Yedid Nefesh No.2 (My Soul’s Beloved)
Recording coming in due course. Yedid Nefesh No.2 – Download the free sheet music (voice & guitar)
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A story about allyship (Beha’alotcha)
Before you read the translation, notice that I’ve added a little bit of padding from Talmudic midrash, just to help make sense of what’s going on. It’s a good story, and I hope readers will see something fresh in this translation even before we get to the drash. There are, of course, many faces to
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Making room for God
God is From as far back as I can remember, God has been real for me. I don’t know where that comes from. My family wasn’t religious. We never discussed religion or God. I haven’t always seen eye to eye with God of course. We’ve had our differences and fallings out. I’ve turned my back
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The Birds Clause (Sh’mini)
[13] Now these you are to hold-detestable from birds—they are not to be eaten, they are detestable-things: the eagle, the bearded-vulture and the black-vulture, [14] the kite and the falcon after its kind, [15] every [sort of] raven after its kind; [16] the desert owl, the screech owl and the sea gull, and the falcon
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Pesach and the aish tamid / continuous fire (Tzav & Pesach)
This d’var is based on Lev. 6:1-6. The aish tamid The first six verses of this morning’s Torah reading announce that these are the rules concerning the olah—the sacrificial offering in which all the meat is burnt so that its smoke ‘ascends’ to God. But, in fact, the early rabbis, and key commentators ever since,
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P’sukei d’zimra & morning music
Here’s a selection of my music that can be used for morning blessings and P’sukei d’zimra (verses of song). Ashrei Yoshvei (Ps 84:5) Elohai N’shamah Halleluyah #1 (Ps 150) – and if you want a 4 part round in ‘old style’, try Halleluyah #2 Ki L’Olam Chasdo (Ps 136) Mah Gadlu (Ps 92:6) Modeh Ani Naomi’s
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“Let me see Your glory!” Davenen through the Four Worlds (Ki Tisa & Pesach)
D’var Torah on Ex. 33:12-23 At Pesach[1] we are called to go ‘up’, physically and metaphorically, to journey beyond our narrowness, and dare to live in our fullness. By the time of today’s reading[2], we’ve travelled into the desert, complained many times, received the Torah, ten commandments, and detailed instructions for building the mishkan, prayed
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Trees, Arks, and Torah (Shavuot)
The text I want to explore this Shavuot is from Proverbs 3:18 Eitz chayim hi l’machazikim [chazak] bah, v’tomcheicha meiushar –“It is a tree of life to those who hold fast to it, and whoever grasps her is happy-straight [by implication,]”. Ushar or yashar, a word literally means straight, and is usually translated as ‘happy’,
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Bringing God into the world, making the whole world holy (Behar)
The last three verses of parshat Behar[1] present two profound and exciting ideas: how to serve God, and that such service is the only path to, and expression of, freedom. At the end of this d’var torah,[2] I’ll share a midrashic translation of those three verses that speaks to that interpretation. But first, some background.
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God hidden, whereabouts unknown – notes on the book by Miles-Yepez & Schachter-Shalomi
These are my own gleanings from a book by Netanel Miles-Yepez & Zalman Shachter-Shalomi, God Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown: the Holy Ari and the ‘Contraction of God’ (2021, Albion-Andalus). I hope they encourage you to buy the book. I have paraphrased in order to clarify my own understanding, but there are also direct quotations from the
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