In a gasp like a baby's first shocked breath, She pulled back the diaphragm of the Divine, creating space for a Universe to expand to fill the Divine lungs. In seven days it was done - chay, tzomeach, domem - animal, vegetable, mineral - things, creatures beyond count, an explosion of interaction and unfolding physics. She felt awe and satisfaction and, at last, curiosity.
Read moreThe Journey of Return
Standing on that hilltop in Waibstadt, Germany, I have to say that I indeed felt like I was returning, even though I had never been there. This great-great-grandfather whose grave I stood at shared his name with me – as I discovered he did with his own grandfather, and with his grandson, my Grandpa Irwin, whose birthday is tomorrow. This succession of Yitzchak Kellers made me feel a little bit like a cat with if not nine lives then at least four. Yes, his life was a blank slate to me but, oddly, chillingly, a slate with my name on it.
Read moreInto the Unknown
In fifteen minutes, or for some of us less, we left it all behind. For the sake of life, for the sake of survival, we left it all behind. Most of us, but not all of us, were able to go back to our smoke-steeped houses in a week or ten days. But on that first night it was the same for all of us: we didn't know if we would have a home to go home to. On that first night, we experienced letting go and leaving behind. With lech lecha in our ears, we grabbed those few things, threw them in the car, and hit the gas pedal into the Unknown.
Read moreDedicating the Ner Shalom Cemetery
This will be the place where we will return to the earth, where we will be visited and remembered, and our physical selves carried forward in the grass and the Gravensteins – a tree whose very name means gravestone.
Read moreMikveh, Elul, Pondscum
I watched all their faces poking out of the surface of the water. There was laughter and giddiness. There were also tears. There was surprise at the depth and surprise at the temperature and surprise at how much we all needed to be right there in that moment. But then we climbed out.
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