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Bamidbar/Numbers Chapter 20 is bookended by the deaths of Moses’ siblings, Miriam and Aaron. In between, Moses hits the rock to get it to bring forth water, and God tells both him and Aaron that they won’t enter the Promised Land with the people.

Today is May 4, which should have been my father’s 91st birthday. Instead, just weeks before his 77th, he died suddenly following what we assume was a heart attack. Twelve hours after he was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead, we received a call…

Early voting has begun in New York, and I imagine in many other states as well. Even though I’m not affiliated with a party, I’m being inundated with postcards and mail from the various candidates running for various offices in our town and county. They…

What a powerful message and a powerful reminder of our task on earth, as humans concerned about humanity. What an amazing way to explain the concept of being created b’tzelem elo-him, - created in the Divine image. We know the Holy One has no shape…

As I was walking on the platform of the Malverne train station recently, I noticed a sign for a suicide hotline that said, “Your pain is real. So is hope.” We’re here this evening on the cusp of a new year, of 5786, hoping to…

It was fascinating to start receiving DNA matches, including my daughter (whew!), connecting with some long-lost relatives, and learning about some distant ones whom I never knew existed. I get as far back as my great-grandparents, and then the history appears to end. My husband,…

Approaching the eighth decade of life often brings with it terms like downsizing, purging, paring and the freedom to let go. Many of us opt to see our children and grandchildren enjoy their inheritance while we’re here, to eat off the china with them and…

A few weeks ago, I was invited to speak to a university class about being one of the first generation of women and queer rabbis. At these kinds of talks, I usually tell mostly the same stories – of how a guy trying to pick…

Although I grew up with a strong Jewish identity, I did not experience a traditional Jewish education and came to Torah in my late teens through influential involvement with a Jewish youth organization called ATID (Hebrew for "future"). A few years later, contacts within the…

Parshat Pinchas has been like a stone thrown into the pond of my being; it has rippled out over the decades: from the Rosh Hodesh portion that reminded me of my womanhood, to a challenge to step into my female Jewish authority, and finally to…

A man Named Bilam, A people-pleaser, and A freelance speaker of Curses and blessings, Had a donkey That he rode To his professional engagements. 

Each morning at the start of the Shacharit prayers there is a passage in which we praise God for having “fashioned man in his wisdom” and “creating within him life-sustaining organs… If but one of these were to function improperly, it would be impossible for…

This past week, I participated in a Ritualwell class with Alden Solovy on "Writing From One Word of Torah." I distilled 3 stream-of-consciousness prompts on the word "Baruch/Berekh," the root of which can mean "blessing' and "knee, into this poem.

An email from My Jewish Learning about “A Woman of Valor” prompted me to pivot the next evening’s planned adult learning session to looking at these 22 verses from Mishlei, the Book of Proverbs. These verses comprise a song called Eshet Chayil...

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korha has a point; at what point does life become wearying? When does the joy go out of our lives, and when does a long life become a too-long life? Or from the perspective of a younger person, like Rabbi Yehuda haNasi,…

when a lit candle is used to light other candles, that first candle’s flame doesn’t diminish; rather each flame becomes whole unto itself.

How can reading something in the Talmud, from 2,000 years ago, give us insight into how we look at things today.