As I look around at my apartment in Washington Heights, I think about how almost none of the objects in it are ones that I picked out myself. From the couches to the silverware to the bookshelves, most of the items in my apartment were either given to me secondhand or were left by someone […]
A View from the Heights: No Place I’d Rather Be Read More »
In the synagogue in which I grew up the senior rabbi had a custom. Every year he would host a number of informal get-togethers in his home for men. During the evening he would obtain their pledges to the shul’s annual campaign. The year my father died, my mother got a call inviting her to
Surely Goodness and Kindness… Read More »
I just returned from Israel, my third trip in as many months. I went to celebrate the Bar Mitzvahs of three of my great-nephews. They were all quite amazing. One of the Bar Mitzvah boys is the youngest of five children and was born with Down syndrome. Yaakov davened Shaharit, read from the Torah, and
Making Our Own Miracles Read More »
One year ago, I spent a weekend in New York City’s Upper West Side with three friends. Shabbat morning presented a dilemma: I preferred a congregation with a mehitza, but my friends preferred an egalitarian service. We compromised on a synagogue with a mehitza, a Rabbanit, and hazzaniot for specific prayers. I sat with my
Emerging Voices: In Pursuit of Spirtuality: Looking for My Comfort Zone Read More »
Recently, a congregant, told me about an exchange she’d had with her daughter. To the usual question of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Eliana, age eight, replied, “I want to be a Torah scholar.” After a moment’s thought, Eliana added, “Can girls do that?” “Of course they can,” her mother
What’s in a Title? The Roles of Female Religious Professionals Read More »
Checking the clock to be sure that Torah reading had already taken place that Thursday morning (which would mean that while I was in the hospital, just hours after my daughter’s birth, my husband had been called to the Torah to name our first child) I called my mother to tell her my first baby’s
Every Appelation Tells a Story: Naming a Daughter Read More »
My name never fails to elicit a response. On one extreme, I am told, “I don’t even know how to think about how to begin to pronounce that,” and on the other, I hear, “Oh of course, I know your parents.” But what interests me far more are those responses that fall somewhere in the
Growing Into the Legacy of Beruria Read More »
I have recently been thinking about the use of women’s names in Orthodox Judaism. It began last year when I made my annual call to one of our supporters to ask for a pledge for JOFA. As we spoke, she told me how she had taken on the commitment of saying kaddish after her mother
Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother Read More »
As I sit down to write this article, we are in the midst of a unique time period in the Jewish calendar. A few short weeks ago, on Pesach, we celebrated the birth of our nation by recalling the period of enslavement and the ensuing salvation by God. We retold the story of a people
How Do We Remember? A Personal Reflection on the Loss of the Temple Read More »
Staring into the pages of my Tehillim, it occurred to me that I had just reread the same verse several times. It was four in the morning on Shabbat, and I had a few hours until someone would come to take over my shift. Inside the large tent, police officers mingled and nibbled on the
I Will Watch Over You Read More »
