“Merry Christmas,” says this pulpit rabbi and co-chair of the Jewish Renewal movement. Regardless of our theologies and beliefs, the message of Christmas is worthy for Jews to think deeply about – but we need to get clear about what we understand the real message of Christmas to be. Granted, Christmas can leave Jews feeling either “Bah Humbug” or “Amazing Grace”: both are popular Christmas… Continue reading Angels We Have Heard On High

Happy Thanksgiving. Now, let’s get real: Some don’t feel thankful today. We might feel like the turkeys got us down. We might feel burdened by hosting, harried by travel, lonely for having nowhere to go, bothered for having to go somewhere we don’t want to go, or pre-triggered by a secular holiday season happier in advertising than anticipation or reality.… Continue reading It’s Thanksgiving, But What if One Doesn’t Feel Thankful?

If you’re reading this post during October, it’ll soon be Halloween – that great Jewish holiday. Yes, you read that right. (Well, sort of.) In no obvious sense is Halloween a Jewish holiday. Historically, Halloween derives from Christianity’sAll Hallows’ Eve, traditionally a time of feasting and vespers before All Saints’ Day on November 1, which… Continue reading Of Challah-ween, Havdalah-ween and Yaakov Lanterns

Sunday night (October 4, 2015) begins Shemini Atzeret, the last festival in the summer/fall Jewish holiday cycle. For many moderns, Shemini Atzeret is obscure, confusing or irrelevant – but investing ourselves in this holiday can revitalize the spirit for the year ahead. Here’s how. * In 1993, alternative rock band Crash Test Dummies released its second… Continue reading The Spirituality of Just Hanging Out (Shemini Atzeret Edition)

This weekend (September 4-5, 2015) traditionally brings the Selichot service of inner awareness and penitence in readiness for the High Holy Day journey of teshuvah (return, amends). There’s no more apt moment to spiritually reflect on the source of forgiveness. The thing is, Jewish thought is spiritually schizophrenic about the source of forgiveness. In 1711, an… Continue reading The divine dance of forgiveness

On September 10, 1813, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry led the U.S. Navy to victory in the pivotal Battle of Lake Erie, which turned the War of 1812 toward American advantage and ultimately preserved U.S. independence from the English crown. That day, Perry reportedly coined two historic phrases. One was “Don’t give up the ship” – now a timeless… Continue reading We have met the enemy

“Balaam and the Angel,” painting from Gustav Jaeger (1836). For all of Torah’s miracles large and small, the story of a talking donkey who sees an angel is perhaps Torah’s most magical and childlike narrative. In its words lurks a profound secret that touches (and challenges) the core of our adult sense of good and… Continue reading The Devil You Know

For all the spiritual riches of religious tradition, sometimes we forget our spiritual essence – the spark of divinity we associate with each soul, the inherent Oneness connecting all things, the heightened reality hiding in plain sight. Our penchant for spiritual amnesia is less a Jewish frailty than a human one: after all, to forget is human. Each world wisdom tradition, in… Continue reading A String Around Your Finger

In April, I represented ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal among #tenrabbis joining CLAL co-president Irwin Kula at the TriBeCa Disruptive Innovation Awards.  In the Green Room backstage with me were titans of industry, technology, education, advocacy, media and the arts who’d made fundamental change in the world – the likes of Bill Magee (co-founder, Operation… Continue reading Renewing Disruptive Innovation

Hello darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping, And the vision that was planted In my brain still remains Within the sound of silence. – Simon & Garfunkel Stereotypes can be risky, but it’s probably safe to say that Jews… Continue reading The Sounds of Silence

April 3, 2015, is Tzom Bechorot, Fast of the Firstborn when first-born Jews fast before the first seder of Passover. This day also coincides with Good Friday, an obligatory fast day in Catholic tradition. Because I’m a first-born Jew, I will fast for the first reason. Because I’m a rabbi and soon co-chair of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal,… Continue reading Tzom Bechorot: Why I’m Fasting Before Passover

When does time begin? What does time measure? What came before the beginning? Such mind-bending questions evoke timeless truths especially relevant at this very moment in the Jewish year. Humans measure space and time from origins – beginnings deeply rooted in history, culture and values. Moderns traveling east or west across the globe chart distance in longitude… Continue reading The Freedom of Now