Despite loving this holiday, and remembering that every year it never fails in its power to transform, I still feel a twinge of dread in the hours leading up to Yom Kippur. Because it is often difficult. It often involves discomfort. A lot of words and a lot of time with our own minds and hearts without comforting distraction.
And what is all this meant to prepare us for? What is it meant to transform us...Read more...
I have a teacher at JTS who, when asked why God doesn’t answer our prayers, said, to a very earnest student, “God answers every prayer. And sometimes the answer is no.”
Though I think that this was as much for the comedic effect as a genuine expression of theology, it comes to mind now because what I want to explore today is what happens when the answer to our prayers is no. Or at least, when the answer to...Read more...
These words do not come from our machzor, or from our Torah - but rather from a fictional book by Octavia Butler called “The Parable of the Sower.” These words are the...Read more...
