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…
Hot Off the Shtender
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,…
There Is No Torah Except the Torah of Freedom
As I imagine many of you have, I’ve spent the week in alternating states of heartbreak, anger, and deep inspiration,…
A Kiss from the Sages
There is no feeling like being in a full bet midrash. In the bet midrash I hear and feel the…
Sheltering in Mishnah
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a poetry reading called Shelter in Poems, hosted by the Academy of American…
We Are The Talmud’s Fantasy
by Benay Lappe
Each daf of Talmud presents us with a fantasy. The fantasy is the record of an impossible intergenerational conversation across…