It’s almost half over! When the shmita year, a once in seven-year opportunity to transform our world, began this past Rosh Hashanah, rabbis, educators, and communities across the Jewish world were buzzing with ideas about new ways to implement the heavenly values of spiritual renewal, release from debt, letting the land lay fallow, and more. … More »
Stop Now! ‘Shmita’ and Climate Change
Imagine that you’re a wealthy landowner in ancient Israel. You know the shmita (sabbatical) year is coming and what’s required: You must stop planting and let your land lie fallow for the year. You must forego a year of profit. Not only that: Over the past few years, you have lent money to your poor … More »
‘Shmita’: Now What?
Writing the third essay in a yearlong Sh’ma series on shmita, I assume you are not, as it were, a shmita beginner. More has been written about shmita in the American Jewish community since this shmita year began than in any previous shmita cycle. Rabbis spoke about shmita during the High Holidays; Jewish newspapers ran … More »
In the Land of Israel
The shmita commandments are immensely radical. They legislate a septennial time-out in Jewish economic life, a year of spiritual renewal, a holiday for the land, and a yearlong cease-fire in the harsh economic struggle for survival. Shmita calls for the abolition of many of the rights of private property; a leveling of rich and poor, … More »
Shmita: A Year of Urgent Questions
My new year’s resolutions for Rosh Hashanah will look a bit different this year. They will include: eating more perennial foods; reducing new acquisitions whenever possible, and frequenting resale shops or borrowing from family and friends when not; paying all monthly bills in full and on time; cleaning out my closets and giving away to … More »
“Mom-Dad” and “Dad-Mom”: Transgender Parents and Our Children
I always knew I wasn’t a girl. In my early 30s, as a single lesbian (not really identified as a “woman”) I decided to become pregnant. I chose to parent as a single lesbian transsexual, aware that my child would face an array of challenges particular to our family construction. Because of this, I felt … More »
Ethical Dilemmas in Adoptive Parenting
As a Jewish adoptive parent, how should I respond if my child wants a Christmas tree, in part because she sees it as a connection to her birth family? What if she later goes through a prolonged stage of wanting to wear a large rhinestone cross as part of her adolescent struggles with identity? What … More »
Other People’s Children
Let’s open the window and lift our shirts and shake our titties at people…Let’s play a trick on your sister… That is so gay… We don’t want to clean up and you can’t make us… If you say no, I will throw this at you… This is stupid. They are stupid. This whole party is … More »
Parents Need Not Apply (But they can certainly help)
I just had a great sushi dinner with my son who is applying to graduate school. We had a rich and interesting conversation about his application essay — exploring ideas, weighing the pros and cons of including certain experiences he’s had, and strategizing about what the readers would want to hear. Later tonight, I’ll edit … More »