Tag Archives: Torah

Lech Lecha – Peace be the Journey

Vignette: Turns out, in Brooklyn, there are no yard-sales (no yards…) and no garage sales (for same reason) but! instead, there are “stoop sales” – a yard-sale on the brownstone’s steps… This Shabbat is “Shabbat Project”: “The idea is simple … Continue reading

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People of the Journey

Vignettes: It’s the last Shabbat of this Jewish year, 5777, and — my fist Shabbat at my new position at the Prospect Heights Shul, in Brooklyn. “Wow”, is all I’ll say for now… and if you’re in the area, please … Continue reading

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At our gates…

What’s at our gates? “Judges and law-enforcement official”, states this week’s Torah reading. The Arizal (Rabbi Yizchak Luria 1534-1572) gives us a hint: it seems like we are talking about the city’s gates, but since “the world is a [like] … Continue reading

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See, when all else fails…

Vignette: We’re standing at the bottom of a 215 foot waterfall in NY’s Cayuga State Park, amazed. How does something like this form, exactly here, exactly like this? There is a little sign about the kind of rock, the force … Continue reading

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Do Make a BIG Deal!

Vignette: I’ve never lived in an apartment building, not like this, where it’s possible to tell what day of the week it is by the smells in the hallway, and what time. Sunday morning announces itself with strong coffee and … Continue reading

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The morning after (Tish’a Be’av)

Vignette: Hot, sticky summer night, and suddenly – sparks hopping around in the grass and bushes – fireflies! Until now, fireflies appeared only in my kids’ children’s books. Now they are here, dancing. Them and the beautiful, red cardinal, to … Continue reading

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The Salt Covenant, Now & Forever

A famous folktale of unclear origin tells about a king who asked his three daughters to describe how much they each loved him. The oldest said, like gold (or bread, or the heavens and earth and the whole world); the … Continue reading

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shabbat shalom: going up, with a friend

יא  וַיְהִי בַּשָּׁנָה הַשֵּׁנִית, בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִי–בְּעֶשְׂרִים בַּחֹדֶשׁ; נַעֲלָה, הֶעָנָן, מֵעַל, מִשְׁכַּן הָעֵדֻת. 11 And it came to pass in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, that the cloud was taken up from … Continue reading

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משונה נחלה זו מכל נחלות שבעולם

Lunch time at Yeshivat Maharat. A very pluralistic group of women and men of all ages and Jewish denominations walks into our beit midrash (study). I walk a bit closer and say a very Israeli, “shalom”! They are surprised: “Shalom??” … Continue reading

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On Seeing Voices

Vignettes: The snow storms have covered up cars, sidewalks, lawns, bushes, rocks and garbage bags in strange formations, but here and there, colorful spots appear on the white carpet. A creative art project and / or anthropological survey can be … Continue reading

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