Category Archives: Memory

Sea of Memories

(A conversation submitted by Ariele Sager Rosen, daughter of Rabbi Steve Sager. Ariele is a Jewish Studies teacher in Israel, where she lives with her family) The world is filled with remembering and forgettingAs it is with sea and dry … Continue reading

Posted in Blessing, Days of Awe, Memory, Midrash, Poetry, Talmud, Torah | 2 Comments

Faithfully Practicing Resurrection

The bedtime stories my father told me in our cramped apartment in the gritty Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn sketched a magical, mythical place… [even] the darker stories about hiding from the Cossacks among the tombstones… I needed to get to … Continue reading

Posted in Memory, Poetry | 1 Comment

Sinai’s Appealing Thunder

I will not float in space un-tethered lest a cloud obscure the very fine line in my heart that separates good and evil. I have no life-line without the lightning and the thunder that I heard at Sinai. (Click here … Continue reading

Posted in Holidays, Memory, Midrash, Poetry | Leave a comment

Never Too Early, Never Too Late

On the 9th anniversary of my father’s death— It seemed to some ancient sages that the Book of Ezekiel opens years after the start of the prophet’s career. Instead of beginning in the fifth year of the exile of King … Continue reading

Posted in Events, Life cycle, Memory, Midrash, Poetry | 3 Comments

Monumental Presence

(In memory of Talia Agler) The solace of a gravestone is its solidity—a feature carried in the Hebrew word matzevah, meaning “firmly fixed.” But a gravestone need not merely be a solid surface that reflects the past. It can be … Continue reading

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Noah’s Flood: Outer Landscape and Inner World

An ancient sage and a modern poet, each named Yehuda, give different life to the images of the biblical flood story. The terrain of the flooded world reminded the 4th century sage, Rabbi Yehuda ben Simon, of Psalm 36:7:  Your … Continue reading

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The World is Filled with Remembering and Forgetting

In the world of the Bible, memory is prized.  There are many commands to “remember,” and some, “not to forget” along with the resigned admission that you likely will forget.  The need to remember and remind is a theme that … Continue reading

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