What I Learned at an "Urban Kibbutz"
In a nondescript building in the north of Israel, 150 people are striving to create societal transformation as part of a burgeoning “urban kibbutz” movement.
High Holiday Lessons from ‘Orange Is the New Black’
Recuperating from a broken ankle this summer, I had time to catch up on my binge streaming. One of my current favorites is the popular Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, which began streaming its seventh and final season on July 26.
The Future Looks Hopeful: Five Insights on Next Steps for Start-Up Synagogues
Jewish pundits love to predict the eventual demise of the synagogue, decrying its dearth of deep ideas, shortage of spiritual inspiration, and absence of meaning.
How to Help Ensure Israel Offers Equality for All
https://www.nifcan.org/get-involved/naomi-chazan-fellowship/
Critiquing Israel was not something I ever felt was appropriate for me to do, but there had to be more to the story than I knew. I needed to learn the facts about Israel.
Holding One Another On Our Shoulders
This passage is excerpted from a d’var Torah shared at the URJ Biennial convention's Shacharit service focused on tikkun olam, repair of the world.
The poet Naomi Shihab Nye tells this story:
In Place of God? In God’s Place?
After a natural calamity or terrorist attack an understandable question presents itself: Where is God in all this?
What Does It Mean to Be a Man in Full?
One day, I may give a sermon titled: "Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Pagan Philosopher." This is thanks to the book, The Art of Living ,1 by Sharon Lebell.
A Time for Building Up
Each year on Sukkot, we read these famous words of Ecclesiastes (Kohelet): “A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven. …a time for tearing down and a time for building up.” (Kohelet 3:1,3). To speak of building during a holiday dedicated to erecting a temporary structure seems fitting. And yet, the order the ideas in this verse is at odds with our Sukkot experience. Surely, “a time for building up and a time for tearing down” would align more closely with sequence of the holiday. So why this order? And what exactly are “we tearing down and building up”?