“It is forbidden to live in a town that has no garden or greenery.” —Talmud Yerushalmi, Kiddushin 4:12 Preparing our final culture unit in Spanish 3 led me to a book on the bottom shelf, one I hadn’t used in a while: Torah and Trails: A Photographic Trail Guide Connecting Judaism with Nature by Margery … Read more
“I believe in the soul of the underdog. The one who has to struggle for the victory, who learns that the challenges she overcomes to achieve it make it all the sweeter.” I wrote these words fifteen years ago, the opening lines in an essay for NPR’s “This I Believe” series. I was thinking about … Read more
My Remarks (more or less) at the Georgia State Capitol on February 22, 2023 – Rosh Hodesh Adar 5783: I have stood here before, with colleagues and friends; it is a privilege to stand her again and teach a central principle of my faith, a core Jewish value, rooted in the Hebrew Bible and known … Read more
Oh, for the love of God and humanity: RFRA is back! Like a bad penny or a reboot of Night Court, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) came back to the Georgia State Senate last week, reintroduced as SB 180. This is a partisan attempt to revive legislation that would lead to discrimination against religious … Read more
“The only really interesting questions are the unanswerable ones.” —Jacob Needleman I’m not sure why I’ve been vexed lately by the question of why human beings seem so invested in deciding who is in our group and who is the “other.” Maybe it’s the seemingly endless rounds of voting to choose the Speaker of the … Read more
You’ve probably heard the adage that elementary school teachers love children, high school teachers love their subject, and university professors love themselves. I suppose there’s a kernel of truth to this, but I’m going to push back a bit and suggest that it’s even more important for high school and university teachers to love our … Read more
בָּ֭עֶרֶב יָלִ֥ין בֶּ֗כִי וְלַבֹּ֥קֶר רִנָּֽה Tears may linger when night falls, but joy arrives with the dawn. (Psalms 30:6) My list of those in need of healing grows longer as the days get shorter. I wake up in the dark, sometime between 5:15 and 5:30 AM, and wonder at the Psalmist’s conviction. Each day I arrive … Read more
Atlanta Pride Parade 2022 (from top left): MACoM at Pride, Rabbis at Pride, Teachers at Pride, Pride Manicure, SOJOURN float leads the way, Dancing Unicorn poses with Rabbi. Early Sunday morning: I take the challah dough out of the fridge where it has been rising slowly overnight. I have just enough time to shape … Read more
While we’re celebrating the secular new year this weekend, we welcome the new month of Shevat in the Jewish calendar on Monday, January 3rd. This is the month in which we celebrate the new year of the trees, Tu B’Shevat. Growing up in the northeast, we celebrated this holiday in the middle of winter by … Read more
This week, while concentrating on creative writing and editorial responsibilities, I decided it was time to send out a long-overdue newsletter. If you haven’t already subscribed to my quarterly newsletter, From My Writer’s Notebook, please visit the home page, scroll down and subscribe. It’s as easy as clicking a button! In other news, my post … Read more