Shmoozy News

Dear Friends, When I picked up my first grader from Yavneh this week, I saw these beautiful posters that the class had made, depicting themselves standing at the base of Mount Sinai as the Ten Commandments were given. Their pictures were adorable – big...

Dear Friends, First, I want to share my words from yesterday in case you didn’t already have a chance to read them: “We were all celebrating at the Capitol Jewish Museum just a few weeks ago. Last night, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, two Israeli...

Dear Friends, This past Sunday afternoon, a number of Jewish organizations I follow and admire, including T’ruah and the New Israel Fund, held a gathering at the White House to cry for an end to the war, feed the hungry in Gaza, and free the hostages. I...

Dear Friends, I want to start off with a prayer for the safety of human life. May all of our dear ones in Israel feel our love. May every individual in Israel, Iran, and across the region who are not in control of the bombs, the threats, and the violence...

Dear Friends, Last Thursday morning (not this week; the one before), I opened the door of my home to find that our family’s mezuzah had been ripped from the doorpost and taken. I don’t know why. I have some hypotheses. They all feel pretty awful. I spent...

Dear Friends, The month of Tammuz is here – chodesh tov! Summer camp has begun, the summer solstice has just passed, and it is so, so ridiculously hot. As many of us look to slightly more relaxed schedules, an approaching vacation, or just a memory of...

Dear Friends, In this week’s parsha, as the Israelites are minding their own business, wandering through the wilderness in an inefficient attempt to reach the Promised Land, a Moabite king sees them passing and gets intimidated. Afraid of the approaching...

Dear Friends, This week, in Parshat Pinchas, Moses hears something devastating: he won’t be entering the Promised Land. After forty years of leadership, enormous challenges, and steadfast hope despite it all, he’ll get to see the land from a distance,...

Dear Friends, Chodesh tov – welcome to the month of Av. We’re moving into late summer, and a traditional time of communal grief. The 9th of Av and the days moving into it aren’t exactly a time to reflect on what’s weighing on us as individuals – they’re...

Dear Friends, Tuesday night was wild. Dianne Schwager came to speak about her family’s Holocaust story and it was intense. I feel like it was much more understated than other accounts I’d heard of. There was no hiding out in a barn. No wandering through...

Dear Friends, “Eikev” means “Because” or “If.” It’s about actions having consequences; it’s about how what we do matters, and what we think matters. If, eikev, we do this, there will be an impact. If, eikev, we don’t, there will be a different one. Of...

Dear Friends, In rabbinical school, they teach you to “write from the scar, not from the wound.” In most circumstances, that is pretty good advice. It can be hard to find or communicate meaning in an injury or injustice when the wound is still raw. But...

Dear Friends, “Have you not saved a blessing for me?” It’s one of the most heartwrenching verses in the Torah, and it’s uttered in this week’s parshah by Esau, bereft, to his father, Isaac, when they both realize that Esau’s brother Jacob has taken his...

Dear Friends, This past week was the fifth yahrzeit of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, and I’ve been trying to honor his memory by reading a number of his commentaries on this week’s parsha, Chayei Sara. The one that’s really sticking with me is the one he...

Dear Friends, You know how if you’re having trouble making a minyan for prayer, you can use the Torah to count as person number ten? One of the sources behind the idea comes, in part, from a midrash on this week’s parsha. Abraham asks God to save Sodom...

Dear Friends, This week, I’m trying to find inspiration in the parsha to help me manage uncertainty. I don’t know that I struggle so much with change, but I really, really struggle with feeling like I don’t have control over that change. For myself and...

Dear Friends, I’m not going to lie; I’m a bit spent, so I’m going to let Isaiah do the talking this week (via the weekly haftarah), and I’m just going to chime in to comment (in italics). Grab a cup of coffee and imagine we’re doing some torah study together. Here’s...

Dear Friends, This past week I have been sitting with words from Degel Mahaneh Efraim, a Hasidic collection of teachings written by Reb Moshe Chayim Efraim of Sudilkov (1748–1800), the grandson of the Ba’al Shem Tov. He teaches, “A stranger has no one...

Dear Friends, I almost can’t believe this is my last Shmoozy letter before my sabbatical, but it’s true. I’ve led my last services until July, and I’m tying up some loose ends, but it’s starting to feel very real. I am so incredibly grateful to be able...

Dear Friends, This week, in Parshat Vayeishev, our ancestors’ family falls apart.  Joseph’s brothers, overwhelmed by jealousy and concern for their own selves, choose violence.  They throw Joseph into a pit, sit down for a meal while he languishes below,...