Be equanimous.  Those were the opening words of a 10 day course I just completed with Sharon Salzberg, a world renowned teacher of mindfulness and Buddhist meditation. In Pali, the word for equanimity is Upekkha. In Jewish terms, this is called Menuchat Nefesh - a settled soul, or a rested spirit.  It describes a kind of internal balance that is liberating. Equanimity is not the result of avoiding pain and stress, or pretending it doesn't exist. Equanimity is what emerges when we cultivate the spaciousness and wisdom that allows us to relate to any experience and still be free. Wh ..read more

As I write to you, the city of Philadelphia is sweltering. Today is the longest, and I hope, the hottest day of the year. Apparently 100 Million people in the U.S. are currently experiencing a heatwave on its fifth consecutive day. Nearly a third of the entire country! (Please stay hydrated and out of the sun as much as possible.)  Needless to say, summer is officially here and has made herself known. I could not be more grateful that we now have air conditioning at Kol Tzedek. I can now safely imagine our summer shabbat services without fear of heatstroke. And I am doubly excited for po ..read more

Last Sunday morning, 70 of us gathered for our annual congregational meeting which was full of small group discussions and yummy treats. I want to share one highlight which came from a conversation about the design of the stained glass that would be in the sanctuary and above the entrance doors. Carly Freedman, a very talented and generous KT member and artist, generated a series of designs that integrated the geometric motifs of sephardic synagogues with the floral motifs of ashkenazi design. The group was tasked with discussing the spectrum of colors in the design. There was relative consens ..read more

This week marks 10 years since I was ordained as a rabbi. The hum of nigun Rosh Hodesh Sivan has been in my head all week. It was the melody we sang as we processed during our smicha ceremony. The same melody Rabbi Mó and I chose to sing as we entered our new sanctuary for the first time. And given that today is actually Rosh Hodesh Sivan, I encourage you to listen to Rabbi Mo’s three-part harmonies and let it soften you. Summer is coming.  That year, as is true this year, it was just a few days before Shavuot, a holiday known to the rabbis as zman matan torahteinu /the time of the givin ..read more

The final chapters in the book of Leviticus turn our focus to our relationship to Ha’aretz, The Land or the Holy Land. In the Torah, this refers to the Land of Israel, which is certainly related to but distinct from the State of Israel.  The previous parsha, Behar, which on a typical year is read along with Bechukotai, asserts a vision for how to live in alignment to the land so that it yields produce and rain, necessities for a thriving civilization.  This week’s parsha, Bechukotai, is a painful read. This is generally true any year, but it burns today. And I do not use the word b ..read more

About six weeks ago, at our first Saturday morning service in our new building, one KT member voiced a unique and resonant concern. Without multi-stall bathrooms, where will the teens hangout? I laughed out loud. She was only half-kidding. A significant motivating factor to move to a building of our own was the need for accessible, clean, functional, single stall bathrooms. Despite knowing that all change involves loss, it had never occurred to me that there was in fact any loss this particular change. In an instant, her question transported me back to my own childhood synagogue memories. I r ..read more

Earlier this week I had the privilege of taking a group of Kol Tzedek teenagers on a field trip to the encampment at UPenn, where students gathered as part of a nation-wide university divestment effort. I had originally imagined it would be a quiet night on campus, marked by an interfaith prayer service and hopefully a chance to talk to some students. As it turns out, there was a last minute student march which led to increased police presence and a more confrontational tone. I kept the young people close as we took in the sea of flags, posters, and t-shirts, surrounded by many familiar Kol Tz ..read more

There are many beautiful verses in this week’s parsha, Acharei Mot, and yet it is best known for its most perverse teaching. Leviticus 18:22 reads, “Man shall not lie with a man as he does with a woman, it is an abomination.” The Hebrew word for abomination is To’evah - and I have a piece of art in my office with just that word. This verse has been used to shame and scar generations of Queer Jews.  A few years ago a colleague of mine, Rabbi Guy Austrian, gave a very memorable d’var Torah on this week’s parsha that did not redeem the verse, or reverse the harm, but did give me a way to re ..read more

Last night, Shosh and I were cleaning out our fridge in preparation for Passover. We composted shriveled carrots, yellowed kale leaves and some moldy anchovies. We wiped down sticky shelves and tossed old condiments. Towards the top of the fridge door Shosh found my secret stash, aka ice box apothecary. A shelf dedicated to homemade bitters, including cough cordial, fire cider and a roots and shoots tonic. I rinsed the bottles and returned them to their shelf, not wanting to waste a drop.  Bitter herbs have been known to get a bad wrap. Of the many tastes, most people prefer things sweet ..read more

f you have ever sat in the shade of an old olive tree, you know its like being embraced by an elder or even an ancestor. Ancient olive trees are known for their twisted, gnarly trunks and silvery leaves. The first time I encountered olive trees that were hundreds of years old was in the West Bank of Palestine. I placed my hand on the tree’s limb and was instantly transported into the arms of my nana, who used to gently scratch my forearms with her knobby fingers, joints gnarled from years of arthritis, skin paper thin.  It says in the Torah that when you go to war (why must we go to war ..read more