May 04, 2017
Loving your neighbor as yourself
Shalom Chaverim— This week’s parasha, Acharei Mot/Kiddushin, includes the enigmatic scriptural sound byte: V’ahavta l’reyacha k’mocha—And you will love your neighbor as your self. You will find this tidbit in Leviticus 19:18, which in its...
April 27, 2017
Giving ourselves permission
Shabbat Shalom Chaverim— Shabbat is such a gift—and yet it’s quite difficult to accept. To take one day off—to step away from judgment and fear, resentment and animosity, ego and malice—would seem a delicious invitation. ...
April 20, 2017
A new set of questions this Passover
Shabbat Shalom Chaverim— Once again, Passover has passed over leaving in its wake memories of its annual Gastro-symbolic rites, its cobbled together trajectory tale, its multilayered ceremony and sanctimony spanning centuries, its haggadah stitching together...
December 07, 2016
Vayetze – God is in that place too
Shalom chaverim— This week’s Torah Portion is “Vayetze” which details the story of Jacob’s hasty departure from his parental homestead. He basically creates a situation with his family that forces him to skedaddle, and the first...
November 30, 2016
Tshuvah – from ignorant surety to brilliant doubt
Shalom chaverim— This week’s Torah portion is Toldot—it basically describes the fertility struggles of Isaac and Rebecca, the eventual birth of their twin boys, Jacob and Esau and their clumsy family life. In some ways...
November 09, 2016
Lech L’cha /go to yourself in these difficult times
Shalom chaverim— Yesterday the United States of America voted in President Donald J. Trump. Most of the people I know are utterly despondent about this fact. Honestly, I’m not all that surprised. Miserable, yes, but not...
November 02, 2016
Design sustenance and community happens
Shalom chaverim— I just returned from a few days of canvassing in Reno for Get Out The Vote. It also happened to be my mom’s 16th yahrtzeit. My mom was a radical, lefty, anarchist, freedom...
October 26, 2016
The Crash
Shalom chaverim— I’m just coming back to earth from a rousing Simchat Torah mulit-verse celebration last night and a day of teaching and learning with the fellows at Urban Adamah today. My passion for Torah—with...
October 18, 2016
Ufros Aleinu Sukkat shalom
Shalom Chaverim— Yay!! Sukkot is here, our season of cool, Jewish, backyard fort life. I love that a sukkah isn’t kosher unless it is flimsy, temporary and has a roof holey enough that you can...
October 14, 2016
Maggid’s musings: The week Shabbat Ha’azinu
Shabbat Shalom Chaverim, This week’s Torah portion, Ha’azinu, is the penultimate parasha in our annual reading cycle. It marks an extraordinary transformation in Moses—a shift that is signaled even in the way the text is...
October 09, 2016
The Black Moon of Beginning
(This is the text from a drash Maggid Jhos delivered at our Rosh Hashanah service, Tuesday October 2nd 2016) Our community has suffered many losses this year. I dedicate my teaching tonight to you whose lives and families...