“What if this is the darkness not of the tomb, but of the womb?” – Valarie Kaur, Revolutionary Love Project In our parashat hashavua a young Jacob is on the lam. He is escaping the rupture of his family relationships, with no clear sense of what he is running toward. He flees his brother’s wrath,Continue reading “Shabbat VaYetze: This is a holy place, and I didn’t know it!”
Tag Archives: shabbat
Shabbat BeHukotai: House Rules
When chaos threatens, what rules still make sense? Jewish time continues. Even this week, still heartbroken by the massacre of ten beautiful souls in Buffalo New York, and now reeling from the tragedy of the massacre of nineteen children and two teachers in Uvalde Texas, it’s going to be Shabbat again. Lately it’s Tevye, dancingContinue reading “Shabbat BeHukotai: House Rules”
Shabbat Pekudey: It’s Not a Sin to Take a Break
Actually, the opposite is true. שֵׁ֣שֶׁת יָמִים֮ תֵּעָשֶׂ֣ה מְלָאכָה֒ וּבַיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֗י יִהְיֶ֨ה לָכֶ֥ם קֹ֛דֶשׁ On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day rest is holy (Ex. 35.2) As of sundown today, the work has to be done. Whatever it is you are doing, after sundown on the sixth day it isContinue reading “Shabbat Pekudey: It’s Not a Sin to Take a Break”
Shabbat Naso: Lift Every Face
We have passed thirteen weeks of social isolation now; a most disconsolate tally, longer than our Sefirat haOmer count and much more uncertain. We try to remain patient, and struggle to contain our fears of contagion into vessels of reasonable size. Shabbat comes again, once more without the chance of seeing our Torah in ourContinue reading “Shabbat Naso: Lift Every Face”
Shabbat Nitzavim: We Stand Together Even When Miles Apart
I’m so tired of “well this Jewish employee doesn’t do X so it can’t be a Jewish thing.” – tweeted on Thursday September 26 2019, 138 “likes” You don’t have to speak Twitter, understand “likes” or use social media at all to feel the frustration that prompted that posting. We Jews, and those whoContinue reading “Shabbat Nitzavim: We Stand Together Even When Miles Apart”
Praying After Pittsburgh
I am a Rabbi who is privileged to serve an intentional community which takes the form of an independent congregation. We are the only Jewish congregation on the east side of Portland Oregon. We are not only independent but young – only 15 years old – and thus tend to carefully think through our everyContinue reading “Praying After Pittsburgh”
Shabbat Akharei Mot-Kedoshim: Choices Don’t Free You, They Distract You
On any given day, we are confronted with choices, and have to make a decision regarding how best to choose; that is, how best to live. In some ways we imagine that our lives are so much better than our ancestors, who, we presume, made their choices from a much narrower range of options, andContinue reading “Shabbat Akharei Mot-Kedoshim: Choices Don’t Free You, They Distract You”
Asara b’Tevet: Countdown to January 20 2017
Yesterday the countdown began, although you may not have noticed. Yesterday was Asara b’Tevet, a minor fast day in Judaism which marks the day on which the Babylonian Empire laid siege to the ancient walls of Jerusalem. It was created as a fast day because that day was the beginning of the end for the ancientContinue reading “Asara b’Tevet: Countdown to January 20 2017”
Shabbat Sh’lakh-L’kha: When the Safe Choice is a Dead End
This week in our parashah it all goes wrong, suddenly. Moses sends twelve scouts, each of them a leader of a tribe, to survey the land just ahead, the Land to which G*d promised to lead them. We are literally there already – until the Promised Land abruptly becomes a place to far to reachContinue reading “Shabbat Sh’lakh-L’kha: When the Safe Choice is a Dead End”
Shabbat Ki Tisa: You, Too, Belong to Shabbat
This parashat hashavua is famous for a terrible breach in the relationship between G-d and the People Israel. That golden calf tends to overshadow the rest of the parashah even for those of us on the Triennial Cycle, who only read that specific passage once in three years! This year we read the first thirdContinue reading “Shabbat Ki Tisa: You, Too, Belong to Shabbat”
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 