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Archive for the ‘Jewish’ Category

Ah, it’s the time of year again; time for me to struggle with that very rabbinic of holidays, Shavuot. I love the original Shavous — a day celebrating the first fruits and vegetables to appear in the season, and a reason to travel long distances to share one’s bounty with neighbors and priests. Then the [...]

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I woke up this morning to some stunning news: The talented and soulful singer Neshama Carlebach has come up with a new version of Israel’s national anthem, HaTikva (the Hope), at an invitation by The Forward, a leading national Jewish newspaper. This “new” version is new in the most startling and thoughtful of ways. With [...]

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When I bought this plastic bowl at the supermarket today, the label said: “Great for serving matzoh ball soup, charoset or salt water for the parsley at your Passover seder!” It wasn’t until I got home, opened up a new box of FrootLoops, and poured in the cereal that a light bulb went off and I keeled over [...]

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This week, I took a “gulp” and did one of those things one is always reluctant to do: I pulled the plug. I called it quits on a venture that I was once very excited about, and which, by all outward measures, had clearly failed. In this particular case, pulling the plug didn’t matter much. [...]

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A Story from Rebbe Nachman There is a story of a king who sent his son a great distance to study all the wisdom of the world. The son went, studied, and returned wise. One day the king asked his son to take a massive rock and place it up upon the roof of the [...]

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In 1995, I was living in Nashville, Tennessee, and belonged to a small Conservative congregation. One day, I saw a flier on the wall advertising a concert for some woman named Debbie Friedman. I had no idea who she was, and I imagined that whatever this “Jewish music” of hers was, it was probably cheesy.  [...]

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I’ve had the pleasure in recent weeks of doing a lot of reading about Albert Einstein. He has always been one of my foremost Jewish heroes, and learning more about his life and words has only emboldened this sentiment. One of the common refrains in his writings is the importance of striving for a life of humility, [...]

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When I was 23, I had a newsroom job that started at 6:30 a.m. Not being a morning person, this was my idea of getting ready in the morning: Set the alarm for 15 minutes before I have to leave the house. After the alarm goes off, jump out of bed, spend 7 minutes in [...]

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Who came up with the idea of bodily resurrection after death? Like many people – Christian and Jewish alike – for most of my life I made the assumption that this was a distinctly Christian idea. It makes sense that people would have this assumption. Christianity is so singularly focused on the resurrection of Jesus [...]

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One of my favorite writers, as well as my favorite Jewish-American writers, is Marge Piercy, who has lived an enviable life, on her own terms, as a poet, author and liberal activist. She lives in Cape Cod with her husband and a whole lot of cats. This excerpt is from her memoir, and feels particularly [...]

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