We met on Jdate, and on our sixth date Mr Perfect (raised conservative and according to his profile attends synagogue: Never) told me (unexpectedly) that he would keep a kosher home and attend an orthodox synagogue. ‘Oh’ I said ‘This is serious?!’ Six weeks from our first meeting we got engaged. He had to learn … More »
For me, my fear is a work in progress. Not ignoring it, not eliminating it, just getting to know it. I thought for a long time that fear was the enemy That having fear meant, God forbid, I was flawed. I am flawed and fear is part of that. Where I work, a … More »
Last year 22-year-old Marina Keegan died in a car crash days after graduating from Yale. Known on campus for her writings, within days of her death her essays were being circulated throughout the web, republished on sites like The New Yorker, U.S. News, the L.A. Times, and more. An essay she had written titled “The … More »
The story of the Bible is the story of God and God’s work in progress: humanity. But humanity has a way of constantly surprising God, and throughout the books of the Hebrew Bible, we see God test out many strategies for dealing with this strange new creature. And in a way that is somewhat counterintuitive … More »
In one of his most renowned statements from Pirke Avot, Hillel the Elder said: “Do not believe in yourself until the day of your death.” This means that every life is a work in progress that can only be fully evaluated in retrospect at its end. In few cases is this statement more true and … More »
Teshuvah is a lifelong work in progress. Every year during Elul and the Yamim Noraim, I find myself digging deep into the process of teshuvah. I think to myself that I would love to feel such an intense spiritual desire toward growth and tikkun year-round. But each year after the chagim pass and I get … More »
I haven’t written a word yet, and already I can tell you that this is not the blog post I intended to write. When I was fully engaged in the life of illness and laboring in the work of recovery, there is little I hated more than well-meaning friends (and even strangers) offering what they … More »
I consider myself lucky to live in an age where Jewish lifecycle transitions are being creatively marked in progressive Jewish practice; an age which boasts, along with Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies, groups such as Moving Traditions, which create Jewishly informed curricula both for teenage Jewish men and teenage Jewish women; an age in which … More »
Having barely taken my coat off at the little pub in Chinatown my friend says, “you’re up next,” as the open mic on the awaiting stage causes my blood to heat. Very well, I’d picked my poems, had a sip of water and stepped up to the poet’s pulpit, a place where rhymes and little … More »