Blogs about the Jewish Faith 155 Judaism 2012-02-08T19:48:46 Paul Zeolot barry.david.adams@googlemail.com Velveteen Rabbi 2012-02-08T12:00:00

Remember last Sukkot? The sound of cornstalks rustling on the roof of my car as I drove slowly home from Renton's farmer's market. The trees on our hills still bright with fading leaves. Carrying my lulav and etrog out to...

70c118e16d07be36b1d60e6ac13d5faf Velveteen Rabbi 2012-02-07T08:01:12

for Dale It was said of Reb Simcha Bunim that he carried two slips of paper, one in each pocket. On one he wrote: Bishvili nivra ha-olam -- "for my sake the world was created." On the other he wrote:...

df4fc8e85622239be9f1b2aec3cae898 Velveteen Rabbi 2012-02-06T13:32:01

I'm not writing weekly Torah poems this year. (Perhaps not surprisingly, I'm finding that balancing a congregational rabbinate and mothering a two-year-old is keeping me plenty busy!) But in years past I've written poems arising out of this week's Torah...

8b2d3fc69f9db38aedee83b18ecc4d01 Velveteen Rabbi 2012-02-02T13:15:56

Deep thanks to Lilith, the awesome magazine of feminism and Judaism, for the generous review of 70 faces, my collection of Torah poems (Phoenicia Publishing, 2011). The review appeared in the Fall 2011 issue, alongside reviews of poetry collections by...

393e9d5280fdb22dc7fb4b6b3f8aac55 Velveteen Rabbi 2012-02-01T12:06:16

My second post is up at poetree -- On poetry, Judaism, and being (or not being) a "religious poet". Here's how it begins: A bit more than ten years ago I took my MFA at Bennington. It was an amazing...

c895b5571f3a85b01b96797ab14d92ae Velveteen Rabbi 2012-01-31T16:24:14

It's a funny way of inhabiting time, this Jewish calendar of ours. Every seventh day a holiday. Every new moon a holiday. And then, studding the year like jewels in a crown, the festivals, each with its own music, its...

2ce65bd53a7f23e2470d3e79d1244620 Velveteen Rabbi 2012-01-31T13:27:17

Earlier in January, a dear friend's shul was vandalized and broken-into. I posted about it, and generous readers contributed $984. Here is a thank-you note from the leaders of that shul, to all of you. To the contributors to Reb...

4c88827bab5108636a13a1dfde3ba5f1 Velveteen Rabbi 2012-01-30T14:17:19

For those who are interested in poetry conversations, feel free to check out the online poetry community poetree, where moderator J.J. Hunter has graciously invited me to host conversations this week. (Luisa Igloria, whose work I greatly admire, was poetry...

f1538f9ea3a0b6053dbd9d3d65a8be57 Velveteen Rabbi 2012-01-26T19:00:21

Hey: did you realize that Passover begins in just over ten weeks? :-) I've been working this winter on a revision of the Velveteen Rabbi's Haggadah for Pesach -- specifically, a revision which is suitable for use at my congregation....

bf5f9a6a38c0a9dcb87948717746e04b Velveteen Rabbi 2012-01-25T12:00:00

Two years-and-a-bit ago, at the ALEPH Kallah in Ohio, I had the opportunity to sing with Linda Hirschhorn. While I was there, I interviewed her for Zeek. (I mentioned that in one of my blog posts from the conference that...

c3377910850da50c5fa1a645fdd60ffd Jewneric 2012-01-24T13:17:48

I met Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz several years ago when we were students in Yeshivat Hamivtar, in Israel. As those who know him personally would surely attest, Reb Shmuly is a fiercely passionate, creative, and independent thinker. I was honored when he asked me to review his forthcoming book, Jewish Ethics & Social Justice, for Jewneric.

5b317ea1ccbee0f6642f72c417e2a4ea Velveteen Rabbi 2012-01-23T15:12:14

Contributors' copies of Religion & Literature volume 43.2! The genre is an ancient one. Throughout the history of the Diaspora, Jewish imagination has flourished through midrash, elaborating on the tales and characters of the Hebrew Bible. But the postwar period...

3592b28ed8bc855c26c4277f1d3d336e Velveteen Rabbi 2012-01-23T02:17:17

I am utterly, endlessly, delighted to have sparked Rabbi Barbara (Shulamit) Thiede's essay Jewish Renewal's Red Boots. Reb Shulamit and I were admitted to the ALEPH rabbinic ordination program at the same time. (Somewhere I still have the email which...

fe7235c06759475ad80957029935b86d Velveteen Rabbi 2012-01-21T16:03:00

Here's the d'var Torah I'll be offering during services at my shul this morning. This week we read one of the most dramatic narratives in Torah: the story of the ten plagues. (Or, at least, the first eight plagues; the...

e073d9cdf038515ecf6a81b8e835e779 Velveteen Rabbi 2012-01-19T22:37:23

Several of y'all have asked, over the years, whether I have considered podcasting. This winter, I thought I'd give it a try. I'm not promising that these podcasts will come out on any specific timetable. (I'm a congregational rabbi and...

05d28383e98a048f482ae4e98df3e2ee Velveteen Rabbi 2012-01-19T12:00:00

WinterPsalm WINTER PSALM The wind whips spirals of snow dervishes dancing across icy asphalt snowplows call out to one another backing up to ply their routes again the atmosphere looms, pregnant with the promise of precipitation and I? I scatter...

62e9bcc4fdb178a5d975321ab78e1430 Velveteen Rabbi 2012-01-18T12:00:00

Image borrowed from this post at storify. Many of the internet's leading websites are "going dark" today to protest, and raise consciousness of, the danger of the impending passage of SOPA and PIPA, two pieces of US legislation which run...

5cc48e2944e77f1ce9d2770b07580fdc Velveteen Rabbi 2012-01-17T22:34:23

This coming Shabbat, I'm planning to lea...

3d720ea74786a66c8b738a78832920d8 Velveteen Rabbi 2012-01-12T01:22:32

The moon of Tevet is beginning to wane. It will shrink down to nothingness and then grow again. When it next reaches roundness, the date will be the 15th of the month of Shvat: the full moon of the deep-winter...

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