By Stacey Zisook Robinson
I remember your kindness
In the desert.
We wandered there
In the dry air
that carried the scent of almonds.
Oh! my Beloved,
You spread salvation before me,
Cast in iron
and tasting of copper,
pockmarked,
eroded with the weight of centuries
and rain.
My bridal veil is trampled
before those walls
And the […]
by Student Rabbi Stacey Zisook Robinson
I
have never seen such forever water.
I hear its incessant burbling,
a chant, perhaps to God,
Who has come to us as Fire,
Who has come to us as Smoke.
Who has come to us
at last,
bringing wonder and magic
and freedom,
perhaps.
I hear chatter of freedom,
but my back is striped still
and there is this forever Sea,
murmuring its prayers to
the […]
By Student Rabbi Stacey Robinson
Sing praise and
shout hallelujah
as bullets sing their siren song
and death is never far;
and sing praise
while fires rage and
children fall silent
behind barbed wire fences, and
children fall silent
with bellies distended, and
children fall silent
as their homes are devoured,
and they race against monsters and time.
Sing praise, for the monsters are winning.
Free the captive.
Feed the hungry.
Give shelter to those in need.
This is my song,
this praises […]
By Stacey Robinson
Put the stone under your head
and rest; don’t be disturbed
by the kaleidoscope of angels
on their merry ride of
up and down,
between heaven and earth
and there and back again.
They may be lost,
those angels, or at least
Stuck, intractable in their
proscribed tracks,
their lesson a cautionary tale
in thinking heaven is up.
Let your stone,
cold and hard,
remind you that
there is no place God is not,
even in that rock,
and all […]
By Student Rabbi Stacey Robinson
It was not evening,
nor night,
not quite –
although the sickle moon,
dusted in orange,
kissed the passing clouds
It was not morning,
tho the sun
stained the sky
scarlet,
and shivered there,
on the horizon
that was sea and sky together,
and neither sea
nor sky
alone.
And so we prayed,
gathered at the water’s edge,
in the not-evening-
Almost morning.
We opened our lips
on the border
of land that moved
with fluid grace,
next to the dark glass
of an obsidian […]
By Rabbi Dr. Douglas Goldhamer
In last week’s Torah portion, members of the community of Israel profane themselves by engaging in licentious behavior with Moabite women and worshiping the Moabite god. Hashem becomes incensed with Israel and tells Moses to impale the leaders committing these actions. “The Lord’s wrath may turn away from Israel.” (Numbers 25:4) Pinchas witnesses an Israelite consorting with a Midianite woman […]
As part of our 25th Anniversary Torah v Talmud debate, Hebrew Seminary Board member Allen Meyer presented the following well received and most enjoyable story about the relevance and longevity of Jewish values, traditions and peoplehood.
Chapter One
Albert Einstein boards a train. It leaves the station. The conductor comes to collect the tickets. He gets to Einstein who looks high and low for it. […]
by Alison C. Brown, Executive Director
Fear not, while it currently feels as though some of our world leaders have purposefully severed our ancestral roots, I suspect every generation feels that way.
Parashah Toldot is a Jewish narrative about our ancestral roots and serves as another installment in the guide to being fully human. Together with the many Jewish texts redacted and commented upon over the […]
Sefer Assiyah
The Book of Making
September 2017
Recently, on an extraordinarily mild and sunny day in Chicagoland, I went to a nature center with my son and grandson. We peered and searched through aquariums, terrariums and pools of water — home to local critters. We spent a lot of time with the turtles – who knew they were such adept communicators when stressed out with their […]
Rabbi Goldhamer can you teach us more about the month of Elul? You have referred to this month as the most powerfully charged spiritual month of the Hebrew calendar.
Elul began on August 23rd this year. The Mishnah B’rura (a “clear” or simple version of the Jewish law book Shulchan Aruck) states that Song of Songs 6:3 is, according to the Rabbis, the most important […]
