Sitting in a private bathroom stall on Rosh Hashanah at the synagogue, I notice a sign for a hotline for domestic abuse. At first I am saddened that we need such signs. Then I am relieved that we are beginning to acknowledge that domestic abuse happens even in the Jewish community. Then I am hopeful that another woman sitting there will know she is not alone.

Now it is Sukkot, zeman simhatenu, the time of our joy. The harvest is in. It is time to celebrate. On Sukkot the commandment is to sit in our sukkah, a fragile temporary booth open to the elements. Even though it is fragile, I love to sit in my sukkah, watching the evening sky, the moon rise, and the geese fly overhead. It reclaims a sense of peace, wholeness. It wasn’t always so. Continue reading →

We all know the Robert Frost poem that includes the line, “Good fences make good neighbors,” based on a 17^th century proverb. He was actually questioning the wisdom of why his stonewall separating his fields from his neighbors needed to be rebuilt year after year. Apple trees and pine trees are not likely to encroach on his neighbor’s land. Is he walling something in or out? What would give offense? The neighbor disagreed and returned to building those strong New England stone walls. After all, for him, good fences do make good neighbors.

When I was a kid in Evanston, on our block, no one talked to the next door neighbor. Worse, if a ball went over the fence, it was not returned. Still worse, if you were away on vacation you might return to find a tree chopped down. No one knew how these grudges started and we watched as they were passed down from one generation to the next. Our solution was to move to Grand Rapids. Continue reading →

Lador vador, from generation to generation. This morning’s Torah portion and haftarah portion both are about how parents pass down tradition from one generation to the next.

People ask me what business I am in. I say that I am in the best business in the world—I manufacture Jewish souls. And I get to play with kids and teach them while I am doing it. And as the rabbis teach us, while I have learned much from my teachers, I have learned even more from my students—and had fun doing it. Continue reading →