Modern Torah

This week, I was reading about the final stages of the plan to remove the Confederate Veterans Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. The memorial, if you’ve never seen it, is atrocious. It’s the tallest structure in the cemetery, for starters, and it’s covered with racist, apologist imagery that glorifies the Southern cause. The monument is scheduled to be removed this month, and relocated to a Virginia state park at the site of...

Sometimes, when I'm feeling bored in shul I flip to the back of the book, and read Pirkei Avot. There's a particular passage, in the fifth chapter, that I often find myself turning to, especially in weeks that I'm feeling old. Like this week. Because this year, and this week's Torah portion Miketz, marks 25 years since my Bar Mitzvah on December 19, 1998.

Music by Chillhop Records:

• Aves - Cruisin&apo...

I went to graduate school at Brandeis University, and if I hadn't, I would've gone to law school at the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, in Louisville, KY, where the first Jewish justice to sit on the Supreme Court was born, and raised. But what if I told you that story was almost wildly different. That the first Jewish nominee to sit on the bench was almost put forward almost 60 years before Brandeis was nominated, but h...

Obadiah, Ovadiah. Obadi-ah. However you pronounce it, you might not remember it, but Obadiah is the name of the shortest book in the Hebrew Bible, and the Haftorah portion the rabbis chose to pair with this week's Torah portion, Vayishlach.

Music Courtesy of Chillhop Records:

• Leavv, Maduk - Company https://chll.to/db033300
• Ian Ewing, Maduk - Stay Like This https://chll.to/2d387f49
• Masked Man - Joop https://chll.to/f6...

This week, I'm all about cucumbers. This humble vegetable, which the Talmud calls a delicacy of kings, became an internet craze a few years ago when Macka B released his "Cucumber Rap." Check it out in my source sheet for this episode.

The Talmud has a lot to say about cucumbers, including a discussion about whether or not they're good for your body, even if they did grace the table of Rabbi Yehuda HaNa...

I updated my phone this week, which made it a great time to repost this episode, from two years ago. What does it mean to actually have choice? Are the choices we see the actual choices that we have? Are we supposed to pick a path through the woods, or turn around, or just sit in the mud and cry?

I have a new episode coming later this week, in time for Shabbat as normal, but wanted to revive this old episode. I hope you en...

There's a poem I've been reading recently, a long form epic poem originally written in Yiddish, about a Jewish blacksmith who settles down in rural Kentucky, in the mid-19th century. It's part of a project called 72 Miles, which I'm about to release, but this week I couldn't get away from a scene in the story that seems ripped from the headlines of this week's Torah portion, Chayei Sarah — The Life of ...

This might be a bold statement, but there are probably few things in the world that cause people to pray more than children. We pray for their health, their safety, their growth, that they’ll find their place in this chaotic world. Even if you don’t have kids, you’re probably praying for them, and if you’re trying to have kids you’re definitely praying, and praying harder the longer you keep trying.

Go deeper with my sourc...

It wasn’t until President Biden’s speech in Israel, and his warnings about the mistakes our country made earlier this century, that it clicked for me. Because we’ve been here before, cert...

I thought long and hard about whether or not I wanted to weigh in on the current crisis in Israel. In the end, I couldn't not, and I found myself turning as I often do to the words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

Shabbat Shalom.

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Music Provided by Lofi Girl:
     Promise Due - Kinissue & Artemis Flow
     Wicked Thoughts - Kinissue & Tibeauthetraveler
     Farewell - Kinissue

It's a critical question that the rabbis debate, partially in response to last week's Torah portion, and partially in response this week's parsha. "Is emerging backwards still emerging?"

"Well no," says Rabbi Shmuel, "and here's why."

"I agree that the answer is no, but not with how you got there," replies Abaye. "Emerging backwards isn't emerg...

We're still on leprosy this week in the Torah portion. There's beauty in things that peel, as we see in nature. I ordered some trees this week that shed their bark in beautiful curls of golden and orange, because I want to bring that beauty into my yard, even if it looks to some like the trees have been struck by disease.

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I'm not a rabbi, so every week I look at our Torah portion and try to pu...

In this week's Torah portion, Aaron is invested as high priest, as are his sons, in a lavish ceremony before the entire Israelite community. It's a high moment for Aaron, a week before his world will fall apart. I don't know why the rabbis segmented the Torah portions this way, but perhaps its a reminder to keep everything in balance, and to focus on the good at times, even—or perhaps because—you know rough waters ar...

It's been a long wait, but shows are starting to pop up in my media stream again. One of my favorites returned after a long hiatus (what else is new?) for it's 5th and final season. Watching the first few episodes, I couldn't escape its relationship to this week's Torah portion, and the work of asking for help, guidance, and strength from the divine, and the challenge of hearing an answer.

Thanks for li...

We're halfway through November, which means the end of 2021 is coming up quickly. With a few weeks left in the year, I took a moment this week to reflect on some goals I'd set at the start of the year, how much progress I've made towards them, and where I find myself as the year wraps up.

The Torah this week finds Jacob journeying to the house of Laban, where he serves as a laborer for 14 years before marryi...

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

This week, I put Robert Frost's famous poem—"The Road Not Taken"— in conversation with our weekly Torah portion, Toldot. The parsha covers the story of Isaac, including the exchange between his sons Jacob and Esau, where Esau sells his birthright to his younger brother.

Jacob's actions are ...

I finally set my television up after moving in, which meant last Sunday morning was the perfect time to break in the new space with a fine home cinema experience. Naturally I picked Ferris Bueller's Day Off, because I love it, and because it's leaving Netflix at the end of this month. What I didn't expect was to spend the whole movie reflecting on the similarities between the movie and this week's Torah portion—...

Getting to this episode has been a journey. I took a break in May 2021, after producing 59 episodes, with plans to return in September 2021, at the start of the Jewish New Year. Then my wife and I bought a house, and life got busy with housework. Then my mother's illness took a turn for the worse and life got busy with life.

My mother died on September 14, 2021. We buried her a few hours before Kol Nidrei, which means...

This may come as a surprise, or not, especially if you know me, but I identify with Korach the much demonized revolutionary who gathers followers and challenges Moses's leadership in this week's Torah portion. Most of Jewish history makes Korach out to be the bad guy—seeking power for power's sake, power he thinks he has a right to but which has been denied to him by Moses, Aaron, and the new hierarchies of leadershi...