Remembering to cherish: From Station Eleven to Jerusalem
Remembering to cherish: From Station Eleven to Jerusalem
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Rooted in darkness, reaching for the sun
TU B'SHEVAT THOUGHTS Jews who grew up in the Southern Hemisphere, as I did, have something in common: We are used to Jewish holidays...
Plural Unity: The Antidote to Fragility
Sukkot 5784 The holiday of Sukkot is supposed to be the merriest day in the Jewish calendar. It is also the holiday of togetherness and...
Confronting Our True Selves in the Mirror
Rosh Hashana 5784 Anosognosia is one of the most perplexing mental conditions. The term was first used in 1914 by French neurologist...
Extremism and Catastrophe – the Lesson of Tisha B’Av
Tisha B'Av 5783 I grew up on a myth: that the Jewish Revolt against Rome was virtuous and heroic; a fight for freedom led by saintly men....
Shavuot, or Why Sinatra Was Wrong
Shavuot 5783 The famous song “My Way”, popularized by Frank Sinatra, is problematic. For starters, the music belongs to a 1967 French...
After the Siren: Yom Hazikaron 5783
Israel has two major memorial days: Yom Hazikaron—the remembrance day for fallen soldiers of Israel and Israeli terror victims—and Yom...
Overcoming Learned Helplessness (Passover 5783)
Passover 5783 The concept of “learned helplessness,” coined by psychologist Martin Seligman, became the cornerstone of his groundbreaking...
The Story of the Diaspora in a Nutshell
Let’s face it, on Purim we Jews look pathetic. Yeah, I know, it’s supposed to be a happy holiday in which we were miraculously saved, but...
Climate Change, Delayed Gratification and Tu Bishvat
Tu Bishvat 5783 At this time of the year, three years ago, I wrote about Stav Harari and Dean Shoshani. They were both 25 and had just...
Building Permanence Among the Temporary
Sukkot 5783 While generally not a fan of dystopian fiction, I recently fell for one such book: “The Second Sleep” by Robert Harris. A...
When Believing Is 'Seeing'
Rosh Hashanah 5783 The Anton-Babinsky Syndrome has puzzled doctors since antiquity. It’s a rare condition in which the patient has lost...
Teaming Up with Our Past and Future Selves
Rosh Hashanah 5782 Who would we be if we had made different choices? If we’d told that secret, left that relationship, written that book?...
Mourn the Past, But Build a Better Future
Tisha B'Av 5782 I thought about Tisha B’Av recently, as I stood in Jerusalem’s Davidson Archeological Park (thank you, William Davidson...
Shavuot Made Me a Zionist. Here's Why.
Shavuot made me a Zionist. Well, maybe it wasn’t just Shavuot, but that holiday played an important role. Why? Because when you grow up...
Robots at the Seder Table? Training Ourselves to Be in Community Again
Passover 5782 Tell me honestly: Are you anticipating your Passover seder with excitement or dread? Do you really want to meet all your...
The Problem with Kings
Purim 5782 The synagogue of “El Tránsito” in Toledo, Spain is among the oldest and most beautiful in the world, with a sanctuary...
The Miracle of Small Miracles (Chanukah 5782)
Chanukah 5782 Mythical stories in all cultures, which developed mostly before literacy was common, rely on portentous and unusual images...
Embracing the Transition
Sukkot 5782 The novelist Milan Kundera noted that the difference between a path and a highway is that a path is “a strip of ground over...
Looking Beyond the Horizon
Tisha B'Av 5781 The word “horizon” is tricky. We generally refer to the horizon as an indication of expansiveness, even limitlessness....
What Really Happened at Mount Sinai?
Shavuot 5781 According to Midrash, all the souls of the future generations were present at Mount Sinai the moment the Torah was given. As...
As We Leave Egypt and Covid, We Cannot Simply ‘Go Back’ To the Past (Passover 5781)
If you have a European or Middle Eastern heritage and you grow up in the Southern Hemisphere, you suffer from permanent cognitive...
Overcoming the Revival of 'Hamanism' (Purim 5781)
Ridiculousness is one of the central characteristics of Purim. On this holiday, we are not afraid to be silly and absurd. We don funny...
Defying Entropy (Tu Bishvat 5781)
It takes just 13 seconds to chop down a tree with an ax. If you must know, New Zealander David Bolstad holds the world record of...
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