Updated: 2012-10-28 01:03:34
Count the eighteen rabbis of this year's Rabbis Without Borders fellowship among the people whose lives are being disrupted -- though thankfully in a minor way -- by Hurricane Sandy's projected path: our first cohort meeting, which was meant to...
Updated: 2012-10-25 08:38:59
Early next week, I'll be blessed to take a two-day trip to New York City for the first meeting of my cohort of Rabbis Without Borders rabbinic fellows. Rabbis Without Borders does a variety of things "to nurture and develop...
Updated: 2012-10-23 12:00:00
I recently received a copy of Fjords arts and literary review. This is volume 1, issue 4, the fall 2012 issue, which features two mother poems by yours truly. Here's how the editors describe the new issue: Fjords is keeping...
Updated: 2012-10-22 12:00:00
I pulled Flames to Heaven: New Psalms for Healing & Praise, by Debbie Perlman (may her memory be a blessing), off of my bookshelf recently. One of the poems I read there which really moves he is her psalm three,...
Updated: 2012-10-19 11:00:00
Earlier this week, Anat Hoffman was arrested for daring to wear a tallit and to pray the shema at the Western Wall. Above: video (Hebrew) of Anat Hoffman's arrest. If you can't see the embedded video, you can go directly...
Updated: 2012-10-15 12:00:00
We've entered parashat Noach. This week's parsha contains the story of the great Flood! There's a lot of good stuff in this week's Torah reading. Three years ago I posted a Torah poem for this portion which I still quite...
Updated: 2012-10-14 18:17:56
Another of my mother poems has been published -- this time in Shot Glass Journal, an online magazine dedicated to publishing short poetry. As the editor, Mary-Jane Grandinetti, writes: Why only short poetry? It is far more difficult to capture...
Updated: 2012-10-12 18:19:56
Earlier this week I got this year's batch of etrogcello underway. But what to do with the etrogim after I'd carved away the yellow part of the peels? This year's answer is candied etrog. I found two recipes which looked...
Updated: 2012-10-11 13:00:00
ETROGCELLO curls of peel prepare to sleep beneath cold vodka snow-thick blanket shreds of autumn gold and gleaming in this womb with no umbilicus this dark cupboard a sweet relief close fevered eyes let changes come to unfurl bright upon...
Updated: 2012-10-11 12:55:21
I picked up The Hour of Sunlight: One Palestinian's Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker -- by Sami Al Jundi and Jen Marlowe -- after reading a review of the book in The Jewish Daily Forward. The review is by Israeli-American...
Updated: 2012-10-10 12:00:00
SIGNS I let my prayerbook get dusty. Crumpled tissues proliferate like misshapen mushrooms. Even in rainbow-striped thigh socks all I can imagine wanting is an overstuffed red chair. I count the hours until bedtime. Even milk and honey only soothe...
Updated: 2012-10-09 15:13:35
Another save-the-date for a 70 faces event: I'll be giving a reading from the book at 4pm on Wednesday, November 7, at the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale. I'm delighted to be bringing some Torah poetry to...
Updated: 2012-10-08 18:59:40
1. My footsteps across this patch of earth's scalp release the scent of thyme. Even in the rain the squirrels have been busy denuding the corncobs. The wind has dangled my autumn garlands into rusty hieroglyphics. 2. Every day the...
Updated: 2012-10-08 08:17:13
Earlier this fall I heard from Rachel Held Evans, who describes herself as "just a small-town writer asking big questions about faith, doubt, culture, gender and the Church." She has a very well-read blog and she's spent the last few...
