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 transition job in a small city outside of NYC. Truthfully…
Hot Off the Shtender
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 representation in film and media. Only trans people appear on…
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 on the text as formative rather than normative—the tradition is…
Say Little. Do Much.
…שַׁמַּאי אוֹמֵר עֲשֵׂה תוֹרָתְךָ קֶבַע אֱמֹר מְעַט וַעֲשֵׂה הַרְבֵּה Shammai used to say: Make your learning fixed. Speak little, do much… (Masechet Avot 1:15) Last Friday, SVARA’s Daily Mishnah…
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, as we live through a national uprising in support of…
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 low hum of folks studying around me, and time is…
Sheltering in Mishnah
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a poetry reading called Shelter in Poems, hosted by the Academy of American Poets. About 15,000 people were in attendance over an online…
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 time and space, between queer folk (OK, ok, sages, but…
Learning Myself & the Text Inside/Outside
by Jhos Singer
Fifteen years and four months ago, on an inside tip from a friend, I squiggled, crawled, climbed, and connived my way into a weeklong intensive on Rabbinic Literature at the…
Bread & Talmud, Diaspora & Homeland
On Wednesday morning I opened my front door, admittedly still wearing pajamas, with a rainbow alef-bet strip in hand. I was headed two doors down, to deliver the alef-bet strip…
Increasing Our Days through Learning
For me, each day feels like an eternity. The daily movement through weekday mornings that begin like weekends that blend into night feels like a pocket of timelessness, and like…
OK, We Left Egypt. Now What?
Passover’s over. Egypt is behind us. That first glimpse of liberation is exhilarating. You’re free! At least that’s the story we’re taught. But the journey to liberation can also be…