Psalm 133 (a photo)

Photo taken outside the Germantown Jewish Center in Philadelphia in the summer of 2021.

Lies about Kabbalah (a poem)

i’m not allowed to study

the kabbalah ‘til I’m forty years old

but I take sneak peeks

(i never do as I’m told)

but that’s a lie!

i’m not jewish & I wouldn’t

understand kabbalah anyway

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Shanah Tovah U’metukah

The year 2020 has been a strange year, and so has the Jewish year of 5780.

As the sun sets tonight, we hope and pray for a better year.

What will 5781 bring us? Do we dare to dream of health and happiness?

Or shall we begin to brace ourselves for a long, hard winter?

It is our hope which will sustain us, and we pray for a better year.

5781 brings us hope, and another step closer to coming back together.

Book Review: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

I’m always reading heavy and serious books like Kafka, the classics, or dystopian science fiction. So I decided recently to read something a little more light-hearted for a change of pace.

The book I picked up was from Rachel’s shelf – The Golem and the Jinni, a 2013 debut novel from Helene Wecker. The novel still has some serious themes, but it wasn’t the type of angsty existentialism I usually dig into.

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Shabbat (a poem)

I knew nothing of Shabbat before you

or the prayers we say on Friday nights

as we break off pieces of challah + let the candle

burn all night by the window –

I’m happy you’ve taught me, it’s brought me

a new ritual in this life, the life we share together.

(Photo source: shutterstock.com)

Soldiering On (a poem)

We can soldier through these dark hours if we hold on to faith + meaning –

the government tweeted antisemitism last night, the paranoia set in

we covered the webcam, spoke in whispers

debated if it was intentional

I thought of Viktor Frankl + man’s search for meaning –

humans can exact great suffering on each other,

but they can never take our souls.

(Photo by Diego PH on Unsplash)

Eshet Chayil

If you were raised religious, you might know “Eshet Chayil.” Maybe you don’t know it by that name, but you know it by its translation: “A Woman of Valor,” which can be found in Proverbs 31:10-31.

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Tag: Judaism

Psalm 133 (a photo)

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Lies about Kabbalah (a poem)

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Shanah Tovah U’metukah

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Book Review: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

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Shabbat (a poem)

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Soldiering On (a poem)

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Eshet Chayil

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