Well, the “shalom service” was either very wonderful or very weird, depending on whether you want to think about it quantitatively or qualitatively. From the former perspective, it was weird because — either despite or because of or having nothing…
Category: Torah
The Text(s), the tribe, the learning, the being. (With a bit of random spirituality mixed in.)
Fringey Blue
from a pre-Blogger blog Tzitzit under blue jeans feel like nothing, and yet feel like everything. They feel like nothing because the four-cornered cotton garment to which they’re attached is extremely light. I forwent the type which snap or stitch…
Why We Teach
from a pre-Blogger blog Conversation with a 12-year-old bat mitzva candidate, who I’m tutoring by probing the meaning of the prayers: Okay, read me the first part of the Sh’ma in English. “Hear O Israel, the Eternal is G-d, the…
Rockin’ at the Beit Tefilah
from a pre-Blogger blog What happens when you turn back the clock 2,000 years to add creativity to Jewish worship? Erev at the Improv, that’s what — an experiment in structured liturgical spontaneity which, happily, was enthusiastically embraced by the…
The Name’s Panim … P.A. Panim.
from a pre-Blogger blog One of the cool things about being a teacher is watching the students connect the dots I sprinkle, as happened Tuesday. Our previous class touched on Shabbat observance, and my kids expressed disdain at the possibility…