The following letter is from this week's Dear Rabby, an advice column in our weekly publication, Shulchan Shelanu. This blog offers a slightly expanded response to the question posed in the letter. Dear Rabby. I am a high school student from a bi-racial family. My Dad is black, and my Mom is a white Ashkenazi […]
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I just returned from eleven days in Brooklyn, New York, the city of my birth. I loved being there. I love to walk the streets, to see the faces, to talk with the people I see there. I realized this most recent time in New York that what i feel when I’m there is joy. […]
The Jewish community understands how we must bring our imaginations to the task of interpretation. Many verses are pregnant with implications only visible to those prepared to picture what’s going on in Scripture. The text is music in our ears when we pay attention to what it says and to what it leaves unsaid. As […]
I grew up over a Brooklyn storefront. My Aunt Angela’s dressmaker shop was on the ground floor. My family lived two flights up, my aunt and uncle under us. The building had a vestibule, which Webster defines as “a passage, hall, or room between the outer door and the interior of a building.” My childhood […]
If we are honest with ourselves, we will change the name of the United States of America. The Divided States of America seems more fitting. Many, perhaps all of us, would agree we are living in a nation divided against itself. We have a problem. It is far more profound than our division, which is only […]
Bigger is not always better, except with Sumo wrestlers. WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA? WHAT IS A GREAT COMMOTION CONGREGATION? Have you ever attended a Great Commotion Congregation? Was it a warmly relational experience, or was it more like a show? WE HAVE A PROBLEM WHAT IS YESHUA’S PRIME DIRECTIVE? “All authority in heaven and on […]
If you expect disciples to dress bad, smell bad, and spout irrelevant archaic babble, you've got company. Nowadays, in some circles, being a disciple is about as popular as being a pimp. But that's all a lot of bad press for something magnetic you wouldn’t want to miss. WHY IT MATTERS Disciples are meant to […]
Yeshua of Nazareth was and remains utterly unique. He alone, of all who ever lived, is the Man from Outside. Although he was born of the womb of a woman, like all of humankind, he came from outside. When praying at an extensive meeting with his disciples prior to his crucifixion, he alluded to this, […]
When we live out of a strong religious tradition, and we all should, we function as a counterculture in the midst of the world. From our very beginnings, we Jews were called to be a counterculture, and Yeshua’s people were likewise called to be a counterculture, lights in the world contrasting with the world around […]
Chances are, one of your key laments is trying to fit things into your busy schedule. There is only so much time, and you always have more to do than you have time for. Sometimes you get discouraged, and sometimes you even beat yourself up a little. All of this gets you nowhere. At least […]
