Material culture is a big part of the celebration of Sukkot. It is the only time of the year when engineering and construction are part of sanctified Jewish practice. Aesthetics become more important than at most other times of the year. We concentrate on the Jewish value of Hiddur Mitzvah, beautifying the way that we fulfill the commandments.

It used to be that if you were to enter a synagogue, you would know exactly what day it was and what time of day. The Nusakh, the foundational melody of the prayer service, is the Jewish timekeeper. But unlike a clock, it contains intense emotions; some times are announced in banality, some in triumph, some in peace, and some in desperation.

Moses’ poem can be understood as a radical call to our people: never to sink into corrupting norms.

And where was I when David Meltzer wrote the emails I read this week on printed sheets, the later moments of his personal archive?

In the Musaf service of Rosh Hashanah, the Hineni prayer leads to the repetition of the Amidah, which includes the special prayers of Unetaneh Tokef and Aleinu, and concludes with the Kaddish Shalem. In my thoughts on Rosh Hashanah, I intend to walk through the themes, personal feelings and music of these sacred prayers. 

Rashi comments that while God puts before us a choice, God tells us what to choose at the same time; “Here I give you life and death, blessings and curses… But choose life.”

Downtown doesn’t belong to any race or ethnicity, any religion or class. It doesn’t even belong to the people who live there.

Not only is it with Wisdom that God created the Universe, but that Wisdom for all people is preceded by God.

The greatest talents of European classical music made Los Angeles their center.

טיילן פֿונעם וועג, ווען דער ים־פֿלייץ איז אַ צופֿלייץ און די כוואַליעס קומען נישט אָן אַזוי נאָענט צום דרך.

Bialik wrote many children’s songs, all of which are still endlessly sung to children today. But Bialik scholars speak of hidden layers, radical messaging, and multiple hidden meanings in his songs.

It is too early to think of our lives alone. We still live in a city of hunger and homelessness, where members of our community have been turned into fugitives, where children are still struggling to get the educations that they deserve, where the housing that is available is neither affordable nor always well maintained (regardless of cost), where race and ethnicity mean more than they should when it comes to opportunity, where the environment is respected only sometimes, where corruption is rife, and where communities that should be working together are turned against each other.

One of the items that came out of the boxes of records that Der Nister acquired recently is entitled “Song from the Ghetto,” and includes four pieces of music recorded by Cantor Joseph S. Lengyel (aka Josef Schwarzmer Lengyel) on three 78 rpm records.

An ideal society, according to Buber, is neither one made up of fragmented individuals who keep to themselves nor one that enshrines the collective by erasing the individual. An ideal society is one in which distinct, fully developed, and fulfilled individuals form true connections with one another and continue to develop these networks of connection within a structured system.

We don’t take the idea of being blessed or cursed as seriously as it was taken in the Biblical world.

דער קאָלעקטיוו אַרבעט צו באַערן די טראַדיציע פֿון דער ייִדישער דרוק־קולטור דורך לעטערפּרעס.

The danger isn't simply that some people win and others lose. The danger is what happens to us after we win.

When I sold these books I thought that they were going to a person or an institution where they would be read as the books that they are rather than turned into data for a machine.

God cannot force us to see Him as more important than the world that is right before our eyes.

Why is it so important that Moses loses responsibility and the Children of Israel take it on, for Moses’ own failure?