as we prepare for the High Holy Days, this prayer from last year is still, sadly, relevant In the morning it is written and in the evening it is sealed: Who shall die jogging Who shall die relaxing in their home Who shall die seeking help after a car crash Who shall die holding aContinue reading “Who By Fire and Who By Water”
Monthly Archives: August 2021
Shabbat Ki Tavo: You’ll Know Home When You Get There
Wherever I go I am going toward Jerusalem – Rabbi Nakhman of Bratslav, who never saw Israel The spiritual path of the Jews – and those who love them and travel with them – can be seen as a path of homelessness. From the days of the ivri, the one who crossed over the riverContinue reading “Shabbat Ki Tavo: You’ll Know Home When You Get There”
Shabbat Ki Tetze: The Truth of a Bird’s Nest
We are not individuals, no more than birds are. We and they are individuated out of an endless sky of possibility and longing. And on a dark night we need each other to huddle against the cold. In this week’s parashah we see one of the most famous passages in all of Torah: the case ofContinue reading “Shabbat Ki Tetze: The Truth of a Bird’s Nest”
Shabbat Shoftim: Justice One Step at a Time
Everything we see, whether good or bad, is really a reflection of ourselves. If it was not, we’d simply not see it. – Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism This Shabbat is called Shoftim, after the first part of the parashah, which deals with the need for a way to compel cooperation with social mores.Continue reading “Shabbat Shoftim: Justice One Step at a Time”
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 