Today is September 19, 2019 /
Today is September 19, 2019 /
Angels, the Midrash teaches, attended our nation’s first educational experience at Sinai bearing gifts: two crowns. One was the crown of action, awarded to us for our commitment to do everything G-d asked of us. The second was the crown of understanding, bestowed in recognition of our promise to commit our minds to the comprehension Continue Reading »
Learning Torah as a training ground for developing habits of mind essential to thriving in the 21st century is a seed that needs nurturing. I will illustrate what I mean through two examples: First creative thinking and then paradoxical thinking. PaRDeS is the acronym for Torah interpretation: P’shat/plain meaninig is the straightforward, almost literal meaning Continue Reading »
Imagine a street. There are two synagogues on the street, directly across from each other. It’s 10 a.m. on a Sunday morning, and in both synagogues, the rabbi is beginning a class on the Book of Job. In the first synagogue, 15 people are gathered with their Bibles open. They read the first verse, and Continue Reading »
First there was “Jewish Continuity,” until we realized that we weren’t quite sure what it was that we wanted to continue and that merely “continuing’ was not a sufficient goal. Next came “Jewish Renaissance and Renewal” which spawned an ecosystem of innovation in the Jewish education and engagement worlds. But that catch cry also waned, Continue Reading »
The women’s marches across the country this past week made my soul sing and filled my heart with hope and possibility in the midst of my great anxiety for our children and their families. As an early childhood Jewish educator for much of my career, it rekindled my angst over a cause we spend a Continue Reading »
The Seder is intended to be a personal experience. By now we know the story. We don’t need more historical information or sermons. What we need is a way to personally connect with the Passover story and to each other. We need quality conversations. That is really what a Seder is: an organized conversation around Continue Reading »
We’re going to try something new at seder this year. For the first time in years, we’ll be having an adult seder. Kids are older and the marrieds with the grandkids will be at the in-laws. What’s new? This year we are not buying new Haggadot. It seems that every year dozens of new commentaries Continue Reading »
By Aryeh Ben David Recently, an Ayeka educator proudly described her successful teenage class dynamic to me. She said that usually a third of the kids actively participate, a third sometimes participate, and a third remains on the side throughout most of their activities. I paused, took a chance, and asked her: “When you Continue Reading »
At the Seder we celebrate talking. The very name – Pesach – is referred to in the Kabbalah as “Peh-Sach”, “the mouth that talks”. Usually we understand this as the talking of the people sitting around the Seder table, reading and expanding on the words of the Haggadah. But what if the objects at the Continue Reading »
One of the most surprising things for me as a parent has been how different my kids are from me. I guess it was naïve – but I just thought it would have been natural for kids to be like their parents. Though one could point out that I have turned out very differently Continue Reading »