Our covenantal relationship with God is characterized by a love laden with longing. The brit, covenant, fundamentally weds God and Israel on the condition of Israel’s faith and adherence to the law and God’s fulfillment of Israel’s needs. But the brit also highlights the inherent distance between … More »
Category Archives: Covenants
The Big Promise
A covenant is like a really big promise, an unbreakable vow, but what happens when we don’t keep our word? We can fracture a relationship, lose a job, make someone cry, and a variety of other outcomes, but not much really happens in the grand scheme so it seems. But what would happen if a … More »
What Teaching About Covenant Taught Me About Teaching and Covenant
Hi all, Matt Bar here. This is written by Bible Raps Education Director Eliana Light. She’s a wonderful writer, educator and musician and I felt compelled to add her voice to the discourse this month! What Teaching About Covenant Taught Me About Teaching and Covenant “Wow, you really don’t wanna mess with God!” I’m sitting … More »
Pro-Choice Covenant
It does not surprise me that there are thousands of Jews in support of Planned Parenthood. Despite all conflicting opinions regarding abortions, conceptions, and safe sex, it does not faze me that nearly 93% of American Jews support a woman’s right to make decisions over her own body. It is simply in our nature. The … More »
Do I Have Something Yet? And If So, What?
Do I Have Something Yet? And If So, What? When I first encountered Rachel Adler’s 1983 essay, “I’ve Had Nothing Yet So I Can’t Take More,” I was a young woman who had been raised in a feminist household and an egalitarian religious community, who had also been recently turned on to religious observance … More »
A Covenant of Parenthood
My sweet little girl took her sweet time coming into this world. As my due date approached and passed, my husband and I eagerly anticipated her arrival and worked to prepare our home and our hearts for the arrival of our baby. Along with building the crib, washing the newborn clothes, and preparing freezer meals, … More »
Babe Ruth & That Babe, Ruth: An Examination of Two Great Individuals And Their Many Relationships
Abstract One of the highlights of the holiday of Shavuot is the reading of Megilat (the Book of) Ruth. This short book has relevance in a number of dimensions, including harvest season descriptions, Ruth’s efforts to become a member of the Jewish people & accepting the Torah, and the family tree of her descendents (tacked … More »
Circumcision and the 7 Year Old
How do you teach a 1st grade class about the brit of circumcision? The very idea fills one with panic. There are penises involved, and they go from being one way to being another. Do you show diagrams, or snip the tip off a banana? And the snipping itself. How does one engage children on … More »
On Covenant and Circumcision
I think a lot about the idea (and reality!) of covenant in my work as the Director of the Berit Mila Program of Reform Judaism. Our program educates Jewish physicians and nurse midwives already proficient in performing infant circumcision about the specifically Jewish ritual of brit milah. Many of these medical practitioners become mohalim in … More »