Curses and Places
It is important to note that there is a distinction between grieving a person and grieving a reality.
It is important to note that there is a distinction between grieving a person and grieving a reality.
The rabbinic sage Elisha ben Abuya witnessed an obedient and pious boy fulfill the mitzvah of sending away the mother bird, as per the Torah’s instructions. He ascended the tree, shooed away the bird, collected the eggs and then fell to his death.
Moses and the Israelites have been wandering through the wilderness and have arrived at the edge of the Promised Land.
Few things are as instructive as seeing Judaism through another’s eyes.
Our grief is raw and real and is scattered across disorienting winds of pain.
In Europe, we have a political term that I always paid attention to in the news: ‘cordon sanitaire’
The cool, distant glare of history does not always reveal the granular, immediate heat of our anguish.
This Shabbat is also known as Shabbat Shirah, the Sabbath of Song. This name refers to ‘Shirat haYam’, the ‘Song of the Sea’ that Moses and Miriam sang on the shores of the Sea of Reeds that they had redemptively crossed. I hope you’ll please indulge me as I start with this sermon with a […]