​Toward Shabbat: How I Find Emotional Release
November 3, 2023
My younger sister and I have always been very close. In middle school, after spending a summer apart, we missed each other so much that as soon as the school year started we spent as much time together as possible, even having “sleepovers” in the living room or in one of our bedrooms rather than being separated...Read More

​Toward Shabbat: Beha'alotekha
June 8, 2023
I don’t usually talk about being gay. The reason I avoid it is twofold. When I was first coming out (and even sometimes today), I was scared that I would be treated differently. But that was not all: Even if people treated me with kindness and generosity, I worried that they did so only out of a surface-level courtesy—they were kind because they thought they had to be...Read More

​Toward Shabbat: Tazri’a-Metzora
April 21, 2023
This coming week, we encounter the back-to-back holidays of Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’Atzma-ut. On Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Day of Remembrance of Fallen Soldiers, the sadness and grief in the country is palpable. In the U.S., by comparison, our Memorial Day is marked with barbecues and shopping sales...Read More

​Toward Shabbat: Tetzaveh
March 2, 2023
In this week’s parashah, Tetzaveh, God outlines to Moshe the priestly vestments that Aaron will wear as the high priest of B’nai Yisrael. Aaron is to wear two blue stones, one on each shoulder. Additionally, he is to wear a further twelve stones, each inscribed with the name of a tribe of Israel, set into a gold breastplate over his heart...Read More

​Toward Shabbat: Va-era
January 20, 2023
This past weekend, I was blessed to be with our BJ Teens in Arizona, learning about immigration in America. In some of our first moments of the trip we learned a piece of Pirkei Avot together: “וְאַל תָּדִין אֶת חֲבֵרְךָ עַד שֶׁתַּגִּיעַ לִמְקוֹמוֹ—Do not judge your fellow human until you have reached his place...Read More