SVARA Library
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this just in: SVARA High Holidays Reader 5787
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From Within and Without
by Ren Finkel
Binyanim are the various structures that Hebrew words take, the verb forms that shift words from their root meanings. They’re the added letters and vowel patterns used to transform words.…
Reaching for Torah
Yesterday morning, I had the honor of sitting on a beit din for a conversion. It is always a blessing to be present as individuals commit themselves to our ancient…
Akiva, You Have Comforted Me
Nichum or nechemta, which mean comfort and consolation, are key words at this point in the Jewish calendar. We’ve come through the labor of grieving on Tisha B’av– we’ve…
Open Our Hearts Through Torah
In the bet midrash, in meetings, and in conversations with SVARA-niks and community members, week after week, I hear a refrain: We are holding so much grief. But it is…
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 anchoring questions: What does it mean to be a yeshiva…
30 Minutes of Torah to Nourish Our Souls
Two weeks ago—and wow does it feel longer than two weeks—we (Ren Finkel and Olivia Devorah) had a choice to make: would we hold SVARA’s daily drop-in Mishnah Collective as…
Akiva, You Have Comforted Me
Nichum or nechemta, which mean comfort and consolation, are key words at this point in the Jewish calendar. We’ve come through the labor of grieving on Tisha B’av– we’ve…
The Uncountable Queer Contradictions of Rabban Gamliel: A Roundtable Discussion
Many thanks to Ren Finkel (our one and only Mishnah Collective Coordinator) for their visioning, support, and incredible hot takes which helped frame this discussion. Special thanks to Alyx Bernstein,…
On Visiting the White House
by Benay Lappe
As I scanned down through my inbox a few weeks ago and saw “The White House” in bold letters, I assumed it was a fundraising pitch, or spam of some…
Rescued by a Daf
A story is recounted in Yevamot 121a of Raban Gamliel on a boat. From a distance, Raban Gamliel sees another boat, shattered. A shipwreck. Knowing somehow that his colleague and…
Going From Inside to Outside
When I play piano, nothing feels more grounding than playing classical music. I imagine it has something to do with reading sheet music, where the notes and the instructions of…
When Joy Is Nowhere To Be Found
We’re often quoted a quip of Talmud at the start of Adar. A typical translation of this quote from the Sages found in Taanit 29a is: “When Adar enters, one…
To Know and Be Known
A few weeks back, it fell on me to give a benediction at a breakfast for the Boy Scouts of America. (Such are the often strange duties of being a…
And You Will Live By Them
This HOTS is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Dr. Richard Ruth, z”l This spring our SVARA shiur has been diving deep into pikuach nefesh, the concept that one can…
Call Me By Your Baraita
Who knew that reciting a baraita—one of the bits of text in the Talmud from the Tannaim, the Rabbis of the Mishnah—from memory could be so radically transformative. First off,…
A Letter to Our Students
by Benay Lappe
A Note from Team SVARA: The past few weeks have been fraught and tumultuous–in the world, and in the Jewish community. SVARA, as a yeshiva, is a home for queer…
Don’t Worry, (or Go Ahead and Worry but Still) Be Happy—a Talmudic prescription for turbulent times
by Jhos Singer
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov used to say, “Friends do not despair, for a difficult time has come upon us joy must fill the air. We must not lose our faith…
Pay Attention
So much of the medicine that is the SVARA method comes through its reliance on paying attention. When the news cycles through novel and terrible wonders more quickly than we…
30 Minutes of Torah to Nourish Our Souls
Two weeks ago—and wow does it feel longer than two weeks—we (Ren Finkel and Olivia Devorah) had a choice to make: would we hold SVARA’s daily drop-in Mishnah Collective as…
Torah in the Field
It’s Elul. The Rabbis and mystics have so much to say about what this final month of the Jewish year signifies. Realignment, return, renewal, reintegration. Finding our way back to…
Reaching for Torah
Yesterday morning, I had the honor of sitting on a beit din for a conversion. It is always a blessing to be present as individuals commit themselves to our ancient…
A Stolen Lulav
“What is my lulav good for in a collapsing world?” I asked myself this while sitting in my sukkah the other day. I could—and do—ask myself this question a lot,…
She Shall Inscribe Her Hand to God
For the last thirteen years, I’ve been an advisor to my Jewish friends, congregants, students and colleagues about their tattoos. This has been my version of “always a bridesmaid, never…
Holy Mirrors
by Jhos Singer
I went on a whirlwind road trip recently to Los Angeles. Long story abbreviated: 50 years ago, in a universe far, far away, I was a scrappy but nerdy poor…
Go Out and See
The Torah serves as the backbone of Jewish life, laying out a communal origin story and providing the foundation of Jewish religious practice. Even if the Torah was only read…
Finding Comfort in the Curmudgeonly
by Ren Finkel
Between our one-year anniversary and our Masechet Avot Chapter 4 siyyum, it has been a really big couple of weeks for the Mishnah Collective. As is so common during the…
We’re All OK
by Ayana Morse
I have, over the past weeks and months, made an increasing number of minor mistakes, and contributed rambling, nonsensical ideas to any number of projects. One of the more recent…
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 anchoring questions: What does it mean to be a yeshiva…
So That Torah Will Not Be Forgotten
Will the Torah be remembered because of what we say in class? Rabbi Hiyya knew that the answer was no. In Bava Metzia 85b, we encounter Reish Lakish marking graves…
Trust Your Ancestors, Trust Your Descendants
אמר רב יהודה אמר רב בשעה שעלה משה למרום מצאו להקב”ה שיושב וקושר כתרים לאותיות אמר לפניו רבש”ע מי מעכב על ידך אמר לו אדם אחד יש שעתיד להיות בסוף…
You’ve Got a Friend
by Jhos Singer
Sukkot is upon us, with its promise that our species might find a little spiritual strength by intentionally dining, entertaining, and even sleeping outdoors in a flimsy, handmade fort with…
A “Break” From Learning
As I return from my sabbatical, the nuanced, interconnected web of teaching and learning is on my heart. Over these past few months, I did some teaching and learning in…
Torah From the Wilderness
For the better part of this past week, I’ve found myself utterly enraptured by Tales of the Unbound, a seven-part podcast series made by the folks over at Judaism Unbound.…
A Stolen Lulav
“What is my lulav good for in a collapsing world?” I asked myself this while sitting in my sukkah the other day. I could—and do—ask myself this question a lot,…
The Needy for a Pair of Sandals: Jacob’s Unsettling, and Our Own
by Jess Belasco
One rather dark night in 2009, I sat on my bed in my college dorm room and typed out a list of “Things I want but think I will never…
Our Friend, Torah
This learning is dedicated in memory of our trans siblings. May their righteous memory be for a blessing. Last year, I was given a remarkable gift. A member of my…
Finding Strength at the Edge of Understanding
I was easily in the bottom of the class in my graduate engineering program. I remember one seminar-style class in particular where we’d rotate reviewing and sharing academic papers of…
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 that we need to become to then live those stories…
Claiming Our Human Lineage
It’s only 2026 and I already have AI fatigue. Not the cognitive fatigue that is caused by overuse of AI due to the brain’s inability to process so much information…
Making the Daf Daf-y
During the month of Elul, my attention begins to turn toward the High Holy Days and the ways our tradition draws us into cycles and repetitions. There is beauty and…
Befriending Rashi
There comes a time when I’m working through a sugya, inevitably reaching the limit of my own understanding, I ask “What does Rashi say?” My eyes turn away from the…
Honey From the Rock
I did a lot of crying this week, and then Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon passed away. Dr. Reagon was a scholar, singer, composer, organizer, and activist. Her songs and voice…
Our Creativity as Proof
Once upon a time, there was a Queen who had two servants. She loved them completely and totally. She gave each of them a measure of wheat and a bundle…
When We Can’t Hold It All
With gratitude to my chevruta-rav, R’ Benay, for our learning and continued exploration of this idea! The past 180 days have been characterized by so many things for klal yisrael—the…
Letting Go of Our Lizard
by Ren Finkel
This Elul, SVARA’s Mishnah Collective is taking some time to dive into Rambam’s Hilkhot Teshuva. In true Rambam fashion, his halakhot/legal claims are backed up not just with quotes from…
Mycelial Magic of Codification
In the first halakha class I ever took, we sat in a circle, opened up a book called the Mishnah Berurah1, and read through, line by line. The book was…
A Season of So Many Questions
As a member of SVARA’s teaching team, I get asked a lot of questions. Being in conversation with our learning community is one of the most life-giving parts of my…
Finding Echoes of Real People in Our Queer Rabbi Ancestors
Content warning for discussion of death, grief, and mourning. When I was a kid, my favorite pastime every Saturday was sitting in the corner of my synagogue and opening the…
The Torah of Care
by Ayana Morse
It’s not uncommon in meetings on Team SVARA for someone to say at some point, “There are no Talmud emergencies.” Usually, it’s in reference to shifting timelines for a project…
Olam Hadash: Towards a Jewish Theology of Abolition
This piece is an excerpt from R’ Ari Lev’s Yom Kippur sermon at Kol Tzedek Last week a grand jury in Louiseville, KY exonerated all three officers in the case…
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So That Torah Will Not Be Forgotten
Will the Torah be remembered because of what we say in class? Rabbi Hiyya knew that the answer was no. In Bava Metzia 85b, we encounter Reish Lakish marking graves…
You’ve Got a Friend
by Jhos Singer
Sukkot is upon us, with its promise that our species might find a little spiritual strength by intentionally dining, entertaining, and even sleeping outdoors in a flimsy, handmade fort with…
The Yentl Moment
by Jhos Singer
Photo by Cheshire Issacs I would like to dedicate my learning here to R. Benay Lappe, R. Margaret Holub, R. Dan Goldblatt, R. Batshir Torchio, R. Dev Noilly, and Morah…
World Building In the Bet Midrash
Do you have a movie that you rewatch again and again just for the pleasure of it? You know how it starts, you know the twists and turns in the…
Finding Echoes of Real People in Our Queer Rabbi Ancestors
Content warning for discussion of death, grief, and mourning. When I was a kid, my favorite pastime every Saturday was sitting in the corner of my synagogue and opening the…
A World of More Chevruta
I would have never made it through rabbinical school without my chevruta, Rabbi Emily Barton. Emily always knew how to call the rabbis out on their sh*t and how to…
The Origins We Imagine
It’s happening, y’all. As I write this piece, all of us here at SVARA are getting ready to gather at Queer Talmud Camp—the loving, rigorous, radical, and magical space that…
Find Your Minyan
Leading up to this past zman, when the SVARA Faculty was deciding what text we might teach in a moment of growing fascism, increasing hostility towards queer and trans people,…
Talmud and Totes
I love an organizing project. There is nothing quite like going through a collection of neglected tote bags, separating their contents into little piles and taking the time and intention…
When We Gather in Wonder
Something pretty darn exciting is happening next month. For the first time in what feels like a long time, our yeshiva will be launching back into that revelatory, connective, electric,…
Finding Home on the Daf
One year ago, in May of 2023, I found myself in yet another Zoom classroom. The class was “Torah & the State of State-less-ness: Recovering Diasporist Halakha” offered through the…
A Force for Deep Connection
A few months ago, we added reciting the Shema to our toddler’s bedtime routine. Edie had experienced a language explosion and, one night, while we were singing Hashkiveinu, it occurred…
Not a Rabbi, Not Yet a Rav
by Ren Finkel
After years of working in the service industry, making ends meet as best I could in the gig economy, I really thought “rabbi” was the way to have my cake…
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 I’ll make use of this year’s High Holidays to do…
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 for camp. In it, one could read these words, under…
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 public education; the murder of George Flloyd and Breonna Taylor;…
Sharpened, Not Erased
1. On his thirtieth birthday, September 11, 1933, Theodor Adorno’s right to teach was revoked. The German term is venia legendi, the permission to read. Not permission to hold an…
People of the Cookbook
by Jhos Singer
I’m dedicating this piece to the memories of Baruch ben Baruch, Harry Shaich, Ursula Batz, and Mary Lou Johnson It is spring. The Northern Hemisphere is lurching away from the…
Claiming Our Human Lineage
It’s only 2026 and I already have AI fatigue. Not the cognitive fatigue that is caused by overuse of AI due to the brain’s inability to process so much information…
Making the Daf Daf-y
During the month of Elul, my attention begins to turn toward the High Holy Days and the ways our tradition draws us into cycles and repetitions. There is beauty and…
30 Minutes of Torah to Nourish Our Souls
Two weeks ago—and wow does it feel longer than two weeks—we (Ren Finkel and Olivia Devorah) had a choice to make: would we hold SVARA’s daily drop-in Mishnah Collective as…
Torah in the Field
It’s Elul. The Rabbis and mystics have so much to say about what this final month of the Jewish year signifies. Realignment, return, renewal, reintegration. Finding our way back to…
It’s Just a Story
by Jhos Singer
We are, worldwide, at the threshold of two dramatic seasons supercharged by climate change. Here on the Pacific Coast in the Northern Hemisphere, summer is soon to yield her tempestuous…
Let Them Eat…Cake?
by Jhos Singer
As many of you now know I’m finally, officially, a hechshered rabbi—a fact to which I’m still adjusting. It’s been a 30 year odyssey, so, a little faster than Moses’s…
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…
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 Obligation of Uncertainty
Two weeks ago, I sat at my dining table with my friend and SVARA-nik, molly block, who is also a Kohenet in my community. The morning felt easeful and sweet…
Remembering Our Gevurah: How We Learn with G!D
Photo: A memorial to the fighters of the Bund and Tzukunft in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, located in the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery. Photo by Alyx Bernstein. This week, all around…
Ask, And They Will Tell You: Reflections on the Teshuva-Writing Collective
When I was 15, about nine months after coming out as a baby trans girl, I found my way to a gathering of queer Jewish teens hosted by Keshet on…
A Force for Deep Connection
A few months ago, we added reciting the Shema to our toddler’s bedtime routine. Edie had experienced a language explosion and, one night, while we were singing Hashkiveinu, it occurred…
A World of More Chevruta
I would have never made it through rabbinical school without my chevruta, Rabbi Emily Barton. Emily always knew how to call the rabbis out on their sh*t and how to…
Turn In It
by Jhos Singer
בֶּן בַּג בַּג אוֹמֵר, הֲפֹךְ בָּהּ וַהֲפֹךְ בָּהּ, דְּכֹלָּא בָהּ. וּבָהּ תֶּחֱזֵי, וְסִיב וּבְלֵה בָהּ, וּמִנַּהּ לֹא תָזוּעַ, שֶׁאֵין לְךָ מִדָּה טוֹבָה הֵימֶנָּה בֶּן הֵא הֵא אוֹמֵר, לְפוּם צַעֲרָא אַגְרָא…
Pay Attention
So much of the medicine that is the SVARA method comes through its reliance on paying attention. When the news cycles through novel and terrible wonders more quickly than we…
Turning Death Itself Into Life
by Binya Kóatz
Judaism is good at so much: Connecting us to our ancestors, providing an eternally renewable tradition, even making us wash our hands before we eat. But I think the part…
The Plurality of Mourning
Nachamu Nachamu ami, “comfort, comfort my people,”— the opening words of the Haftorah from the book of Isaiah, which we will read this Shabbat, ring particularly poignant this year. What…
People of the Cookbook
by Jhos Singer
I’m dedicating this piece to the memories of Baruch ben Baruch, Harry Shaich, Ursula Batz, and Mary Lou Johnson It is spring. The Northern Hemisphere is lurching away from the…
Play! For the Sake of Tradition
Last week, SVARA’s Associate Rosh Yeshiva Laynie Soloman and I spent Kabbalat Shabbat with Lab/Shul, the spiritual community of one of our Shaping Tradition honorees (and my chevruta), Shira Kline.…
Pushing the Tradition Forward on Every Page
I came to SVARA in 2013 as a learner—just another curious person in the bet midrash, moving through a sugya root by root, slowly discovering how the tradition opens itself…
30 Minutes of Torah to Nourish Our Souls
Two weeks ago—and wow does it feel longer than two weeks—we (Ren Finkel and Olivia Devorah) had a choice to make: would we hold SVARA’s daily drop-in Mishnah Collective as…
Expanding Torah in the Chat
Every weekday SVARA-niks gather for 30-minutes and move through a handful of words of the Mishnah, our Mishnah, with a slowness and depth that far exceeds what seems possible to…
The Heart Knows the Bitterness of Its Soul
With the marking of Rosh Chodesh Elul this week, the Jewish tradition invites us into the holiest months of the year. It’s a time for personal introspection and stock-taking, a…
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Artists and Esther: Prophets, Clothed in Holiness
Before we leave the Purim spirit entirely, starting on the road to Passover, I’d like to share with you the learning journey I’ve been on for about a year now:…
Saving Torah from Ourselves
When the month of Adar enters, joy (simcha) increases—so the Talmud teaches. Adar brings us the first moments of spring: buds beginning to adorn bare trees, daylight slowly increasing, and…
Joy on Purim
In her recent Rosh Chodesh piece for the month of Adar II, my friend and colleague Rav Avigayil Halpern beautifully describes the emotional place of the Jewish calendar this time…
Knowing and Not Knowing: Celebrating the Expansiveness of Torah
Today, I remember. I remember vividly the all-consuming sadness I felt last Purim, as the sun was setting and my celebratory seudah was ending, the last event I attended with…
Libation and Liberation
by Binya Kóatz
In this drash, I want to talk about wine, Purim and Passover, and how all of those connect to liberation in our time. But to do so properly, we first…
Being Here, Being There
Recently, I learned that one of the symptoms of complex PTSD is a feeling of time wibbly-wobbliness. Well, of course that’s not what my psychiatrist said to me, but that’s…
Enough Space, Enough Room
In her beautiful song, Enough Room, my teacher, Rabba Dorothy Richman invites us to imagine and bring into being the truth that there’s enough room, enough space, enough joy, for…
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…
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…
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…
An Impersonal Covenant
For nearly a year, I’ve been immersed in studying the Jewish philosopher and famed heretic, Baruch Spinoza. What began as a self-initiated study later evolved into a year-long study group…
Reaching for Torah
Yesterday morning, I had the honor of sitting on a beit din for a conversion. It is always a blessing to be present as individuals commit themselves to our ancient…
Remembering Our Gevurah: How We Learn with G!D
Photo: A memorial to the fighters of the Bund and Tzukunft in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, located in the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery. Photo by Alyx Bernstein. This week, all around…
Sacred Learning to Thaw the Freeze
by Ayana Morse
So many things feel like they’re crumbling right now. As I try to make sense of how to respond to this moment, I’ve been sitting with the framework of fight,…
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…
Pay Attention
So much of the medicine that is the SVARA method comes through its reliance on paying attention. When the news cycles through novel and terrible wonders more quickly than we…
Mourning the Unknown: Meditations and Music for the 10th of Tevet
Do you ever get that feeling? That feeling that something you never really knew is gone, a sadness both present and out of reach? If so, the 10th of Tevet…
Seeking an Incomplete Comfort
One of my earliest memories from my time at Gann Academy, a pluralistic Jewish high school where I taught before attending rabbinical school, is sitting on the floor singing with…
The Plurality of Mourning
Nachamu Nachamu ami, “comfort, comfort my people,”— the opening words of the Haftorah from the book of Isaiah, which we will read this Shabbat, ring particularly poignant this year. What…
Making the Daf Daf-y
During the month of Elul, my attention begins to turn toward the High Holy Days and the ways our tradition draws us into cycles and repetitions. There is beauty and…
Let Them Eat…Cake?
by Jhos Singer
As many of you now know I’m finally, officially, a hechshered rabbi—a fact to which I’m still adjusting. It’s been a 30 year odyssey, so, a little faster than Moses’s…
Shofar, Sinai, and the Strength of Sound
Last week I blew the shofar for a group of Jews assembled in the parking lot of a hotel in Atlanta. We stood just outside the front doors, unintentionally blocking…
Torah in the Field
It’s Elul. The Rabbis and mystics have so much to say about what this final month of the Jewish year signifies. Realignment, return, renewal, reintegration. Finding our way back to…
Not Just Possible, But Beautiful
by Maggie Kraus
About ten years ago, I asked a close friend of mine what she thought we would be like when we were older. “You’ll be exactly the same,” she said. “But…
Letting Go of Our Lizard
by Ren Finkel
This Elul, SVARA’s Mishnah Collective is taking some time to dive into Rambam’s Hilkhot Teshuva. In true Rambam fashion, his halakhot/legal claims are backed up not just with quotes from…
It’s Just a Story
by Jhos Singer
We are, worldwide, at the threshold of two dramatic seasons supercharged by climate change. Here on the Pacific Coast in the Northern Hemisphere, summer is soon to yield her tempestuous…
Let Them Eat…Cake?
by Jhos Singer
As many of you now know I’m finally, officially, a hechshered rabbi—a fact to which I’m still adjusting. It’s been a 30 year odyssey, so, a little faster than Moses’s…
Shofar, Sinai, and the Strength of Sound
Last week I blew the shofar for a group of Jews assembled in the parking lot of a hotel in Atlanta. We stood just outside the front doors, unintentionally blocking…
Akiva, You Have Comforted Me
Nichum or nechemta, which mean comfort and consolation, are key words at this point in the Jewish calendar. We’ve come through the labor of grieving on Tisha B’av– we’ve…
The Very Jewish Holiness of Crying in Public
by Elliot Kukla
“Rabbi, I’m so glad you are here,” said the woman at the hospital room door, “Tell my nephews that their father is going to get better.” As I stepped into…
Holy Mirrors
by Jhos Singer
I went on a whirlwind road trip recently to Los Angeles. Long story abbreviated: 50 years ago, in a universe far, far away, I was a scrappy but nerdy poor…
Turning Death Itself Into Life
by Binya Kóatz
Judaism is good at so much: Connecting us to our ancestors, providing an eternally renewable tradition, even making us wash our hands before we eat. But I think the part…
Let Them Eat…Cake?
by Jhos Singer
As many of you now know I’m finally, officially, a hechshered rabbi—a fact to which I’m still adjusting. It’s been a 30 year odyssey, so, a little faster than Moses’s…
Note to Self: Choose Life
by Jhos Singer
This is the last Hot Off The Shtender of 5783. Rosh Hashana allegedly marks the birthday of the world, but it also marks my own Jewish birthday. Technically a convert,…
A Season of So Many Questions
As a member of SVARA’s teaching team, I get asked a lot of questions. Being in conversation with our learning community is one of the most life-giving parts of my…
Reenvisioning Tashlich (With Some Help From the Temple)
by Jess Belasco
One of the great gifts of facilitating the Disability Justice Torah Circle (DJTC) over the past ten months has been getting to take all the alienating questions and moments from…
Drama in the Bet Hamikdash: The Little-Known Yom Kippur Weepfest
Now that our holy and reflective month of Elul has begun, I have my sights set on Yom Kippur: the Sabbath of Sabbaths, the peak of holiness and transformation. At…
You’ve Got a Friend
by Jhos Singer
Sukkot is upon us, with its promise that our species might find a little spiritual strength by intentionally dining, entertaining, and even sleeping outdoors in a flimsy, handmade fort with…
A Stolen Lulav
“What is my lulav good for in a collapsing world?” I asked myself this while sitting in my sukkah the other day. I could—and do—ask myself this question a lot,…
Of Miracles and Golems
by Jhos Singer
Dread has fallen upon us. The world is in an array of tailspins. Friends are cancelling friends. Floods, fires, tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, drought, and all the other symptoms of…
This is Chanukah
Throughout Chanukah, SVARA’s Mishnah Collective has been doing a deep dive into a classic dispute on Shabbat 21B between Bet Hillel and Bet Shammai regarding how one ought to light…
The Real Miracle of Hanukkah
by Jhos Singer
Hanukkah is here, wagging its annoying tail and jumping its big old muddy self up on folks like me who don’t care for it one little bit. Down, boy! For…
A Little More Darkness
An astrophoto of C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy), taken by Kendra’s grandfather, Bill. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלקֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעולָם אֲשֶׁר בִּדְבָרו מַעֲרִיב עֲרָבִים Baruch atah Hashem, Elokeinu Melech ha’olam, asher…
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…
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An Impersonal Covenant
For nearly a year, I’ve been immersed in studying the Jewish philosopher and famed heretic, Baruch Spinoza. What began as a self-initiated study later evolved into a year-long study group…
Turning Death Itself Into Life
by Binya Kóatz
Judaism is good at so much: Connecting us to our ancestors, providing an eternally renewable tradition, even making us wash our hands before we eat. But I think the part…
Befriending Rashi
There comes a time when I’m working through a sugya, inevitably reaching the limit of my own understanding, I ask “What does Rashi say?” My eyes turn away from the…
Artists and Esther: Prophets, Clothed in Holiness
Before we leave the Purim spirit entirely, starting on the road to Passover, I’d like to share with you the learning journey I’ve been on for about a year now:…
Moving Through This Crash
The central grand story of the Jewish tradition is undoubtedly the Exodus from Egypt. We remember our experience moving from degradation to praise every Passover and recall the Exodus in…
Letting Go of Our Lizard
by Ren Finkel
This Elul, SVARA’s Mishnah Collective is taking some time to dive into Rambam’s Hilkhot Teshuva. In true Rambam fashion, his halakhot/legal claims are backed up not just with quotes from…
Take Off Your Shoes
by Dev Noily
Take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. –Ex. 3:5 These are the first words YHVH says to Moses after calling…
Don’t Worry, (or Go Ahead and Worry but Still) Be Happy—a Talmudic prescription for turbulent times
by Jhos Singer
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov used to say, “Friends do not despair, for a difficult time has come upon us joy must fill the air. We must not lose our faith…
Reclaiming Pleasure for Ourselves and the Divine
I am re-learning how to feel good. As joy and pain move through my life without ceremony, I—along with so many of y’all—am a scientist of my own experience, constantly…
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 that we need to become to then live those stories…
Finding Home in a New Here
by Maggie Kraus
“To settle in the landscape means to stop our wandering and say: here!” -Christian Norberg-Schulz, The concept of dwelling (1985) Tonight, I am saying goodbye to a two-family house I…
Loving the Tradition Until it Transforms
by Maggie Kraus
This past Wednesday, the SVARA community gathered for Shaping Tradition, our annual celebration of the radical, rooted, and resilient Torah we’re creating together. We were honored to lift up the…
A Little More Darkness
An astrophoto of C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy), taken by Kendra’s grandfather, Bill. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלקֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעולָם אֲשֶׁר בִּדְבָרו מַעֲרִיב עֲרָבִים Baruch atah Hashem, Elokeinu Melech ha’olam, asher…
Investing in Queer & Trans Torah
We have heard from y’all time and time again that the most powerful, connected moments of learning happen when we are able to show up with our whole selves, and…
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…
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…
Still Being Shaped
by Maggie Kraus
Content warning: This piece explores death and the specific loss of life associated with the HIV/AIDS crisis. I don’t know how else to say this, but I’ve been thinking a…
How We Thrive: Torah from the Trans Halakha Project
On March 26, 2023 / 4 Nissan 5783, over 300 folks gathered for a day of learning with the Trans Halakha Project to celebrate the publication of two resources: a…
Ask, And They Will Tell You: Reflections on the Teshuva-Writing Collective
When I was 15, about nine months after coming out as a baby trans girl, I found my way to a gathering of queer Jewish teens hosted by Keshet on…
What Carries Us Through a Crash
by Maggie Kraus
On a cold and miraculous day last March, I lived out a fantasy I didn’t realize I had until it was happening: I got a truck. A pickup truck. A…
Svara in Spades
by Ayana Morse
This is quite a moment in time. As we find ourselves living with a judicial system that is reversing, contesting, and upending a wide range of human rights, I’ve been…
You’re Here. Who’s With You?
by Maggie Kraus
This time of year always arrives with equal amounts of stress and delight, but ever since I started working at SVARA, it has also become a season of witnessing just…
What Does This Mean and Who Does It Serve
When we learn in the SVARA method, we begin with chevruta, a relational practice rooted in listening to and learning with and from a peer. It is here that we…
Befriending Rashi
There comes a time when I’m working through a sugya, inevitably reaching the limit of my own understanding, I ask “What does Rashi say?” My eyes turn away from the…
Want No Wanton Hatred
by Jhos Singer
In a few weeks, my wife, Julie, and I are going to Europe to experience this amazing thing called “a vacation.” Part of our time away will be spent with…
Tenderness In These Times
What a time to be alive. I find myself, as I imagine many of us do, navigating bouts of deep existential despair. Even on my better days, I experience the…
The Yentl Moment
by Jhos Singer
Photo by Cheshire Issacs I would like to dedicate my learning here to R. Benay Lappe, R. Margaret Holub, R. Dan Goldblatt, R. Batshir Torchio, R. Dev Noilly, and Morah…
When We Can’t Hold It All
With gratitude to my chevruta-rav, R’ Benay, for our learning and continued exploration of this idea! The past 180 days have been characterized by so many things for klal yisrael—the…
Chevruta Outside the Bet Midrash
by Ayana Morse
I’ve always been drawn to the practice of workshopping ideas. There’s something so energizing about the back and forth of turning something over with another person and poking at it…
A World of More Chevruta
I would have never made it through rabbinical school without my chevruta, Rabbi Emily Barton. Emily always knew how to call the rabbis out on their sh*t and how to…
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 individual actions, and let us find heroes in our past.…
It’s Just a Story
by Jhos Singer
We are, worldwide, at the threshold of two dramatic seasons supercharged by climate change. Here on the Pacific Coast in the Northern Hemisphere, summer is soon to yield her tempestuous…
For the Sake of Our Ancestors
by Sasha Perry
The image above is a 17th-century diagram called “For a Wildfire” (MS. Bet Din London 130 (17th c) (1)). It reads, “Write 3 Divine names on the doorway of homes…
Of Miracles and Golems
by Jhos Singer
Dread has fallen upon us. The world is in an array of tailspins. Friends are cancelling friends. Floods, fires, tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, drought, and all the other symptoms of…
Crip Wisdom and the Torah of the Bees
by Elliot Kukla
In the 1980s, bees had a bad reputation. When I was a kid, my friends and I would shoo bees away and run away from them in fear. Thankfully, times…
Let’s Boogie!
This past shabbes, I read The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie by Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. Only a few pages into the introduction I found myself…
Find Your Minyan
Leading up to this past zman, when the SVARA Faculty was deciding what text we might teach in a moment of growing fascism, increasing hostility towards queer and trans people,…
Finding Home in a New Here
by Maggie Kraus
“To settle in the landscape means to stop our wandering and say: here!” -Christian Norberg-Schulz, The concept of dwelling (1985) Tonight, I am saying goodbye to a two-family house I…
Pushing the Tradition Forward on Every Page
I came to SVARA in 2013 as a learner—just another curious person in the bet midrash, moving through a sugya root by root, slowly discovering how the tradition opens itself…
Loving the Tradition Until it Transforms
by Maggie Kraus
This past Wednesday, the SVARA community gathered for Shaping Tradition, our annual celebration of the radical, rooted, and resilient Torah we’re creating together. We were honored to lift up the…
Moving Through This Crash
The central grand story of the Jewish tradition is undoubtedly the Exodus from Egypt. We remember our experience moving from degradation to praise every Passover and recall the Exodus in…
Creating New Precedents
This week brought another unforgettable installment of The Unrecognizable Jewish Future, a four-part conversation series designed to explore the evolving role of Judaism in our lives through thought-provoking conversations with leading…
What Carries Us Through a Crash
by Maggie Kraus
On a cold and miraculous day last March, I lived out a fantasy I didn’t realize I had until it was happening: I got a truck. A pickup truck. A…
Questions, Practice, and Moving Toward Life
In June 2022, the On Being Project paused its weekly podcasts. The podcast’s host and executive producer, Krista Tippett, shared this message with her listeners: “On Being and I are…
When a Text Needs to Crash
Content warning: this piece mentions a Talmudic text that deals with the theme of sexual violence. One morning during the early days of Mishnah Collective, I sat down to begin…
Still Being Shaped
by Maggie Kraus
Content warning: This piece explores death and the specific loss of life associated with the HIV/AIDS crisis. I don’t know how else to say this, but I’ve been thinking a…
Turning Death Itself Into Life
by Binya Kóatz
Judaism is good at so much: Connecting us to our ancestors, providing an eternally renewable tradition, even making us wash our hands before we eat. But I think the part…
When Joy Is Nowhere To Be Found
We’re often quoted a quip of Talmud at the start of Adar. A typical translation of this quote from the Sages found in Taanit 29a is: “When Adar enters, one…
Open Our Hearts Through Torah
In the bet midrash, in meetings, and in conversations with SVARA-niks and community members, week after week, I hear a refrain: We are holding so much grief. But it is…
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 that we need to become to then live those stories…
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…
Rest, Renewal, and Listening to Our Deepest Yearnings
This past Shabbat marked seven years since my rabbinic ordination, a milestone of great significance. That’s not only because of the role the number seven plays in the Jewish tradition,…
Creating New Precedents
This week brought another unforgettable installment of The Unrecognizable Jewish Future, a four-part conversation series designed to explore the evolving role of Judaism in our lives through thought-provoking conversations with leading…
Crip Wisdom and the Torah of the Bees
by Elliot Kukla
In the 1980s, bees had a bad reputation. When I was a kid, my friends and I would shoo bees away and run away from them in fear. Thankfully, times…
Reenvisioning Tashlich (With Some Help From the Temple)
by Jess Belasco
One of the great gifts of facilitating the Disability Justice Torah Circle (DJTC) over the past ten months has been getting to take all the alienating questions and moments from…
Breathing into the Rubble
*This piece and the Torah behind it has been informed by almost a decade of friendship, chevruta-ship, and learning from & with SVARA Fellow Jess Belasco (b”H, thank G!d!). Over…
Finding Comfort in the Curmudgeonly
by Ren Finkel
Between our one-year anniversary and our Masechet Avot Chapter 4 siyyum, it has been a really big couple of weeks for the Mishnah Collective. As is so common during the…
The (Bright) Future of Jewish Leadership
by Maggie Kraus
A year ago, we decided to do something unlike anything we had ever done before at SVARA. In celebration of our yeshiva’s 20th anniversary, we gathered a spectacular lineup of…
Seeding What’s Next
For the last month, we’ve been captivated by the speakers who shared their time and their torah during The Unrecognizable Jewish Future, a four-part conversation series with leading teachers, learners,…
Creating New Precedents
This week brought another unforgettable installment of The Unrecognizable Jewish Future, a four-part conversation series designed to explore the evolving role of Judaism in our lives through thought-provoking conversations with leading…
Reading Ourselves Into History
This week we welcomed the very first installment of The Unrecognizable Jewish Future, a four-part conversation series designed to explore the evolving role of Judaism in our lives through thought-provoking…
Knowing That We Are Loved
by Ayana Morse
About a year and a half ago, I was lucky enough to be at the graduation for our first cohort of Fellows in the Teaching Kollel. I had captured glimmers…
It’s Just a Story
by Jhos Singer
We are, worldwide, at the threshold of two dramatic seasons supercharged by climate change. Here on the Pacific Coast in the Northern Hemisphere, summer is soon to yield her tempestuous…
Turning Death Itself Into Life
by Binya Kóatz
Judaism is good at so much: Connecting us to our ancestors, providing an eternally renewable tradition, even making us wash our hands before we eat. But I think the part…
When Joy Is Nowhere To Be Found
We’re often quoted a quip of Talmud at the start of Adar. A typical translation of this quote from the Sages found in Taanit 29a is: “When Adar enters, one…
Saving Torah from Ourselves
When the month of Adar enters, joy (simcha) increases—so the Talmud teaches. Adar brings us the first moments of spring: buds beginning to adorn bare trees, daylight slowly increasing, and…
Tenderness In These Times
What a time to be alive. I find myself, as I imagine many of us do, navigating bouts of deep existential despair. Even on my better days, I experience the…
For the Sake of Our Ancestors
by Sasha Perry
The image above is a 17th-century diagram called “For a Wildfire” (MS. Bet Din London 130 (17th c) (1)). It reads, “Write 3 Divine names on the doorway of homes…
30 Minutes of Torah to Nourish Our Souls
Two weeks ago—and wow does it feel longer than two weeks—we (Ren Finkel and Olivia Devorah) had a choice to make: would we hold SVARA’s daily drop-in Mishnah Collective as…
Moving Through This Crash
The central grand story of the Jewish tradition is undoubtedly the Exodus from Egypt. We remember our experience moving from degradation to praise every Passover and recall the Exodus in…
When We Can’t Hold It All
With gratitude to my chevruta-rav, R’ Benay, for our learning and continued exploration of this idea! The past 180 days have been characterized by so many things for klal yisrael—the…
Sacred Learning to Thaw the Freeze
by Ayana Morse
So many things feel like they’re crumbling right now. As I try to make sense of how to respond to this moment, I’ve been sitting with the framework of fight,…
Loving the Tradition Until it Transforms
by Maggie Kraus
This past Wednesday, the SVARA community gathered for Shaping Tradition, our annual celebration of the radical, rooted, and resilient Torah we’re creating together. We were honored to lift up the…
Joy on Purim
In her recent Rosh Chodesh piece for the month of Adar II, my friend and colleague Rav Avigayil Halpern beautifully describes the emotional place of the Jewish calendar this time…
Reclaiming Pleasure for Ourselves and the Divine
I am re-learning how to feel good. As joy and pain move through my life without ceremony, I—along with so many of y’all—am a scientist of my own experience, constantly…
A “Break” From Learning
As I return from my sabbatical, the nuanced, interconnected web of teaching and learning is on my heart. Over these past few months, I did some teaching and learning in…
Pink Pony Club and the Search for Queer Belonging
by Maggie Kraus
I have learned approximately ten million things since becoming a parent, and an important one is this: tasks that used to take minutes now take hours. From cleaning the kitchen…
Not Just Possible, But Beautiful
by Maggie Kraus
About ten years ago, I asked a close friend of mine what she thought we would be like when we were older. “You’ll be exactly the same,” she said. “But…
A Force for Deep Connection
A few months ago, we added reciting the Shema to our toddler’s bedtime routine. Edie had experienced a language explosion and, one night, while we were singing Hashkiveinu, it occurred…
Mindful Returning
Elul is a month of doing. As we get ready for the world to be reborn, Hamelech ba’sadeh, they say: The king is in the field. The Aybishter leaves their…
Shofar, Sinai, and the Strength of Sound
Last week I blew the shofar for a group of Jews assembled in the parking lot of a hotel in Atlanta. We stood just outside the front doors, unintentionally blocking…
Reenvisioning Tashlich (With Some Help From the Temple)
by Jess Belasco
One of the great gifts of facilitating the Disability Justice Torah Circle (DJTC) over the past ten months has been getting to take all the alienating questions and moments from…
The Heart Knows the Bitterness of Its Soul
With the marking of Rosh Chodesh Elul this week, the Jewish tradition invites us into the holiest months of the year. It’s a time for personal introspection and stock-taking, a…
Take Off Your Shoes
by Dev Noily
Take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. –Ex. 3:5 These are the first words YHVH says to Moses after calling…
Open Our Hearts Through Torah
In the bet midrash, in meetings, and in conversations with SVARA-niks and community members, week after week, I hear a refrain: We are holding so much grief. But it is…
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 I’ll make use of this year’s High Holidays to do…
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…
Want No Wanton Hatred
by Jhos Singer
In a few weeks, my wife, Julie, and I are going to Europe to experience this amazing thing called “a vacation.” Part of our time away will be spent with…
Ask, And They Will Tell You: Reflections on the Teshuva-Writing Collective
When I was 15, about nine months after coming out as a baby trans girl, I found my way to a gathering of queer Jewish teens hosted by Keshet on…
What Carries Us Through a Crash
by Maggie Kraus
On a cold and miraculous day last March, I lived out a fantasy I didn’t realize I had until it was happening: I got a truck. A pickup truck. A…
Towards Halakhic Euphoria
When I started planning to have top surgery, I never wondered whether I could get top surgery according to halakha. While my life is guided by the yes’s and no’s…
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…
Being Here, Being There
Recently, I learned that one of the symptoms of complex PTSD is a feeling of time wibbly-wobbliness. Well, of course that’s not what my psychiatrist said to me, but that’s…
Sharpened, Not Erased
1. On his thirtieth birthday, September 11, 1933, Theodor Adorno’s right to teach was revoked. The German term is venia legendi, the permission to read. Not permission to hold an…
Turning Death Itself Into Life
by Binya Kóatz
Judaism is good at so much: Connecting us to our ancestors, providing an eternally renewable tradition, even making us wash our hands before we eat. But I think the part…
Reaching for Torah
Yesterday morning, I had the honor of sitting on a beit din for a conversion. It is always a blessing to be present as individuals commit themselves to our ancient…
Written by SVARA Alumni
From the End to the Beginning
Earlier this week, I got to experience one of my favorite moments of the year: chanting the last line of D’varim and the first line of B’reshit in a single…
Making the Daf Daf-y
During the month of Elul, my attention begins to turn toward the High Holy Days and the ways our tradition draws us into cycles and repetitions. There is beauty and…
More Than Mishnah
by Ren Finkel
In the wake of the COVID lockdowns of 2020, SVARA launched a daily learning experiment to help sustain our community with Torah. That experiment became the Mishnah Collective—and while I…
Pay Attention
So much of the medicine that is the SVARA method comes through its reliance on paying attention. When the news cycles through novel and terrible wonders more quickly than we…
A New Song For Tisha b’Av
I wrote a new song for Tisha b’Av this year, and even more so for the Three Weeks of grief and mourning, leading up to that greatest day of calamity…
Remember To Forget
by Jhos Singer
To heal ourselves, we have to actively remember what to forget and not forget what we must remember. It’s summer in Northern California, where the weather will do as it…
Grateful for Our Portion: Growing the Trans Halakha Project Beyond SVARA
The Trans Halakha Project began in 2021 as a way to help trans people find the answers they were seeking about how to live full, ritually infused Jewish lives that…
Rest, Renewal, and Listening to Our Deepest Yearnings
This past Shabbat marked seven years since my rabbinic ordination, a milestone of great significance. That’s not only because of the role the number seven plays in the Jewish tradition,…
Turning Death Itself Into Life
by Binya Kóatz
Judaism is good at so much: Connecting us to our ancestors, providing an eternally renewable tradition, even making us wash our hands before we eat. But I think the part…