In discussing the Sukkot holiday, a friend of mine expressed an interest in learning “how to celebrate without a sukkah and make it meaningful.” A quick search informed me that Google has answers to that question, but not ones that spoke to me – at least, not at first glance. I found several pre-pandemic articles […]

I’m sick of it. So very sick of this election, which feels like the longest election cycle since ever. I’m sick of the divisiveness. Of the self-righteousness. And the ubiquity of it all. While I am proud to say that I have a diverse group of social media friends from many walks of life, geographic locations, […]

This year, I’ve noticed a trend on social media: people mentioning that we shouldn’t have to afflict ourselves this year on Yom Kippur because we’ve been afflicted so much by recent events. According to this thinking, if the point of fasting and abstaining from a variety of physical comforts is to purge our sins, maybe […]

In 2002, when my husband and I were first married, we moved to Israel for a couple years to learn in yeshiva and seminary. I was working in Jewish outreach at the time and some people in Jerusalem had launched a TV station dedicated to Jewish outreach. Since I my childhood dream was to be […]

The Talmud tells us that on Rosh Hashanah, Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah were remembered. What exactly were they remembered for? What they all had in common was infertility. And God remembered them and bore them children. While none of these women are part of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy, each is mentioned in the Torah and Haftarah […]

I had a dream last night about Tisha B’Av. As one does. And in it I got into a theological conversation with a less observant friend of mine. Theological conversations are not uncommon in my dreams. Occupational hazard, I suppose. We were sitting on the floor – one of the customary ways that Jews mourn, […]