Author Archives: Rabbi Joshua Bolton

Rabbi Joshua Bolton

About Rabbi Joshua Bolton

is the Senior Jewish Educator for the Jewish Renaissance Project at Penn Hillel. Josh is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and holds an MFA in Poetry from UMass, Amherst.

10 Lessons I Learned Through The Uncertain Trial of Fertility & Childbirth

Rabbi Joshua Bolton
October 29, 2014

1. There is a large, though relatively closed community named “Those Who Lived Through The Uncertain Trial of Fertility and Childbirth.” 2. While “our society” spends immense energy on warning teens about all the emotional / physical / social trials associated with becoming pregnant, it provides absolutely no preparation for 30 year olds as they More »

1

Awesome Wonders

Rabbi Joshua Bolton
August 28, 2014

This Rosh Hashanah I am wondering about forgiveness – always easier to talk about in email sermons than it is to practice with close friends and myself. And about the giant stone and the King commanding me, “Lift it upon the roof.” And about that hummus shop in Rehavia, Between Azza and Berlin. And wondering More »

0

In the Neighborhood of My Mind

Rabbi Joshua Bolton
June 13, 2014

Near dawn I am roused by voices speaking outside my window. It is Edmond Jabes and Max Jacob – they’ve been carousing in the streets, singing patriotic French ballads, and whistling at passersby. Their chatter inspires me. I wash my face and brush my teeth. I listen to the local radio, trying to orient myself More »

0

Of Youth and Spring and Tomorrow and the Future

Rabbi Joshua Bolton
March 27, 2014

Mysterious narratives unwind themselves through our lives. Sometimes they have long, beautiful arcs. We guess and glimpse their conclusions – and happily we inherit them. Sometimes chapters end astonishingly. Sometimes everything implodes, unrecognizable, backwards. So often the great human task is to courageously weave the disparate, meandering tales of a life into the bolder impressions More »

0

A Bruise between Oren’s Eyes

Rabbi Joshua Bolton
January 28, 2014

On a windy and unsettlingly bright day in Yaffo, our little boy Oren, running wild and over-tired, tripped on the ancient stone plaza. Sitting up, his forehead was black and blue – like Gorbechav and the Manson Family. We cradled and calmed him. We got him back in the stroller. We gave him a slice More »

0