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Rabbi Karen G. Reiss Medwed and I recorded this conversation last night, and you can watch it on YouTube or listen as a podcast. The Megillah (the biblical Book of Esther) is a story of anti-Semitism set in the Diaspora in a multiethnic empire where Jews were living in peace. How did the Jews of the Continue Reading »
The Talmud proposes that on Purim we enter a state of mind in which we no longer know the difference between the goodness of Mordechai and the evil of Haman. At a key moment in the Megillah, when the fate of the Jews seems to lie in the balance, Mordechai proclaims to Esther not-so-emphatically “Who Continue Reading »
This is my current draft of a D’var Torah for Shabbat morning, March 23, 2024. This is my closing address of our six-week conference of the Society for the Advancement of Esther-Informed Spiritual Therapy. Today is Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat that comes before Purim. Shabbat Zachor is the dark set-up for a zany festival. Zachor Continue Reading »
This was my D’var Torah for Shabbat morning, March 16, 2024, Parashat Pekudei. which fell this year about a week before Purim. It’s already after the Oscars, but I have a pitch for a new movie — it could even be a franchise! It’s about a pair of young friends who travel the world together. Continue Reading »
Dear Friends: Today is the second day of Adar Sheni, the month in the Jewish calendar highlighted by Purim. Purim seems like a purely whimsical festival, when we dress up in costume and read the story of Queen Esther and eat hamantaschen. But just beneath the surface, it’s a profound story and set of practices Continue Reading »
Introducing Adar Conversations, a series about themes of the Jewish festival of Purim and the Megillah, the biblical story of Esther. I prepared this first part as we approach the first Purim after the atrocities of October 7 and as the war continues. How can we celebrate, and maybe more importantly what can this Continue Reading »
This is my D’var Torah for Shabbat, Parashat Va-era, January 13, 2024. In August we went down to New York for the simchat bat celebration for our newest grandniece, and when we were hanging out with the family afterward at the synagogue, my daughter Lela was playing with R. and P., and she offered to Continue Reading »
Here is the video recording of our conversation on January 8, 2024 with Dean Phillips, U.S. Representative from Minnesota’s Third District and Candidate for the Democratic Nomination for President of the United States. Rabbi Jon, Rev. Allison Palm of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashua, and Rev. Michael Reinke of Church of Our Savior (Episcopal) Continue Reading »
I gave this D’var Torah at Beth Abraham on Shabbat morning, Saturday, January 6, 2018. I’m reposting it right after we began reading the book of Shmot/Exodus in our annual cycle again. Watch, listen, or read! Today we begin reading the most important book in human history — Sefer Shmot, the book of Exodus. This is Continue Reading »