Why do I show up to teach my classes at American Jewish University?  For a whole variety of reasons.  I love teaching.  I signed a contract to do so (I promised).  I owe it to the students, who paid tuition.  I am being paid.  Responses from students challenge me to think in new ways, thus enriching and expanding my scholarship and writing.  I am deeply committed to Judaism for reasons that I have thought about a lot, and I am glad to be training the next generation of rabbis and lay leaders for the Jewish community.  I want people to think well of me Read more...

I was 14 or 15 years old (in 10th grade), I was studying Talmud for the first time as a student in the Prozdor program, and I did NOT get it. Or at least, it didn’t speak to me, and I didn’t think it was something I’d return to once the school year was over.  Little did I know. Read more...

I usually wait till the second paragraph for my public confession, but this time I already alluded to it in the title - yes, I use a comforter when going to sleep even in the summer! I use it all year round! I like the feeling of being embraced and held, I like the sensation of being contained. Read more...

It is an auspicious week to be called on to contribute the ZSRS drashah. In the parashah this week, Vaetchanan, we read both the 10 commandments (Deut. 5:6-18) and the Shema and V’ahavta that have become central to Jewish liturgy (Deut. 6:4-9). This Shabbat on which we read this parashah is also every year the Shabbat known as Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of Comfort. It is the first Shabbat that occurs after the mournful day of Tisha b’Av, and is named for the first words of the haftarah, the first of the seven “haftarot of consolation,” from Is. Read more...

When the Lord enlarges your territory, as He has promised you, and you say, "I shall eat some meat," for you have the urge to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you wish. If the place where the Lord has chosen to establish His name [the Temple in Jerusalem] is too far from you, you may slaughter any of the cattle or sheep that the Lord gives you, as I have instructed you; and you may eat to your heart's content in your settlements....But make sure that you do not partake of the blood, for the blood is the life, and you must not consume the life with the flesh. Read more...