Four Ways of Thinking about Plagues in a time of Pandemic
For years, I have hosted and attended seders where, inevitably, a fight breaks out around the plagues. The controversy has centered around how we understand the plagues – are they […]
Ur’khatz: Healing Waters at the time of COVID-19
Leader: This first handwashing is performed without a blessing over the action itself. Let us therefore draw our focus to role of water in the Passover story. “We begin our […]
Yakhatz, Afikomen and a Re-Imagined Tashlikh: Toward Economic Justice in the Time of COVID-19
Background: This ritual connecting yakhatz to tashlikh thereby invites the experience and intentions of this moment to find expression in actions at a later moment, was inspired by the tradition […]
Elijah
Eternal One, Hear our cause! Love and gladness, Hope and salvation, IsraelLit. ”the one who struggles with God.” Israel means many things. It is first used with reference to JacobLit. heel Jacob is the third patriarch, son of Isaac and Rebecca, and father to the twelve tribes of Israel. More than any of the other patriarchs, Jacob wrestles with God and evolves from a deceitful, deal-making young man to a mature, faithful partner to God. His Hebrew name is Yaakov., […]
Egypt Inside
This I confess: I have taken Egypt with me. I’ve kept myself a slave to grief and loss, Fear and anger and shame. I have set myself up as taskmaster, […]
Passover Yizkor
Brokenhearted, we find our way from narrowness to freedom. Springtime. Snow melting, flowers coming back to life. Do you remember how we set the Passover table, covered in her lace […]
This Year is Different From All Other Years: The Four Cups
Egypt (Mitzrayim) is the narrow place. It is a place of the hardened heart and constricted perspective that walls off connection and relationship. It is a place of fear, anxiety […]
This Year is Different from All Other Years: The Ten Plagues
Coming to the ten plagues this year is certainly different than every other year. Many of us have been wondering about adding an eleventh plague (coronavirus) to the list. As I […]
Zoomed Out, or, What To Do When Everyone You Know, Love, and Dream of a Better World With Is a One-inch Talking Head In a Pixelated Box
Praise their presence, grieve their absence. Grow in your capacity to be touched by other faces, and to not touch your own. Look someone directly in the eyes (they won’t […]
A Psalm of Curses to the Coronavirus
curse the fire! and curse the dark! curse these unlinked arms! and bottomed out hearts! and when i am done cursing permit my being to sink so low that i […]
