This is a reworking of a haftarah shared last year on Velveteen Rabbi. The poem has been revised, and it now features trope markings in English, a collaboration between R. […]

One of the things we most wanted to do, when we started Bayit (the Jewish spiritual innovation incubator that I co-founded with several friends and colleagues several years ago now), was uplift bot…

I wrote this psalm on the Bayit board retreat last summer one day after morning prayer. When I shared it with fellow Bayit board member Steve Silbert he created this illustration, which I meant to …

If you prefer to read this essay as a downloadable PDF, it’s available in that format here: Sefirat_HaBinyan_Framework_Nerlinger.  I. Two Corridors of Sacred Time The Jewish year is structured around ...

What are the laments of our hearts as we approach Tisha b’Av this year? What feels broken in us, in our communities, in our world? What are we holding, how […]

Color the Omer is a tool for counting the Omer with mindfulness and beauty. These illustrations offer a meditative focus and an artistic activity for each day of the journey between Pesach and Shavuot...

With the approaching new year’s sweetness, we taste the bitterness of suffering across the Mideast. What does this poignant Season of Meaning ask of us, and can we breathe new […]

With the approaching new year’s sweetness, we taste the bitterness of suffering across the Mideast. What does this poignant Season of Meaning ask of us, and can we breathe new […]

The closing blessing of the Amidah asks for shalom: peace, wholeness, completion. What does this prayer mean to us today? What does it ask of God – and of us? […]

Once again, Passover approaches amidst some anxiety and uncertainty. Many of us are living in Mitzrayim / meitzarim / constriction. And once again, Pesach comes to remind us that our […]

Once again, Passover approaches amidst some anxiety and uncertainty. Many of us are living in Mitzrayim / meitzarim / constriction. And once again, Pesach comes to remind us that our […]

The words in Hebrew for “chametz” and “matzah” are similar. They both have a “מ – mem” and a “צ – tzadi,” and the third letters are nearly identical in […]

Once again, Passover approaches amidst some anxiety and uncertainty. Many of us are living in Mitzrayim / meitzarim / constriction. And once again, Pesach comes to remind us that our […]

A revelation is not a creation of new information, but it is the ability to access something that was previously unknown. When something is concealed, it’s not less there, it […]

“There is nothing as whole as a broken heart.” This famous teaching from the Kotzker Rebbe is crucial to understand not only Yachatz, the fourth stage of the Seder, but […]

Liberation cannot be outsourced. Showing up in person saves lives. The Haggadah emphasizes the point that God showed up “בִּכְבוֹדוֹ וּבְעַצְמוֹ – with God’s honor and presence” and goes out […]

It’s not Politics. It’s Morality. And Life. Occasionally we talk in synagogue about spicy topics in which folks have a difference of opinions. We hold the space for slightly uncomfortable...

This year Tu B’Shevat coincides with Martin Luther King weekend. From that spiritual confluence comes this setting of excerpts from Letter from a Birmingham Jail, set to haftarah trope by […]

The Hebrew word avodah implies service, work, and prayer. Is service the same as serving or servitude? What do we serve? Who or Whom do we serve? How do we serve? […]