“Who by Fire, Who by Water:” What the High Holidays Can Teach Us About...
For many people, September is a time of endings. The weather cools, the days shorten, leaves turn brilliant colors, then fade and die. For students, teachers, and anyone else involved in the world of...
View ArticleSaving Conservative Judaism: A Response to the Religious Landscape Survey
This essay was inspired by the following article: “Conservative Judaism turns 100 and Works to Reverse its Decline.” Back in 2009, when my fiancé and I were searching for a synagogue to attend in New...
View ArticleHearing Our Song at the Sea: A Dvar Torah on B’Shalach (Ex. 13:17-17:16)
This past week’s parsha (Torah portion), “B’Shalach” (Exodus 13:17-17:16), is a rich and event-filled text. We witness the physical and spiritual movement of the Israelites out of slavery and into...
View ArticleCommunity, Choice, and Identity: The Politics of Wearing Skirts
The package arrived on a cold Friday afternoon, a nondescript bundle shoved into my mailbox. The unremarkable packaging and unglamorous delivery method disguised the tightly packed questions, doubts,...
View ArticleMy Jerusalem: A Personal Reflection
Under the glare of the midday desert sun, I gaze at the life teeming below me. From my perch on the ramparts, I can see the sun sparkling off the brilliant gold of the Dome of the Rock. Jewish men and...
View ArticleSuis-je Charlie? France, Islamophobia, and the Power of the Pen
I love Paris in the springtime I love Paris in the fall I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles. (“I Love Paris,” lyrics by Cole Porter, 1953) I love...
View ArticleWalking Together Through the “Valley of the Shadow of Death”
It seems almost a cliché to be sitting here writing about death, here in Boston with eight feet of snow pressing in on all sides, the bitter winter winds howling just outside my windows. But if...
View ArticleWhen I Entered A Holy Covenant: A Dvar Torah on Parshat Shmini (Lev. 9:1-11:47)
Four years ago this week–at least by reckoning of the Hebrew calendar–my friend proudly displayed to me a cake she had made for a party I was hosting. “Today, you are a man,” it declared. She was...
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Digging Deeper: Archaeology and Interfaith Community
As the sun spilled over the Galilee hills in the distance, I paused for a moment, straightening up from over my pickaxe and squinting into the east. The sky had been lightening for the past thirty...
View ArticleSetting the Table with My Self: Food, Choice, and Identity
It was Erev Rosh HaShanah, the evening beginning the Jewish New Year. Guests were starting to arrive after services, and my apartment was filling up with the sounds of their laughter and the scent of...
View ArticleTick-tock, Tick-tock: Practicing Patience as an Impatient Person
“An ancient story from the Jewish Talmud [Shabbat 31a] tells about the time two men made a bet whether Hillel, the wise and famous rabbi, could be made to lose his patience. One of the men waited until...
View ArticleMaking Meaning at Middlebury from the “Balagan Kadosh” (Holy Mess)
Tisha B’Av was coming. It was the beginning of July, on a fresh, hot morning in the Middlebury College Hillel. Tisha B’Av, the fast day in the Jewish calendar that commemorates the destruction of the...
View ArticleSo Long, Farewell: Reflecting on the End of the Obama Administration in Light...
This week’s parsha, Vayechi (Gen. 47:28-50:26), is a parsha of endings. The patriarch Jacob/Israel, having reached the ripe old age of 147 years, recognizes that the time has come for him to die. He...
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