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Velveteen Rabbi: Tal Ben-Shahar on cultivating happiness
We can always be happier; no person experiences perfect bliss at all times and has nothing more to which he can aspire. Therefore, rather than asking myself whether I am happy or not, a more helpful question is, "How can I become happier?" This questio...
Dateline: 2013-05-19 4:15am -07:00T (1963 words)
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Velveteen Rabbi: Redesign
This blog's first incarnation, in early October of 2003, was on blogspot. I moved to Typepad by late October of that year, and even the Internet Archive / Wayback Machine doesn't have a screencap of what this blog looked like in its very earliest days. Th...
Dateline: 2013-05-18 12:45pm -07:00T (251 words)
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Velveteen Rabbi: A new poem which takes the form of a psalm
Psalm of parenthood
Mother of all, remake me
in Your image. Make me as noble
as the daffodils nodding graciously.
Root me in my generations.
Help me hold on to the splendor
my son sees when he runs toward me
at the end of a schoolday.
Give m...
Dateline: 2013-05-17 5:00am -07:00T (152 words)
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Velveteen Rabbi: Looking even more forward to the 2013 ALEPH Kallah!
To my amazement, my class at this summer's ALEPH Kallah -- "Writing the Psalms of Your Heart" -- has filled up entirely. I set an enrollment cap at 20 people, never imagining for a moment that 20 would actually register for my class -- and they did. Ho...
Dateline: 2013-05-16 10:45am -07:00T (203 words)
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Velveteen Rabbi: After the summit, the climb: a Shavuot teaching
This is the teaching I offered late last night at our Tikkun Leyl Shavuot. It's loosely adapted from the Netivot Shalom, a.k.a. the Slonimer Rebbe, a.k.a. R' Shalom Noach Berezovsky. I originally translated it for a Hasidut class taught by R' Elliot Ginsb...
Dateline: 2013-05-15 4:30am -07:00T (642 words)
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Velveteen Rabbi: The anniversary of the revelation of Torah
Photo, sunbeams at Sinai, by flickr user jacobwod.
Tonight and tomorrow are the anniversary of the revelation of Torah.
The anniversary. One of my favorite teachings holds that tonight, Shavuot, is the Jewish people's wedding anniversary wit...
Dateline: 2013-05-14 8:00am -07:00T (597 words)
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Velveteen Rabbi: Reb Zalman on morning prayer
Many of us think of prayer as a religious duty. Some take this seriously, loping smoothly through the well-worn formulas as a daily obligation. Others draw the line at an hour or two of synagogue on High Holidays. Both approaches have lost contact with ...
Dateline: 2013-05-13 6:45am -07:00T (603 words)
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Velveteen Rabbi: Motherhood, the bitter & the sweet, in Zeek
Just in time for Mother's Day (in the US, anyway), I have a new essay out in Zeek. The essay tells the story of what becoming a mother was like for me. Here's where it begins:
My memories of the earliest months of parenthood are blurred by that perf...
Dateline: 2013-05-12 4:30am -07:00T (494 words)
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Velveteen Rabbi: A Shabbat afternoon poem
Saturday Afternoon Request
Help me to silence
my mind's aggravation alarm,
to quiet the voice which says
the to-do list matters,
to temporarily eschew
continuous partial attention.
Open me to long slow conversations
on the sunlit grass, to ...
Dateline: 2013-05-11 4:45am -07:00T (161 words)
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Velveteen Rabbi: Praise for Waiting to Unfold - from Kristen of Motherese
Despite major life-happenings -- a cross-country move in just a few weeks! -- Kristen of the fabulous blog Motherese has taken a few moments to say kind things about Waiting to Unfold. She writes:
Rachel’s collection records her first year of new mot...
Dateline: 2013-05-10 1:15pm -07:00T (250 words)
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Velveteen Rabbi: Praise for Waiting to Unfold - from Kristin Berkey-Abbott
Poet Kristin Berkey-Abbott has published an incredibly gracious and glowing review of Waiting to Unfold at her blog. Here's a taste:
I'm not a mother, but I know a lot of mothers, and I imagine that this book reminds them of both the joys and the ter...
Dateline: 2013-05-10 5:00am -07:00T (296 words)
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Velveteen Rabbi: Distinctions: a poem for Havdalah
In the end we're like children:we thrive on distinctionsbetween me and you, us and them. Made in Your imagewe separate light from darkness,family from stranger, weekdayfrom that fleeting taste of Paradise.Wax drips from the braided candle.Cinnamon tingl...
Dateline: 2013-05-09 1:30pm -07:00T (277 words)
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Velveteen Rabbi: Lessons in gratitude from a three year old
The last pink rays of afternoon light are coloring the very lip of the distant mountains. Everything else is already in shadow. Wind rustles the dragonfly chime, a periodic descant over the quiet song of spring peepers, a distant car, a barking dog. Our s...
Dateline: 2013-05-07 6:15pm -07:00T (321 words)
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Velveteen Rabbi: A poem from Waiting to Unfold reprinted at Hugo Schwyzer's blog
Deep thanks to Hugo Schwyzer for sharing one of the poems from my new collection, Waiting to Unfold, on his blog. Hugo writes:
I don’t often put up poetry any more, but I want to make an exception this week to promote the new book from my friend Rach...
Dateline: 2013-05-07 12:15pm -07:00T (212 words)
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Velveteen Rabbi: Interview about Waiting to Unfold at Love, InshAllah
My thanks are due to the editors at Love, InshAllah who have published an interview with me along with some very kind words about Waiting to Unfold!
Love, InshAllah is the blog associated with the book by the same name, Love, InshAllah: the Secret ...
Dateline: 2013-05-06 10:00am -07:00T (313 words)
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