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Aug 19, 2026, 3:00 AM

אֱלוּל תְּשַׁפ”ו: It’s Time to Pay Attention to the Soul

Our world has a lot going on within it, maybe in a way that feels at times like what the Torah calls "תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ," a wild and chaotic place that is lacking order, light, and even direction. Whether it be...

Aug 14, 2026, 3:58 AM

Was the shofar born in silence?

The sound of the ram's horn we blow on Rosh Hashana is not only a ringing summons but also a way to call out when words fail us

Aug 11, 2026, 7:49 AM

Boy George–We Will Dance Again

Moshe stared at the screen of his iPhone, smiled, and said, " Mordechai, this one video makes life worth living." "Which one?" Mordechai inquired. "The one by that English-born Catholic lad from a working-class Irish family. The one he sings with...

Aug 7, 2026, 6:07 PM

Why is Wisdom So Hard to Reach When We Need It Most?

Walking the 20-foot Oracolor Wheel. Credit: Andrea Lonas Photography

How colors can illuminate our choices as we step into the New Year One afternoon, walking alone through Forest Park near my home in Portland, Oregon, I became so consumed by questions about the future that I reached an intersection...

Allen S. Maller

Aug 4, 2026, 6:01 AM

Jewish Wisdom stories retold by Rabbi Allen S. Maller

The Seer of Lublin was one of the most famous and formidable of the Hassidic Rabbis at the end of the 18th century. His greatest disciple (who had exactly the same name as his master) was called the Yehudi...

May 27, 2026, 9:57 PM

How Your Rabbi Writes A Sermon

A rabbi, who looks surprisingly similar to my wife, hard at work on her sermon from within her book dwelling

It may seem like the High Holidays are a lifetime away, but for your Rabbi, the prep for sermon writing starts now! But how does a Rabbi go about writing these sermons? What is their process? How do they...

Gabriella Jacobs

May 27, 2026, 8:24 PM

Shavuot here and there

By the time you read this, Shavuot may have passed, and I will hopefully still be asleep recovering from it. Shavuot may honestly be the only holiday I hands-down like better in Israel than in America, with one minor exception...

May 7, 2026, 8:45 PM

The Chronological Imagination (Behar-Bechukotai)

I want, in this study, to look at one of Judaism’s most distinctive and least understood characteristics – the chronological imagination. Sometimes a modern discovery so changes our ways of looking at things that it allows us to revisit ancient...

Apr 20, 2026, 6:59 PM

The Belonging I Only Recognized After Leaving

I never thought that after leaving Israel, the holidays would be something I missed. For me, holidays were always synonymous with family. They smelled like my mother’s latkes, Bubba’s matzah ball soup and my aunt’s brisket that I never touched...

Menachem Creditor

Apr 15, 2026, 10:11 PM

Reentering History: The Days of Rising

Yesterday we gathered in learning and in testimony for Yom HaShoah veHagevruah, the Day of Holocaust and Heroism. But that day does not stand alone. Time, in our tradition, is never isolated. It flows. We now find ourselves in the...

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