It feels like there is so much being lost right now. But we still carry those things in us. Like Levites carrying crates of holy regalia. A drash about Parashat Bamidbar. (Audio file.)
Read moreThis Old House (Audio Podcast)
The house is a kind of living being – our individual houses and the one we all share. How do we help it release its past and present suffering?
Telling Purim (Audio Podcast)
How do you tell the story of Purim in a time when we are already activated, when we are beginning to feel the breath of danger on the backs of our necks?
Strong and Needed (Audio Podcast)
I wake up every day in fear. But I am not in any personal, imminent danger. This is the conditioning of my past and the dread of the future. But I am not the captive of my conditioning, and dread is not destiny. In this moment I am strong. In this moment I am needed. May I be of use.
Read moreLoneliest Road (Audio Podcast)
Coming back from rabbi jamboree in Colorado, I realize that even in what seems like the loneliest places, we are not alone. (Apologies for mechanical noise on the recording. Oy, what did I do wrong?)
Stairway to Paradise (Audio Podcast)
Even if we believe that the Divine is all around us and in us, it's hard to shake loose the metaphor of verticality. What do you do to ascend to celestial heights? And how do you pour that back into the everyday?
Read moreGuardians of the Field (Audio Podcast)
The time that we are in is much bigger than the election. Our role is bigger than getting particular individuals into office. There is a field – I don’t know what to call it – a spiritual field, a cultural field, a metaphysical field that needs to be restored and protected.
Fork in the Road (Audio Podcast)
We are at a crossroads: one path moving forward and one circling back. Thankfully, we are very good at circles. Some thoughts coming out of Sukkot, Hoshanah Rabbah, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah.
Read moreHoly Sand (Audio Podcast)
Spending a month alone in Worms was an unresearched, romantic idea. It wasn't what I was looking for. But maybe it was what I needed.
Read moreIn Dew Season (Audio Podcast)
In this moment of crisis, we need to let things arise and evaporate, leaving us unburdened enough to do the work of peace. Dew Season can suggest how.
Read moreAndes Mountain High (Audio Podcast)
On a trek to 15,000 feet, my greatest companion was Psalm 121. (The other companions were pretty amazing too.) A report-back on a struggle, a summit, and a psalm. (Audio here.)
Read moreBecoming Amalek (Audio Podcast)
There is a dark side to Purim – Jewish self-defense gone out of control. How do we keep from becoming Amalek in responding to those we've labeled Amalek? What if Amalek is not outside us but in us? What do we need to do to begin to wipe it out beyond memory? Press play below for audio (and sorry about the loud rain on the roof).
Will and Skill (Audio Podcast)
A vision isn't moot just because there aren't currently the will and skill to carry it off. There will be.
A drash on Parashat Pekudei, plus a musical setting of Vihi Noam. (Plus an extra opening story in the audio version.)
Read moreReport Back from Israel, and the Parable of the Toyota In The Gulley (Audio Podcast)
How is it that we can listen to a voice in our ear, directing us on paths that we know will lead to disaster, and still not question? Two weeks in Israel: war, rain, sorrow, and a GPS disaster.
Read moreCome-to-Pharaoh Moment (Audio Podcast)
The war in Israel and Gaza has, I notice, offered to Supporters of Israel and Supporters of Palestine proof of what they already believed. And our city councils have become the proxy battleground. Righteousness is easy. Blame is easy. But empathy is hard and will break us open. If we can't manage some empathy here, what hope is there for reconciliation in the land we all love? This is a Come-to-Pharaoh Moment.
Read moreThe Trickiness of the Collective (Audio Podcast)
Nations have a life of their own, behaving in ways few individuals would. Maybe remembering the angel of the collective can bring out our best.
Read moreGathered to our People (Audio Podcast)
Today is ten years since my mother’s death, and the haunting is sweet. She is gathered into me like Jacob was gathered into his people. The ancestors are in us. We are ancestors too. What traits and traumas, what hope or despair, openness of heart or resilience of spirit, will be gathered from us into those who come after?
Read moreSea of Tears (Audio Podcast)
The truth is I no longer even know what I’m crying about. At this point, I seem just to be yielding to the big blur of suffering.
Rely on Compassion (Audio Podcast)
I am walking around afraid. Not always afraid of something specific. My body is fueled by adrenaline and programmed by the epigenetics of generations of ancestors whose fear responses enabled their survival and mine. My soul has fluttered right out of my body. Is there any solid place where it can land?
Read moreDeath of Moses; the Exhale After (Audio Podcast)
At the end of Torah, Moshe dies, after much struggle and resistance. Torah seems to take a breath, a long exhale, as we roll back the scroll to the beginning. And so in our lives as well, the exhale after the long-anticipated death of anyone we love. The gasp, the exhale.
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