After much thought, I decided Torah, as a musical, is maybe most like "Into the Woods." Here's why.
Read moreJoseph the Matriarch
We are now in the annual 4-week saga of Joseph, and I find myself eyeing him across the ages. I see him young, middle aged and, at long last, at the end of his life, settling in to be a grandmother, the matriarch of his line.
Read morePep Talk: Do Not Be Afraid
They say that in a moment of great unsettling, the Holy One issues forth two angels – one on the right and one on the left, to hold the disconcerted person by the elbows and keep them from falling. In other words, the al tirá is not an instruction but a conjuring of Divine support. The moment of al tirá
Read moreOn Crossing Great Waters
Maybe I come from a long line of non-swimming, land-locked Keller men, flagrantly violating this rabbinic injunction, generation after generation, or generation before generation, all the way back to the Exodus from Egypt, where some proto-Keller would have stood gaping at the Sea in abject terror.
Read moreKi Tisa: The Scent of Shechinah
But this was another time.
When scents were devised with sensibility.
Mortar and pestle. Delights olfactory
Made with industry but no factory.
A time when the word "natural"
Was not needed before the word "fragrance"
Because what else would it be?