Archive • etz hi • Buttondown

December 6, 2024

sholem aleichem, Yaakov sleeps, and dreams, and: וַיִּיקַ֣ץ יַעֲקֹב֮ מִשְּׁנָתוֹ֒ וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אָכֵן֙ יֵ֣שׁ יְהֹוָ֔ה בַּמָּק֖וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה וְאָנֹכִ֖י לֹ֥א...

toldos: enmity

November 29, 2024

sholem aleichem, there’s a thought i’ve returned to a few times over the past year, of someone born in gaza around the same time i was born in the US. of...

chayei sarah: a palm of merit

November 22, 2024

sholem aleichem, a couple quick announcements before the dvar:(1) preorders are live for tatir tz’rurah: an antizionist, traditional-egalitarian siddur for...

vayera: simple chesed

November 15, 2024

sholem aleichem, last week, i wrote every day we can choose to learn, to serve, to act with loving-kindness. that’s very nice, past-ada, but how exactly do...

lech lcha: this world

November 8, 2024

sholem aleichem, when we have fallen down, the Place remember us. because there is loving-kindness in the world. our torah portion this week has a verse of a...

noach: birthright

November 1, 2024

sholem aleichem, i love learning things from the “boring” parts of torah: וַיּ֥וֹלֶד נֹ֖חַ שְׁלֹשָׁ֣ה בָנִ֑ים אֶת־שֵׁ֖ם אֶת־חָ֥ם וְאֶת־יָֽפֶתnoach begot...

bereshis

October 25, 2024

sholem aleichem, let’s start the book again, yeah? בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ the masoretes broke this verse into two...

shavuos

June 11, 2024

sholem aleichem and chag shavuos sameach, friends. it’s been a while! i had to take some time off from writing while i moved to a new city and started a new...

doing hope

April 26, 2024

sholem aleichem, this shabbos — shabbos chol hamoed pesach — we’ll read a section of torah including shemos 34:6-7 (loosely referencing Everett Fox’s...

pesach: dayenu and A15

April 15, 2024

sholem aleichem, today is april 15th, tax day in the united states, and the day of the A15 Economic Blockades for Palestine i thought i would take this...

tzav: heart in my mouth

March 28, 2024

sholem aleichem, vayikra and tzav both lay out the laws of the sacrifice of shalom ("peace", "wellbeing", "repayment"). this is a sacrifice you might offer...

pekudei: we are human

March 11, 2024

sholem aleichem, our parsha, and the entirety of sefer shemos, ends with the following psukim: וּבְהֵעָל֤וֹת הֶֽעָנָן֙ מֵעַ֣ל הַמִּשְׁכָּ֔ן יִסְע֖וּ בְּנֵ֣י...

terumah: moving with god

February 16, 2024

sholem aleichem, א I didn't grow up going to shul, really. People often assume I did. A well-meaning shul-goer the other week explained to me that, since I...

Mishpatim

February 9, 2024

Sholem aleichem, [CW: discussion of slavery, abortion rights, and genocide (in particular, current events in Gaza)] Mishpatim is one of the most jarring...

Beshalach: apartheid-free Burlington

January 25, 2024

A statement on the recent Burlington City Council meeting, as a member of the greater-Burlington Jewish community: In the Torah portion read by the Jewish...

Infinitely Broken Shards

January 19, 2024

The Baal Shem Tov once visited the Noam Elimelech in a dream. They stood on a high mountain, taller than any mountain on earth. The Noam Elimelech cried out...

three texts

October 19, 2023

sholem aleichem. i don't have many coherent thoughts right now, but i want to share three texts that have been on my heart lately. first, from noach in the...

emor and online class announcement!

May 4, 2023

sholem aleixem! i've been out of touch for a bit....but i've been cooking up something very special. but before we get to that, a word from this week's...

announcing: revolutionary reading group

April 23, 2023

sholem aleichem, apologies for bothering your inbox sans drash, but two things: if you are looking for hot etz hi takes on parshas tazria, metzora, or...

shemini: seek wholenesses

April 16, 2023

sholem aleichem, apologies for the lateness of this newsletter -- with pesach and multiple yamim tovim, i did not have time to write. my word for this parsha...

etz hi tdov: choose love

March 31, 2023

hi, i'm republishing the piece below (shortened somewhat) in honor of tristen's first yahrtzeit (tomorrow), fern's first yahrtzeit (sunday), and (i...

tzav: gd in transition

March 26, 2023

sholem aleichem, thank you all very much for your support on my return to newslettering! i'm happy to be back, baruch hashem, for another week. writing this...

vayikra: the three-fold cord

March 22, 2023

sholem aleichem friends, my apologies for the lengthy absence -- i caught covid shortly after my last newsletter, and it has been a long slog to recover both...

yehoshua: could we

January 27, 2023

sholem aleichem, Happy New Year.....a little late. My apologies that it has been a full month since the last newsletter. I spend all day typing for my day...

yehoshua: the choice is ours

December 29, 2022

sholem aleichem, Hope you are all having a good end to the Gregorian Calendar Year :) This week: Yehoshua 13-15 Summary: Time jump! Yehoshua is now old, but...

yehoshua: barred from teshuva

December 23, 2022

sholem aleichem Happy chanukah y'all! We're halfway done with Yehoshua, thank goodness. Let's go: This week: Yehoshua 11-12 Summary: More kings ally against...

yehoshua: the sefiros turned upside down

December 18, 2022

sholem aleichem Hello again! I have to (once again) apologize for the erratic posting schedule. Without the parsha schedule to keep me honest, it is harder...

yehoshua: before hashem

December 2, 2022

sholem aleichem, It's been a while! Sorry about that. I took a week off for TDOR, and then another week off because I'm in the middle of a big move. This...

yehoshua: neither add nor subtract

November 11, 2022

sholem aleichem,

yehoshua: for us or our enemies

sholem aleichem, Hello everyone! Unfortunately I've been having some issues with the newsletter software, so I am re-writing this email mostly from scratch...

yehoshua: rachav rachav

October 20, 2022

sholem aleichem, Hello friends! Shanah tovah! I'm back from my vacation and all the chagim. I had a wonderful time visiting friends in NYC, meeting some...

nitzavim: choose life and death

September 23, 2022

sholem aleichem, Apologies for missing last week -- the new Covid booster took me out. Be''H, I'll return to Ki Savo next year. I'll keep it short this week,...

ki teitzei: food and water for all

September 8, 2022

sholem aleichem, dvar machine broken, please stand by while we execute a hard reboot of our essential systems. in the meantime, enjoy this message from one...

shoftim: the sword of friendship

September 2, 2022

sholem aleixem, Hope you all are well. I am full of the spirit of elul, which for me means soooo many Paula Red apples (the first apples of the season! so...

re'eh: from gd's lips

August 26, 2022

Sholem aleichem, It's Friday! I only have time for a short note -- work got very busy, and then I had to switch some of my study-time over to another text at...

ekev: do not give me my daily bread

August 19, 2022

sholem aleichem, Hi friends! Welcome to another Friday. Lots to discuss. First, thank you to everyone who replied to last week's newsletter -- I promise I...

vaeschanan: choose love

August 11, 2022

sholem aleixem, Note א: My learning this week is dedicated to the memories of tristen, fern, fall, and soph. I'm thinking of you. Note ב: I studied the text...

devarim: a man of few words

August 5, 2022

Hey friends, Welcome to Devarim :) I'm feeling really grateful for the Torah cycle this week. It's so nice to have study practice like this that just keeps...

matos-masei: purest anguish, purest joy

July 28, 2022

Happy (?) av friends, A quick newsletter (sorry about the typo. I don't know which one, I just know it is there.) Hard to believe we're here at the end of...

pinchas: always more

July 20, 2022

sholem aleichem, friends! another week in the book. which book? we'll find out soon! We're going to do a short one this week, that I haven't planned at all....

balak: no nations, no borders

July 14, 2022

hello friends, It's been a week, and that's a fact. I don't know about y'all, but I'm ready (once again) for Shabbos. We're in Balak this week, which is the...

chukas:

July 8, 2022

sholem aleixem! Wow, another week! I'm personally feeling quite overwhelmed by gestures broadly. But, it's time for some Torah study and preparation for...

korach: for the sick and afflicted, a maskil of moshe

July 1, 2022

hello all, a short note this week -- i've found it difficult to write, for absolutely no particular reason whatsoever at all. starting in bamidbar 15:32 (end...

sh'lach: fringe theories of halakha

June 24, 2022

hello! What a week! I'm sitting down to draft this on Friday, at the last possible moment, because I've been wildly busy with work and other activities....

beha'aloscha: hello darkness my old friend

June 16, 2022

hello friends! Did you know that cranes build other cranes, unless they are really tall, and then they build themselves? What a metaphor for,,, something....

nasso: priesthood for the people

June 9, 2022

sholem aleichem, Hello friends! Welcome to the end of another week (the plan is to be weekly again for Bamidbar). I hope you had a revelatory Shavuos (if...

bamidbar: borders require police

June 2, 2022

sholem aleixem, Hello again friends! It has been a little while. I hope this newsletter finds you [screeching noises]. Over the course of my Vayikra-hiatus I...

tazria-metzora-achrei: אין אחד אלא דאגה

April 10, 2022

hello friends, A couple introductory caveats. I will be using the words "pure" and "impure" in this drash. Often we try to avoid these, since they carry...

shmini: 1+1=1

March 23, 2022

hello friends, A few very brief thoughts on this week's Torah portion. So in this portion we have Moses giving some commands and then we're told that ויקרבו...