Real Rabbi NYC

In this episode, I look at chronic illness (as experienced by me) and relationship to society and our expectations for our lives. Is there such a thing as a Miracle Cure? What about faith? And what is Torah trying to teach us through Moses’ words?

In this episode, I discuss the Netflix series, Russian Dolls, as in the layers it uncovers in the human psyche and our desire to control not only the present and future, but the past. Tisha b’Av tells us to mourn, while the week’s parsha teaches us about vows and justice. Somehow, I connect these three. Listen and find out how.

We are told that everyone is made in God’s image, but it’s hard to see that in everyone. What about God’s violence? What about Pinchas? In this episode, I explore these questions and draw on some fun stories in an effort to find answers.

The story of Balaam and his donkey is about not seeing things we should be able to, but also about seeing things maybe we wish we didn’t. It’s a complicated balance. I describe my time on a tiny vacation when this happened, and my struggle to stay in a positive mindset despite the beauty around me. The frustrations that make us want to curse can, however be be turned into blessings, the way Balaam...

In this episode, I talk about the watershed of Supreme Court rulings coming down over the past weeks and how they relate to the parsha’s laws around niddah and coming into contact with the dead. Why are we so afraid of endings? If we could understand death as bearing new birth, we’d probably be living very differently today.

Our rabbinic tradition and our Torah stories both often give us a whitewashed version of the past and our biblical characters as people. Korach definitely fits into this category. Listen and find out why I say this!

With the overturning of Roe v Wade, I am left with more questions than answers about courage, faith and trust—and how these relate to the spies in the week’s parsha. (And visit my website to learn more about me and my offerings: lnegditamid.us)

I got to see both ends of life last week: I accompanied a mohel for a bris and went to a funeral home the very next day. The experiences both upset me and filled me with joy, but not for the reasons you’d think. Listen to find out how and why!

I was in Miami over Memorial Day weekend with a group of Latino and Jewish kids. Getting them to interact after a whole year of meeting bi-weekly was our job—not easy when everyone wants to feel safe by hanging out with their own tribes. Here I tell the story of how that happened in the end, and the beauty and hope and healing that happened, for them and for me. I also share a lot of my own story,...

Moss and taxes. A reciprocal relationship between government and people. Moss is a perfect example of cooperation and reciprocity. Yet we’ve been programmed to think that we as individuals are responsible for our own successes and failures, riches and poverty, separate from the society and system we live in. What the Bible teaches about caring for the Earth and the consequences of not doing so…pre...

Mass shootings, filibusters, laws that don’t serve the majority, yet we are prevented from changing them. The way we treat our people reflects the way we treat and possess our land. If only this one statement in Torah could be respected: “the land is not yours; it is Mine,” it could change everything. With a special treat—the words of Woody Guthrie that most of us don’t know…

With abortion rights being threatened, and shortages of all kinds of goods, there’s a lot to be alarmed and hopeless about. The parsha this week makes us take a look at ourselves, though, in a different way. Who are the rejects of our society and how different are we from the society reflected in our ancient sacred books? We may be shocked at women being burned and people being stoned, and we may...

Is it my personal obsession with toilets, or is it our culture? I saw this crazy video on Facebook, and I couldn’t look away. All the toxic chemicals! This week’s parsha teaches us about how to be holy, like God, and I don’t think it’s by making colorful, foamy designs in empty toilets and flushing them down for the hell of it…

As Jews, we think a lot about our land. On Passover, we talk about returning each year to the land. As Americans, we have a responsibility to the land as well—or, as humans in general. The history of our national parks is a painful one, and our responsibility towards native peoples is real. Do we pass over it, like God did our houses, and say it’s a thing of the past? Akharei Mot has a few answers...

It’s such a hard year to talk about liberation. So much pain in the world. Do we get to cancel it?

This week there’s lots of scrubbing—of stones and stoves and refrigerators—the latter because Passover is coming. In the parsha, it’s about scrubbing away disease. Passover is about freedom from slavery, but we have a complicated past of becoming slave owners in the U.S. The history of being both enslaved and oppressed and enslavers and oppressors is an unsavory history, hard to swallow. How do we...

Is aging something to be afraid of and push away? Should we change our skin and hair in order to look younger? I thought we were getting beyond that. As we have learned to relate in different ways since isolation set in two years ago at the start of the pandemic, so we can find news ways of believing in and helping ourselves and our bodies heal—as I discovered Wim Hof two weeks ago on the annivers...

Helen Keller’s life was a myth, and so are many stories in the Torah. As Aaron’s sons are killed for thinking for themselves, and Aaron is silent, so was Helen Keller silenced. Now there is an effort to silence Ketanji Brown Jackson.

I’ve been wondering how to go forward with my weekly blogs and podcasts, focusing only on Torah, which is so male-oriented, as a female rabbi coming into my own. Am I continuing the sexism? On Purim, we are commanded to turn everything on its head. Thinking about the 50th anniversary of the first ordained American female rabbi, plus this week’s parsha, made me wonder about my role and how to stret...

With all that’s happening in Ukraine, what is our individual and collective responsibility? This week’s parsha is about how to make expiation. How do we??

Can we take one more thing? I mean, we need a war, too, now, on top of the pandemic? How scary is that? As a distraction, and to laugh, I’ve been watching Good Girls. We’re coming into Purim soon, when we’re supposed to laugh, so I guess I’m practicing. P’kudei is a completion of sorts, with nothing to laugh about, and the mystery of clouds and fires, but we do need to laugh, as one Ukrainian moth...

When my friend told me she had to go for surgery next week and she was scared, I went into overdrive in organizing a circle to support her in healing. And the gifts of offerings started pouring in from those attendance: could I tell them stop, it’s too much, like Moses did to the Israelites?

My daughter went to Mexico and she asked what I wanted her to bring back. Rags, I said. Listen if you’re curious how this could possibly connect to the Golden Calf, the broken tablets, the death of so many Israelites, and the glow Moses gets when he speaks to God. I hope you’re curious. ;)

In this week’s parsha, the priests are given their special clothing and rules about sacrifices. There’s lots of blood from the animal sacrifices and the priests must wear the twelve tribes on their hearts. What do we wear on our hearts? Do we only think about our own tribes? The first episode of Radio Lab inspired this episode of my podcast.

Is the sanctuary a beautiful place for God, or is it for us? Because who needs it, really? Last week I talked about sacred time; this week I talk about sacred space and why it’s so important, especially in today’s world.