Thinking about food justice, Tu BiShvat, and Parshat Yitro.
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Here we are now at the end of the book of Genesis. No celebration. No miracle.
Joseph grows old, speaks to his brothers, and dies.
Our last image in Genesis is not creation or freedom or return.
It is a coffin in Egypt.
(Sounds depressing, right? Maybe give it a chance.)
In The Judgment of Yoyo Gold, Isaac Blum offers readers an authentic, frank, and deeply human portrait of adolescence. Through Yoyo’s sensitive and courageous journey, the novel captures the real and raw experience of being a teenager. For Jewish teens and families, especially those who are not Orthodox, the book is both a window and a mirror. For all readers, it is a reminder that part of growing up is learning how to decide which values truly matter, and how to live them with integrity.
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With our Go Fund Me: Love is Boss Let’s Help in Honduras, our community has shared $18,109 through Miguel to support medical care, nutritional needs, housing support, birthdays, and other essential needs. In addition, there were separate/private contributions totaling just over $14,000. That brings the collective total to about $32,109, or an average of ~$2,675 each month. Amazingly and wonderfully, this meets - and even slightly exceeds - our goal of $2,500 per month.
Dollars matter. What matters more is what they made possible.
All Jews are interconnected. Siblings. We have a mutual responsibility to care for each other and work for communal good. The actions and well-being of one of us affects all of us. Part of choosing to be part of the Jewish community - whether we are Jewish or not - means saying, “You matter to me and I won’t walk away.”
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We get to meet the authors of Benny Feldman’s All-Star Klezmer Band at our next BeJewcy Book Club meeting! (I’ve actually met them before and they are WONDERFUL!)
Benny Feldman’s All-Star Klezmer Band is so warm and funny it’s the best kind of cozy. This middle-grade novel by authors Allison Marks and Wayne Marks celebrates Jewish music and Jewish identity, friendship, and the messy, courageous journey of trying to figure out who you are in the world.
Every now and then I share what I write in the Go Fund Me I manage here.
This is one of those times. I have been feeling so so much that the ocean is vast, my boat is small, and it’s on fire, and there are sharks, and the sharks are hungry. Maybe you have been feeling that, too. I mean, I like sharks. Actual sharks. The ones in the actual ocean. But still. And at the same time, I get to be part of this thing. This thing in the biggest sense, and this thing - this Go Fund Me - with my teacher Dr. Michael Dulick who these days mostly goes by the name Miguel. It’s a very, very good thing. It’s a flotation device.
This song has a STORY. And yes, it *is* a story of light that lasts, but it's not THAT story.
For one thing, it's about a woman who got married in a dress made from a silk parachute so obviously it has romance. For another, it's a story full of horror, resilience, escape, and survival.
It goes like this . . .
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Ultimately, Hoodie’s journey is about learning how to be fully himself.
In reading his story, we might get a little closer to figuring out how to be fully ourselves, too.
Confession: On Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah ESPECIALLY, God’s voice in my head sounds basically exactly like Camila Cabello singing “Don’t Go Yet.” I MEAN (and yes, I'm listening AGAIN right now) can't you JUST HEAR GOD singing "I wore this dress for a little drama"?
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While I waited with Israeli friends and loved ones for the hostages to return I read and watched the shared words and images of dozens - maybe hundreds - of Jews and Palestinians and Israelis and Gazans and settlers and Palestinian residents in the West Bank. I took it all in. I slept for a couple of hours. Then I read Bresheet, this week’s Torah portion. Twice. What you’ll find here are a first draft of my nearly sleepless thoughts and musing and questions and associations. It’s a bit of a rough ride, but hopefully an interesting one.
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Middle Grade Book Review!
I am always here for a good story.
There are stories that invite us to dream, and there are stories that invite us to belong.
Anya and the Dragon, an enchanting middle-grade fantasy by Sofiya Pasternack, is a very good story that expertly does both.
Sukkot has long been a favorite holiday of mine, and not only because it's the next one on the calendar. Still, this year, I'm struggling to find joy in this season of joy. Maybe you are, too. I have some ideas, I’d love to hear yours, too. I have a Sukkot Guide to share, and also 14 things that I’m doing or committing to doing this week.
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The covenant isn’t between God and Moses, it includes all of us.
Words and Torah aren’t only Moses’s legacy, they are also our legacy.
Merchav Shabbat meets online the 1st and 3rd Saturday 9:30am Central.
We’re saving a seat for you! Please send me a message if you are interested.
One of my Jewish Life Coaching folks is having surgery soon.
They asked, and we looked for, a guide for them that would include Jewish texts and prayers as they prepare for and have their procedure, and for their recovery.
We didn’t find anything that quite fit.
So I created one.
In BeJEWcy, my middle grade Jewish book club, when we talked about Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan-Long Shang’s book Not Your All-American Girl we began by asking:
What does it mean to be “all-American”?
For the book’s main character Lauren Horowitz, a sixth grader who’s both Jewish and Chinese, the answer turns out to be a lot more complicated — and personal — than she expected.
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Spill the JEWce, my online Jewish YA book club, welcomed teacher, librarian, and author, Kyle Lukoff, to join our circle in September. If you are in a position to welcome and pay an author to come and speak with your community of kids, teens, or adults online or in person, I 10/10 recommend bringing Kyle to talk about his book, A World Worth Saving. Kyle Lukoff joined our circle with warmth, presence, and curiosity. He modeled what it means to listen deeply and respond with heart. Face to face experiences with authors change everything.
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If your YA reader is looking for a book to read over the High Holidays this year, I have one to recommend. It’s got golems. It’s got sheydim. It’s got this Jewish trans kid who isn’t always sure the world is worth saving, but he and his friends are going to try to save it anyway.
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On Shabbat Ki Tavo, we celebrated with joy as Jemma was called to the Torah and celebrated becoming bat mitzvah. Her words of Torah and her poetry and art are a delight and we are so lucky that she has shared them with us and that she and her parents have given me permission to share them here.
If you have already heard her words and seen her art, you know how delicious they are.
I’m thrilled we can enjoy them again here.
If you are experiencing Jemma’s Torah for the first time, you are in for a treat.
Before Jemma and I wrote the prayer for peace she prayed during this morning’s Shabbat services, I asked her to think about the war in Israel and Gaza and the West Bank specifically. I asked her to think about young Palestinian and Jewish people her age in the Land. I asked her what images came to mind. She spoke. I took notes. She had questions. We talked about them. Over the next few months, she created an art piece, we wordsmithed, we read it out loud and to ourselves. We considered every word. This is the powerful prayer that came into the world this morning, born of our collaboration.
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