On Joseph and Solitary Confinement
When JosephJacob’s eldest son by his beloved wife, RachelLavan's younger daughter and Jacob's beloved wife second wife (after he is initially tricked into marrying her older sister, Leah). Rachel grieves throughout her life that she is barren while Leah is so fertile. Ultimately, Rachel gives birth to Joseph and dies in childbirth with Benjamin. Rachel is remembered as compassionate (she is said to still weep for her children), and infertile women often invoke Rachel as a kind of intercessor and visit her tomb on the road to Bethlehem.. Joseph, the dreamer, was his father’s favorite and nearly murdered by his brothers. Sold into slavery, he became viceroy of Egypt […]
Mi Shebeirakh for People Held in Solitary Confinement
May the One who blessed our ancestors AbrahamAbraham is the first patriarch and the father of the Jewish people. He is the husband of Sarah and the father of Isaac […]
Jewish Disability Awareness & Inclusion Month (JDAIM) Lesson Plans (2019)
Jewish Disability Awareness & Inclusion Month (JDAIM) is a unified national initiative during the month of February that aims to raise disability awareness and foster inclusion in Jewish communities worldwide. […]
How to Bless Yourself
If you are waiting for a spiritual leader to tell you, write what you need to hear and read it back to yourself and call it blessing. Call the act […]
I Am the Future: A Poem for the Women’s March
We are the future and our lives matter We share our voices not only as Black youth, but as girls who will become women someday. We are the dreams of […]
Heschel King
On the yahrzeit/anniversary of passing of Abraham Joshua Heschel and birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. I The picture of Abraham Joshua Heschel rabbi, human being, interpreter of inner Judaism […]
Preparing for Psalm 27
May polar bears swim safely /
to the ice flows, and may we love /
our way back to soft tickling cheeks, /
hot breath, moist lips
A New Year for the Trees: A Tu Bi’Shevat Seder for Everyone
I founded Shomrei Adamah, Keepers of the Earth, the first national Jewish environmental organization in 1988, and have been thinking and writing about the relationship between ecology and religion ever […]
Bat Shekhinah
I created the Bat ShekhinahThe feminine name of God, expounded upon in the rabbinic era and then by the Kabbalists in extensive literature on the feminine attributes of the divine. […]
Loosening Our Hair: Queering Upshirin
may the strength that flowed through the untamed and flung off locks of our ancestors flow through your locks here today and whenever you feel the need to be loosened […]
