As the moon waxes to its maximum light this month, it’s hard to find the light among the bitterness and pain of death and destruction of the past weeks in Israel and Gaza. What does my voice need to express, what is my responsibility as a person, a Jew, a rabbi, in a time when what I have to say is unpopular with my tribe? How do Sarah and Angelina Grimke as abolitionists and suffragists inspire me?

As the moon waxes to its maximum light this month, it’s hard to find the light among the bitterness and pain of death and destruction of the past weeks in Israel and Gaza. What does my voice need to express, what is my responsibility as a person, a Jew, a rabbi, in a time when what I have to say is unpopular with my tribe? How do Sarah and Angelina Grimke as abolitionists and suffragists inspire me?

I just returned from co-officiating at two interfaith weddings, and what an experience of joy and bringing people together that don’t normally interact so much. It felt like such holy work, and gave me so much hope for the future. And then the attacks came on Israel, and it all unraveled…listen here to my incredible experiences that I want so much to share with you. Leave a comment in the comments section, go to my website and contact me. Let’s talk.

It’s the end of a year, the end of a season, and the beginning of new ones. With the end of this Jewish year, I have an announcement to make for the coming year as I go through a transition. As I open to the still, small voice, I have decided that ater three years of weekly blogging, and I’m not sure how many weekly podcasts corresponding to the Parsha, I am making space and time for other things. Listen for the full story! Until soon!

What do you do when you’re working with a Christian minister and they don’t know how it feels to hear, “Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior”? And what part of this phrase are most problematic? And why? This week, through my own struggles and this week’s double Parasha, I take you on a journey of exploration and revelation. Just in time for Rosh Hashanah!

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse…this is how the Parsha reads this week—if we don’t follow God’s commandments. The same is true for the opposite: if we do, everything will be perfect, no one will get sick, etc. We tend to live that way in our modern world. We’ve been told that if we do everything right, everything will be perfect. But it’s unrealistic. As we approach Rosh Hashanah, how do we find the balance between being and doing?

How much do our expectations define outcomes? Self-fulfilling prophecies and high expectations that disappoint because we’re expecting more than can be delivered can really let us down. That means that changing expectations can make us happier. Listen for the connection to this week’s parsha. It’s a quick one.

With the Women’s soccer team losing this week, and all the flack they’ve gotten from the Right, the discourse around gender continues to be challenging, to say the least. Also, I have Covid brain at the moment, meaning my mind is muddled from actual Covid, but it’s really important to be clear when we communicate—and it’s probably the hardest thing we have to do as humans.

R’eih gives us the choice of the blessing or the curse. Whether it’s child rearing, or speaking up when sexual assault or abuse of power occur, the choices we make are never easy. We have to balance them with the society we live in and what we can manage. Here I share my personal experience of choosing unpopular ways of raising my children, and the predictions people made about their future, and offer a parallel with political things happening in the news this week. What are the spiritual lessons wrought by all of this? Shabbat shalom!

Black boys, public pools, drowning, mass incarceration, the death penalty, crusted hearts, stiff necks, and the Parsha.