Omer Day Ten
A bris early this week for a young couple, one partner Jewish, the other not. This is not an unusual event in most synagogues, certainly not in a Reform synagogue, but I was struck this time, so deeply, by how reverent each partner was in this, the most powerful of all Jewish […]

Omer Day Nine
Adam Liptak’s Times article on studies about the application of the death penalty in Harris County, Texas. No real surprise to those who have followed this issue over the years but it’s always sobering to read the two claims that emerge:
1. The death penalty is applied at a higher rate for […]

Omer Day Eight
I am really into this idea of going to live in Beacon for a week and praying at the Dia Center every morning. As art space goes, I think it’s a very holy space.
And it has me thinking, yet again, about light and its uses in sacred venues.
At the very least I’d […]

Omer Day Seven
In the Berkshires for a retreat with Tenth Graders.
Spent yesterday morning at Hevreh of the Berkshires in a wonderful Pesach and Shabbat Morning Service with these very warm and welcoming congregation. The space in Great Barrington is beautiful–simple and soaring, filled with light and a wonderful view of the mountains. At […]

Omer Day Six
News of the State Department’s release of photos from the Israeli bombing of the Syrian nuclear facility and revelations about an alleged spy case as well, prompt the following op-ed by MJ Rosenberg in Haaretz.
Rosenberg did an informal survey of how little Israel was a topic of conversation at American Seders this year, […]

Omer Day Five
Walking around in the sunshine of Concord yesterday afternoon, and in particular at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery where Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne are all buried, a very certain narrative arc about our nation emerges. From Emerson–and his prestigious family clan–is the American Exceptionalism that […]

Omer Day Four
We’re in Boston, indulging one of our children’s new found interest in the Revolutionary War and Paul Revere. So we spent the better part of yesterday schlepping around the Freedom Trail, in and out of churches and cemeteries, stumbling over and in between any number of tourists and locals who were out […]

Omer Day Three
In Israel, the greeting at the start of the day is “Boker Tov,” which means “good morning.”
It is followed in response by the words, “Boker Or,” which means “morning light.”
Light (”Or” in Hebrew) is what God made on the First Day of Creation–which “God saw and it was good.”
This morning I […]

Omer Day Two
The eating aspect during Passover is not easy.
As healthy as my avocado, cheese and whole wheat matzah sandwiches are, well, it just isn’t enough.
But that’s the point entirely.
This year the kids are old enough to be responded to in the following way when they object to the difficulty in eating during this week:
“True–but […]

Omer Day One
Today is the first day of the Omer, the time period between Passover and Shavuot in which we mark the time–7 weeks or 49 days until we celebrate the time that Torah is given at Sinai. Sheaves of barley were brought to the Temple in Jerusalem as offerings of Thanksgiving, culminating in […]