• Thanksgiving

    Thankfulness: The Whole Point

    As a kid, I certainly remember hearing and telling and acting out “the story of the first Thanksgiving.” As a teaching and learning tool, I love the ideas of coming together with neighbors,…

  • Creativity,  Vayera

    Steeped but Stuck

    Recently, as I think is true for many people this season, I’ve been wading through frustrations and the weight of the world, sloshing around the muck of the past and mixing with the…

  • Listening

    Holding the Tension

    This weekend, I had a long conversation with a friend that elucidated the thinking process in which we engage when forming opinions or seeking information about a current event, especially with widely conflicting…

  • Creativity

    Annual Re-Creation

    Each year the Torah goes back to Genesis from Deuteronomy, re-reading the narratives of creation – that of the world and that of the Israelite familial structure and seed of a future nation.…

  • Simchat Torah,  Sukkot

    Nor’easter for Sukkos

    The last few days of Sucks 5786 have seen NYC and surrounding areas enveloped in grey skies, various amounts of drizzle and rain, and wind gusts. The temperatures have just begun to drop,…

  • Handmaids

    Kinship

    What do the texts crucial to my dissertation teach about connection? Why, in these seasons and years and societal trends where outreach is at our fingertips but evades so many, should we continue…

  • High Holidays

    Maddening, Mundane, Moadim Lesimkhe

    The summer wore on, sometimes so open-ended with shifts and worries and overbearing humidity that I found myself questioning how everything would settle into the more regulated academic season in autumn. But time…

  • Reflection

    Changing Seasons

    While my Omer posts didn’t continue as smoothly as I’d planned, I’ve embarked upon a season of change. I spent many days preparing and helping my parents move, something which is still in…

  • Omer

    Omer 18: Navigating a Negligent World

    By now, these Omer posts clearly communicate my own processing of and reflection on the difficulties I, along with many other people, have navigating a topsy-turvy, frightening, sometimes almost debilitating period in history.…

  • Omer

    Omer 17: Unknown in an Upturned World

    As I have been thinking about how I want to use my research, skills, experience, ideas in the future, the balance between notoriety and fully blending into the crowd has become more prominent.…