Words of Torah (my blog!) — Rabbi Amy Josefa Ariel (she/her)

Today is a dawn to dusk fast day.
Yeah. The day after Rosh HaShanah.
Today we remember Gedaliah, but who was he, anyway?

Jewish Holidays, TORAH, Jewish EducationAmy ArielSeptember 18, 2023Tzom Gedaliah, Rosh HaShanah, Fast Day, Fasting, SiblingsComment

The Queen is in This Field

We are out here in the field.
This field that is here for us.
The Queen is here, too.

Jewish Holidays, TORAHAmy ArielSeptember 5, 2023Shana Tova, King in the Field, Queen in the Field, Field, Rosh HaShanah, High Holidays, Ayeka, Where Are YouComment

Days of Comfort

These seven weeks of 49 days are a time of consolation.
They are a time to ask ourselves and to ask each other questions so specific we can answer them in this particular moment. Where am I right now? How am I right now? What do I need right now? What good can I bring into the world right now? What is one thing I can do to comfort someone right now? What comfort do I need right now?
These are the right now weeks.
They are tender.
I’ve included a link to my Sounds of Comfort playlist with this post.

Jewish ValuesAmy ArielAugust 7, 2023Days of Consolation, Sounds of Comfort, Mourning, Tisha B'Av, Jewish MourningComment

Body and Soul

When I come in contact with something, touch something, or someone, it’s my skin-and-bone self touching and it’s also that deep, personal Self. When someone touches me, the me they are touching is also both my skin-and-bone self and that deep, personal Self. I am a whole being: Skin and bone and soul.

PrayerAmy ArielJune 21, 2023Soul, Elohai NeshamahComment

Juneteenth Reflection Before the Amidah

A few years ago, I wanted a prayer, a reflection, for before the Amidah.
So I wrote one.

I would love to know what you’d add.
Or better yet, I’d love to know what prayer or reflection you would write.
Happy Juneteenth.

PrayerAmy ArielJune 19, 2023Amidah, Prayer, Juneteenth Comment

The Priestly Blessing is a Math Problem by Evan Hymes

I am so very honored to share a guest post!
My student Evan Hymes, a member of Mount Zion Temple, has given me permission to share his words of Torah on Naso, and quite honestly, I find them brilliant. He shared them yesterday on the bima at Mount Zion.
I’m thinking about God in new ways because of Evan, and you might, too.
He celebrated becoming bar mitzvah on May 27th, 2023, 7 Sivan 5783.
Mazel Tov & lots of love, Evan! You did it!

TORAHAmy ArielMay 28, 2023Evan Hymes, Naso, B'Mitzvah, Bar Mitzvah Comment

When Elmer Died

The first thing you need to know is this: I do not know when Elmer died.
Well, that’s not entirely true.
I know he died in October.
Seven months ago.
And also before you know that you also need to know that this is a draft.
A first draft.
I am writing without a plan and anything could happen.

The second thing you need to know is that I found out that Elmer died on Wednesday.
Not “a” Wednesday.
Wednesday.
Two days ago.

TORAHAmy ArielMay 5, 2023Elmer, Emor Comments

Come Close

Maybe when we pray, maybe when we take our love and our kindness and breathe life into it so it can live in the world, maybe when we come together and care for one another, maybe we are creating a dimensional experience where we activate something on God’s side of the screen.

TORAHAmy ArielMarch 24, 2023Torah, TORAH, D'var Torah, Vayikra, Close, screens, Shabbat ShaMorning, Shira, Ellen Allard, Shira Kline, God Comment

Tending Our Flames: Tetzaveh, Exodus 27:20 - 30:10

However we make sense of this, tending these lamps is our job. You see, it isn’t only Aaron and his descendants who are priests. Back in Exodus 19:5-6 we learn that we are to be a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. Elevating one another’s light? That’s up to us. So I want to invite us to read it this way: We are the lamps and we are the ones charged with tending them. It is not our job to create sparks of life. It is our job to nurture life sparks for one another so that each and all of our flames can rise.

TORAHAmy ArielFebruary 28, 2023Tetzaveh, 5783, 2023, ner tamid, eternal flame, Aaron, kingdom of priestsComment

Invitation to a Tu BiShvat Journaling Workshop

Jewish HolidaysAmy ArielJanuary 12, 2023Tu BiShvat, Jewish Life Coaching, Tu B'Shvat, Tu BiShevat, Tu B'Shevat, WorkshopsComment

Hakol Yiyeh Beseder

It’s the 6th anniversary of my decision to wear a kippah all the time, and reflecting on that today has gotten me thinking. Tonight, the night after yesterday's election, feels really different for me than it once might have because November 9, 2016 has become my baseline.

Tonight, I feel pretty grounded and okay enough.
Better than I anticipated I might.

You?

TORAH, Jewish ValuesAmy ArielNovember 9, 2022Election, 2016, November, Vote, Kippah, Hakol Yiyeh BesederComment

The World We've Got

How might we make sense of what is often a nonsensicle world and to manage a relationship with God with maturity and honesty about the pervasiveness of our experience of moral disorder?

TORAHAmy ArielOctober 28, 2022Noah, Torah, JobComment

Beginning Again

NEW WITH AUDIO! Listen to my NEW d’var Torah for Bresheet.
(Or read it - that’s still an option, too!)

TORAH, Jewish ValuesAmy ArielOctober 21, 2022Torah, D'var Torah, Bresheet, Breshit, Genesis, Genesis 1, community, Jewish community Comments

Book Review! Who Even Cares? A Rebbe Nachman Tale As Told By Rabbi Gavriel Goldfelder

In which I share my first blogged book review, because this book was just that good.
Thanks to this brilliant work by Rabbi Gavriel Goldfeder, I have new language to help me focus my mind and my energy and my intention when I get off-track, even just a little, distracted by rivers of wine and giants, in my quest to find the princess. I even put a quick drawing of an apple on a post-it and affixed it to my computer screen.

This is not a story of a damsel in distress. It is not a love story. It doesn’t have a happy ending. It doesn’t have a tragic ending, either. Looked at a little sideways, it might not have an ending at all.

Jewish Education, Read Good BooksAmy ArielAugust 3, 2022Who Even Cares?, Book Review, Rebbe Nachman, StorytellingComment

Menachem Av

Chodesh tov. It's Rosh Chodesh Av, the new month of Av.

This morning I had the pleasure of leading Hallel for our IKAR morning minyan.
It's Av, a month that holds tragedy - Tisha B'Av. It's Av, a month that holds love and joy - Tu B'Av.
In honor of our minyan, and this month, I wrote a poem.

Jewish HolidaysAmy ArielJuly 29, 2022Poetry, Rosh Chodesh, Av, New MoonComment

Love is Boss: Birth Control in Honduras

Birth control.
It was me, not Miguel, who wanted to talk about it.
“This kinda makes me uncomfortable,” he wrote, “talking about something so personal as sex in order to raise money! I know that’s not YOUR thinking, but I want to avoid ANYONE thinking that!”

Jewish ValuesAmy ArielJuly 15, 2022Birth Control, Honduras, Love is Boss, Poverty, Justice, GoFundMe Comment

The Day They Overturned Roe

I doubt what I’m about to write is going to make anyone feel better.Let’s just be clear about that.

"We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled," Justice Alito wrote in the opinion Justices Clarence Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett all backed. "The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision. . . ."

TORAHAmy ArielJune 24, 2022Abortion, Roe, reproductive justice