Category: Character

Commanding Joy When the World is a Mess? (P. Terumah)

2/15/2026

Nobody needs me to confirm that vast swaths of our world burn like a raging dumpster fire.

Judaism is about reality-based reality. We do not pretend away trouble or turn a blind eye. We certainly do not fiddle while Rome burns.

Yet even so – precisely so – the Jewish calendar encodes a radical and wise spiritual practice starting now, linked to this week's Torah portion, that at first blush can seem oddly un-real and ill-fitting when the world is a dumpster fire.

The practice is one of Judaism's sometimes overlooked superpowers: elevating joy amidst all.

Justice and a World Blind and Toothless (P. Mishpatim)

2/8/2026

In a world of passive aggression, physical and emotional aggression, and mounting societal outrage, there can be instinctive allure to Torah's "eye for an eye" maxim about justice.

Except it doesn't mean what the millennia made it out to mean. What principles should guide us in addressing bad behavior? When – if ever – does "like" merit "like"?

The Bittersweet Fickleness of Faith (P. Beshallah)

1/25/2026

Even the most faithful among us have times of forgetting, doubting and disbelieving. Lifelong learning, gratitude and perspective suddenly can fly out the window.

Even the most faithless among us have times of belief that challenge rationalism, atheism and all other -isms. Clutched certainty of disbelief, and with it clarity about how life is, suddenly can fall like a castle of sand.

Our bittersweet fickleness of faith, faithlessness and everything in between is eminently human. What if we lean into them – all of them?

The Angelic Art of Redemption (P. Vayehi)

12/28/2025

Before it's all said and done, what do we make of the dust-ups, hurts, disappointments and dramas of our messy lives?

it's tempting to answer that we bear them as best we can, and even make meaning of them – and hopefully we do. But is there more?

Is there a way to redeem what happens in our lives? Is there a way to bless others by what we ourselves have become?

That's Jacob's last blessing, and ours – with bonus content from one of my students.

Out of the Darkness (P. Mikeitz)

12/14/2025

During this Hanukkah week – and now in the wake of the attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Australia – we kindle candles of hope, continuity and community.

We participate in an extraordinary collective act of hutzpah.

We've all known the darkness before the dawn, the anxiety before the knowing, the gauntlet before the triumph. There have been times so dark that we could never imagine light ever penetrating.

And yet.

The Amazing Technicolor Hindsight Stories We Tell Ourselves (P. Vayeishev)

12/7/2025

Joseph's coat of many colors has become the stuff of art, parenting books, spiritual seeking and a now-timeless Broadway musical.

And wow, is it loaded! Perhaps Joseph's coat became such a Biblical icon precisely because it is so loaded.

Stitched into its amazing technicolor weave is a deep teaching about how we make meaning in our lives – and the stories we tell about what happens. In the process, this essentially human (and Jewish) project can't help but play a time-traveling trick on us that hides in plain sight.

It's worth revealing that hidden story (with bonus content from "The West Wing").

When the Turkeys Get Us Down (Thanksgiving)

11/23/2025

Jewish life and Thanksgiving both invite us to count our blessings with gratitude. Jewish life also is about being real, and sometimes the reality is that the turkeys get us down.

Here's some holiday food for thought about what to do if we, or someone we love, is struggling to find gratitude this Thanksgiving.

Rational Spirituality Beyond Belief (P. Toledot)

11/16/2025

Believers might readily embrace the spiritual prospect of asking God a question and receiving a response (whether with a knowing or feeling beyond self, or an inner sense within).

But how about disbelievers? In a rational world of left-brain logic, can suffering and brokenness drive a rational response that is spiritual? Indeed they can, and the source is poignant.

Trust and Verify (P. Lekh Lekha)

10/27/2025

It's okay to be afraid during times of uncertainty, especially when much is at stake.

But when we let fears rule us without lovingly questioning them, we tend to make what we fear more likely to impact us.

And then who are we really?

Between Fleeting and Forever: The Art of Time (P. Noah)

10/19/2025

Our experience of time is not linear. Whatever a clock tells us, long stretches can pass in a blink while some moments seem to last forever.

As we enter our annual calendar's peak autumn and the colder, darker months, perhaps we can open a window on how the Biblical Noah and his family felt aboard the ark. What might we learn about spiritualizing our experience of time?

<<Previous

Commanding Joy When the World is a Mess? (P. Terumah)

Justice and a World Blind and Toothless (P. Mishpatim)

The Bittersweet Fickleness of Faith (P. Beshallah)

The Angelic Art of Redemption (P. Vayehi)

Out of the Darkness (P. Mikeitz)

The Amazing Technicolor Hindsight Stories We Tell Ourselves (P. Vayeishev)

When the Turkeys Get Us Down (Thanksgiving)

Rational Spirituality Beyond Belief (P. Toledot)

Trust and Verify (P. Lekh Lekha)

Between Fleeting and Forever: The Art of Time (P. Noah)

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