"God does not give the Torah at the end of forty years of wandering in the wilderness, but in the midst of it; not at the top of a mountain but underneath it; not at the peak of our power but in a moment of vulnerability. If we do not stay present, remaining open to the possibility of revelation, we risk missing the unique Torah these experiences offer."
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- "The Torah of Disorienting Moments,"
JTS Senior Sermon
"Though [the popularity of Nobody Wants This] can, in large part, be attributed to the chemistry between leads Adam Brody and Kristen Bell, it is also due to its ability to speak to the zeitgeist: audiences are hungry for accessible spirituality and communal belonging. As a millennial congregational rabbi who works with people of all ages, I see this yearning every day. Yet I believe that the intimacy we’re seeking doesn’t come from knowing the latest gossip about the rabbi; it comes from being in intentional spiritual community together."
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- "Hot Rabbi Culture Undermines
Real Religious Connection," Lilith
"A disability justice-informed approach to bodily diversity would see responding to one’s physical and emotional realities not as necessitating employing a leniency, but as part and parcel of what it means to seriously live a rigorous halakhic life."
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- "Who among Us Is Holy?"
"If we’re honest—and this season certainly invites honesty—many of us arrive at synagogue carrying the weight of what keeps us hovering at the threshold. Maybe it’s a voice inside of us whispering that we haven’t been here in a while…we don’t know the prayers well enough…we haven’t done enough to prepare for this moment.
Maybe it’s the exhaustion of showing up in a world that often feels hostile, where our very existence feels politicized. Everything feels like too much, and our response may feel inadequate. Maybe it’s the wounds we carry, from communities that have failed us, from prayers that felt hollow, from a God that felt distant when we needed presence most.
We hear our tradition misunderstood and weaponized. We see those speaking in our name cause tremendous destruction."
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- "The Shofar Calls," Rosh Hashanah 2025, yaaleh.substack.com
"Often, our inclination is to look for solutions. Yet what Rabbi Yohanan comes to realize is that the best way he can help Rabbi Eliezer is by affirming and empathizing with his pain. Rabbi Yohanan only takes Rabbi Eliezer’s hand and lifts him up after sharing in his tears."
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- "From Mourning to Teshuvah," jewschool
"The practice of wearing headbands in the egalitarian Jewish world has emerged as a way for non-male Jews to cover their heads in a manner reflective of their religious practice and identities. Though the primary impetus for wearing a headband is not gender, the choice to do so is inseparable from one’s various experiences of the world, which are often highly mediated by gender. The headband trend in the egalitarian Jewish world reflects how individual practice informed by communal awareness can become a norm."
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- "Has the Headband Become a Jewish Symbol?"
"Who among us hasn’t felt deflated, thinking something is inevitable because “we’ve always been this way”? Or worried about falling into certain patterns because of how things were in our families growing up?
These stories that we perpetuate can obscure an eternal truth: we each, at every moment, have the potential to create ourselves anew."
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- "Shattered Stories, Sacred Breath," Rosh Hashanah 2025, yaaleh.substack.com