Category: Bnei Mitzvah

Like the liturgists of old, Arlin’s work troubles us where we are too comfortable and comforts us when we are troubled

Ritual helps us pay attention. From the joy of a recovery to the grief of a funeral, ritual helps us inhabit the breadth of human experience.

The last thirteen years have been a journey for my husband Fred and me into a world that we knew nothing about before: the world of autism.

How does an interfaith couple raising Jewish children create meaningful rituals that honor both partners’ heritage? This is a question that I asked myself when I became a parent and when I founded the Love & Tradition Institute.

Judaism is as much a community as a religion, and as such it is deeply rooted in ritual and tradition. This communal nature is cemented by speaking and singing in unison, commingling individual voices within a rhythmic repetition of sh’ma

On a recent Saturday evening, I found myself in a small artsy theater in downtown Seattle for the debut of an original animated film. When the film ended, the young filmmaker, Frieda, was greeted with thunderous applause. Afterward, she joined me on stage for a Director’s Q&A session, where I interviewed her about both the content and the making of her movie. The topic of the film? Parashat Beshalakh.

As part of bar

Life cycle rituals are not fixed experiences—even when the text and ceremony stays the same.