Archives

I teach calligraphers to become Torah scribes, and I teach schools and congregations about Torah scrolls and the Jewish scribal arts. I think all Jews ought to be able to access the magic of [...]

This week’s Torah portion, Metzora, is a challenging one, to say the least. It begins by describing steps that must be taken by the priests when they learn that someone has leprosy. The leper has [...]

Ten Ways to Make Your Family Seder Accessible for All Learners Child-friendly ideas for your Passover Seder Passover Seder Tracker

Perhaps the most important test of a real community is how it handles differences, particularly the ones that are difficult to understand and may feel threatening. This week’s Torah portion [...]

When Jewish children reach the age of bar and bat mitzvah, we celebrate their emerging Jewish adulthood. Most children teach their Torah, participate in leading the liturgy and complete a mitzvah [...]

You may have heard a joke that goes something like this: God: Do not cook a kid in its mother’s milk. (first found in Exodus 23:19) Moses: OK, God, so keep all meat food away from all dairy food? [...]

When I first started blogging, I had many reservations about sharing details about our family, particularly about R. Although I feel it is important to be transparent and open about our [...]

Matan has been named one of North America’s top 50 innovative Jewish organizations in the eleventh annual Slingshot Guide. The Guide has become a go-to resource for volunteers, activists and [...]

In any Jewish sacred space, our eyes will be drawn in some way upward to the ner tamid, the eternal light. A symbol of God’s eternality, nearly every Jewish sanctuary will have some kind of [...]

As a child, one of my favorite Jewish stories was “The Letter and the Crown” by Ted Gross, which retold a midrash called Otiot de-Rabbi Akiba (“The Letters of Rabbi Akiba”) about the [...]