We've heard it over and over, like the opening of Charles Dickens' A Tale of TwoCities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Depending on where we look around us, we see either beauty or devastation, despair or hope. Now is exactly the time that Torah, and our spiritual calendar, call us… Continue reading Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going (P. Matot-Masei)
From the Rabbi’s Desk: July 2023 and Summer’s Sweet Spirituality of Denial
Happy July, Shir Ami! As we begin our journey together in sacred community, I want to begin a monthly practice of sharing brief words about where each month invites us in the flow of spiritual time. By taking stock of where we are in the arc of the year, together we can deepen and heighten… Continue reading From the Rabbi’s Desk: July 2023 and Summer’s Sweet Spirituality of Denial
When Peace Isn’t So Peaceful: Pinchas 5783
For my first weekly dvar Torah as rabbi and spiritual leader of Congregation Shir Ami, let's talk about spearing people through the guts while they have sex on the altar.Seriously? That's the context of how Parshat Pinchas begins. (Isn't it every rabbi's dream to begin serving a spiritual community with this?)Then again, often Torah embeds beautiful worlds of wonder, depth and redemptive… Continue reading When Peace Isn’t So Peaceful: Pinchas 5783
Awakenings (Tu b’Shevat / Pre-Spring Edition)
By definition, awakening happens before we’re ready, and exactly on time. It’s Tu b’Shevat this weekend (Sunday evening, February 5), so we’re exactly on time. * Happy February! Our northern hemisphere’s darkest quarter of the year is history. We’re about to get a sharp cold snap, but the light is returning. Have you noticed that 5:00pm… Continue reading Awakenings (Tu b’Shevat / Pre-Spring Edition)
Holocaust Remembrance Day
On this International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I stop in my tracks. My grandmother was detained by Nazi invaders, my father was born in a Central Asian outpost on the run, and my great aunt and uncle bore Auschwitz tattoos on their forearms. Whole branches of my family tree were chopped and burned. Today is, at… Continue reading Holocaust Remembrance Day
Vaera: Our Cup Undrunk For Now
Part of an ongoing series that explores Torah through an ethic of social justice and building a world worthy of the Divine. Liberation can feel like grace. In the prophetic prose of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quoting the prophet Amos, eventually social “justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream”… Continue reading Vaera: Our Cup Undrunk For Now
Why This Rabbi is Learning Arabic (And Why All Rabbis Should)
Why is this rabbi learning Arabic? Read on. When the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York honored me with an invitation to join its recent multi-faith and multi-racial community leadership study trip to Israel, our goals quickly became clear. In addition to strengthening relationships among public officials, nonprofit directors and spiritual leaders, the JCRC trip aimed… Continue reading Why This Rabbi is Learning Arabic (And Why All Rabbis Should)
Dvar for Yom Kippur 5783: Renewing Balance After Injustice
Summary: “Justice, justice you will pursue” – but what about renewing balance despite the worst kinds of injustices we can imagine? Gut yontif on this Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, or “At-One-Ment,” when we say that our souls and lives hang in the balance. For centuries, our ancestors harnessed Yom Kippur’s power to inspire life-changing,… Continue reading Dvar for Yom Kippur 5783: Renewing Balance After Injustice
Dvar for Rosh Hashanah (Day 1) 5783 – The Physics of Our Quest
Summary: On our yearning to re-balance our lives, and the paradox that the world was made for us and we’re dust and ashes. By Rabbi David Shanah tovah, friends. Our world needs better balance. We all do, after rollercoaster years kicked us, our politics and our planet so far off kilter. These High Holy Days on the Jewish… Continue reading Dvar for Rosh Hashanah (Day 1) 5783 – The Physics of Our Quest
Dvar for Erev Rosh Hashanah 5783: The Sacred “And”
Summary: The path toward finding balance new begins with a perspective shift… and a sacred “and.” A joint dvar by R. David and R. Rachel Barenblat of Congregation Beth Israel of the Berkshires “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age… Continue reading Dvar for Erev Rosh Hashanah 5783: The Sacred “And”
Second Annual Pride Month Recognition
Thank you, District Attorney Walsh, for this honor and your very generous tribute. I’m quite moved and a little bit verklempt. I’m struck that a gathering like ours today couldn’t happen 20 years ago. It couldn’t happen 15 years ago when I worked on the Court of Appeals Hernandez v Robles case, which held, as… Continue reading Second Annual Pride Month Recognition
36 to Watch
BIG NEWS I'm verklempt to join breathtakingly cool colleagues among this year's "36 to Watch" in Jewish life. I'm moved and awed by the group's collective contributions to smashing ceilings, visioning futures, reinventing institutions, transforming cultures, forging paths, healing brokenness and leading communities. Joining the likes of NY State Senator Anna M. Kaplan, NYC Council… Continue reading 36 to Watch
“I’ve Seen the Promised Land”
On this day in 1968, gunshots pierced a Memphis morning. Their shrieks echo still. That day’s assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King pushed tidal waves of grief, anger and fear across our country. Because Dr. King was larger than life, hate ended his life – – but not his dream. As an adept student of… Continue reading “I’ve Seen the Promised Land”
Running for Justice
Dear Friends – After 20 years serving in and around our justice system… and on winning campaigns from presidential to local, and for social justice causes from global to local… after serving for years as North America’s only full-time presiding judicial officer simultaneously holding a rabbinic pulpit… it's time for a change. I'M RUNNING FOR… Continue reading Running for Justice
What Would Thurgood Do?
Today I was privileged to join colleagues of the bar, bench, pulpit and social justice community to dedicate a monument to the life and legacy of Justice Thurgood Marshall. Especially in this era of faction and fissure, I was grateful that Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, Jews and Gentiles – truly a sea of… Continue reading What Would Thurgood Do?
Yom Kippur 2021: Our Forwarding Address
Gut yontif on this Yom Kippur day of transformation. This year’s High Holy Day themes of strength, resilience, courage and daring all flow into today, when we can lift our lives – perhaps in just an instant – if only we’ll take the leap. Last Yom Kippur, I quoted mysticism scholar Gershom Scholem, who called days like today “plastic” times… Continue reading Yom Kippur 2021: Our Forwarding Address
Rosh Hashanah 5782: Mustaches and Moral Injuries – Resilience in Divisive Times
Shanah tovah. I hope your 5782 is dawning bright and strong. Last night we introduced our theme of strength (gevurah) – wise structure, healthy boundaries and moral direction. Gevurah calibrates impulses, sees better worlds out of turmoil and chaos, and even can transform walls into springboards. As we saw in last night’s tribute to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, gevurah can power our reach… Continue reading Rosh Hashanah 5782: Mustaches and Moral Injuries – Resilience in Divisive Times
Stronger Together: Erev Rosh Hashanah 5782
Shanah tovah! Welcome to the High Holy Days 5782. May they bring sweet goodness and health for us, our loved ones and our world. All of us here tonight lived through 5781, a year like no other. We all lived it — pandemic, climate change, racial reckoning, economic and political spasms, technological shifts and more. We saw… Continue reading Stronger Together: Erev Rosh Hashanah 5782
Our Mourning Year – at Bayit
New from Bayit’s Liturgical Arts Working Group comes this collaborative compilation of liturgy, poetry and art for this Tisha b’Av. Here are poems, prayers, artwork, and readings for Tisha b’Av 2021, looking back on the last pandemic year as we sit with what’s broken and nurture the seeds of hope for repair. This offering is organized through… Continue reading Our Mourning Year – at Bayit
“Show Me Your Way:” the Trans Microcosm of Spiritual Allyship
“Andy” sent a spiritual autobiography of four pages, a shimmeringly honest reflection on Andy’s emotional and spiritual life; birth family and chosen family, loves and losses, belief and disbelief, hope and yearning. Its treatment of gender identity spanned 10 pivotal words: “I’m trans of [gender] experience and completed transition some years ago.” I sat in… Continue reading “Show Me Your Way:” the Trans Microcosm of Spiritual Allyship
David Evan Markus 