Sehnsucht (c. 1900). Heinrich Vogeler / Wikimedia Commons I wrote this piece during the Pesach immediately following Ronen's death, which was also right after COVID locked down the world. I thought I had shared it before, but looks like it's just been sitting on my hard drive for the past six years. But every year the message and the tune of "dayeinu" being so unabashedly perky -- and the number of times I need to sing it as part of preparatory Pesach teaching -- continues to...

Exodus 3-4 brings us the negotiation between God and Moshe, in which Moshe ultimately discovers that he has no choice but to lead. Moshe is famously reluctant to take on this role. More than just protesting on the basis of "heavy of speech," Moshe rebuffs God's continued insistence that he rise to the occasion and lead God's People out of Egypt. SIX times....

"It’s unnatural for parents to bury their child.” I’ve heard over and over. People have said it to me, as if they think it’s comforting. (It’s not.) I’ve heard it said by well-meaning clergy at funerals. There are bereaved parents who say this, for whom it is comforting. If it comes from them , that’s the exception. In the same way you (the outsider, not the parent) should not impose your theology on a bereaved parent’s experience, so too this is one thing you should not say to them...