November 20th, 2015/8 Kislev 5776 Whenever tragedy strikes in the world, we start asking the toughest of questions, and we often become unsure of what should be done to bring us back to a place of healing and peace. The events in Paris and Lebanon last week were an especially strong shock to the world, […]

November 27th, 2015/15 Kislev 5776 Walking around with a name like Boris has gotten me in a lot of trouble. Even in America, a country with a diversity of people and an equal diversity of names, my name stood out. Upon hearing my name, people would often assume that I was born in Russia and […]

A fence for wisdom is silence. Avot 3:17 October 30th, 2015/17 Cheshvan 5776  – The Jewish people are known for being good talkers. We argue, we ask questions, we find something in the world that need fixing and we kvetch about it and talk about it until something is done. But our tradition also teaches us […]

Seeing the world through the eyes of others can open up an entirely new way of understanding not only different viewpoints, but can also deeply open up our own inner conversations and choices.  As is often repeated this time of year, Rosh Hashanah and the Days of Awe are times when we are reminded of […]

One of my teachers loves to share a funny and profound story, which I will tell as I remember it. In the 1970’s, she and some other female rabbis noticed a lack of meaningful rituals for baby naming for girls. As scholars and feminists, they wanted to create something that was not simply a “female […]

The story of this week’s Parsha is a familiar one— the story of Jacob and Esau, the loss of a birthright and the trickery of a son who desires to get the blessing of the firstborn over his brother. Amid the descriptions of the parental favoritism and all of issues involving the relationship between Esau […]