I Survived Sensitivity And The Kids Can Too
Even Though Judaism Broke My Heart
My dear Schnook, As we both know, sin is an art, a way of life, a form of human expression on par with love in its depth and involvement. It is also, as is evident from my personal experience and from your letter, quite a difficult undertaking. Most people are so discouraged at the outset […]
My New Year’s Resolution Is To Make No Difference
I resolve, for the New Year, to not “make a difference.” I must accept what I cannot change and find the strength to change the things I can, to paraphrase a wise prayer. I will remember this year that strength is rarely measured in page views, Facebook likes, or marketing budgets. True strength is strength of character. […]
Today, a synagogue lies drenched in Jewish blood, and our nation mourns as one. The soul cries out: What do we do? What can we do? What is the answer to those who hate us? This afternoon, as I pull myself away from the news and the poetry and the terrible pictures, I find my mind […]
The People Who Don’t Know How Much I Love Them
“Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke I was going to write […]
Dear Society: Stop Killing; Start Murdering
Murder. The word has a certain poetry to it, power and dark intention. We’ve lost faith in murder. Oh, we still value violence. When Hamas launches rockets or a new terror stirs in Iraq and Syria, we respond. Sometimes we preempt. If it’s kill or be killed, we know where we stand. We still (on […]
Enlightenment: Crude. Unsanitary. Ultra-Orthodox.
As every Jew knows, the religious ones are the rude ones. They jostle and shove and step on you and they’re not apologizing anytime soon. The first thing I ever saw in Meron on Lag Ba’omer, almost five years ago: a father slapped his son’s face so hard he pirouetted a full circle before bursting […]
Why Can’t A Nation Of Talmudists Write A Poem?
It’s funny that the same people that obsesses over a Tosfos can’t seem to warm up to poetry. The two forms are similar in their constrictions and have parallel goals, and both have historically been part of Judaism. What allows us to attack one with vigor, and never consider the other? 1. Talmudic Tribulations What’s […]