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doing hope
April 26, 2024
sholem aleichem, this shabbos — shabbos chol hamoed pesach — we’ll read a section of torah including shemos 34:6-7 (loosely referencing Everett Fox’s...
pesach: dayenu and A15
April 15, 2024
sholem aleichem, today is april 15th, tax day in the united states, and the day of the A15 Economic Blockades for Palestine i thought i would take this...
tzav: heart in my mouth
March 28, 2024
sholem aleichem, vayikra and tzav both lay out the laws of the sacrifice of shalom ("peace", "wellbeing", "repayment"). this is a sacrifice you might offer...
pekudei: we are human
March 11, 2024
sholem aleichem, our parsha, and the entirety of sefer shemos, ends with the following psukim: וּבְהֵעָל֤וֹת הֶֽעָנָן֙ מֵעַ֣ל הַמִּשְׁכָּ֔ן יִסְע֖וּ בְּנֵ֣י...
terumah: moving with god
February 16, 2024
sholem aleichem, I've been working on this one for a while, and decided to just go for it. A bit more personal this time, I hope you'll forgive me. א I...
Mishpatim
February 9, 2024
Sholem aleichem, [CW: discussion of slavery, abortion rights, and genocide (in particular, current events in Gaza)] Mishpatim is one of the most jarring...
Beshalach: apartheid-free Burlington
January 25, 2024
A statement on the recent Burlington City Council meeting, as a member of the greater-Burlington Jewish community: In the Torah portion read by the Jewish...
Infinitely Broken Shards
January 19, 2024
The Baal Shem Tov once visited the Noam Elimelech in a dream. They stood on a high mountain, taller than any mountain on earth. The Noam Elimelech cried out...
three texts
October 19, 2023
sholem aleichem. i don't have many coherent thoughts right now, but i want to share three texts that have been on my heart lately. first, from noach in the...
emor and online class announcement!
May 4, 2023
sholem aleixem! i've been out of touch for a bit....but i've been cooking up something very special. but before we get to that, a word from this week's...
announcing: revolutionary reading group
April 23, 2023
sholem aleichem, apologies for bothering your inbox sans drash, but two things: if you are looking for hot etz hi takes on parshas tazria, metzora, or...
shemini: seek wholenesses
April 16, 2023
sholem aleichem, apologies for the lateness of this newsletter -- with pesach and multiple yamim tovim, i did not have time to write. my word for this parsha...
etz hi tdov: choose love
March 31, 2023
hi, i'm republishing the piece below (shortened somewhat) in honor of tristen's first yahrtzeit (tomorrow), fern's first yahrtzeit (sunday), and (i...
tzav: gd in transition
March 26, 2023
sholem aleichem, thank you all very much for your support on my return to newslettering! i'm happy to be back, baruch hashem, for another week. writing this...
vayikra: the three-fold cord
March 22, 2023
sholem aleichem friends, my apologies for the lengthy absence -- i caught covid shortly after my last newsletter, and it has been a long slog to recover both...
yehoshua: could we
January 27, 2023
sholem aleichem, Happy New Year.....a little late. My apologies that it has been a full month since the last newsletter. I spend all day typing for my day...
yehoshua: the choice is ours
December 29, 2022
sholem aleichem, Hope you are all having a good end to the Gregorian Calendar Year :) This week: Yehoshua 13-15 Summary: Time jump! Yehoshua is now old, but...
yehoshua: barred from teshuva
December 23, 2022
sholem aleichem Happy chanukah y'all! We're halfway done with Yehoshua, thank goodness. Let's go: This week: Yehoshua 11-12 Summary: More kings ally against...
yehoshua: the sefiros turned upside down
December 18, 2022
sholem aleichem Hello again! I have to (once again) apologize for the erratic posting schedule. Without the parsha schedule to keep me honest, it is harder...
yehoshua: before hashem
December 2, 2022
sholem aleichem, It's been a while! Sorry about that. I took a week off for TDOR, and then another week off because I'm in the middle of a big move. This...
yehoshua: neither add nor subtract
November 11, 2022
sholem aleichem,
yehoshua: for us or our enemies
November 3, 2022
sholem aleichem,
yehoshua: apocalypse
October 27, 2022
sholem aleichem, Hello everyone! Unfortunately I've been having some issues with the newsletter software, so I am re-writing this email mostly from scratch...
yehoshua: rachav rachav
October 20, 2022
sholem aleichem, Hello friends! Shanah tovah! I'm back from my vacation and all the chagim. I had a wonderful time visiting friends in NYC, meeting some...
nitzavim: choose life and death
September 23, 2022
sholem aleichem, Apologies for missing last week -- the new Covid booster took me out. Be''H, I'll return to Ki Savo next year. I'll keep it short this week,...
ki teitzei: food and water for all
September 8, 2022
sholem aleichem, dvar machine broken, please stand by while we execute a hard reboot of our essential systems. in the meantime, enjoy this message from one...
shoftim: the sword of friendship
September 2, 2022
sholem aleixem, Hope you all are well. I am full of the spirit of elul, which for me means soooo many Paula Red apples (the first apples of the season! so...
re'eh: from gd's lips
August 26, 2022
Sholem aleichem, It's Friday! I only have time for a short note -- work got very busy, and then I had to switch some of my study-time over to another text at...
ekev: do not give me my daily bread
August 19, 2022
sholem aleichem, Hi friends! Welcome to another Friday. Lots to discuss. First, thank you to everyone who replied to last week's newsletter -- I promise I...
vaeschanan: choose love
August 11, 2022
sholem aleixem, Note א: My learning this week is dedicated to the memories of tristen, fern, fall, and soph. I'm thinking of you. Note ב: I studied the text...
devarim: a man of few words
August 5, 2022
Hey friends, Welcome to Devarim :) I'm feeling really grateful for the Torah cycle this week. It's so nice to have study practice like this that just keeps...
matos-masei: purest anguish, purest joy
July 28, 2022
Happy (?) av friends, A quick newsletter (sorry about the typo. I don't know which one, I just know it is there.) Hard to believe we're here at the end of...
pinchas: always more
July 20, 2022
sholem aleichem, friends! another week in the book. which book? we'll find out soon! We're going to do a short one this week, that I haven't planned at all....
balak: no nations, no borders
July 14, 2022
hello friends, It's been a week, and that's a fact. I don't know about y'all, but I'm ready (once again) for Shabbos. We're in Balak this week, which is the...
chukas:
July 8, 2022
sholem aleixem! Wow, another week! I'm personally feeling quite overwhelmed by gestures broadly. But, it's time for some Torah study and preparation for...
korach: for the sick and afflicted, a maskil of moshe
July 1, 2022
hello all, a short note this week -- i've found it difficult to write, for absolutely no particular reason whatsoever at all. starting in bamidbar 15:32 (end...
sh'lach: fringe theories of halakha
June 24, 2022
hello! What a week! I'm sitting down to draft this on Friday, at the last possible moment, because I've been wildly busy with work and other activities....
beha'aloscha: hello darkness my old friend
June 16, 2022
hello friends! Did you know that cranes build other cranes, unless they are really tall, and then they build themselves? What a metaphor for,,, something....
nasso: priesthood for the people
June 9, 2022
sholem aleichem, Hello friends! Welcome to the end of another week (the plan is to be weekly again for Bamidbar). I hope you had a revelatory Shavuos (if...
bamidbar: borders require police
June 2, 2022
sholem aleixem, Hello again friends! It has been a little while. I hope this newsletter finds you [screeching noises]. Over the course of my Vayikra-hiatus I...
tazria-metzora-achrei: אין אחד אלא דאגה
April 10, 2022
hello friends, A couple introductory caveats. I will be using the words "pure" and "impure" in this drash. Often we try to avoid these, since they carry...
shmini: 1+1=1
March 23, 2022
hello friends, A few very brief thoughts on this week's Torah portion. So in this portion we have Moses giving some commands and then we're told that ויקרבו...
ki sisa: give the infinite to hashem
February 16, 2022
dear friends, hashem spoke to moshe saying: see, i have called by name betzalel son of uri son of hur of the tribe of yehudah. i have filled him with the...
tetzaveh: without wisdom
February 9, 2022
the root of yiddishkeit is walking with simplicity and without wisdom and you will teach all that are wise of heart a person who goes after their wisdom will...
terumah: beauty for its own sake
February 2, 2022
hello friends, I have had an unfortunate flare-up of some nerve problems, and I have to save the limited amount of time I can type for giving my students...
mishpatim: remembering
January 27, 2022
sholem aleixem, I hope you'll forgive me a slightly more personal newsletter this week. I promise we'll be back to wild gematric minutiae shortly. But...
yisro: be ready and be gay
January 20, 2022
hey cats, This email is a bit late and a bit short because I have been overwhelmed by the three-pronged trident of starting a new semester teaching,...
beshalach: apocalyptic hope
January 13, 2022
hello friends, My school decided to go remote for the first couple of weeks this semester, thank g-d, so I just finished reorganizing my classes for that and...
bo:
January 6, 2022
sholem aleichem, Welcome to 2022! For better or worse, time does keep moving. A short note this week, starting with a common question: if g-d knows who all...
vaera: one plague two plague rich plague poor plague
December 31, 2021
hello friends, The last week has been quite chaotic for all the reasons you can guess. My New Year's plans are now officially postponed, so I'm going to...
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