Two stories. Both of them in the Babylonian Talmud. The first is about R. Shimon ben Yohai, and the second about R. Aqiva. Both stories go against the grain of what popular opinion is about these two. R. Shimon ben Yohai is most widely known for spending twelve years in a cave,...
The first time I looked at a page of Talmud, my initial thought was, “what have I gotten myself into?” This was the first day of my second semester of rabbinical school, not much more than a year after I learned the alef-bet, the Hebrew alphabet, about two and a half years...
Draw close those cast out Rabbi Adina Allen Rosh Hashanah 5779 In the Torah reading for the first day of Rosh Hashanah Aliyah Sarah demands, “Cast out that slave-woman and her son, for the son of that slave shall not share inheritance with my son.” Hagar and her young son are cast...
The Binding of Isaac, or the Akeda, is a complicated story, one that raises a lot of questions about what it means to be a person of faith, about God’s goodness, and whether Abraham did the right thing. And one thing I have learned about studying some of the most difficult parts...
Slowing down for a contemplative break during the month of Elul always sounds like a good idea. It conjures hours spent journaling about the passing year and preparing for the rigors of the high holidays. Usually the possibility of a lull at Elul feels as far off in this month of back-to-school...
“Why God, why God do I gotta suffer?/Pain in my heart carry burdens full of struggle.” Many Jews around the world working toward the Yomim Nora’im (the Days of Awe) have some version of this sentiment — “why do I suffer,” “why do we suffer” — ringing in our ears and hearts...
by Isaac Brosilow This piece was originally posted by the American Jewish Peace Archive. For organizer and author Paul Engler, the grassroots uprising that greeted the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999 was a formative learning experience, even though he wasn’t physically present. He was fascinated by the coalitions between environmental groups...
As I stood at the intersection of 4th and Water Streets on August 12, 2018, I thought, I can’t believe I’m here again, trying to be a faithful presence in the midst of chaos. One of the streets of this intersection in Charlottesville, Va., has been renamed “Heather Heyer Way.” It’s where...
by Ben Lorber The Jew of conscience is in pain. We are in pain when we are told by family, friends, peers and Jewish communal leaders that we are ‘bad Jews’, ‘fake Jews’, ‘self-hating Jews’ for supporting Palestinian calls for full freedom and equality, and opposing Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights....
Ruth Ebenstein, an American-Israeli journalist, public speaker and peace activist, is the author of the forthcoming memoir, Bosom Buddies: How Breast Cancer Fostered an Unexpected Friendship Across the Israeli-Palestinian Divide. Find her online at RuthEbenstein.com, on Facebook at Laugh Through Breast Cancer – Ruth Ebenstein, and on twitter @ruthebenstein. Picture a cross between Seder Night and...