David Seidenberg
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David Seidenberg

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Aug 24, 2018, 10:39 PM
Choose Life! Whose life?
Pixabay, public domain
The Sefardi liturgy for Yom Kippur includes this confession: “I did not choose life.” The Torah admonishes us to choose life in parshat Nitzavim, which we read every year before Rosh Hashanah, even as we are about to pray to be inscribed...
Jul 11, 2018, 12:54 AM
On Tisha B’Av we are all refugees
This year as we approach Tisha B’Av, we face some of the worst refugee crises in the histories of the United States and Israel, crises entirely created by governments bent on treating residents like strangers and strangers like criminals. Yet...
Apr 16, 2018, 12:22 AM
Israel@70: How should we pray for the Medinah?
The traditional prayer for the State of Israel, more literally titled “A Prayer for the Peace of the State,” tefilah lish’lom hamedinah, was written in 1948 by the chief rabbis of what had up until then been Palestine, in...
Mar 29, 2018, 3:29 AM
The Mystery of Charoset: A lesson about leaving trauma
The Haggadah is not just about telling a story, it's about the order in which we tell the story. That story is about how things can transform. Many symbols of the seder have multiple meanings. It becomes a seder...
Feb 28, 2018, 8:22 PM
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‘The next Haman’ beauty contest!
Illustrative: Haman Begging the Mercy of Esther, by Rembrandt.
Contemporary politics remind us to stifle any knee-jerk association between evil and ugly
Jan 11, 2018, 12:47 PM
Pharaoh’s heart: A tragedy of our time
We encounter two very different Pharaohs over eight weeks of Torah readings. Why won't the second Pharaoh of Exodus "learn his lesson", change, or be changed? Is it just because God forces him to refuse, "in order to multiply...
Dec 12, 2017, 6:02 PM
Starlight and menorah light: Three Hanukkah teachings about holy darkness
Standing under the Milky Way/ public domain (goodfreephotos.com)
I. There’s a custom to gaze at the menorah, to receive its light as the purest of gifts. Gazing at the Hanukkah candles or oil lamps becomes a kind of fixing for the eyes, a training in how to see....
Oct 10, 2017, 5:11 AM
The land of strangers: Understanding Rashi’s first comment on the Torah
The midrash teaches that the first human/adam was created with soil from the ground / afar min ha’adamah from every direction, meaning from every place, so that no matter where the first human’s progeny wandered, they would still be...
Sep 8, 2017, 12:08 AM
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כעבור סופה After the storm: How should we pray?
Praying for strength creates strength, and may help humanity confront the storm fatigue that's on the horizon
May 20, 2017, 5:16 AM
“A nation without borders” — How the occupation unwinds Israel
Donald Trump occasionally says a true thing, even though he may not understand its implications. At most rallies, Trump would thunder, “A nation without borders is not a nation” – a slight dumbing down of Reagan’s comment that “a...
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About Me
Rabbi David Seidenberg is the creator of neohasid.org, author of Kabbalah and Ecology (Cambridge U. Press, 2015), and a liturgist well-known for pieces like the prayer for voting. David is also an avid dancer.