Category: Liturgy

What's In a Name? (P. Vaera)

1/11/2026

We call our beloveds by many names. Whether a given name, an adopted name, a "pet" name or something else, each name encodes a special relationship and a story about it.

Why should it be different for the Beloved that we call God?

It's not. "God" isn't a Name but a role, a function. As for the Name of God – the One goes by many names.

And each Name tells a profound story. That story is worth telling.

Reminder Strings Around the Finger (P. Shlakh)

6/15/2025

If only we more reliably remembered.

If only we could keep in mind, and in heart, what's really important when life distracts or challenges us.

If only we had some reliable way to rivet our attention, and our memory, when we've forgotten and life leads us astray from our highest values and best selves.

If only we could remember in real time that we forget, so that when we forget, we might reach for reminders.

Turns out that Judaism has some tools for us.

What the Light is For (P. Beha'alotekha)

6/8/2025

As many of you have heard, my mom has been in the hospital for a month, and therefore so have I. As many of us know from personal experience, hospitals are full of lights – colored door lights, blinking lights, flashing lights, beeping lights, and also lights of deep and abiding care.

It's a heck of a time and place to revisit one of Judaism's abiding symbols, the Menorah, its purpose to give light, and its link to healing.

Who's In? You're In. We're All In. (P. Netzavim-Vayeilekh)

9/22/2024

One of my favorite moments of the Jewish year is coming... and it's probably not what you think. There's a point on Yom Kippur when we come together as if to receive anew the ancient covenant, knowing that the very act of being together magnetizes that covenant.

But Torah's basis for this moment, in this week's portion, asks us to read it in a counter-intuitive way.

What's Love Got to Do With It? (P. Vaethanan)

8/11/2024

Jewish life centers on love – not like, honor or respect, but love. Love is the core of our creed (V'ahavta), Torah's literal center ("Love your neighbor as yourself"), and the most repeated admonition in sacred Jewish text ("love the stranger, for you were a stranger").

But how can love be commanded? How can any true love be required, especially if the world feels unlovely to us? What kind of love is that?

Turns out, this kind of love is most important of all.

"And I Will Bless Them" (P. Nasso)

6/10/2024

We use the word "blessing" routinely, but the experience we call a blessing is far from routine. Blessings don't come from nowhere, and don't happen by themselves. This week's Torah portion includes the Threefold Blessing, a Judeo-Christian cornerstone of liturgy so familiar that we might intone its words unthinkingly. But just under the surface of these words is radical stuff – as radical and revolutionary as a blessing itself.

What's In a Name? (P. Vaera)

Reminder Strings Around the Finger (P. Shlakh)

What the Light is For (P. Beha'alotekha)

Who's In? You're In. We're All In. (P. Netzavim-Vayeilekh)

What's Love Got to Do With It? (P. Vaethanan)

"And I Will Bless Them" (P. Nasso)

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