Israel

December 25, 2025

Retelling Our Stories (Parashat Vayiggash 5785)

This was the D’var Torah I shared for Parashat Vayiggash, a culmination of the story of Yosef (Joseph), on January 4, 2025. My father has a number of go-to sayings, one of which is: The story is never over. Another is a quote from possibly Mitch Album quoting someone else who said: There is no… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Foregiveness, Israel, Parashat Hashavua, Torah, Vayiggash
December 10, 2025

Who is Courageous? A Chanukkah Answer from Aristeas to Us

Here is yet another version of my take on the takeaway today from the Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates, a Jewish work from the time of the Maccabees that presents its own view of Jewish position, role, and voice in a “modern” world. The question I’ve been speaking about the past few weeks leading to… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Community Relations, Current Affairs, History, Holidays, Inclusion, Israel, USA
October 12, 2025

Why Our Jewish Community Should Be at the CROP Hunger Walk

If you’re in our area, I hope you will be part of next Sunday’s interfaith CROP Hunger Walk. Here is why I think that’s important always, and especially for all of us thinking about the place of Jews in America right now. Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Equality, Ethics, Food, Gaza, Interfaith Dialogue, Israel, Jewish Education, Justice, Peace, Synagogue, Tikkun Olam, Tzedakah, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
September 26, 2025

Rosh Hashanah D’var Torah Day 1 — Moral Autobiography

This is my D’var Torah from the first day of Rosh Hashanah 5786 (2025). One of the best questions I was asked all year came at a training in April with an organization called Resetting the Table. Resetting the Table teaches people how to transform toxic divides into a shared future, and one of the… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Education, Ethics, High Holidays, Holidays, Israel, Jewish Education, Justice, Lech L’cha, Middot, Rosh Hashanah, Teacher-Student Relationship, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA, Vayera, Yamim Noraim, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
September 26, 2025

Rosh Hashanah D’var Torah Day 2: The Power of Kindness in a Brutal World

This was my D’var Torah for the second day of Rosh Hashanah 5786 (2025). In a piece in Slate about the TV show Ted Lasso, Amanda Prahl wrote: Kindness is the vanilla of emotional concepts. It has the reputation of being safe, two-dimensional, passive, and utterly bland. Ask any culinary expert, though, and they’ll tell… Continue reading

Anger, Antisemitism, Current Affairs, Gaza, Gratitude, High Holidays, Holidays, Immigration, Inclusion, Israel, Justice, Leadership, Middot, Rosh Hashanah, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA, Vayera, Yamim Noraim
September 8, 2025

Finally Finishing Freshman Year!

My final post on the courses of my first spring in college are on Professor Bartal's class on the emergence of the State of Israel. These aren't particularly organized by significance, just maybe by new thoughts I'm having now. As I read the notes on the period from 1904-1949, I am most struck for some… Continue reading

College, Current Affairs, History, Israel, Young Jewish Adult
March 20, 2025

More From College

Most of the new things the past few days are from the history of Zionism course. Some things that struck me… Given the gap in experience between Herzl and Eastern European Jews, I continue to be surprised how many showed up for the First Zionist Congress. Granted it was 1897, so the Chovevei Tzion groups… Continue reading

Art, College, History, Israel, Power
March 17, 2025

Another Week Back in College

I'm catching up on the whole week, after preparing for and celebrating Purim…. The week's notes in Lit and Arts were a lot about the successors of Charlemagne, and the disjuncture between the disintegration of their authority and their realm, and their self-representation in Christian books and architecture as Christ's designated earthly power. As I… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Art, Equality, Freedom, History, Inclusion, Israel, Jewish Education, Justice, Power, Study, Tzedek, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
March 12, 2025

Recommended Links of Mine for Purim This Year

Here in one place are links to the pieces I've done related to Purim and our contemporary world that I think are particularly worth a look or listen this year. For reading, listening, or watching. Introducing Adar Conversations: Esther-Informed Spiritual Therapy (read and video) Getting to Mi Yode'a ("Who Knows") — Moral Clarity in a Topsy-Turvy World… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Current Affairs, Esther, Holidays, Inclusion, Israel, Jewish Education, Joy, Justice, Leadership, Middot, Midrash, Power, Purim, Shabbat Zachor, Simcha, Terrorism, Tikkun Olam, Tov! Podcast, Tzedakah, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
March 6, 2025

More College

I am noting that in the Lit and Arts course, what seems to be easiest for me to understand (and was back then too?) is architecture. I'm not spatial, generally, and geometry was my weakest part of math. But the layout of churches seems to be intelligible to me. Charlemagne's church architecture has a logic… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Art, College, History, Israel, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
March 5, 2025

Back to College Update

It has always been hard for me to find a way to interact with art that isn’t verbal. I want to think and talk about the concepts that are artistically represented, to interpret them. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it seems incomplete. As I go over Lit and Arts, I’m thinking about this but… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Art, College, History, Israel, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
February 23, 2025

College: Historical Transitions

Professor Hall started his course with a terrific introduction, setting out the goal of the course: to figure out why in particular Great Britain, France, and Germany entered the modern age from similar medieval conditions but took such different political routes. Britain had a relatively nonviolent transition toward democracy. French made the transition with violence… Continue reading

Art, College, History, Inclusion, Israel, Power, Young Jewish Adult, Youth