TEACHING JEWISH KIDS THEIR HERITAGE was, to me, one of life’s greatest joys; I began doing it for pre-B’nei Mitzvah students (read: 11-12 year-olds) in 2000, retiring when I got sick in 2008. It was the high point of any…
Tag: There’s a God in My Soup
Religious experience, or at least the experience of religion.
One Nice Thing
IF YOU ARE AS SNARKED-OUT as I am, sick and tired of the recreational character assassination which passes for modern culture, please: 1.) Click on the “Comments” link below. 2.) Add either something nice someone did for you, or something…
Why Is This Night…
… DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHER NIGHTS? Well … Aside from each evening — each moment — being unique and therefore different from any other before or since: On all other nights, the world rotates from sunlight into darkness. Tonight the…
Sometimes I Hate This Job
I’M PUTTING OFF WRITING A eulogy. Doesn’t everyone? Linda Tomback is a good friend who used to attend our Saturday morning Torah study. Her death is the eighth in our congregation in the past two years; the first two were…
This Week In Torah: Vayak’hel/Pekudei
VAYAK’HEL/PEKUDEI (Exodus 35:1-40:38; haftarot I Kings 7:51-8:21 and, because Nisan starts on Tuesday making this a special Rosh Chodesh Shabbat, Ezekiel 45:16-46:18) WRAPS UP THE BOOK of Exodus by building the Tabernacle: the traveling God-tent whose structure and contents are…
Pithyism #2
THE REASON WE NEED each other is that life rarely contains enough different viewpoints to even begin understanding Life.
Awe and Inquiry
He looked up. “What are you sketching?” She held out a pad, on which was written: AWE AND INQUIRY God is good. God is. God. . He frowned. “What’s the point?” She grinned. “Exactly.”
Minute Mitzvah: Praise Wow
And now, another Monday Mitzvah with a side of motivation. Today: Hold God in awe. THIS ONE’S TRICKY FOR ATHEISTS, so in the interests of universality, let’s assume we’re not talking about the Cranky Old Man raining smites and frights…
Pithyism #10
CIVILIZATION IS NOT BASED ON agriculture, technology or finance — but solely on its members’ unspoken agreement to behave sensibly. Take that away …
Four Points of Contact
“IT IS THE NATURE OF religious belief knowledge to be compelling only to the believer knower.” So said Rabbi Micha Berger some years ago on Usenet’s soc.culture.jewish.moderated, and I have yet to see a better argument for pluralism and against…
Message From Beyond
NOT ALL MITZVOT TURN INTO ghost stories — but when doing holy work, it’s always a good idea to expect the unexpected. Ann and I are members of the Sonoma County Chevre Kadisha, which literally means “holy fellowship;” it’s a…
Comfort of Nothing
Addressed to a mailing list of old and dear friends, during one of the perennial and genial “Nature of God, or Someone Like Him/Her/It” discussions, and whether Immanence vs. Transcendence helps one sleep better at night: Back when I first…