I was checking my email when the front desk called. There was a young man who wanted to speak with me. Of course, send him back. A 5th grade boy walked into my office, clearly stirred. What’s up? After a moment… He asked, How can I become holy enough to say God’s real name? This […]
Relationships
Love without reward
Here’s a quote I found that is attributed (I hope rightly) to the Jewish/French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas: “Faith is not a question of the existence or non-existence of God. It is believing that love without reward is valuable.” Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about spirituality. For the purposes of this post let’s say that […]
Refusing to see
So I’ve been watching “Empire” on Fox. Not in real time, but on Hulu. And I’ve got to admit. So far it’s been a pleasure. A guilty pleasure, but a pleasure nonetheless. There are lots of story lines woven throughout the show. One of them has to do with a father’s unwillingness (inability?) to accept […]
The Perspective Gap
Working as I do at Reform Jewish day school there’s a phenomenon I encounter pretty frequently. I’ve started calling it “the perspective gap.” The perspective gap exists whenever two perspectives are so vastly different that the two holders of those perspectives can’t see what the other person sees. Why has working at a Reform Jewish […]
When a Mentor Becomes a Colleague
This week I had the honor of leading a session for the NFTY Convention’s Youth Summit which took place in Atlanta. The session was titled, “Igniting the Spark: Adolescent Spirituality” and it was lead by me and my colleague, Rabbi Dr. Michael Shire, dean of the Shoolman Graduate School of Jewish Education at Hebrew College. […]