Entering into the Ark of Prayer
The Hebrew month of Cheshvan brings a welcome relief from the spiritual highs of Tishrei— we get to take a break from large communal gatherings and integrate all that transpired for us during the high holidays. With more space for solitude and intimate time at home, we have a chance to bring renewed energy to the inner work of spiritual practice and prayer. In ancient Israel, Cheshvan is when people began to pray for rain. From a spiritual perspective, rain represents all that we need for life to bloom forth and flourish; it symbolizes the possibility of sustenance, and the union of heaven and earth. Our tradition teaches that unlike dew, the proper rainfall in its season is dependent...
Send Out the Raven Ahead of the Dove
I’m imagining us in Noah’s ark.As the Hebrew month of Cheshvan begins and a new cycle of Torah reading is initiated, we read Parshat Noah. We encounter an ark; Noah, his family and a few of every living species; and a flood of utter destruction that wipes out all life on earth. For the past two years, I have been holding the narrative of Noah’s ark close to me as a source of spiritual inquiry and practice, engaging with questions like - What qualities did Noah cultivate that preserved him in a violent generation? What is the spiritual practice of taking refuge in the midst of the flood of corruption and chaos? How did sanctuary in the ark school Noah’s heart and mind during the three...
Mindful Eating for Shvat
Eating is more than just nourishment—it’s an opportunity for mindfulness, gratitude, and connection. In this guided practice, Rebecca Schisler invites us to slow down, savor each bite, and honor the journey of our food from earth to plate. This Tu BiShvat, take a moment to bless, taste, and truly experience the gift of eating with presence and intention.
Beshallach 5785: Don’t Make It Worse, Make It Better—Maybe
I don't have much occasion to go in the backyard during the winter. For starters, January is pretty cold in Chicago, and the dog is perfectly fine if we just let her out the door to do her business and then run back in. But the other day it was a little warmer, and Phoebe seemed like she would enjoy playing fetch. So I bundled up and took her out. After a few rounds of catch and release with a...
Josh in Conversation with Andrés Spokoiny
We are grateful to Andrés Spokoiny for sharing his insights with us. Please enjoy the conversation recording.Andrés Spokoiny, CEO of the Jewish Funders Network, is a longtime Jewish communal leader with a history of leading successful organizational transformations. He served as the CEO of Federation CJA in Montreal and, prior to that, for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Community (JDC)...
Bo 5785: The Age of Unsurance
"Insurance is one of finance’s great gifts to mankind. Through the statistical magic of risk pooling, an individual can obtain peace of mind and protection against devastating loss." A perhaps unexpected opening sentence to a Shabbat reflection from yours truly. But the article it comes from, by Wall Street Journal writer Greg Ip, really grabbed my attention. I had always kind of assumed that,...
What a Week: Vaera 5785
What an intense week it has been. Yes, yes: I'll get to the new administration in a bit. But there was much more to this week too. For me, the week began with clearing out my mother's apartment and visiting her frequently, as we moved her into memory care. Not a simple thing, of course. It's definitely the right move for this moment in her life, and she is adjusting to it with her customary...
A Spiritual Ladder (Shemot 5785)
When I was a kid, in order to become an Eagle Scout you needed to earn 21 merit badges. Of those, some were required and some were elective. I remember my electives included things like ice skating and music (which were, conveniently, things I did anyway outside of Scouting). The required merit badges were things like First Aid (no surprise), Citizenship in the Community, Swimming and...
Tevet: Settling Amidst the Storm
While Kislev brought us into the darkest time of year and the holiday of Hanukkah, Tevet brings us out of Hanukkah, and moves us again towards longer, lighter days. The month of Tevet was originally named while the Jewish people were living in exile in Babylonia. “Tevet,” meaning “sinking” or “immersing,”¹, perhaps references the muddy swamp-like conditions that arose from heavy rains during the...
A Response to David Brooks (Hannukah 5785)
Dear friends, I heard from many people this week about The New York Times columnist David Brooks's essay, "The Shock of Faith." I won't speak for him (he does that for himself in 2,000 words). Nor do I really want to have a conversation about whether Brooks, who talks about his Jewish life, is really a Christian at this point (he deals with that a bit in the essay). Instead, I want to respond to...
Bring Them Home Now (Vayeshev 5785)
On Tuesday morning this week, I stood amidst the ruined homes of young members of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the kibbutzim overrun and decimated by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. These small apartments had provided a way for the kibbutz to help young people get their start in adult life. Their location, closest to the western fence of the kibbutz, made them the first line of attack....
Jewish Humor and Jewish Power (Vayishlach 5785)
Josh in Conversation with Joshua Leifer
We are grateful to Joshua Leifer for sharing his insights with us. Please enjoy the conversation recording.Joshua Leifer is a journalist, editor, and translator. His essays and reporting have appeared widely in international publications, including The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Haaretz, The Nation, and elsewhere. A member of the...
At Home in the Darkness
At this time of year, where I live in Toronto, the trees have shed almost all of their leaves and their branches stand bare against the grey sky. Day by day, the hours of sunlight shorten while darkness holds on longer to the mornings and rolls in earlier and earlier in the evenings. Overhead, skeins of Canada geese honk their way south, and I almost take their leaving personally, abandoning me...
Extracting the Hidden Light
As we enter the darkest season of the year, Jewish tradition teaches of the or haganuz, a hidden light revealed through presence and righteous acts. Legend says 36 hidden righteous ones—the Lamed Vavnikim—sustain the world. This Hanukkah, as we light 36 candles, we’re called to embody their spirit, revealing the light within ourselves and the world.
A Quiet Mind (Chayei Sarah 5785)
Many years ago, when my oldest son (now 21) was little, he asked for me to read him stories from a children's bible on our shelf. It had belonged to my wife as a kid, and I was excited that Jonah wanted to hear these stories. But of course it got complicated, because these stories are not, in fact, children's stories for the most part. They talk about some pretty adult topics. I particularly...
Josh in Conversation with Rabbi Adina Allen
We are grateful to Rabbi Adina Allen for sharing her insights with us. Please enjoy the conversation recording.Rabbi Adina Allen is a spiritual leader, author, and educator who grew up in an art studio where she learned firsthand the power of creativity for connecting to self and to the Sacred. She is cofounder and creative director of Jewish Studio Project (JSP), an organization that is seeding...
Responding to the Anxiety of Now: Vayera 5785
I was riding in a Lyft at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, en route to LAX to make a flight home in time for my son's 12th birthday party. My driver, a middle-aged African-American woman, asked me where I was headed. "Chicago." "Chicago?! Take me with you! That's where I'm from." "Oh, where in Chicago did you grow up?" She proceeded to name what felt like 25 different neighborhoods: First she...
A Post-Election Practice: Cultivating Our Loving Intention
We live in a world that demands results. (And those results must come quickly enough to match our impatience). We live in a world that keeps score. (How are we doing?) We live in a world that is always comparing. (Am I better or worse, smarter, more righteous?) We live in a world that measures success by how much money we make or how many people like us. I want to suggest another way to live....
Finding God in the Depths
In times of darkness and struggle, what if the deepest divine connection is found not in the absence of hardship, but in the raw, authentic moments of longing and love shared with others? This teaching from Rebecca Schisler is an invitation to discover that the true power of the divine is always present—one breath, one moment, one prayer away—ready to be felt even in the most challenging of...
