Torah! Torah! Torah!
Since so many of you liked my writing on the first chapters of Genesis, I thought I’d share an essay I wrote on another Torah portion. I wrote this four years ago — we had just gotten Milo, and that...
View ArticleLatkes, here I come
I was planning to blog today about your awesome comments on my “holiday joys and woes” post, and how although Hanukkah doesn’t do it for me on any level, what you wrote helped. Because I realized that...
View ArticleHanukkah
I’d mentioned that I had a difficult time finding meaning in Hanukkah. Here‘s an excellent article in Slate that looks at the awkward history behind the holiday, and might explain better to folks —...
View ArticleHappy solstice!
Any pagans, Wiccans, pantheists, followers of Native American spirituality in da house? Now’s the time to throw your hands up and delurk. Tell me a little about yourself, what your tradition means to...
View ArticlePurim!
Purim is this weekend — very early this year, and I am planning, God and gut willing, to enjoy a wonderful party at my synagogue tomorrow night. For those not in the know, Purim celebrates the book of...
View ArticlePeaceBang bats it out, and a poll
Speaking of the powerless, the silenced, PeaceBang blew me out of the water with this insight: “To be a religious person is to notice everyone, period.” Read the whole post, it’s thought-provoking and...
View ArticleDoes this ad work for you?
If you are a Christian, does this Vineyard Fellowship ad work for you? The same design can also be seen on billboards. I get the appeal of trying to break stereotypes about what religious institutions...
View ArticleBible boo-boos
So, last night I went to see a play — I’m not going to link to what I saw, in case this would embarrass anyone, which it shouldn’t — in which there was a reference to Rahab, the virtuous prostitute in...
View ArticleSimchat Torah
IT’S SIMCHAT TORAH, BAYBEEZ!!!!!! I love Simchat Torah. I love it, I love it, I love it. It is my favorite Jewish holiday. Even last year, when I was too sick to make it to the High Holy Days, go to my...
View ArticleWhat I think when I see Muslims
When I decided to go to graduate school, I came out east to interview at B.U., Carnegie Mellon, and Temple University. It was delightful taking the train around, and reading books on political...
View ArticleChurch, people
Did anyone see last week’s episode of “The Office”? I’d been about ready to trash the show for good last season, especially after the unforgivably heinous “Scott’s Tots.” But dang, they had to go bring...
View ArticleExile, fandom, acne, hair, dance
And I’m back, everyone! The break was nice, although I never had any sort of great Passover-y moment of revelation. One thing I found myself thinking of a lot was the people who were born and died...
View ArticleCan you hear me now?
I’m going to visit the ConductMom and my old Kansas City gang this week and next, so posting may be slow. Which reminds me of the last blog break I took, over Passover. I wrote, Anyway, I’m going to...
View ArticleHangout of the “Planet of the Apes”
Earlier this week I did a video broadcast with PeaceBang and NYT religion reporter Michael Paulson about religion themes in “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” which Mr. Improbable and I saw this...
View ArticleReal relationships with fictional people
Who is your favorite literary or pop-culture character? Why? Do you ever think about that person to get you through hard times? This is another one of those bits of human nature that art and culture...
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