Muse
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Moses and Me
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Forty-six years ago, a young woman stood at the ammud/lectern to give her D'var Torah and chant her Haftarah at her Bat Mitzvah. Shaking like a leaf in a storm, the nervous twelve year old version of myself began her prepared remarks... -
Darkest before the Dawn
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People often use the phrase, "It is always darkest before the dawn," as an attempt to comfort others when they can't find anything else to say. I h... -
Put on your Thinking Cap...
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Did you know that a kosher kippah only needs to be big enough to cover one's fist? Rabbi Susan Grossman of Columbia, MD shared that teaching with m... -
Lifting up the Heads
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Lifting up the Heads
https://renaissancewomankippot.org/blogs/muse/lifting-up-the-heads
Parshat Naso deals with a lot of mundane "stuff": from the census to the "sota", the trial by ordeal forced upon a suspected adulteress ( but not, we note, for the adulterer). She is forced to drink waters which will make her violently ill or kill her. As my former Rabbi, Jonathan Cohen, used to say,
"What is it about the patriarchy that you don't get?"
And yet, Manoah's WIFE is addressed in the Haftarah...
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Shavuot: the "plus one" holiday (Updated 2022)
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So,by the time Shavuot occurs, we will have counted the Omer, the days between Pesach and Shavuot, for the past 49 days. We've tried to do self-improvement: to BE "plus one," ie, better than we are now... -
Lifeblood
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People have a natural reaction to blood: most shrink from it, some fear it, and some are fascinated by it. Ancient Temple practices, as in the Desert Mishkan ( from the word "dwelling place: a feminine word, and related to the Divine Feminine, the Shekhinah)consecrated it, and those who touched it, by separating them.. -
She is a Tree of Life
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She is a Tree of Life
https://renaissancewomankippot.org/blogs/news/she-is-a-tree-of-life
You know the feeling you get on a beautiful spring morning? That's the inspiration behind this Tree of Life wall hanging...
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Birthing the New Year
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The parsha, or Torah portion, we read last week mentions the midwives who refused Pharaoh's orders to kill the Israelite baby boys. One of those boys was, of course, Moses, the future leader of the Israelite people.The midwives' action thus saved an entire people! We too, can play the part of midwives as we usher in the secular New Year...
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Rebecca 's Test
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Rebecca and Isaac were true loves, and yet there were some things she just could not tell him. She comforted Isaac after the death of his mother Sa... -
The Story of Serach
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Sukkot, which ended recently, was an occasion to invite honored ancestral guests, such as Serach, into this outside, temporary dwelling. Never heard of Serach? For many years, neither had I...
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We are all broken: can we heal? Yom Kippur thoughts from a Jewish artisan
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Sometimes, a filament of a thought or a prayer comes to me as I'm working with wire, weaving strand after strand, hopefully, making a piece both beautiful and strong. Sometimes, I will have forgotten about a flaw which was present from the beginning, thinking, "I'll come back and fix that later,"... -
Lessons from a fallen leaf
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On a recent camping trip ( first vacation since...you know),I found a fallen leaf. Not an unusual occurrence in a woodland setting. Yet, this leaf was different from any leaf I'd ever seen before...
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