We are in a kind of oasis moment right now. A place of respite does not need to be the perfect place or the best place. It just needs to be enough. And the relief and rest we feel will be real.
Read moreOrdination and Lamentation
After years, months, weeks, days of anticipation, I was ordained as a rabbi last Sunday, wearing a tallit that had belonged to my beloved lifelong rabbi, Mark S. Shapiro. The next day, the world lost Steve Shapiro – his son and my friend.
Read moreOrdination and Insurrection
The author as a 14-year old summer camp rabbi in Oconomowoc, WI. Photo by Dawn Weiner-Kaplow.
Tomorrow is the simcha of my smicha – my rabbinic ordination. It means so much to me after a wait of more than half a century. But history waits for no simcha, and we have to also look at this week’s insurrection in our capital.
Read more2020 Hindsight
Despite the “good riddance 2020” memes, I actually feel that the last year, with all its challenges and surprises, needs to be seen and considered. I think about our forefather Jacob, who this week gives a farewell assessment of each of his twelve unruly sons. I know how much we want to say goodbye to these last twelve unruly months that brought us so much angst, but let’s take a look.
Read moreIn a Christmas Mood
Making friends with Jesus, figuring out a handle for Christ, and managing Jewish Christmas guilt.
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