Practicing Freedom in the Bet Midrash
Throughout this pandemic, in my learning, in my teaching, and beyond, I keep returning over and over to the same…
Hot Off the Shtender
I Saw Him and I Stood on His Grave: Expanding Our Tradition’s Justice Map
by Benay Lappe
The Talmud’s goal is to teach us how to tell more liberatory stories, and to help us become the people…
Did You See My Alps? And Other Questions We’re Asked in Heaven
by Benay Lappe
Every year around this time, as Elul approaches, I begin to think about the weeks and months ahead, and how…
The Book of You & The Book of the World
At Queer Talmud Camp this year, campers had access to a virtual portal which included all the information they’d need…
Staying Whole in the Face of Unbelievable Brokenness
There is no question we are living through a crash. We are undoubtedly living through many crashes. The collapse of…
The Plurality of Mourning
Nachamu Nachamu ami, “comfort, comfort my people,”— the opening words of the Haftorah from the book of Isaiah, which we…
A Tapestry of Individual Actions & Collective Power
Origin stories are powerful. They give names to our ancestors. They lift up voices, honor the courage and power of…
Expanding Our Canon
What counts as Torah? Who decides? What makes it into the canon, and what remains on the outside, seen as…
The City that Never Sleeps—and the City that Becomes Home
When I became the rabbi of a small congregation in Jersey City’s Greenville neighborhood I thought this would be a…
The Revolution Will Not Be Translated
by Benay Lappe
Last week I watched the Netflix film Disclosure. I’m never going to be the same. It’s a documentary about trans…
The Radical Lineage of the Tanna’im
At SVARA we often say, “The Talmud is never really talking about what it says it’s talking about.” We focus…
Say Little. Do Much.
…שַׁמַּאי אוֹמֵר עֲשֵׂה תוֹרָתְךָ קֶבַע אֱמֹר מְעַט וַעֲשֵׂה הַרְבֵּה Shammai used to say: Make your learning fixed. Speak little,…