An outlander arrives in J-town.
Not my first time and G!d-willing, not my last.
In a newish role: student, not teacher!
The book is open.
Disequilibrium: distance from home and life partner,
Jitters, does anyone understand who I am?
Do I understand who I am
In this novel circumstance?
My happy Lag B’Omer painting!
One Wish Jerusalem was inspired by a video made by an Iranian filmmaker Ali Molavi.
To see his video click here.
This is the letter I sent him and his subsequent response after seeing our video: Continue reading
One Wish Jerusalem is a reminder of and a tribute to our shared humanity. Shot in one day, in Jerusalem, we invited everyone who passed us at the outdoor market and the Old City to share a wish: an honest, human wish. In a country and a city often highlighted for the complexities and conflicts that arise from a divergence of dreams we invite you to connect to the beauty that is our shared ability to dream. To believe. To hope. To wish.
In commemoration of Israel’s 65th Anniversary of Independence we invite you to celebrate and to reflect with these faces in mind. To remember that independence is Continue reading
From my blog:
The following snippets were written as part of a Storahtelling exercise to help us get to know the characters/voices with which we are teaching Torah. We are working with some verses from Parshat Vayera, Genesis Chapter 21, verses 8-10.
In character, we were asked to answer the following questions: My biggest regret is, My happiest moment ever was, This morning I saw, and I cannot die before I tell you this. I share my favourite answers below.
My happiest moment ever was when I held Isaac for the first time. I looked into his blue, blue eyes and felt G!d’s blessing like a blanket, protecting us. When I looked up, the pride and pleasure in Abraham’s face was like the sun. We had done it at last. We made a family. That moment, it was just the three of us and we were everything. Everything I ever wanted. Everything I’d prayed for. Everything I could imagine.
If I were to keep going, the next thing that would happen in the story is that Continue reading
Things You Can Make With Leftover Matzoh:
Posted by Ben Barer (Fall '10, Fellows '12):
Having only one seder last year, while in Israel, followed by having two this year, has led me to reflect on why this custom is maintained, and how best to perpetuate it as a meaningful one. Like the other holidays that are celebrated one extra day outside of Israel, this practice originated because of a lack of clarity about the calendar. If the new moon was spotted, and the news was rushed to Jerusalem and verified there, there might not be enough time to get that news out to Babylonia (or wherever Jews were in exile). As a cautionary measure, then, those Jews celebrated an extra day to be sure that they did not treat the actual holiday as a normal day, and work on it. While we now have a set Jewish calendar, and I could tell you when Pesach will fall in the year 5973 (2213), the custom has persisted in most of the Jewish community.
While seders specifically are a ritual that requires a lot of preparation, and therefore having an extra can feel cumbersome at times, Continue reading
From my blog:
When I asked him why he made the haggadah he took a step back and gave me a weird shocked face, and said, “no one has asked me that question.” I also looked surprised, “no one has ever asked you why you wanted to make a haggadah?” He replied, “Well, not tonight.” (three hours into a five hour open art haggadah gallery of in the fancy Inbal hotel)
He then goes on to tell me why he made the haggadah. His wife got diagnosed with cancer around Passover time, went through chemo; and eventually, Continue reading
Amber Ikeman (Year '12) reflects upon how we can relate to Passover if we don't believe in the story of the Haggadah:
I often find myself questioning (shocker!) whether the stories in the Torah actually happened. Don’t you? I mean, it’s a really nice idea to think that thousands of years ago, maybe before humankind was as terribly corrupted as it is now, the miracles in the bible were true. They’re great stories. But if they really happened, where has God been for the last 3,000 years? Did he just get lazy or run out of ideas?
So, Passover is less than a week away, and in my attempt to gain some spiritual value from the holiday rather than mindlessly eating Hillel sandwiches for eight days, I have been thinking about Continue reading
