Ordination and Lamentation

January 15, 2021 Irwin Keller

Screenshot by Lisa Rüth.

Laying of hands. Screen shot by Lisa Rüth.

Laying of Hands. Drawing by Arielle Breeze Jorgensen.

Streaming in Wilmette, Illinois. Photo by Helene Rhodes.

Streaming on Sonoma Mountain. Photo by Beth Field.

After years, months, weeks, days of anticipation, I was ordained as a rabbi last Sunday, wearing a tallit that had belonged to my beloved lifelong rabbi, Mark S. Shapiro. The next day, the world lost Steve Shapiro – his son and my friend.

Ordination and Insurrection

January 9, 2021 Irwin Keller

The author as a 14-year old summer camp rabbi in Oconomowoc, WI. Photo by Dawn Weiner-Kaplow.

Tomorrow is the simcha of my smicha – my rabbinic ordination. It means so much to me after a wait of more than half a century. But history waits for no simcha, and we have to also look at this week’s insurrection in our capital.

2020 Hindsight

January 2, 2021 Irwin Keller

Despite the “good riddance 2020” memes, I actually feel that the last year, with all its challenges and surprises, needs to be seen and considered. I think about our forefather Jacob, who this week gives a farewell assessment of each of his twelve unruly sons. I know how much we want to say goodbye to these last twelve unruly months that brought us so much angst, but let’s take a look.

In a Christmas Mood

December 26, 2020 Irwin Keller

Making friends with Jesus, figuring out a handle for Christ, and managing Jewish Christmas guilt.

That Light in Joseph

December 12, 2020 Irwin Keller

Joseph, Overseer of Pharaoh’s Granaries. By Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1874. Source: Wikipedia.

One often-overlooked dimension of Joseph’s hiddenness has to do with his gender. Torah keeps pointing to something unusual about it. This includes references to his looks, his emotions, his social role, even his body. Why is this relevant for Chanukah?