mstreiffer

Don’t Blame Dinah! A Jewish Response to Domestic Abuse

(Below is my sermon delivered last Shabbat – Parashat Vayishlach 5770 – December 4, 2009) Vayishlach might be my favorite Torah portion… because of the wealth of important stories that are found here. Right here in one portion you have Jacob wrestling with the angel. It tells about the Patriarch’s name being changed to YisraelContinueContinue reading “Don’t Blame Dinah! A Jewish Response to Domestic Abuse”

How (Not) to Trash the Earth

This is disturbing! Did you know there is a garbage dump the size of Texas in the middle of the Pacific? According to an article this morning, Light bulbs, bottle caps, toothbrushes, Popsicle sticks and tiny pieces of plastic, each the size of a grain of rice, inhabit the Pacific garbage patch, an area ofContinueContinue reading “How (Not) to Trash the Earth”

New Jews… Old Idea

The “New Jews” article is making its way across cyberspace. Check out http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/10/28/new.and.emergent.jews/ for this story, about the new, innovative, radical ways that Jewish Gen X’ers and Millenials are connecting to Judaism – through tattoos, hip-hop, meaningful Jewish learning, and technology. I have one word in response….DUH. First, let me say that I think there’sContinueContinue reading “New Jews… Old Idea”

The Next Jew Thang…

Last week, Rabbi Niles Goldstein – author of Gonzo Judaism and The Challenge of the Soul – spoke here at Shabbat services. He spoke about the importance of “being grounded,” using Picasso and Miles Davis as examples. As he writes in The Challenge of the Soul (p. 60): Pablo Picasso learned how to draw conventionalContinueContinue reading “The Next Jew Thang…”