I wish I could be simply consumed with the glories of spring this year, her sensual explosions of color and fragrance. Normal Passover preparations, laborious as they are, would be a lighthearted relief. But my spring attention is diverted this year, even eclipsed by the news. How to encompass the scale of violence that is ongoing in the Middle East? Across the world, this is a precipitous time. For Jews this Passover season, how can we hold Seder as usual?

We are living through days of profound heartbreak. As I write these words, the violence in the Middle East burgeons and the number of innocent dead and injured soars. Multitudes of families grieve their loved ones, and many more live in fear of what is to come. Here, beyond the zone of direct conflict, as we struggle to comprehend the immense ongoing destruction, and the danger of a far larger war, I sense that this is a time when we must use every strong prayer, spiritual tool, and practice that we have stored in our quiver over our lifetimes.

An excerpt from my sermon on Kol Nidre, given at Metivta Center for Contemplative Judaism on September 24, 2023 (10 Tishrei, 5784) in Los Angeles, California.

Watch the recording of this conversation between two impassioned trauma specialists and authors, Rabbi Dr. Tirzah Firestone and Dr. Gabor Maté, sharing personal experiences and professional challenges working with the burgeoning field of trauma healing across generations.

Faith in Hebrew is emunah (אמונה), the same root and letters as imun, practice, and art (אמנות). Faith takes practice. It is an art. That is why we are here tonight from around the world: That is why Jews come together every year without fail,: to stand at the edge of history together, to look out at the world, and practice the artform of faith. To raise ourselves up from the strong seduction of the cultures in which we live, that would have us perish in hopelessness and inevitability.

As the summer wanes — hot and besieged with heavy news — I’ve been pondering the question: How does a person stay awake and steady as the world reels with crises of all kinds? A helpful Hassidic story came to mind…

Just when I started to come up for air, remove my mask, feel a bit of sanity returning, the horror of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. The devastation is shocking and fast moving. I have an urge to play ostrich, but I know I dare not look away.

As we approach the 2-year anniversary of Covid’s arrival I've been sensing a deepening weariness that many of us are feeling. Just looking around, we see a landscape transformed…

As we (in the Northern Hemisphere) approach the dimmest part of the year, I’m reaching out to all of you around the globe with wishes for Light, inner Peace and Centeredness. Here’s a teaching from Kabbalah that may be helpful amidst these times…

Five years ago, I spent Thanksgiving week at Standing Rock and witnessed a burgeoning culture alive in this country. I had pictured a few tents and a tepee or two. But I found hundreds of tepees, yurts, and a thousand tents spreading as far the eye could see…

Standing again at Sinai, at the foot of the mountain this year means to ground ourselves on this good earth, and recommit to our people's highest principles, and to the Torah's unchanging values of tzedek, justice and fairness, tzelem Elohim, the inviolable dignity of all human beings, and emunah, faith, that our prayers, study, and good acts truly matter, have weight, and will have a ripple effect for good…

For six weeks, since Passover, we have been on a journey, preparing ourselves for receiving Torah anew on Shavuot. With each sephirah that we have blessed and internalized, we have, in effect, been making ourselves into a more open container. As Reb Zalman would say, the Omer count helps us to sand down our ego’s barnacles, polishing the rough edges of our personalities, opening ourselves wider so that we can better receive…

In Kabbalah, Yesod gathers together all the energies of the upper sephirot and directs them for the good of the lower realm. So imagine Yesod as the actualized YOU, a chariot driver with the reins of three wild horses in your right hand and three wild horses in your left hand, mastering all with grace and finesse!

Hod is the response to Netzach. They are a pair that cannot be disconnected from one another. Like two legs walking, Hod and Netzach require one another for stability and forward thrust. Netzach thrusts into life with enthusiasm and verve, but it cannot make its way without the follow through and balance of Hod…

Netzach takes the beauty of the heart found in Tipheret, and energetically brings that beauty into full expression. The week of Netzach is about the energetic YES! needed to fulfill our purpose…

Tiferet, which literally means BEAUTY, lives at the center of the Tree of Life, and as such, sits at our own center point: the heart…

Over the past two years since publishing Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma, I have received countless accounts of ancestral healing, trauma recovery, and family legacies reimagined. I am especially grateful to be able to share a particularly moving account from Nyati Evers here as both a video account and her written story.

During the week of Passover, we felt and prayed for an increased flow of dew and richness, faith and love, to come down to us like a waterfall, or invisibly as dew in the night. Now, during this week of Gevurah, we work to establish the structures, grounding, and discipline to carry and deliver Chesed energy into our lives in useful ways…