miss opportunities to replay our highlights (and lowlights), reveling in the snowball effect as the stories gain meaning, matter, and momentum with each retelling.
The First Passover, Then and Now
The Sages distinguish between two Passover celebrations — the first one, called Pesach Mitzrayim, the Passover of Egypt, and every other Passover celebration after that one, known as Pesach Dorot, the Passover of subsequent generations.
Three Thoughts after Totality
While words and photos will never be able to capture the experience of totality, a few thoughts came to me after driving fourteen hours over two days with my family for this scientific and awe-inspiring pilgrimage.
Predictability and the Unforeseen
The solar eclipse itself was completely predictable from an astronomical perspective – there was even an article from an Ohio newspaper from 1970 letting people know that “the next showing [would be] in 2024.” And if airlines and hotels actually did book travel twenty years in advance, you could know right now that you should travel to Tulsa, Tampa, or Orlando on August 12, 2045 to be in the path of totality.
(Almost) Eclipsing the Eclipse
As the wine steward said to Pharaoh in Genesis 41:9, “I declare my sins now.” The sin I declare now is my tone-deafness to the significance of this week’s solar eclipse. I just didn’t understand why it was such a big deal to so many people, including to many of the Rabbinic Fellows in Clal’s LEAP program, run in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania’s Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies.
The Eclipse Isn’t Just a Natural Process — It’s a Historical Event
Our family isn’t great about planning things in advance. There have been years when, say, Pesach would be coming in about a week, and we realized we hadn’t ordered all the food we’d need for the seders, leading to a few rather frantic trips to the kosher supermarket.
So while we had been hearing about the upcoming eclipse, we had sort of figured that a 90% partial eclipse (the path along which we live) would be a decent enough experience, and didn’t spend a whole lot of time mapping out a plan – we’d go outside, say, “Cool!” a few times like we did for the 2017 eclipse, and then go back inside.
Purim and Inglourious Basterds: The Delight and Terror of Revenge Fantasies
Can each side discern, recognize, process, digest, heal, and transcend their trauma and legitimate fears of each other?
