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 »
I am a Jew by birth and actually do feel that even in the modern era of fluid and optional identities, being Jewish is something more than a choice for me. Moreover, my Jewish identity is more than religious; it is an identity that is ethnic and cultural. It is true that I have made … More »
This month’s edition of Sh’ma poses, through the lens of David Moss’ artistic work “The Multi-Dimensional Jew: A Map of Judaism,” six questions: What is behind me? What surrounds me? What is within me? What is above me? Whom do I face? What is ahead of me? As I consider Moss’ artwork, the essays in … More »
Most of us are familiar with the dictum attributed to Rabbi Tarfon in Avot 2:16: It is not upon you to finish the labor, but nor are you free to desist from it. But, of course, in real life we all know that often we are not a liberty only to start a task – … More »
Sitting in my e-mail in-box, as I sit to write this over Thanksgiving weekend, is an e-mail from the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, including an announcement of a program at a nearby synagogue. The title of the program is “Women at the Wall: Prayer or Provocation?” The write-up the event includes this statement: … More »
As I prepared to attend a conference at the Frei Universität in Berlin two years ago, my family took to teasing me. “How long is going to take them to say your name? Frau Rabbinin Doctorin Professorin…” But while it may have been meant in jest, the family joke actually speaks to a question I … More »
What I noticed reading the draft of the current Sh’ma is that the issue is quite top-heavy with rabbis first and foremost, with a strong representation of academics and leaders of community organizations close behind. Who is rather noticeably missing from this conversation? Lay people, synagogue members, indie minyan members, unaffiliated Jews. Imagine a round-table … More »
How can one not be intrigued by a book of the Bible whose last words are “and many cattle”? There is much to be said about the short, but complex, confounding book of Jonah. Each of the contributors to the current issue of Sh’ma has already given us much to think about, added to our … More »