Some Favorite Posts

Alas! How lonely sits the city Once great with joyful people! New horrors fill horizons now while old pain never left Each new loss diminishes the streets themselves bereft Bitterly we weep all night cheeks wet with tears unseen If we are to join together, we must widen this choir of woe When some cries … Continue reading Eicha for my city and others, 5781

Obligatory options, shield masters, and enforcement.

Shabbat Hazon asks us to envision something different. Tisha B’av asks us to sit with mourning and betweenness. The combination suggests possibility of transformation.

Background, language notes, musical links, and more on selected Psalms.

Thoughts, fears, and tears following a recent class on synagogue security.

Jews and other interested Bible readers are invited to test-drive “Jews’ Self Inventory for Bible Readers,” comment on it, and share results.

“Joseph found out it’s dangerous to be a dreamer….Or sell the dreamer into slavery; purchase the dream with foundation grants or government deals…” Dick Gregory, in 1974, sounded a whole lot like Rabbis under Roman rule.

Introduction: Every bullet leaves pain in circles rippling outward, like the diameter of the bomb the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai once described. Amichai’s bomb extends from 30 centimeters to the immediate range of dead and wounded, out to a solitary mourner “far across the sea,” finally encompassing “the entire world in the circle.” (Chana Bloch’s … Continue reading MiShebeirach for Circles of Pain

“Pursuing Racial Justice: The Jewish Underpinnings of Anti-Racism Work,” held recently at Adas Israel (DC) and featuring Yavilah McCoy of Visions-Inc and Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block of Bend the Arc, offered many insights and challenges. I plan to share some of what I gained in readable portions over the course of the next few days. I … Continue reading Map Your Heart Out, part 1

My personal connection to the language of “Babylon” has been growing for some time…

Remarks before Mourners’ Kaddish, Temple Micah (DC) Gun Violence Prevention Sabbath (March 13-16, 2014) Hadiya Z. Pendleton lived in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago, my hometown, not far from where I lived for several years and where friends still live. She liked Fig Newtons, my favorite snack when I was a teenager. She and I … Continue reading Stragglers on the Road Away from Bondage