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...

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

In a recent industry dinner for technology executives in finance, I realized midway that I was one of only two women among about fifty...

This upcoming Shabbat, the Shabbat prior to Purim, we will be reading Parashat Zachor (Devarim 25:17-19). Hashem commands us to remember...

The Festival of Lights is upon us. The year: 5785. There is an ongoing war in Israel. A silent holocaust rages in America. The hurly...

The flowers, in all their colored splendor, journeyed from fertile land to take root in the most barren of places. To witness and partake...

Picture this: you are one of thousands of men, women, and children huddled by a mountain in the middle of the desert. You had just...

“Then the Man said, ‘This one at last Is bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called Woman,  For from a Man was she...