by Rabbi Misha

I pick up the theme we discussed a couple of weeks ago, of the ways our ancestors live with us, by sharing a poem I wrote about a beautiful Covid-times Bar Mitzvah.

by Rabbi Misha

Purim is healthiest of our holidays, because we get to embody the opposite of our so called reality. Finally we rid ourselves of ourselves, our ideas, our understanding of how things "are."

by Rabbi Misha

The month of Adar, month of joy in the Hebrew calendar, began for me one week ago with a sighting of a few families of dolphins swimming happily in the frigid ocean. I am spending a week by the rather stormy Atlantic, and despite the weather have been able to watch large birds fly over the water, medium birds fly high and plunge down into the water, and small birds with long beaks run into the very shallow water, all of them in search of fish.

by Rabbi Misha

Willow, a bright twelve-year-old student answered my question in a way I had never heard before. “Why do you want to have a Bat Mitzvah,” I asked. “Tradition,” she said, “should be something we think of every day.”

by Rabbi Misha

The letter is about French philosopher Levinas' notion of the face. It begins like this:

Emmanuel Levinas explains it like this: when we see another’s face, we are commanded “Thou shalt not murder.”

by Rabbi Misha

Smack in the middle of Prospect Park stands a majestic tree with dozens of dancing arms and an enormous protective lump jutting out at eyes’ height. Its chunky roots sprawl out and cover the area beneath its trees all around its fat trunk, far too wide to hug. I’m not the only one attracted to it, which is evident by the dollops of paint in different colors that people have left on that protective lump, in the way that is done to holy trees in India, or the Jerusalem mountains.

by Rabbi Misha

When the prophet Haggai returned to Israel from the exile in Babylon, much like we seem to have returned home this week, he found the Jews depressed, “each person rushing to their own home,” with no eyes for others, or for the rebuilding of the temple for which they returned. He gathered the Jews in front of the ruins of the temple and said: “Today is the day the Temple was erected!”

by Rabbi Misha

James Meredith walked into the campus of University of Mississippi in 1962 escorted by three jeeps full of soldiers, the first African American student there. As a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement one might expect Meredith to support MLK’s vision of nonviolent resistance.

by Rabbi Misha

Many things are true today that seemed like dreams a week ago. We are in a state of vulnerability and potentiality. We have been confronted with beautiful and terrifying realities. What do we do? Who do we trust?

by Rabbi Misha

The new slate is here. Hallelujah!

by Rabbi Misha

I love it when I get to stay in New York, for Christmas. Not because of the Chinese food (although if you haven’t been to the Sechuan restaurants in Queens Chinatown you should go), but because of the quiet. You can finally hear the city breathe. So I offer reflections on three types of silence.

by Rabbi Misha

Manu, almost four, is the world’s greatest gift receiver. Hannukah was beautiful this year in large part thanks to his joy and gratitude at whatever was in the terribly wrapped gifts he received after candle lighting. This may sound trivial, that a four-year old is happy to receive a gift. It’s not. It’s actually a complex and often difficult experience both for kids and adults.

by Rabbi Misha

On Sunday we will gather to light candles and talk about sources of light. Some of you have shared photos, videos or words on these sources of light in your lives. This Hannukah I find myself lit by an unexpected source.

by Rabbi Misha

This evening’s shabbat will be dedicated to the question of light. We will be joined by my friend and teacher, Ghiora Aharoni, who in his exquisite artwork, as well as in his architecture designs uses light as an element of the whole, sometimes appearing as the mind of the piece, other times its heart, and at times painting the rest of the work without calling attention to itself. One of his recent works, which now lives at the Vatican is a concealer of light.

by Rabbi Misha

Pope Francis, in his beautiful Thanksgiving offering, invited us to use this moment of “stoppage,” as he called it, to dream big. He quotes Holderlin: “Where the danger is, also grows the saving power.” As we have sensed from the start, this pandemic, with its horrors and difficulties is an opportunity to rethink, re-imagine, re-see the world for what it is and what it can be.

by Rabbi Misha

Certain mystical moments happened this week.

In the Niggunim chevrutah one of the singers described a moment of cognition, or awareness to a different realm, that was induced by the physical aspects of singing, the air moving through her diaphragm, the sound vibrations through her throat and out. “Did that happen to any of you,” she asked.

by Rabbi Misha

When I ask God
He says Yes

You may vanish.

And just like that
I become

by Rabbi Misha

In My Big Fat Greek Wedding you may remember the father who likes to show how everything goes back to the Greeks. My teacher, Rabbi Neiburg loves to that with the Hebrew language, showing (often unconvincingly, but always joyfully) how words in English trace back to Hebrew.

by Rabbi Misha

My pre-election angst was ripped apart the other night when I learned about the killing of Walter Wallace Jr. by the Philadelphia police. This week’s Parasha helped me cope with the fact of the ongoing injustices, which will continue regardless of the outcome of the election.

by Rabbi Misha

“Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted,
I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise,
your foundations with lapis lazuli.
I will make your battlements of rubies,
your gates of sparkling jewels,
and all your walls of precious stones.
All your children will be learned in the ways of The Presence
and great will be their peace.
In righteousness you will be established:
Tyranny will be far from you;
you will have nothing to fear.”