It's an occupational hazard. We clergy so delight in bringing Torah to life and liturgy to life that we might unashamedly “geek out” – especially when we do both at the same time. When I link Torah with liturgy in ways that enliven both, my joy can be irrepressible. (Thankfully my New York congregation seems to like it,… Continue reading Answering With Great Joy
Author: velveteenrabbi
R. Rachel Barenblat has been blogging as the Velveteen Rabbi since 2002.
What Men In Jail Can Teach Us About Joy
Actually, it didn’t happen in a jail, which typically houses shorter-term detentions. It happened in Sing Sing Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, where some inmates spend decades on custodial sentences for the most serious felonies. Behind cinder block, metal bars and barbed wire isn’t typically… Continue reading What Men In Jail Can Teach Us About Joy
Power Tools For Spiritual Building
Part of a yearlong series on Torah wisdom about building and builders. The first weeks of Bayit’s Builder’s Blog harvested keystone principles about building the Jewish future – from primordial foundations of building, to where and with whom spiritual neighborhoods create community. Now it’s time to build – but what and how? Parshat Mikeitz offers answers: first… Continue reading Power Tools For Spiritual Building
Keeping the Mind in Mind: The Essence of Pluralism
Exciting news: studying theology can teach us how to think and even build secular careers! Whatever one's beliefs, immersion in the complexities of sacred text can expand perspective and cultivate character. Studying theology can make the mind nimbler, the heart more tender and the spirit wiser. But for all of theology's great promise, theology doesn't promise certitude. The… Continue reading Keeping the Mind in Mind: The Essence of Pluralism
Genesis (En)Gendered: An Angelic View from Eden’s Way
This momentous #metoo #ibelieveyou moment urges us to see old stories with new eyes. Reading sacred texts with ever renewing eyes is one of many ways that theology teaches us how to see and think – to reach beyond ourselves, to not become calcified and thus brittle, to strengthen our capacity to hold multiplicity and nuance without falling into… Continue reading Genesis (En)Gendered: An Angelic View from Eden’s Way
First Build: Seven Foundation Principles for Spiritual Builders
Part of a yearlong series about building and builders inspired by the Torah cycle. We're all stardust, re-mixed chemical elements forged in some distant supernova. We're all broken shards, fallen from the primordial shattering. We're all reflected light, glimmering with the Source of Light. We're all builders, making and re-making the world one brick and… Continue reading First Build: Seven Foundation Principles for Spiritual Builders
The Vision Before You
Gmar chatimah tovah. It is so good to see each and every one of you on this holy vision-quest day of Yom Kippur. Vision is this year's spiritual theme. On Rosh Hashanah we explored Judaism's core truth that what's invisible often is more real than what's visible, that how we see the world – optical… Continue reading The Vision Before You
Resilience in endings… and new beginnings
Last in a series on resilience in Jewish spiritual life. For a whole year's Torah cycle of weeks, we've been looking to Torah for resilience lessons. We began with Cain as an unlikely resilience teacher. We learned resilience from Noah in the rain and Abraham never quitting because he loved more than himself. We learned resilience from Rebecca, the first to… Continue reading Resilience in endings… and new beginnings
Holy Vision and Optical Delusion
Shanah tovah. It's so good to see each and every one of you. In 1952, Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, visited the U.S. on a fundraising mission. Fresh off Israel's miraculous War of Independence victory over seven invading armies, Ben Gurion arrived to a standing ovation of thousands waiting to see him. What do… Continue reading Holy Vision and Optical Delusion
When (bad) things happen to (good) people
Part of a yearlong series about resilience in Jewish spiritual life. When are you most likely to ask “why” about your life? Especially when life seems difficult or unfair, we ask “why” because we sense that understanding can help avoid pitfalls of meaninglessness. A world we (think we) can explain is a world that seems… Continue reading When (bad) things happen to (good) people
Don’t Just Sit There: Feel Something
Here’s a radical idea that I wish weren’t radical: if you consistently feel nothing in the Jewish community, it’s time to take notice and ask why. And a corollary: if you serve the Jewish community, a keystone goal should be to encourage authenticity, depth, and safety of emotional experience. True, Jewish civilization survived and thrived… Continue reading Don’t Just Sit There: Feel Something
Resilience when we would rather not remember
Part of a yearlong series on resilience in Jewish spiritual life. It's just a few weeks until Rosh Hashanah. The Jewish season of teshuvah (repentance, repair, return) is upon us. And of course, what we repent, repair and return (to) depends exquisitely on what we remember. Truth be told, there are some things I'd rather not remember. I'd… Continue reading Resilience when we would rather not remember
What We Remember in Our Feet
“What We Remember in Our Feet” Cragsmoor Stone Church August 19, 2018 Happy Sunday to you. And thank you – especially Deacon Jeff Slade – for inviting me to share in today’s service of worship and learning. Deacon Jeff and I met through the New York Theological Seminary. I’m delighted to be with you. Some… Continue reading What We Remember in Our Feet
The eye is in the hand of the beholder
Part of a yearlong series on resilience in Jewish spiritual life. If art and beauty are in the eye of the beholder, then what about spirituality and especially communal spirituality? And when we feel disconnected – as everyone sometimes does – then what? This week's Torah portion (Re'eh) invites us to see that seeing our eye… Continue reading The eye is in the hand of the beholder
Spirituality When Life Says No
Modern spirituality seems to echo advice of an old standard: "accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative." Who doesn't groove on light, love and can-do spirit? Each "yes" of affirmation and empowerment tends to feel good: a spirituality of "yes" energizes, validates and comforts. By comparison, negatives like restriction, redirection and disappointment can seem like lesser spirituality or even… Continue reading Spirituality When Life Says No
Seeing It All
Part of a yearlong series on resilience in Jewish spiritual life. I've heard it countless times, especially over the last few weeks: "Depending on where I look around me, I see either beauty or devastation, hope or despair." True that: it's all there, all at the same time, especially nowadays. Some would say that where… Continue reading Seeing It All
Home of the Brave?
This moment in national life, and this moment in the Jewish spiritual calendar, both ask deep and real bravery. What’s more, they impel us to ask ourselves and each other a few direct questions: Are we brave? Are we the “Home of the Brave”? What does bravery mean for us now? Francis Scott Key, whose… Continue reading Home of the Brave?
When resilience is just stubborn: the art of quitting
Part of a yearlong series on resilience in Jewish spiritual life. Ever feel like you're pushing a boulder up a hill and soon will reach the top if you just keep going – but the top never comes? Mythical Greek king Sisyphus was condemned to this futility, and philosopher Albert Camus saw in it a metaphor for all human… Continue reading When resilience is just stubborn: the art of quitting
Bitching Bites
Bitching is easy. Holy bitching is another matter. Easy bitching is what our Torah ancestors did after 39 years in the desert – and who could blame them? Having buried beloved leaders Miriam and Aaron, the people called Israel were miserable: 39 years on the move, in the wilderness, eating manna. It is human nature to… Continue reading Bitching Bites
The time God got it wrong – Korach
Part of a yearlong series on resilience in Jewish spiritual life. Watch enough cable or online "news," and you might sense a U.S. society more polarized than ever before by political party, class, race, ethnicity, geography and religion. Public disagreements speedily become disagreeable, and disputes fuel scorched-earth campaigns to destroy disputants. What are we to… Continue reading The time God got it wrong – Korach
David Evan Markus 