Category Archives: Holidays

Everything Will Not Be Alright

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Sicha, Continuing the Conversation

This is how you shall eat your Passover offering: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it b’hippazon (Exodus 12:11)—in hurried, harried, anxious haste. Everything will not be alright … Continue reading →

Posted in Holidays, Passover, Poetry, Torah | 1 Comment

The Nature Of Teshuvah

Posted on October 4, 2019 by Sicha, Continuing the Conversation

An early rabbinic teaching concerns our place in the world’s time: How should we count the years and account for the crops tithed to the Temple? Each season would begin on the first day of the well-chosen month, except for … Continue reading →

Posted in Days of Awe, Holidays, Mishnah, Poetry | Leave a comment

“I” Witness – The Song At The Sea

Posted on April 24, 2019 by Sicha, Continuing the Conversation

A fierce wind plowed the sea, piling a wall of water to either side of a seabed blown dry. Miraculously, there was stable footing for weary slaves—notwithstanding the wind that the sea itself could not withstand. Wind, walls of water, … Continue reading →

Posted in Holidays, Parshat HaShavuah, Passover, Poetry, Torah | Leave a comment

Slowly, And In Our Days

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Sicha, Continuing the Conversation

In a fiery chariot that rose towards heaven, Elijah disappeared from ordinary view and broke into Jewish religious imagination—now appearing at just the right moment, to prompt, protect, and provoke us to deepen ordinary events into Elijah Moments. As a … Continue reading →

Posted in Elijah, Holidays, Passover | 2 Comments

How Deep? How High?

Posted on March 31, 2017 by Sicha, Continuing the Conversation

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 →

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The Binding Of God

Posted on September 29, 2016 by Sicha, Continuing the Conversation

To my mind’s eye, Rabbi Berechiah appeared stoop-shouldered and mournful on Rosh Hashanah as he listened to the Torah reader recite Genesis 22, The Binding of Isaac. Berechiah, a 4th century sage of the land of Israel, was pained by … Continue reading →

Posted in Days of Awe, Holidays, Midrash, Poetry, Torah | 1 Comment

The Eleventh And Twelfth Commandments: Don’t Change! Change!

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Sicha, Continuing the Conversation

My father was God and didn’t know it.  He gave me the ten commandments neither in thunder nor in fury, neither in fire nor in cloud but in gentleness and in love. He added caresses and added kind words adding, … Continue reading →

Posted in Holidays, Poetry | 2 Comments

Leavening On Our Shelves And In Ourselves

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Sicha, Continuing the Conversation

Every year, several weeks before Passover, my personal search for leaven begins in a way that is more symbolic than actual. I approach my bookshelves where there are many books that have served their rising, yeasty purposes and are now … Continue reading →

Posted in Holidays, Midrash, Passover, Poetry | 1 Comment

Blossoms of Seder Night, Fruits of New Year’s Day

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Sicha, Continuing the Conversation

Rabbi Eliezer was sure that the world was created in the fall month of Tishrei, the season of the New Year. His rival, Rabbi Joshua, was equally positive that the world was created at Passover time, in the spring month … Continue reading →

Posted in Holidays, Passover, Poetry, Talmud | 1 Comment

Heaven, Holiness, And Harmony

Posted on September 20, 2015 by Sicha, Continuing the Conversation

On erev Yom Kippur, 1990, the heavens broke open over kibbutz Bet Hashita. In the moment, after the singing, no one spoke; no one wanted to leave. Later, individual recollections of heaven, holiness, and harmony seemed woven into one story, … Continue reading →

Posted in Days of Awe, Holidays | 2 Comments