This Shabbat, we will read Parashat Balak, which features—among other things—a talking donkey. According to rabbinic legend, that donkey was one of ten magical items created at twilight before the first Shabbat. For some summer fun this week, we’ll explore some of those symbols and what they might teach us today. While I am truly an excellent planner in many regards, the ability to match a recipe and a shopping list continues to elude me. I cannot count the number of times I have gotten excited about a particular recipe—and often gotten Orli excited along with me—gone to the store, settled in to bake, and realized that I did not have some specialty ingredient, or enough of something, or a particular kitchen gadget. Often, this attempt will end in tears and frustration, and not always from the 4.5 year old. Perhaps knowing this about the Divine, the midrash suggests that after the [...]

This Shabbat, we will read Parashat Balak, which features—among other things—a talking donkey. According to rabbinic legend, that donkey was one of ten magical items created at twilight before the first Shabbat. For some summer fun this week, we’ll explore some of those symbols and what they might teach us today. Today is the [[DATE REDACTED]] anniversary of my bat mitzvah. Just a couple of years ago, I ascended the bimah at Temple Shaaray Tefila in New York City, and chanted the words not of Balak, which we’ll read this Shabbat, but of Chukat, which we read this past Shabbat. As some of our b’nai mitzvah students can surely imagine, I remember complaining to my rabbi that there really was nothing in this Torah portion that I found interesting...somehow I missed some key plot points. Another of the items created at twilight, the rabbis teach, is the well of water which sustained [...]

This Shabbat, we will read Parashat Balak, which features—among other things—a talking donkey. According to rabbinic legend, that donkey was one of ten magical items created at twilight before the first Shabbat. For some summer fun this week, we’ll explore some of those symbols and what they might teach us today. Anyone who has spoken to me over the course of this pandemic could probably tell you that I am obsessed with my local Buy Nothing group. Founded on Bainbridge Island, WA (where I did a student pulpit during rabbinical school—though that fact is unrelated), Buy Nothing groups are hyperlocal communities built on the concept of a barter economy. Nothing can be purchased or sold; the gifts offered must be of your own abundance. Participants can offer gifts of time or skill, such as an offer to run an errand for someone who might be homebound, or offer their expertise [...]