Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay It is quite the week - Eid el Adha for Muslims, Juneteenth for USAmericans, the Summer Solstice for the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice for the Southern Hemisphere, and Indigenous Peoples Day here in Canada. A combination of remembrance and celebration all around. This post will be very short - … Continue reading Happy Week of Celebrations!

Image credit: Pixabay Today we are celebrating Shavu’ot - the Feast of Weeks, also known as Pentecost, because it is always exactly 50 days after Passover. This is a holiday with deep agricultural roots, but after the destruction of the Temple, the rabbis also invested it with the power of the Giving of the Torah, … Continue reading Accepting Obligations

Image by CatsWithGlasses from Pixabay June is Pride Month - a time of celebration of LGBTQI2S+ rights, as well as consciousness raising about the many dangers that still threaten queer people. Sadly, it is also a time when rainbow washing is in full force. What is rainbow washing? The Urban Dictionary defines it as follows: … Continue reading Happy Pride!

Image by Annette Meyer from Pixabay With Pride Month coming up, I wanted to just tell you something about a little-known Jewish observance - the 14th of Iyar, also known as Pesach Sheni, or second Passover. We observed it last week, with little fanfare - in fact, while Passover itself is one of the most-observed … Continue reading The Holiday of Inclusion

Image by 愚木混株 Cdd20 from Pixabay You may have seen or heard this acronym before - it was first coined by the psychologist Jennifer Joy Freyd. It stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender - a method sometimes used by abusers to defend themselves against accountability. DARVO was much in the news a … Continue reading What is DARVO?

Image by Elias from Pixabay It’s that time of year again, when Jewish people have just celebrated Passover, called “the time of our liberation”. This spring holiday, while incorporating the usual celebrations of new life (such as eggs and green vegetables), is also a commemoration of the Biblical Exodus from Egypt, when the Israelites were … Continue reading What is Freedom?

Image by 15299 from Pixabay I think you will agree that the last few years have been stressful. I don’t know about you, but I am one of those people who tends to medicate all stress, fatigue or sorrow with sugar- and there have been plenty of all three lately. I suppose there are worse … Continue reading Setting Goals

Image by InspiredImages from Pixabay Happy spring! Despite the complaints on Twitter, there’s nothing wrong, in my opinion, in talking about the March holidays, just like we talk about the December holidays. Many cultures hold celebrations around the equinoxes, just like they do around the solstices. We just had Purim, Easter, Nowruz and Holi, and … Continue reading New Beginnings

Image by Tania Van den Berghen from Pixabay Sometimes I think that listening is one of the hardest skills in the world. We all have opinions on things, and it is easy to share them, especially with people who agree with us. If we are talking with people who don’t agree with us, it’s tempting … Continue reading Are You Listening?

Image by Vicki Nunn from Pixabay As the final assignment for one of the classes I’m taking at rabbinical school, I am creating an adult education program on a topic that reflects my own life experience. I don’t yet know when (or indeed whether) I would offer it to real people, but it got me … Continue reading Are You Getting the Support You Need?