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August 22, 2023
Start Spreading the News

I gave up on New York City. I was born there. I lived there until I moved to California a mere fifty years ago. I have three grown children who live there, and one fascinating grandson. All my other relatives are in that area (Florida is a suburb of New York). New York City. It’s […]

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February 15, 2023
Slavery: In Many Shapes and Sizes

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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February 8, 2023
Walking On Streets Not Paved With Gold

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. […]

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February 3, 2023
Standing At The Trembling Mount

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 […]

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January 2, 2023
The Vestibule, The Bell, and the Visitor

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 […]

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November 13, 2022
The Divided States of America

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 […]

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November 3, 2022
Is Bigger Always Better?

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 […]

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October 23, 2022
Is Discipleship a Boat to Nowhere?

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 […]

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August 16, 2021
6 Gifts From The Man From Outside

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, […]

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August 9, 2021
Tzedakah: The Righteousness of Generosity

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 […]

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