Posts by Rabbi Benay Lappe

On Visiting the White House

The window of someone's home, taken outside and at night. The window is decorated with several chanukah messages - a light up dreidel, a lit up message saying happy chanukah, an outline of a menorah, and at the bottom, on the windowsill, a menorah, its candles burning.

The Talmudic Craft of Shaping Ourselves

Two SVARA-niks lean over a table covered in silver bowls. They are picking things out of the bowls.

The Lost Talmud, Part Two

Two SVARA-niks sitting at a table in an indoor bet midrash are high-fiving. Their hands are moving so fast that they are blurry.

A Sampler of Samplers, Part One

Someone holds a metal paperweight in their left hand. Text on the paperweight reads, "What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?"

And Then They’ll Just Call It Judaism

The bet midrash is full of SVARA learners sitting at tables indoors.

A Letter to Our Students

A large gathering of SVARA-niks at Queer Talmud Camp. Folks are sitting and standing for a group photo. They have their arms raised over their hands in celebration.

A Third Torah from Sinai: Revising Our Myth for a New Jewish Era

The Word That Changed The World

The Future in its Infancy

A black and white photo of a large circle of SVARA-niks, all standing outside, around a campfire that is not burning.

Saving Our Lives: The Rest of the Story

A black-and-white photo of a table in the bet midrash, with lots of SVARA-niks learning. In the front, Benay and Ari Lev Fornari are learning together and smiling.

The Radical Act of Becoming a Talmud Person

A chevruta pair are sitting at a table. One chevruta is focused on something to the left, while the other is looking at their chevruta.

I Saw Him and I Stood on His Grave: Expanding Our Tradition’s Justice Map

Three SVARA-niks sit in a row in the bet midrash, looking to the left.

The Revolution Will Not Be Translated

Say Little. Do Much.

A computer sits on top of a stack of Talmuds, with a Zoom meeting open. Many faces are visible in the Zoom window. Next to the computer, a person studies from a Talmud, their hand holding a pencil.

We Are The Talmud’s Fantasy

A hand points at a line in a Talmud.

OK, We Left Egypt. Now What?

A row of Talmuds of various masechtot on a bookshelf.

Roll Up Your Sleeves, Get Out the Flour, The Seder is Starting!

I Don’t Know What Comes Next

A SVARA-nik's hands sit on an open Talmud on a shtender. The beit midrash reference guide is sitting on the table.

Radical Presence & the Practice of Rebuke