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Author Archives: Rabbi Steven G. Sager
Heroes Who Limp
Jacob’s midnight assailant was surprised at his adversary’s great strength. He wondered if Jacob might be an angel like himself. Angels have no leg joints, the midrash teaches, so he touched Jacob at the hip to determine whether his opponent’s … Continue reading
Meaning Beyond All Blessings And Poems
“I want my kids to say Kaddish for me after I die, but I can’t explain to them why, or what Kaddish means to me. I’ve looked at the translation—but that’s not what the Kaddish means to me; and if … Continue reading
Posted in Kaddish, Poetry, Prayer
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Jerusalem And The Held Back Scream
The Jerusalem Talmud recounts: When David came to dig the foundations of the Temple he dug fifteen thousand cubits but had not reached the Deep. Finally, he uncovered a cluster of stones and was about to lift it when one rock … Continue reading
Posted in Jerusalem, Poetry, Talmud
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Naming The Unimaginable
At the harrowing end, a ram replaced Yitzhak as the sacrifice; a narrow escape that came only after two divine interventions to divert father Abraham from his unimaginable mission. Generations of rabbinic storytellers imagined even narrower escapes for Yitzhak, placing … Continue reading
Posted in Midrash, Names, Parshat HaShavuah, Poetry, Torah
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Believe it—And Not
Noah was lacking in belief, taught the 3rd century teacher, Rabbi Yohanan. If not for the water reaching his ankles, he would not have entered the ark. Lacking in belief? Noah, who fulfilled the twin tasks of building the great … Continue reading
Posted in Midrash, Parshat HaShavuah, Torah
4 Comments
So That You Will Remember
In the first days after the liberation of Dachau, a US soldier and a wounded survivor chanced to meet on the grounds of that infamous concentration camp. The now liberated prisoner thrust upon the soldier a cake of compacted ashes … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry
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Steps, Blessed Be They
God is steps, declared Yehuda Amichai. Such an outright assertion about God was unusual for the great Israeli poet. He was fond of similes that invited listeners closer to the mystery without violating the distance that mystery needs. Among his … Continue reading
How Deep? How High?
How much do I love you? I’ll tell you no lie. How deep is the ocean? How high is the sky? Irving Berlin wrote the song, How Deep Is the Ocean? in 1932. It consists mainly of rhetorical questions that point … Continue reading
Forgetting Reminds Me…
The national election created in me a deep sense that I wanted to meet and speak with more of my neighbors. In my busy-ness, it’s easy to walk past the community of the every-day. That seems wrong to me now. … Continue reading
Posted in Names, Parshat HaShavuah, Torah
5 Comments
The Walk Is Painful
The poet, Muriel Rukeyser, learned from her mother the family tradition that she was a direct descendant of Rabbi Akiba. Muriel carried that legacy into a life of vision and activism, beginning in the 1930’s when she wrote and spoke … Continue reading
Posted in Midrash, Poetry
2 Comments
