I wake up every day in fear. But I am not in any personal, imminent danger. This is the conditioning of my past and the dread of the future. But I am not the captive of my conditioning, and dread is not destiny. In this moment I am strong. In this moment I am needed. May I be of use.

Sometimes we need the help of others to draw us out from the prison of our suffering.

We do not yet know what will be required of us in the time to come. But maybe the birds have something to say about it.

Coming back from rabbi jamboree in Colorado, I realize that even in what seems like the loneliest places, we are not alone.

An essay in which I puzzle over oddities in the Torah text (and in rabbinic response to it) that gravitate around Joseph’s feminine looks, clothing, emotions, social role, and body (with provocative references to knees, breasts, and womb). I also explore my own relationship with Joseph’s stories and what it feels like to find in Joseph the trancestor that I have long needed.