Galilee Diary: Justice, Justice
No, if you really mend your ways and your actions, if you execute justice between one man and another; if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, if you do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place, if you do not follow other gods, to your own hurt - then on
Galilee Diary: Taxidermy
The house of Israel named it manna; it was like coriander seed, white, and tasted like wafers in honey. Moses said: 'This is what the LORD has commanded: Let one omer of it be kept throughout the ages; that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.' And Moses said to Aaron: 'Take a jar, and put one omer of manna in it, and place it before the LORD, to be kept throughout the ages.' As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the Pact, to be kept. -Exodus 16:31-34
Galilee Diary: And a Happy New Year
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelite people thus: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts.
A Prayer for the Start of School
I offer this prayer for the beginning of the school year... And so begins a new year.... May it be
Discovering Meaning in Jewish Observance
Ever since I was a young adult, I have felt called to wrestle with Jewish texts and ideas.
Nitzavim: A Memory
I wrote this drash in honor of (or is it in memory of) the fiftieth anniversary of my bar mitzvah on 21 September 1957 at Temple Beth Israel in Macon, Georgia.
Yom Kippur: A Personal Reflection
by P.J. Schwartz
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah)