Real Rabbi NYC

Turning it Upside Down (Tzav)

I’ve been wondering how to go forward with my weekly blogs and podcasts, focusing only on Torah, which is so male-oriented, as a female rabbi coming into my own. Am I continuing the sexism? On Purim, we are commanded to turn everything on its head. Thinking about the 50th anniversary of the first ordained American female rabbi, plus this week’s parsha, made me wonder about my role and how to stretch to the next level. But it’s true of the world as well. It’s being stretched, as we all are. Th...

How do we?? (Va’Yikra)

With all that’s happening in Ukraine, what is our individual and collective responsibility? This week’s parsha is about how to make expiation. How do we??

Scary Good Girls & P’kudei

Can we take one more thing? I mean, we need a war, too, now, on top of the pandemic? How scary is that? As a distraction, and to laugh, I’ve been watching Good Girls. We’re coming into Purim soon, when we’re supposed to laugh, so I guess I’m practicing. P’kudei is a completion of sorts, with nothing to laugh about, and the mystery of clouds and fires, but we do need to laugh, as one Ukrainian mother reminds us.

That Can’t Be All (Vayak’hel)

When my friend told me she had to go for surgery next week and she was scared, I went into overdrive in organizing a circle to support her in healing. And the gifts of offerings started pouring in from those attendance: could I tell them stop, it’s too much, like Moses did to the Israelites?

I asked for rags? (Ki Tissa)

My daughter went to Mexico and she asked what I wanted her to bring back. Rags, I said. Listen if you’re curious how this could possibly connect to the Golden Calf, the broken tablets, the death of so many Israelites, and the glow Moses gets when he speaks to God. I hope you’re curious. ;)

Blood on Your Hands: Tetzaveh

In this week’s parsha, the priests are given their special clothing and rules about sacrifices. There’s lots of blood from the animal sacrifices and the priests must wear the twelve tribes on their hearts. What do we wear on our hearts? Do we only think about our own tribes? The first episode of Radio Lab inspired this episode of my podcast.

Bells on their robes and blood on their hands: Tetzaveh

In this week’s parsha, the priests are given their special clothing and rules about sacrifices. There’s lots of blood from the animal sacrifices and the priests must wear the twelve tribes on their hearts. What do we wear on our hearts? Do we only think about our own tribes? The first episode of Radio Lab inspired this episode of my podcast.

Carving out the gifts of T’rumah

Is the sanctuary a beautiful place for God, or is it for us? Because who needs it, really? Last week I talked about sacred time; this week I talk about sacred space and why it’s so important, especially in today’s world.

A wedding stuck in time and Mishpatim

In our efforts to control or conquer time, we get so bogged down in the details of doing that hold us back from what really matters, yet sometimes it’s also the details that really matter. The laws of the Torah seem stuck in an ancient time, yet sometimes they are translatable and we still have to learn from them in our time. Here I talk about a nightmare I had about my daughter’s upcoming wedding and how it led to rethinking the timing of it—and other things, especially what really matters.

Snakes or toilet brushes? And Yitro

After walking to freedom, there’s still so much work to be done. Jethro hears the calling and becomes a believer. The Israelites finally do, too, but true change and transformation will be harder. As we just celebrated the life of Dr. King, we continue to struggle to see the human family as and our connection to earth as One. From Black Lives Matter to Critical Race Theory being banned and racist voices gaining power, we can not lose the faith we learn from people like Jethro and MLK in the p...

Toilet Bowls and Walls of Water

This week is when we walk to freedom through the split sea. But it’s not a straight line to freedom, and we may have a change of heart and want to turn around and go back to a time and place we imagine was better. But was it really?

Come into the Darkness: Bo

It’s January 6th, a new part of our history to commemorate. Sometimes we need to see the darkness before we can come out of it. Darkness is one of the last plagues, and things will get worse before they get better, but the story of liberation is so central to Judaism, it has given strength to so many people to keep going.

How Whole is Your Heart? (Va-era)

This episode is about the state of our hearts and whether we keep them open or closed and how that impacts the world. How much are we thinking about the vaccine as a cure-all for our global problems while neglecting the environmental crisis? And how can we do it differently?

Oy! (Sh’mot & Solstice)

With the darkest days and times upon us, Moses comes along to give us hope, as he has done for previous generations. So many parallels…

A Reason for Jubilation: Vayigash

Personal debt in the form of credit cards, student debt, medical debt, enslaves Americans in the same way the starving people during the famine in Torah were enslaved by their debt to Pharaoh. This week in Torah, Joseph reveals his true identity to his brothers, his family is saved from the famine, but not without a compromise. The starving people go into debt in order to eat, as so many are today. Jubilee? Shmita? A release of debt? Many are calling for it now!

Waking Up: Miketz

Dreams and the way our lives turn out often diverge, something to the point that we are shocked. Miketz is about waking up, losing innocence, and hopefully learning from our experiences. This is true for us as individuals but also for the world as we wake up from this nightmare of a pandemic.

Prostitutes, Rings and Va-Yeishev

It was Thanksgiving again, and so different from last year’s middle-of-the-pandemic one. Now it was edge-of-the-pandemic, and reintegrating slowly into life with lessons hopefully learned. I was wondering about the circularity of life, a ring I lost and found, Tamar’s story of prostitution and how women have taken care of themselves and each other for eons because the greater society fails to do so. Listen to learn more!

Yes to the Dress? (Vayishlach)

How do our expectations and perceptions change or impact a situation, whether it’s wedding dress shopping with my daughter or Jacob meeting his brother after so many years? Listen to find out.

Need I Explain?? (Vayeitzei)

Women’s agency over their own bodies, Kyle Rittenhouse, racist attacks and trials, the climate summit. They’re all related. And to this week’s Torah reading…Need I explain?

Broken Yolks and Toldot

What do Halloween, Jacob and Esau and the Climate Summit in Glasgow have in common? Listen and you’ll find out!

Caves, chaos, and caving in: Chayei Sarah

Our culture makes death more difficult and chaotic than it needs to be, but birth and death are on the same continuum. We also have a strong political influence that pits science against religion and spirituality, creating and adding to the chaos in our government, country and world, making a dangerous debate about climate change, as if it were up for debate. In this week’s parsha, there is bargaining and also faith. Listen as I tell the story of my dying cousin and what it has to do with cli...

Laughing at Angels: Va-Yera

In our culture, it’s taboo to believe in angels or to talk openly about being “led.” We laugh at the idea of angels because we are intelligent, modern people. In Torah, our matriarch Sarah also laughs. This week’s parsha is chock full of angels. In this episode, I explore what might happen if we suspend belief in our deep beliefs.

Entitlement, Majesty and Lekh Lekha

In this episode I explore Abraham and Sarah’s use of their power and entitlement and how that contrasts with other ways of using the same, whether we feel “entitled” or not, and how we can be creative about it. I re-tell a beautiful story by Elizabeth Gilbert, famous author of Eat, Pray, Love.

Oh, No, Noah!

We make mistakes, God makes mistakes, and Noah made the terrible mistake of not speaking up to God when God decides to destroy all life with the flood. Noah is supposed to be the only righteous person of his generation, but…? Faith in God, faith in humanity and faith in our own voice all comes into question.

Was it Good or Was it Bad? (Breishit)

How we label things is important, and being clear about our intentions is also important. On the surface, God of the Bible and his creations seem simple, good or bad, but underneath it, nothing is simple.

What’s in Your Head? (Sukkos & V’zot Ha’bracha

As we finally reach the end of the Torah and are about to begin again, we are left with a bunch of blessings for security and peace going forward—or the Israelites are. How blessed—and how cursed—do we feel? How much of it is based on reality and how much is in our heads? I tell a story of something that happened the other day in the park that left me completely rattled and thinking about these things.

Push-Up Competition and Yom Kippur/Ha’azinu

On the most somber day of the Jewish year, how seriously do we need to take ourselves? Well…

A Plumbing Issue: Rosh Hashanah & Va-Yeilekh

What we need at this time of year is a good flush—of our personal systems—from all the old and newer traumas, so we can move on and find new and better ways to live.

Who By Fire?

After yet another very destructive hurricane, we enter the Jewish New Year, a time of rest and prayer, to take a break from the action and renew ourselves to continue the work of healing ourselves and the world

Don’t F** Up; It’s a Commandment (Ki Tavo)

There are many prophetic voices in this week’s Torah portion, of doom and gloom, but also of hope and possibilities. As we come to the end of Torah and the Jewish year, and also enter a year of rest for the earth, we are reminded that there are in fact possibilities for the future, so we must grab the opportunity.

Starving Children? Where? (Eikev)

Charity vs changing the system? And what does the Bible have to do with that? Here I tell of a funny and ridiculous inner argument I had with myself when I struggled to get away with some well-meaning people on the street trying to get me to sign up for a good purpose and how I got away finally. But the struggle within continues.

Enough Already! (Va’etchanan)

Do we need permission to be critical of our traditions, our religion, our god, our holy books? Hopefully not, but I’m case we do, we actually have it! Listen in to find out!

F & M: D’varim & Tisha B’Av

Survival in difficult times comes from community, but also the belief in the fantastical and magical. In fact, we can make the magic happen, and when we make fun in the midst of the pain, we gain autonomy over it. The customs of the commemoration of the destruction of the Temple and Torah both have lessons for us on how to live going forward into the scary unknown.

Attitudes, Platitudes & the Promise of Bliss: Mattot-Masei

Is ignorance really bliss? It’s the 4th of July, and what are we celebrating? What do we do with the ugly history and stories of our country—and our Torah? Gloss them over? Retell them in ways that make them not so bad? Where does that leave us? Listen and find out.

Joie de Vivre: not so Pinchas

Pinchas is a violent biblical character, rewarded for his zealotry by God. But there’s hope in Zelophehad’s daughters. And Dr. Ruth teaches a lot about living too. Personally, I’d like to learn from all these strong females.

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Great Story (maybe not true): Balak

How many times have we had doors slam in our faces, our hearts breaking because we believed something that just wasn’t true? What was it we couldn’t see? In the story of Balak in the Torah, Bilam can’t see the angel with its sword blocking his way. What message is there in this for us?