Three friends are having a hard time. One laments being lonely unpartnered. Another tends a spouse with a tough prognosis. A third faces an unjust assault to a career. Oy, such downers for the hazy, lazy days of mid-summer! Of course, the comforting idea that certain times are “supposed” to be happy isn’t always the world’s… Continue reading Nowhere to Run (And a Good Thing, Too)

This post is for you if you ever felt small after receiving critique or challenge, or that a leadership burden is too heavy, or that no good deed goes unpunished. (Essentially, this post is for everyone.) And of course, this post is for me and my own roles in government, congregational life and a national nonprofit organization. If we teach… Continue reading How to Fall on Your Face: The Spiritual Art of Leadership

I’ll never forget that time I taught the first line of this week’s Torah portion (B’midbar). One English translation begins, “God spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai” (Numbers 1:1), from which Jewish tradition spins countless interpretations. Reading this verse, the student asked me, “Why did God speak to Moses in China?” Nonsense: The Sinai peninsula is adjacent to modern-day Israel,… Continue reading China as Sinai and Parakeets on the Roof: The Important Spiritual Art of Jewish Bloopers

Scientists report that playing a game like Rock Band  can make you more caring – and the reason touches the core of what it means to be Jewish. Humans tend to experience less empathy for “strangers” than for people we deem “more like us” – family, friends, colleagues and members of our “tribe.” Neurobiology explains that perceived similarity triggers our mirror neurons,… Continue reading All of Us: ‘Rock Band’ Judaism and Emotional Contagion

Judaism and justice go hand in hand. The Jewish value of tzedakah (charity, from the Hebrew word for “justice”) underscores that to “be Jewish” is partly to “do Jewish,” and to “do Jewish” means to give generously. Judaism asks tzedakah not only as charitable acts of support for others, but also as defining acts of identity for ourselves.… Continue reading “If One’s Means Do Not Suffice”: Confronting the High Price of Doing Jewish

Travel in your mind to the top of our atmosphere, where Earth’s envelope of life-giving oxygen and nitrogen blends into the cold vacuum of space. Looking down from that heady height, as astronauts have done since 1961, the Earth below seems borderless and pastoral, gently still except for flashes of lightning and polar aurorae dancing across the globe. This uplifted perspective on our planet… Continue reading Seeing Bigger

Jews are a People of the Book; Jews also are a People of the Song. In fear, poverty, war and exile, song packed light and eased the way. This spiritual secret is encoded in Jewish spiritual DNA: we can sing our way through. Even for those of us who wouldn’t describe ourselves as singers, the ancient secret of song is ours to rediscover and… Continue reading From Sigh to Song: A Way Toward Freedom