Every year we tell the story, again and again. This week we add another layer as we begin the last book of the Torah, Devarim, "words," or "things." It opens: "These are the devarim that Moses spoke to all Israel." This is Moses's last address to our people, and in it he retells [...]

We Jews are a lunar people — our calendar is driven by the cycle of the moon. The new Hebrew month begins with that tiny sliver of the new moon, and next week, on Tuesday evening, we will welcome the month of Av. It's a strange phenomenon. Our custom [...]

Consider for a moment the purpose of a birthday celebration. We gather to rejoice in the being of the person whose birth we are commemorating. We are grateful and happy that this person came into the world and into our lives. Tomorrow we celebrate the birthday of our nation, [...]

I knew Brad Lander when we were teenagers. Not well. We weren't close friends. But we moved in the same circles, NFTY conventions, the Reform Jewish youth movement that shaped so many of us who grew up in the Midwest. He was from St. Louis. I was from Omaha. Graduated [...]

This evening of Shabbat falls on Juneteenth, a federal holiday since 2021. It relates in powerful ways to core values in our Jewish tradition, and should matter deeply to us especially given important relationships that are precious. I want to take a few extra minutes with it and connect it [...]

This Shabbat has special personal resonance for me. Parashat Sh’lach L’cha is the parasha of my bar mitzvah — just a few years back, a little more than four decades ago. Embedded in this portion is a lesson that was particularly relevant to my adolescent self. Perhaps it was this way [...]