Rabbi Goldie Milgram's blog

Firstly, I've just created and posted a full 2015 Omer calendar, in color and black and white that you can print out, with each of the Kabbalists' pairs of qualities (sephirot) of the Tree of Life listed and explained. And, before the sun sets today there is still time for today's Day Three Omer practice of Tiferet sheh b'Chessed—Tiferet is the Beauty of Balance, our harmonizing the opposites of restraint and flowing within the embrace of Chessed--Lovingkindness.

Before the sun sets today there is still time for this Day Two Omer practice of Restraint within Lovingkindness--Gevurah sheh b'Chessed. We begin by contemplating how what my teacher Reb Zalman called "the G*d field" functions. The original energy of creation is present around and through us and yet is filtered by the atmosphere, and clouds, and the original star dust is that from which we are made. Compressed energy takes form as clouds, rivers, the human genome, and the DNA of the letters of Torah.

Walking in today's omer state of consciousness, lovingkindness within lovingkindness, my sweet Hubbatzin Barry came upon this street sweeper pausing to help a very shaky homeless person write a sign asking for spare change.

Happy Passover! Here's a joyful free story for your Shabbat Seder or family time by Noa Baum from our newest book in our award-winning Mitzvah Stories series.
 

Purim is a "rite of reversal". Everything in the megillah turns out backwards to how it was during the time of the Persian Empire. Such a story, when paired with ritual as in Purim, serves as a powerful, safe way of venting our frustrations and moving toward our highest hopes.

    The Jewish festival of the trees, our “earth day” — Tu B’Shvat, begins tonight. "An Original Environmental Tu B'Shvat Ritual" is an article we wrote that just went live at the Philadelphia Jewish Voice.

We heard you cry out to us in the wilderness: "We need more time!" Accordingly the new written submissions due date for the juried volume "The Wisdom of Reb Zaman" Schachter-Shalomi is March 15. True quotes, vignettes, stories, ritual moments, his advocacy for feminism, tikkun olam, neo-hassidism, deeo ecumenism, and other highlights from your encounters and transcriptions of his teachings that illuminate Reb Zalman's ways of being in the world are invited--up to 1800 words.

Some Recent Shabbatonim, Scholar-in-Residencies and Workshops
Given for Communities and Conferences by Rabbi Goldie Milgram

Last week, five different people wrote me asking if making a gingerbread Hanukkah house might be a welcoming compromise for intermarried families and for those experiencing Christmas envy.