WRITINGS

“A land of wheat and barley, and vines, and figs and pomegranates, a land of olives and honey.”  Centuries ago, Adam and Hava ate of the forbidden tree altering the state and future of the world and humanity. As children we were taught the forbidden fruit was an apple. More sophisticated Torah thought, however, opines it was wheat, or fully formed, ready to eat bread. Other opinions hold it was a fig tree, and its leaves were then used by Hashem to cloth them after this sin.

Kislev is the month of miracles. Hanukkah is the holiday of miracles within the month of miracles. Zot Hanukkah,  the eighth and final day of Hanukkah, is the most miraculous day within the holiday of miracles begun in the month of miracles.  How do we, today, tap into this most miraculous of energies? The secret lies in the number eight and its connection to Hanukkah. The number seven represents nature, beginning with the seven days of creation (G-d resting on the seventh da

Week after week, we bring in the light of Shabbat. We women strike the match, anticipating the Shabbat glow enveloping us, the warmth, the coziness, the exhale. We say the beracha quietly, in a moment of deep connection: with ourselves and with G-d, with Jewish women everywhere. The light stirs us from inside, and settles there too. We welcome G-d in; into the space we have created for us .. the set table, the elevated meal. We are ready. Our Shabbat light is spiritual, but a

Why? Why not? Why now? When, then? Why me? Why not me? Would I want it for another? I wouldn’t. Can I do it? I can. Do I want to? Not really. Will I? I will. … Thank you. I sit and stare, the warmth of the Hanukkah flames piercing my soul. The tears, an outpour from within. It is me. It is you. It is all of us. Whatever “it” is, we all have something. The thing fighting its way to the front of our minds, the thing that makes itself known juuust when we were starting t

This, and every High Holiday season, we wish each other a “Happy New Year,” a “Sweet New Year.” We want and desire for the year ahead to...

It’s early Friday morning, and I’m standing in my kitchen preparing for Shabbat. A rogue fly zips furiously through the room while silver...

The festivities take pause. The music, silenced.  We mourn.  Our joy diminished, inward we retreat.   To search, to self-reflect. To...

In the beginning, G-d created a most magnificent world, a physical paradise brimming with an unimaginable spiritual intimacy with Him....

An utterance, an entire world. A syllable, an infinite vastness. Torah language is robust and complex, and endlessly layered. A word is...