Purim
In this meditation, we imagine the war with Amalek with all its tenuousness and feel inside us the fear and hopelessness that come from a cruel unprovoked attack by the powerful upon the weak. We allow ourselves to feel that gnawing doubt that evil will triumph in relation to Amalek, and in relation to the […]
MEDITATION: Amalek, Ukraine, and Moshe’s Strong Arms of Faith (Parashat Zakhor) Read More »
Ad delo yada*“Until you don’t know” Keep celebrating until you can’t tell until they seem the same:Esther and Vashti us and them. The invitation is not to know but still to care — to send out colored bags to the hungry and the not hungry,to include them all. Maybe it’s easier to carewithout taking on the weight of judgment
POEM: Until You Don’t Know (purim) Read More »
This week I had the experience of doubt. I had to make a big decision, and I kept coming to a certain conclusion and then doubting it and questioning it, giving me a sinking, uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. But wait, the doubt kept saying. What if you are making a terrible
SHORT ESSAY: On Amalek and Doubt (Parashat Zakhor) Read More »
Purim – both its story and the way we celebrate it – always gives me a vague feeling of unease and instability. First, the story. Yes, we do win in the end, but the forces against us feel very real, and the victory sudden and unreliable. It is the story of Jewish history; they hate
SHORT ESSAY: Groundless together (Purim) Read More »
One of the primary characteristics of Amalek is that they attack hanekheshalim aharekha, “those who are weak in your rear.” They attack the weak and the vulnerable. We feel intuitively how wrong this is, and we understand that a society should be measured by how kindly it treats its weakest members. I want to take this
SHORT ESSAY: Amalek and Self Attack (Parashat Zakhor) Read More »