Roll Up Your Sleeves, Get Out the Flour, The Seder is Starting!
by Benay Lappe
It all started when I bought a toy flour mill for my two-year-old daughter Molly a few weeks before Passover. I was preparing for the tot Shabbat program I lead…
Hot Off the Shtender
Speaking Our Vision For Liberation
With gratitude to Beyn Kodesh l’Chol “Learning for Liberation” Bet Midrash for deepening my understanding of this text. As Passover approaches, many of us are creating or editing haggadot, figuring…
I Don’t Know What Comes Next
by Benay Lappe
My chevruta Eddie once told me a story that I’ll never forget. It’s a story his father told him. And, now, it’s a story I’d like to tell you. When…
The Rabbis Have Our Backs
This week, as we all navigate a constantly shifting landscape of change, uncertainty, and global pandemic, SVARA began convening a daily Mishnah Collective. It has been incredibly grounding to plug…
The Meta-Miracle of Chanukah
Chanukah is filled with miracles—long-lasting surprise pockets of oil, an unexpected military victory, the legacy of zealous resistance in the face of hegemonic powers—but one of the most miraculous aspects…
Radical Presence & the Practice of Rebuke
by Benay Lappe
The Jewish new year season tends to have one “star of the show”—teshuva, the practice of recognizing whom we’ve harmed and repairing that harm, addressing where we might have fallen…