David Bryfman
As an educator working with the Millennial generation, I see at least four major characteristics of young people today that together suggest that the Jewish world of tomorrow cannot and will not look like the Jewish world of today. … More »
The Radiance of My Teacher’s Face
Reb Nachman of Breslov describes the experience of learning from a great teacher: “When the student receives his teacher’s wisdom, he ‘receives his face [panim].’ For this reason, he should look into his teacher’s face as he receives his wisdom, as it is written: ‘And your eyes shall see your teacher.’” (Isaiah 30:20; Reb Nachman, … More »
Honor Thy Children
Our Torah provides a clear mandate for children to honor their parents. We also find repeated directives in regard to loving and caring for the orphan, the widow, the stranger, the poor, the neighbor, and, of course, God. In contrast, laws requiring respectful behavior toward children — especially mitzvot in which parents honor their children … More »
The Self and Creativity
Three artists — Basya Schechter, a musician; S. Bear Bergman, a storyteller; and Yona Verwer, a painter — reflect on how and how much they insert their own personal story into their work. While at times their art is indistinguishable from life, at other times a consciously created curtain separates their work and their identity. … More »
‘Here’s Me, Sunburned’
Sarah Marian Seltzer
In addition to being accomplished, witty on social media and in person, groomed, and forever able to fit into our skinny jeans, must we now also be the creative directors and subjects of our own cute pictures? … More »
Our Naked Desire for ‘Truth’
For the past decade or more, American literary critics have been either celebrating a “memoir boom” or wringing their hands about it. Some said the boom was just a marketing campaign, and others wrote it off years ago. But surely the genre’s moment can’t be totally over if the most zeitgeisty character of our day, … More »
Countertext: Hearing My Way into the Sacred
Vanessa Ochs
I always struggle to hear a countertext within the text. It’s an exercise of hearing myself into sacred text — doing a graceful dance with sacred texts, a conviction about having stood at Sinai and heard something. … More »
Self at the Center
“Initially, God’s intent was to create a world and hold it to a standard of strict justice, but God realized that the world could not thus endure and therefore gave precedence to divine mercy, allying it with divine justice.” — Rashi on Genesis 1:1 The commentator Rashi attributes to God an original but unfulfilled intent. … More »
The Paradox of Subjectivity
Subjectivity has contested meanings. As formulated by Enlightenment thinkers, to become a subject is to become an autonomous agent. It means breaking free from the shackles of inherited structures and modes of thought. In this modern sense, “subjectivity” connotes what has been hard won by the individual over the group. Despite its universalizing language, classical … More »