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Torah, Talmud, self-awareness, and an exploration of becoming our best selves for students of life and Judaism.
Barely a few weeks ago, we didn’t just remember the Exodus. We were asked to see ourselves as though we had left Egypt. Lirot et atzmo, to imagine it as part of us. This line has always called out to me. It is a reminder that: Memory isn’t passive in Judaism. It’s active, alive, arriving. Memory creates a kind of pressure in us. An ongoing request from the past on our present. Today is Yom HaShoah, and we’re asked to remember again. But not in the soft, distant sense. We light candles. We say...
Later this week, we’ll enter the Hebrew month of Adar. The Talmud teaches us to increase our joy during this month. מִשֶּׁנִּכְנַס אֲדָר מַרְבִּין בְּשִׂמְחָה When Adar begins, one increases rejoicing. This seems unfathomable at this moment. How do we find space for joy right now? Should we even do that? Can't I just feel what I want? The answer is yes to all of it. And, I think there are some powerful lessons in our Tradition to help us navigate this tension, especially in ways that honor...
Now that Tu Bishvat is officially behind us, the next holiday in the calendar is Purim! This is a topsy-turvy holiday, full of farce, Game of Thrones-esque palace intrigue, and giving cute gifts to friends. There's really no holiday quite like it. I've been starting to explain it as: April Fool’s Day meets Halloween meets a community potluck. I've been digging into this holiday with fresh eyes, as part of a class I'm teaching. Through that process, I've realized that some of the ways we've...