Mourner’s Lament
A short meditation about the daily shifts that mourners may experience on the journey to healing, based on my own experiences of mourning. I wrote it…
Read articleFor Rabbi Peter Knobel, z”l
Rabbi Peter Knobel z”l has died after suffering a massive heart attack almost two weeks ago. A gadol b’dor, a giant of this generation, a tzaddik,…
Read articlePrivate Meditation on the Death of a Beloved Public Figure
A beloved teacher, I didn’t get the chance to know Rabbi Aaron Panken z’l. Yet from everything written about him — from obituaries to Facebook posts…
Read articleOne is Everything
We’re surrounded by violence. Orlando. Nice. Tel Aviv. Pittsburgh. Innocents dead at the hand of terror. In Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, France, an 84-year-old priest was murdered in his…
Read articleOn Lighting a Yizkor or Yartziet Candle
This is a simple new meditation, appropriate for both Yizkor and a Yartziet, to be said before or after lighting a memorial candle. The language is…
Read articleHard Mournings
This is a prayer about the rhythm of mourning. Those first days – perhaps months or more – are often reminders of sorrow, emptiness and loneliness,…
Read articleAfter an Accidental Death: A Yizkor Prayer
This is another in a series of focused yizkor prayers to help acknowledge particular circumstances surrounding the death of a loved one, such as: “In Memory…
Read articleAfter Shiva
After shiva, now what? I remember that feeling when my father Jack z”l died and again when my wife Ami z”l died. Her shiva ended with the start of Passover.…
Read articleOur Patriarch: Jerold S. Solovy z”l
Here’s a prayer reposted in memory of my uncle Jerry Solovy z”l. The Chicago ADL has renamed the Jerold S. Solovy Freedom Award in his memory. The Chicago Sun-Times…
Read articleFor Bereaved Children
This prayer is dear to me. I wrote it on behalf of my daughters. It’s a father’s yearning for his children, my yearning for my daughters as…
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