by Rabbi Misha

We have transitioned into a new stage of insanity in the Middle East. In my overwhelming concern for my loved ones back home I turn to our biblical book of wisdom, Proverbs, that says: “צדקה תציל ממוות” “charity saves from death.”

by Rabbi Misha

At 1:45am I lost myself in dance along with every other smiling, happy person in the theater. Mualem, the Moroccan master of Saha Gnawa was singing, and the band was hot. It was impossible to stay seated.

by Rabbi Misha

Before we received the Torah at Mount Sinai, our ancestors had three days to prepare. We’re in those three days prior to our Shavuot celebration, but the truth is this whole week was full, all-consuming preparation for our festival.  

by Rabbi Misha

We have a week and change until our Kumah Festival, and the excitement among the team is palpable. What began as an idea to pick up the trodden spirits has taken form as a celebratory night of unity and beauty in the face of brutality and division.

by Rabbi Misha

This morning a disagreement broke out in the little minyan where I daven on Friday mornings. We had just finished the Amidah and the cantor called out: “Page 62!” One person called out: “No Tachanun today!”

by Rabbi Misha

This week I was asked for some prayers that can be spoken before a person departs this world.

by Rabbi Misha

One of the great mysteries of our time is the ability of enormous numbers of people to shut down their own capacity to feel compassion.

by Rabbi Misha

The moment of silence observed during Yom Hashoah ceremonies has a way of cutting through the noise around the topic of Holocaust remembrance, and into the purpose of the day.

by Rabbi Misha

The most liberating experience I had this Passover was hearing an artist talk about time. “We have to bring the past into balance,” she said.

by Rabbi Misha

On April 19, 1999, about 30 people sat in a Greenwich Village living room and decided to form a shul.

by Rabbi Misha

Monday night I found myself unable to sleep, sitting with this psalm. In the morning, when I woke up, I saw the terrible news about Israel’s renewed attacks.

by Rabbi Misha

HAPPY PURIM! 

by Rabbi Misha

On January 29th, I got an email from my neighbor, Julie, on my block’s email chain titled "Give a Damn, you're invited."

by Rabbi Misha

There’s another way to look at this period.  

by Rabbi Misha

Occasionally the bible speaks directly to our current political reality.

by Rabbi Misha

Yesterday a few people saw my name in the NY Times in print so tiny that the page could contain all 350 rabbis who signed an add titled “Jews say no to ethnic cleansing.”

by Rabbi Misha

It appears as though a shift has happened. Everyone I speak to is looking for the right way to act, to respond, to not respond. The old playbook doesn’t feel right. What we did in the past isn’t working. How we thought about the world was off. Though the work hasn’t changed, the methods may need to.

by Rabbi Misha

I've been sitting with my rabbi, Jim Ponet, and another of my rebbes, Elana Ponet for the last couple of hours studying Torah and discussing this moment politically, in an attempt to figure out what should go in this letter.

by Rabbi Misha

In a flash of gratitude that raised him from the muck of reality my Talmud teacher, Reb Dovid Neiberg let fly: “Where would be without Rashi?” Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, the 11th century French genius revealed to all the generations that followed him the hidden lights between the letters of the Torah that had been discovered by all the generations that preceded him.

by Rabbi Misha

An auspicious weekend is upon us.
It brings together four events with cosmic significance.