Blogging

Covid Batman

I am distressed about the two tragedies of this year, the Covid-19 pandemic and violence against African Americans. My response is to become a crusader, but that response is quite different in each case. Covid-19 is public enemy number one…

One Community, Many Voices

A Pre-Shavuot Celebration of Torah with Rabbi Evan Krame

Things They Carried

During these months of quarantine we cleaned out closets and organized shelves. Among my family’s books was one I recalled as required reading for my children in High School. I rescued it from the discard box.The book was The Things They Carried.…

How to Get Unstuck

We are uncomfortably stuck in a wilderness, a place of not knowing. Perhaps a good analogy is that I feel like we are in the Sinai desert. While we are most definitely not physically wandering, we have mobility in our personal journeys. I am…

As A Driven Leaf

Fear is typically assumed to be a negative emotion. But not in Judaism. Even the standard biblical Hebrew word for fear is commonly translated as awe, not fear. I have been wondering how Jewish tradition can help me process (and decrease) my…

Next to Normal

We can’t go back to “normal.”  The Covid-19 plague will abate but our society and nation will not go back to the old normal. Yes, we will live with inconvenient masks and gloves. But the next normal must be fundamentally and…

The Morning After

After shutting down much of the economy, society and religious activity in the wake of the Corona virus, we anxiously await that “morning after.” How will economic, social and spiritual life resume? Of course, Torah has a suggestion…

Spiritual Sheltering

The current COVID-19 pandemic is not the first instance in history of a plague. And social distancing is not new as a response. In our tradition, illness sometimes required isolation. What one did with that isolation was the key to a cure.In…

The Leftovers

As an unexpected exercise in binge television viewing, I watched The Leftovers. The HBO series explored the psycho-spiritual reaction to being a survivor after 2% of the world disappears. The reactions ranged from deepened faith to a rejection…

Who will lead?

Passover is a holiday of leadership. Yes, to themes of redemption, freedom, matzo and springtime. At this time in history, the story is most important as a tale of leadership of Moses bringing the people out of Egypt, through the sea and onward…