Josh in Conversation with Joshua Leifer
We are grateful to Joshua Leifer for sharing his insights with us. Please enjoy the conversation recording.Joshua Leifer is a journalist, editor, and translator. His essays and reporting have appeared widely in international publications, including The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Haaretz, The Nation, and elsewhere. A member of the Dissent editorial board, he previously worked as an editor at Jewish Currents and at +972 Magazine. He is currently pursuing a PhD at Yale University, where he studies the history of modern moral and social thought. Tablets Shattered is now available for purchase.
Practicing Forgiveness as Surrender
by Rabbi Leora Kaye, graduate of the IJS Clergy Leadership Program (full version published on Sefaria) Why would you want to forgive someone who has wronged you? Is there any benefit to forgiving? Is there a “right” time to forgive? And what does religion have to do with it? Come to think of it, does religion have anything to do with it? Thousands of years of Jewish text and wisdom offer us...
In God We Trust (Shoftim 5784)
One of the leadership teacher Stephen Covey's most famous observations is that "relationships operate at the speed of trust." It's a line that has resonated with me for a long time. To me, trust is everything--at work, at home, in life. When I keep my promises, I feel like I'm upholding trust, depositing it in my account; when I fail to do so, I feel like I'm reducing the balance. When I have...
Open Your Hand (Re’eh 5784)
There's a neighborhood grocery store two blocks from my house. It's called Village Marketplace and, to many of us who reside in Skokie, it's one of the best things about living here. It's not a big chain, it's independently owned, and best of all, I can walk there and back in 5 minutes when we need a dozen eggs. Occasionally there are folks standing outside Village Market (locals drop the...
Politics (Ekev 5784)
Like many of you reading this, I expect, the most powerful moment of this week's Democratic National Convention for me was the speech of Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the 109 remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Jon, and especially Rachel, have tragically become the most recognizable spokespeople for the hostage families. Seeing the tears in...
Totally Awesome (Vaetchanan 5784)
One of the inside jokes my wife Natalie and I have shared over 23 years of marriage is what we lovingly call the "Really, you needed research to tell you that?" phenomenon. You might be familiar with it yourself. In our experience, it most regularly occurs reading articles in The New York Times in which scientific research demonstrates something that it seems like someone with common sense could...
Practicing in Elul with the Shofar, the Spiritual Tuning Fork of the Cosmos
Our core spiritual practice throughout Elul, the final month of the Jewish year, is attending to the call of the shofar. As we anticipate the upcoming holidays, the anniversary of the October 7 attacks, and the American presidential election, our tradition offers a powerful tool for supporting ourselves and responding wisely to this unsettling time: the shofar, an instrument that helps us...
Attuning to the Song of Creation
Rebecca Schisler offers a practice for the season of teshuva, returning. Watch for her reflection on how relating to life as a song might guide us in this renewed awakening.
Alone, Together: Devarim 5784
I was blessed to spend this week at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York, during its 150th anniversary season. When I've had to explain what Chautauqua is to friends and loved ones, I've described it as some combination of Brigadoon, Mackinac Island, and adult summer camp for people who listen to National Public Radio. There are lectures and classes and cultural events galore, families...
Only Connect (Matot-Masei 5784)
In the past month I've had two really troubling conversations with young adults. One was with someone I know in their 20s. We were talking about the presidential campaign. And this very intelligent, caring person said, "Honestly, I just can't get excited about politics. The damage we have done to the planet is irreversible, and it feels like we only have a few years left no matter who's in...
Shabbat Reflection – Pinchas 5784
I will admit that I wasn’t prepared for the emotional response I experienced upon reading President Biden’s letter announcing his decision to turn down renomination this week. I was really moved. Upon reflection, what touched me most was the rarity of witnessing the most politically powerful person in the world acknowledge his limitations and, after some reluctance, ultimately volunteer an act...
The Long and Winding Road (Balak 5784)
A couple of friends sent me David Brooks’s column in the New York Times last Friday. While the headline made it seem that the column was about “Trump’s enduring appeal,” the column itself might more accurately be summarized as a reflection on, as Brooks put it, “the deeper roots of our current dysfunction.” As one of my friends said, they thought I might resonate with Brooks’s analysis, and...
Don’t Have a Cow (Chukat 5784)
This isn’t a political space and I don’t intend to make it one here. But I also feel a need to talk about politics this week. Wish me luck. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been experiencing a deep feeling of unease. I have found it hard to focus. I’m more easily distracted than usual. My sleep hasn’t been as good. And it’s not about anything in my personal life–everyone is more or less okay,...
Modern/Ancient Family (Shlakh 5784)
In the weeks before he left for camp, my youngest son, Toby, and I started watching the sitcom “Modern Family” together. It has been a delight to rediscover this show that I remember being stupendously funny the first time around and to share it with my kid now. (It’s also really interesting to see which parts of the show hold up 15 years later and which ones could use a rewrite.) Like any good...
Making Camp (Behaalotcha 5784)
A memory came up on Facebook the other day: a picture of a note from our youngest child three years ago after he arrived on the bus for his first experience as a camper at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin. It was brief, but it made my heart melt: “I’m having so much fun! Toby.” Summer camp is a multigenerational through line in my family history. My grandfather went to Camp Tonkawa with the Boy Scouts in...
A Practice in Drawing Close: A Teaching for Shavuot
Each time we take the Torah out of the ark in synagogue, chanting its verses in community, we are reenacting revelation at Mount Sinai. Though not nearly as dramatic as the Torah’s description of fire and smoke, thunder and lightning, a quaking mountain and a shofar blast growing louder and louder, our rituals of standing up on our feet as the ark is opened, witnessing as the scrolls are...
Listening for Torah in the “Still, Small Voice Within, Here and Now”
According to the Torah (Exodus 19), the Jewish people perceive the Divine Voice amidst a loud cacophony of thunder, lighting, and quaking ground. But I Kings (chapter 19) offers a different model of receiving revelation: the prophet Elijah experiences the Voice not in the tumult of wind, fire, or earthquake, but rather in a kol demamah dakah, the “still, small voice” – a practice each of us can...
“Do you know who I am?” Bamidbar 5784
Peter Salovey, who is stepping down this month as president of my alma mater, Yale University, was my freshman psychology teacher thirty years ago. The course was popular. Hundreds of students took it. Salovey was always quick with a joke. Before the final, I remember him telling us the story of a huge lecture hall full of students writing their exams, much like the one we were about to take. As...
Walking the Talk (Bechukotai 5784)
On my podcast this week, I shared a bit about my recent struggle to walk our dog, Phoebe, in the midst of all the cicadas that now line the sidewalks of our neighborhood. (Folks, the cicada invasion is real, and it's here, at least in Illinois.) While it's okay for her to eat a number of them, too many could cause her to have stomach issues. We've tried a muzzle (she hated it and got it off)....
