I created a self-guided Torah study for this week’s parsha: Vayishlach.
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For Theo, As We Welcome You into the Covenant.
Written with big, big, big love.
This week's parsha is Re'eh, and we are in the valley. We are not on the mountain of blessing or on the mountain of curses. We are not on the extreme of ‘do every mitzvah flawlessly’ and neither are we on the extreme of ‘do nothing but wickedness.’
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On July 27th, Mitzi celebrated becoming Bat Mitzvah.
I love celebrating my students for who they are and this student loves to cook. She has a strong Jewish identity emerging from her connections with her family and communities. As we learned together this past year, Mitzi found family recipes she wanted to learn to make and I suggested some to her that had particular histories or came from parts of the Jewish diaspora she hadn’t yet explored. When it came time for her to choose what she would teach about, the choice was pretty easy. I’m honored to share her shiur here with you.
Mazel Tov to you Mitzi, and to your family!
My 2024-2025 ONLINE Jewish Middle Grade Book Clubs Be JEWcy and Spill the JEWce are open for registration! $45 each semester or $80 for the year
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Malchut shebe Malchut
Nobility/Sovereignty within Nobility/Sovereignty
Tuesday evening June 11 and Wednesday June 12
Who am I walking with today?
You.
Hod shebe Malchut
Humility/Gratitude within Nobility/Sovereignty
Saturday evening June 8 and Sunday June 9
Shavua Tov
“I love this walk,” he says. “It’s so good every year. Farede Aklum,” the man walking near me introduces himself. He is wearing a light blue button down shirt.
“Samira,” says the woman in a red flowered dress.
“You know,” says Farede, “I read the bit you wrote about Judith. Did you know there is another Judith in our story? A queen.”
“Queen Judith?” I ask, unfamiliar.
Netzach shebe Malchut
Endurance within Nobility/Sovereignty
Friday evening June 7 and Saturday June 8
Shabbat Shalom
“Look,” she says, handing me a stone. “See how blue it is . . . and green.” I take the stone and look at it. The combination of copper-bearing minerals, chrysocolla, malachite, azurite, and turquoize make it these rich watery colors. I hand it back to her.
“A stone fit for a queen?” I say, it’s not really a question.
Gevurot shebe Malchut
Strength/Judgment/Boundaries within Nobility/Sovereignty
Wednesday evening June 5 and Thursday June 6
I want to be in the tent listening when Esther, Batya, Miriam, and Yocheved stay up all night talking strategy. I want to be standing beside them when Esther and Ruth rinse their feet in the river to cool them and share stories about their families. I want to have my own cup of tea and be sitting near the fire when Esther, Judith, Yael, and Deborah reminisce about directly confronting power. I want to be a silent witness when Esther and Dina hold each other in deep understanding. Most of all I want more time with her.
“What is the legacy of Ruth and Boaz?” I ask. “If not King David?”
Chesed shebe Malchut
Lovingkindness within Nobility/Sovereignty
Tuesday evening June 4 and Wednesday June 5
I don’t think she hears me. Her steps have quickened and as she approaches the back of a man about her height who has crossed in front of us she reaches out her arm and rests her hand on his shoulder. When the man stops and turns I see his green and brown eyes light up. They embrace, holding one another close. The throng moves like a river around them.
Malchut shebe Yesod
Nobility/Sovereignty within Foundation
Monday evening June 3 and Tuesday June 4
Fourteen people have come up around me.
Seven and seven.
Some of them are walking quietly, some are talking loudly, some are in a signed conversation communicating with their facial expressions as much as their hands . . . a few are laughing.
These are the attendants of Batya and Esther, and today, a day of Malchut before the week of Malchut they have joined me.
Yesod shebe Yesod
Foundation within Foundation
Sunday evening June 2 and Monday June 3
I look up to a sky full of clouds and think about that one - the first cloud to hold a rainbow. I think about the cloud Moses entered when he went up the mountain. I think about what Rabbi Strausberg offers us, that the rainbow itself said to Moses, “Take me with you. When you go up on the mountain, when you are before God, you are going to need all of this color.”
Hod shebe Yesod
Humility and Splendor in Foundation and Bonding
Saturday evening June 1 and Sunday June 2
Shavua Tov
40 are the days of night and day rain in Noah’s generation.
40 are the days Moses was on Mount Sinai before he returned with the stone tablets.
40 are the days we waited for him under the mountain.
40 are the days between the first day of Elul until Yom Kippur.
40 are the four sides of the world according to the Kabbalah, each containing ten Sefirot.
40 are the se’ahs (a measure of water) of a mikveh - a ritual bath.
40 are the years in the wilderness.
40 are the years at which - according to the Talmud (Avot 5:26) - a person transitions from one level of wisdom to the next.
40 are the days the spies scouted the Land.
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Netzach shebe Yesod
Endurance in Foundation and Bonding
Friday evening May 31 and Saturday June 1
As I’ve walked today, I’ve finished writing my first public piece about Israel and Palestine. I’ve been working on it for months. It isn’t conclusory. My words are where I am right now as I continue to think and feel and share.
It feels right to share these words today on this day of the Omer, in Endurance in Foundation . . . and bonding.
Shabbat Shalom
Tiferet shebe Yesod
Compassion in Foundation (the salt of the earth)
Thursday evening May 30 and Friday May 31
“I wasn’t jealous,” she sounds put off, but also deeply sad.
The ox she leads has no bells on its horns
“Okay,” I say.
“When those men came, how was I to know they were angels?” she asks, but doesn’t. She looks at me expectantly.
“Okay,” I say again.
“If you think I’m going to tell you my story, you are mistaken,” she points at me.
“Okay,” I half-turn to continue on my own.
“Lot never thought he was good enough. He was always comparing himself to Abraham and me to Sarah,” Idit says. I keep walking with her and hold my peace.
Gevurah shebe Yesod
Strength and Boundaries in Foundation and Bonding
Wednesday evening May 29 and Thursday May 30
אני הולכת הביתה. | ani holekhet ha'bayita. | I am going home
“Na’eem m’od,” says the donkey kindly, blinking as she tilts her head this way and that, sizing me up. “Who are you?” she asks. “Where are you going?”
“You know who I am,” I respond, because of course she does.
“Well I don’t have to tell you that it’s been a while,” she huffs.
“No,” I agree. “You don’t.” Not that it’s been that long.
Yesod shebe Hod
Foundation in Gratitude
Sunday evening May 26 and Monday May 27
I look at the man more closely. The yellow undertones of his skin soak in the slanted light as the day settles into evening. His eyes are green like the leaves of an olive tree. ‘Modah ani lefanecha, I give thanks before You for my soul,’ I think. Then I know who he is. This is Judah. Yehudah. When he was born, his mother Leah said, “This time I will give thanks to God,” and named him. “Odeh et Adonai,” she said. “Sh’mo Yehudah,” and named him Yehudah.
Hod shebe Hod
Splendor/Gratitude in Splendor/Gratitude
Saturday evening May 25 and Sunday May 26Shavua Tov!
Lag Ba’Omer
With gratitude to Jewish authors and storytellers every where and every time.
“Forty-nine days is one beat of a sunbird’s wing.”
The voice is gravelly, but not gruff. Round-sounding, and soft.
He is resting by himself.
I walk over and sit - not too close, but . . . not too far.
“For forty years we flew like a hoopoe, low to the ground. Slow. Deliberate.”
Para, para, says my mind to itself. Cow, cow. An idiom. Slow and steady like my breath.
This is Moshe Rabbeinu. Moses our Teacher, our Storyteller.
Netzach shebe Hod
Endurance in Splendor/Gratitude
Friday evening May 24 and Saturday May 25
Shabbat Shalom
As I was walking today I got to thinking about Samson.
I was, although even I can’t quite believe it now that I’ve read more, already thinking of him when I heard that the 7th Armored Brigade had discovered the tunnel shaft and Shin Bet had retrieved the bodies of three more hostages.
I don’t know much about Samson, really.
I know he was in some ways a human golem with super strength.
I know he had beautiful hair and was betrayed by a woman named Delilah.
Not much, really, what I know.