Stories We Tell: How We Are Better
Wholly Jewish: Leonard: Creating Seats at the Queer Jewish Table
Hosted by Jewish performance and ritual artist Shira Kline (she/her), a.k.a. ShirLaLa, this season features interviews with LGBTQIA+ Jews from the Union for Reform Judaism's JewV'Nation Fellowship.
How Moses Found His Voice – and How We Can, Too
Our fifth and final book begins by stating, “These are the words that Moses addressed to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan” (Deut. 1:1). The Hebrew name for Deuteronomy, D’varim, literally means “words,” and this framing sets the entire book apart from the rest of the Torah.
What Torah Requires of Us
If we had to choose only one Torah portion to summarize the entire Torah, which would it be? We'd have to consider >Parashat Va-et’chanan a strong contender; in it, we find a compilation of Torah’s “greatest hits,” both in law and narrative.
“Revelation is Progressive”: Our Responsibility to Live in Pursuit of Holiness
In this week’s portion, Parashat Eikev, Moses’s great sermon continues with powerful rhetorical impact by reinforcing the theology on Divine reward and punishment.
Finding Inspiration in the Jewish Women Who Came Before Us
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United States this year, Rabbi Carole Balin, Ph.D., is sharing eight chapters of an "alternative Book of Numbers” designed to tell the stories of Jewish women who combined civic engagement with Jewish values in a 40-year
Out of the Shadows and Beyond the Fear: Zelophehad’s Daughters’ Daughters
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United States this year, Rabbi Carole Balin, Ph.D., is sharing eight chapters of an "alternative Book of Numbers” designed to tell the stories of Jewish women who combined civic engagement with Jewish values in a 40-year
Wholly Jewish: Leonard: Creating Seats at the Queer Jewish Table
Wholly Jewish: Caroline: Forming a Sacred Queer Community
Hosted by Jewish performance and ritual artist Shira Kline (she/her), a.k.a. ShirLaLa, this season features interviews with LGBTQIA+ Jews from the Union for Reform Judaism's JewV'Nation Fellowship.
You Are What You Wear
He shall be dressed in a sacral linen tunic, with linen breeches next to his flesh, and be girt with a linen sash, and he shall wear a linen turban. They are sacral vestments; he shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. (Leviticus 16:4)
A few years ago, I was in Jerusalem in a Chasidic neighborhood, surrounded by stores carrying tallitot, kippot, and all sorts of Judaica. To my utter shock, prominently displayed in one store's window was a bright pink tallis! I went inside and started talking to the owner, a Chasid in full regalia: black coat, knickers, side curls, and fur-trimmed shtreimel hat. "Who would buy a pink tallit?" I asked. "A bat mitzvah girl of course," this Chasid said, with no hesitation. ". . . no, not the girls in my community," he added, "but in yours, sure, why not?"