• Jewish Renewal voices on the UN vote recognizing Palestine

    Updated: 2012-12-27 16:35:00
    Last week, OHALAH -- the association of Jewish Renewal clergy -- voted on a resolution regarding UN recognition of Palestine. The resolution is now posted on the OHALAH website: Majority Opinion Among OHALAH Members on the UN Vote Recognizing Palestine...

  • The year winds down

    Updated: 2012-12-24 13:45:52
    There's no preschool today or tomorrow, so instead of spending these days at shul / at my desk, I'm spending them with our son. Today we'll alternate between watching Peanuts cartoons and playing with trains and paints at home, and...

  • Three poems from the book of Judges

    Updated: 2012-12-21 15:49:36
    The book of Judges contains some powerful stories. Some years ago I wrote a trio of poems exploring three of those stories and the women who feature in them: the judge and prophet Devorah, Yael who slew the general Sisera,...

  • Rejecting erosion

    Updated: 2012-12-20 08:00:12
    A Rabbi Without Borders: Doesn't worry, at least not very much, about dilution, or work from a narrative of erosion. That's item six on the Rabbis Without Borders FAQ. Of all the things we talked about during the two days...

  • Reading on the train

    Updated: 2012-12-16 19:34:55
    I wasn't paying attention when I chose where to drop my bags and settle in, but by sheer luck I picked the side of the train which runs right alongside the Hudson. At this season the hills are a deep...

  • This week's portion: on abundance and dreams

    Updated: 2012-12-16 12:00:00
    Here's the d'var Torah I offered yesterday at my shul. (Crossposted to my From the Rabbi blog.) At the beginning of today's Torah portion, Pharaoh dreams two dreams. First, seven handsome cows arise, and seven lean cows devour them. Then...

  • Bat Mitzvah-versary

    Updated: 2012-12-14 16:28:06
    My birthday is in the spring, but I celebrated becoming bat mitzvah in midwinter. During Chanukah, actually. I think we chose the date because some of my older siblings already lived far away, and Shabbat Chanukah would be a relatively...

  • The beating heart of music in Israel / Palestine

    Updated: 2012-12-13 12:00:00
    Hearing this track, and learning about this nonprofit organization, brought a bit of light into my Chanukah. (Thanks, A Way In, for sharing this song as one of your Chanukah posts!) So I figured I'd share it with y'all too....

  • December Dialogue

    Updated: 2012-12-12 12:00:00
    There's some time this morning. We could go to Target. We have plenty of Dora pull-ups. Why would we go to the mall today? But they sell shiny decorations. Maybe there's a Chanukah banner. We browsed that aisle last week....

  • Another poem for Chanukah

    Updated: 2012-12-11 13:24:17
    A poem by Aileen Lucia Fisher for Chanukah. (Today we're in day three of the eight day festival; we'll begin the fourth day tonight at sundown.) Light the first of eight tonight— the farthest candle to the right. Light the...

  • On "Otherness" at Christmas

    Updated: 2012-12-10 12:00:00
    With family, at holiday party, 1982; with friends, in uniform, 1992. From the age of eleven on, I attended an Episcopal school called Saint Mary's Hall. Six years of white sailor middy and pleated skirt, saddle shoes, "dress uniform" (white...

  • Keep Calm and Chag Sameach!

    Updated: 2012-12-09 12:00:00
    I am easily amused. Once I learned that there is a keep-calm-o-matic, I couldn't resist making some Chanukah images. Happy Chanukah to all!

  • Sufganiyot in the Saturday Poetry Series

    Updated: 2012-12-08 12:45:50
    Thanks to the Saturday Poetry Series for reprinting my Chanukah poem Sufganiyot (which was originally published in Zeek in 2004.) I particularly appreciate Saturday editor Sivan Butler-Rotholz's kind comments: With today’s piece Rabbi Rachel Barenblat elevates these phenomenal holiday treats...

  • A new poem for Chanukah

    Updated: 2012-12-08 12:00:00
    REDEDICATION Some days I can enter the holy of holies by snapping my fingers: the door swings open. Other days I ransack every pocket to find the key and when I get inside the room is darkened. There's mud on...

  • Happy Hanukkah

    Updated: 2012-12-08 01:17:47
    Tomorrow, 11:30am, Sunday, Dec.9, @ The Dolphin Bookstore, 299 Main Street, Port Washington, NY, I’ll be reading and drawing from my book,Too Many Latkes! If you’re in the neighborhood, please stop by. I’d love to see you. Hag Semayach. Filed under: Hanukkah Tagged: cartoon humor, Hanukkah, Jewish holiday, latkes, Mars Rover Curiosity

  • Sfat Emet on Chanukah and on light

    Updated: 2012-12-07 12:00:00
    What there is to learn from this portion is to prepare yourself during the good days in which holiness is revealed, to set that light solidly within the heart so it will be there during the bad days when the...

  • Two reprints for these darkening December / Kislev days

    Updated: 2012-12-05 12:00:00
    Here is what I have to offer: be kind to yourself during these days. Pay attention to what your body is saying, to what your heart is saying, to the places where your mind gets tied in knots. What are...

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