Lifting Up
“There is nothing as whole as a broken heart.” This famous teaching from the Kotzker Rebbe is crucial to understand not only Yachatz, the fourth stage of the Seder, but […]
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Amidah Offering: Gratitude / Hoda’ah
“We are grateful before You.” Is gratitude innate? Is it part of who we are? What if we don’t feel grateful? What if we can’t feel grateful? What forms does […]
There is No Substitute for Showing Up
Liberation cannot be outsourced. Showing up in person saves lives. The Haggadah emphasizes the point that God showed up “בִּכְבוֹדוֹ וּבְעַצְמוֹ – with God’s honor and presence” and goes out […]
Amidah Offering: Service / Avodah
The Hebrew word avodah implies service, work, and prayer. Is service the same as serving or servitude? What do we serve? Who or Whom do we serve? How do we serve? […]
New music for Chanukah
What a delight to be able to share this new choral composition by Gerald Cohen, a setting of new words of prayer from our own R. David Evan Markus, which […]
New Jonah – With Visual Mahzor Art
This new rendering of Jonah for 5785 features a renewed telling of the story illuminated by art from Bayit’s Visual Mahzor, our new volume of artwork inspired by the Torah […]
A New Prayer/Poem for Yizkor: Together
This is a prayer I wrote on the morning of Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s funeral. Jewish tradition does not have one set idea about what happens after death, so the first part […]
Tisha b’Av 5784 / 2024: How?!
On Tisha b’Av we confront the world’s brokenness, and our own. In many ways, 5784 has felt like a whole year of Tisha b’Av. These words are some of our hearts’ cries this […]
Amidah Offering: This Day
The fourth blessing in the Shabbat Amidah speaks about the “holiness of this day.” Is Shabbat’s holiness unique, is it innate, what role do we play in it, how does […]
This Broken Matzah: Pesach 2024
How do we celebrate Pesach in a year like this one? Everything about the seder lands differently after the last six months. This offering emerges out of our grief and […]