Inside the (Hanukkah) Light
This meditation on light pluses with hope, carrying echoes of Hanukkah. It’s about seeing, feeling, and loving the light shining around us, and our yearning to…
Read articleThe Season of Dedication
When the Maccabees finally won back the Temple for the Jewish people, it took eight days to clean and consecrate the holy space. Chanukah derives from…
Read articleFarewell Ushpizot, Ushpizin: Meditation Before Taking Down a Sukkah
Each year, we construct beautiful dwellings for Sukkot. We intentionally create temporary, holy spaces. We invite the presence of honored guests, the ushpizin, seven prophets, patriarchs and kings of…
Read articleBeauty Dances
On Sukkot, joy and beauty arrive. We are called to bring that beauty into the world. This piece appears in This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a…
Read articleLooking Back at Our Long Marriage
A simple prayer to be said after years and years of marriage. Here’s a related prayer, a “Blessing for a Spouse / Partner.” And for those…
Read articleI Sing
A prayer about song in honor of the amazing musicians filling the world with new Jewish music. The format — 6x6x3, six lines of six words…
Read articleSacred Silly
This playful and unexpected prayer/poem makes fun of my own seriousness about writing prayers and liturgy. And I need a break from the intensity of affairs…
Read articleThe Gifts of Our Lives
This new prayer of gratitude includes an alphabetical acrostic. Acrostics were a mainstay of Jewish liturgical poems, known as piyutim. This piece combines the acrostic with a four-part…
Read articleVayakhel-Pekudei: For the Gift of Art
In this week’s double torah portion, Vayakhel-Pekudei, the master artist Bezalel is named to direct the creation of the tabernacle, all of its symbols and tools,…
Read articleVayetze 5775: Messengers among Us
Is it possible to recognize an angel, a messenger of G-d? How would I know? Angels appear at the beginning and the end of this week’s…
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