This is adenacb's Typepad Profile.
Join Typepad and start following adenacb's activity
adenacb
Recent Activity
Mazal Tov again! Beautiful article!
Commented Aug 11, 2011 on Kol ALEPH at Velveteen Rabbi
Kol ALEPH
There's a lovely article about my installation as interim rabbi at CBI in the summer 2011 issue of Kol ALEPH, the Jewish Renewal newsletter. (You can download a pdf at the ALEPH website -- it's issue 21.) The issue also features a write-up of the ALEPH Kallah, about which I blogged a little bit....
congrats! they are so lucky to have you!!!!
Commented Jul 1, 2011 on Congregational at Velveteen Rabbi
Congregational
There are a lot of transitions happening in our household right now. Ethan posted recently about his new job; now I'm able to share the news of mine. Starting in July, I will be serving as interim rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel for the coming year. I've been a CBI member for years. During rab...
so so so so cute! loved it! she is precious!
Commented Jun 8, 2011 on The Margot Inteview Series - Video #2 at Motherhood Uncensored
The Margot Inteview Series - Video #2
Margot provides a helpful make-up tutorial. Thankfully, it only involves lip gloss.
Emily Sper's Passover: Go Fish is excellent!
http://www.emilysper.com
Commented Apr 8, 2011 on Passover activities for kids at Parent Hacks
Passover activities for kids
Easter and Passover are the big Springtime holidays around here. And while Easter is well-stocked with crafts and projects, Passover...hm. On Twitter, @liasynthis asks: Do you have any fun Passover ideas for kids? Everything's so ummm, religious. All I see are toys representing the plagues. I ...
I love this! I wish you had been able to dream more about what he said!
Commented Mar 29, 2011 on Conversation with the President (a poem for Big Tent Poetry) at Velveteen Rabbi
Conversation with the President (a poem for Big Tent Poetry)
President CONVERSATION WITH THE PRESIDENT Although I have no recording device, only old-fashioned reporter's notebook they let me in. Mr. President, I say, and he replies Rabbi, expectant. The moment hangs. I have questions about the 2012 election, I offer, and also about storahtelling...
This was a beautiful post, Rachel. I love the image of the rabbi-mama! It takes a village to raise a child, and I'm sure it takes an even larger and more organized village for a rabbi-mama!
Commented Mar 28, 2011 on Tasks which have no limit at Velveteen Rabbi
Tasks which have no limit
The last time I performed a funeral, I was pregnant. I remember scrambling to find maternity clothing suitable for visiting the grieving family, and then cobbling together a "suit" out of assorted black items so I could look appropriate at the funeral itself. (Male clergy, I suspect, don't lose ...
Happy, happy birthday Rachel!
Commented Mar 21, 2011 on Happy new year, of a sort at Velveteen Rabbi
Happy new year, of a sort
Happy Norouz -- Persian New Year -- to all who celebrate! And for all who inhabit the northern hemisphere, happy vernal equinox / first day of spring, regardless of whether or not you know today as Norouz. Today is a holy day, Wikipedia tells me, for Zoroastrians, Persians, Sufis, Ismailis, and ...
So excited to host you in Needham! Can't wait to meet you at last!
Commented Mar 10, 2011 on 70 faces events in Boston this weekend at Velveteen Rabbi
70 faces events in Boston this weekend
This weekend, Drew and I will be heading off to Boston to spend a few nights with my sister so that I can do a trio of events around 70 faces! Here's a reminder of our schedule for the weekend: "Lunch and Learn" reading/discussion after services at Bnai Or, the Jewish Renewal congregation...
here's another poem that I love on a similar theme - I believe it's Danny Siegel
May your eyes sparkle with the light of Torah,
and your ears hear the music of its words.
May the space between each letter of the scrolls
bring warmth and comfort to your soul.
May the syllables draw holiness from your heart,
and may this holiness be gentle and soothing
to you and all God's creatures.
May your study be passionate,
and meanings bear more meanings
until life arrays itself to you
as a dazzling wedding feast.
And may your conversation,
even of the commonplace,
be a blessing to all who listen to your words
and see the Torah glowing on your face.
Commented Feb 10, 2011 on On That Day (a poem about moshiach for Big Tent Poetry) at Velveteen Rabbi
On That Day (a poem about moshiach for Big Tent Poetry)
Onthatday ON THAT DAY Soft snow will fall but no one's roof will leak. No one will wake hungry. The traumas inscribed in our muscles will melt like salted ice. Strangers will show their real smiles on the subway and the sidewalk. The Israeli will lie down with the Palestinian and r...
I love this part:
Torah will splash from every faucet
fill our cups to overflowing
quench our thirst with joy.
--Adena
Commented Feb 9, 2011 on On That Day (a poem about moshiach for Big Tent Poetry) at Velveteen Rabbi
On That Day (a poem about moshiach for Big Tent Poetry)
Onthatday ON THAT DAY Soft snow will fall but no one's roof will leak. No one will wake hungry. The traumas inscribed in our muscles will melt like salted ice. Strangers will show their real smiles on the subway and the sidewalk. The Israeli will lie down with the Palestinian and r...
I sat on a jury a number of years ago in downtown Boston. They made the me head juror (or whatever you call it) and it was pretty embarrassing. Anyway, the case was about a guy who punched another guy in a bar, and the bouncer who intervened. I don't remember all the details, but the way I saw it, and the way the rest of the folks on the jury saw it, was very different. I remember that I ended up having to defer to the majority. Interesting experience...
Commented Jan 25, 2011 on Civil Service at verbatim
Civil Service
The first time I was called for jury duty must have been at least 20 years ago, and I had to schlep downtown, which I recall was a pain in the neck (although we lived in Brookline at the time and had no kids, so what did I know from pains in the neck). Luckily, that time we all got sent home aft...
I'm here. Enjoy your blog very much. Stop over to mine if you have a chance! http://www.motherthoughts.com
Commented Jan 14, 2011 on De-Lurk Thyself at verbatim
De-Lurk Thyself
Hey guys! It's that time of year again, when I ask all of you who lurk here at Verbatim to come on out and show yourself. If you're too shy to leave a comment, feel free to shoot me an email. I just like to know that you're out there!
Besides being angry at cancer, check out these groups that do important work on the environmental links to breast cancer (and other cancers):
Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition
http://www.mbcc.org
National Breast Cancer Coalition
http://www.stopbreastcancer.org/
Breast Cancer Action
http://www.bcaction.org/
Susan Love's Army of Women
http://www.armyofwomen.org/
Only if we find out what causes breast cancer, can we prevent our daughters from getting it.
Commented Jan 10, 2011 on If we're going to argue about something stupid, let's raise money for WhyMommy and breast cancer while we do at Motherhood Uncensored
If we're going to argue about something stupid, let's raise money for WhyMommy and breast cancer while we do
If you read my blog through a feed reader, then you make the decision to click through to the full post based on my snappy title and compelling first 100 words because I choose to publish partial feeds. Lately, I've been made aware that this really pisses a lot of you off. Actually, I've known ...
a double mazal tov!!!!
Commented Jan 10, 2011 on Announcing 70 Faces at Velveteen Rabbi
Announcing 70 Faces
I have awesome news! As of yesterday, I became a rabbi -- and Seventy Faces, my collection of Torah poems, has been published by Phoenicia Publishing, an independent press based in Montreal. Here's what the back of the book has to say: Each of the poems in 70 Faces arose in conversation wi...
Congrats! Fabulous news! We'd love to have you speak if you head east, at Temple Aliyah in Needham, MA!
Commented Dec 17, 2010 on Happy book news at Velveteen Rabbi
Happy book news
Some of you may remember that in the years before I wrote and posted a mother poem each week, I used to write and post a Torah poem each week. It was a wonderful discipline for me. It kept me engaged with Torah, reading and pondering and then responding to the assigned weekly reading with my own...
Rachel, Not sure if you know of this blog, but this post really made me think of you
http://2boychiksand1meidele.blogspot.com/2010/09/right-here-right-now.html --Adena
Commented Sep 29, 2010 on Hoshanot at Velveteen Rabbi
Hoshanot
Today is Hoshana Rabbah, the seventh day of the festival of Sukkot which is also a minor holiday of its own. The name means "The Great Hoshana" or "The Great 'Please Save Us'!" It's traditional, on each day of Sukkot, to make a circuit around the interior of the synagogue or around the Torah-rea...
Joya, congrats on your new blog! It sounds fantastic!
--Adena
Commented Sep 15, 2010 on Transparency at Living Life Authentically
Transparency
Greetings! Welcome to my new blog. I believe that we are all mirror reflections of one another. This means that when I look at you, I see me, and when you look at me, you see yourself. In this Universe we are here to learn from one another. Do you and I have the courage to explore this re...
congrats on this wonderful "mention"!!!!
Commented Sep 12, 2010 on Welcome, new readers! at Velveteen Rabbi
Welcome, new readers!
To all who are here via the very kind mention in Nick Kristof's Sunday New York Times column Is This America? (the online edition links to my post A gesture of repair, about raising money for new prayer rugs for the Al-Iman masjid in Queens) -- welcome. Come on in, make yourselves at home. If yo...
I remember well how the changing table was the center of the universe for a time...so I really appreciate this poem!
Commented Aug 5, 2010 on Another mother poem: ode to a changing table at Velveteen Rabbi
Another mother poem: ode to a changing table
THRONE OF GLORY O changing table! Your terrycloth breast rises and dips like the gentle swell of the hills. Underneath, Pampers, stacked like stones in a falling-down wall beside a box filled with damp tufts of cloud. Above, the bright elephant hovering in the sky, its mirrored belly r...
I love this! I think it's the perfect antidote to Merle Feld's "We all stood together". Is it alright if I post your poem to my blog? I think you are amazing to write poetry while caring for such a young baby!
Commented Jul 9, 2010 on Another mother psalm: bringing the baby to morning prayer at Velveteen Rabbi
Another mother psalm: bringing the baby to morning prayer
MOTHER PSALM 7 Don't chew on your mama's tefillin I say, dislodging the leather from your damp and eager grasp. We play peekaboo beneath my tallit, hiding your face and revealing it the way God is sometimes present sometimes not. You like the drums, the fiddle and clarinet. You bang yo...
I found something by Margaret Atwood in Ha'aretz
http://www.haaretz.com/haaretz-authors-edition/the-shadow-over-israel-1.293653
"The Shadow is not the Palestinians. The Shadow is Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, linked with Israeli’s own fears. The worse the Palestinians are treated in the name of those fears, the bigger the Shadow grows, and then the fears grow with them; and the justifications for the treatment multiply."
Commented Jun 2, 2010 on On Israel and the Gaza Freedom Flotilla at Velveteen Rabbi
On Israel and the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
I don't have much to add to the conversation about the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Too often, I find, online conversations about Israel and Gaza / the West Bank generate a great deal of heat and not very much light. Of the posts I've read, the ones I most recommend are these: From Global Voices Onl...
very good point! I think everyone is so attached to doing "the right thing" these days... it's out of hand...and I do remember Hawaiian Punch as well :-)
Commented May 18, 2010 on Water at verbatim
Water
At Pete's Little League game yesterday, I was sitting with Julie and some other parents and kids on the bleachers. We of course all had our water bottles with us, as it was a very warm day. I said to one of the other dads, "How come when we were growing up, no one brought water with them anywhere...
thank you for being so honest about this. it's particularly wonderful (for me) to hear you talk about things like not having time to lay tefillin. first of all, the fact that you used to lay tefillin is so great (and pretty unusual)! and the fact that you don't have time now is just so real and honest. and it will get better and easier, but I appreciate how you are wrestling with Judaism and being a new mom - thank you!
Commented Apr 28, 2010 on Time-bound at Velveteen Rabbi
Time-bound
Lately I've been wrestling with time-bound mitzvot. Back up a step: I should define my terms. Although in the American vernacular the Hebrew word מצוה (mitzvah) is often translated as "good deed" (as in: "holding the door open for that guy on crutches was a real mitzvah"), it means "commandment....
Rachel, I feel for you. The 6-8 week point can be so hard. You are SO tired, and the baby is SO fussy. I promise it will get better, but I can definitely understand how this impacts your prayer and spiritual life. Here is something I wrote during that time - it's not about prayer, but may at least make you feel like you aren't the only one feeling this way.
http://www.motherthoughts.com/2008/03/my-breastfeeding-story.html
Commented Jan 22, 2010 on The nursing mother tallit at Velveteen Rabbi
The nursing mother tallit
My new "nursing mother tallit." The first two months of motherhood have been pretty overwhelming. Learning how to care for a newborn, learning how to nurse (which is harder than it appears, and we had some difficulties there for a while), learning how to put an infant's needs at the center ...
I'm so impressed that you are writing at all with a little fussy baby strapped on your chest...don't put yourself down for not commenting on others... you are amazing! and beautiful poem as well!
Commented Jan 7, 2010 on This week's portion: labor at Velveteen Rabbi
This week's portion: labor
LABOR (SHEMOT) [T]he Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women: they are vigorous. Before the midwife can come to them, they have given birth. (Exodus 1:19) Shifrah and Puah, sent to strangle any Hebrew boys who survived the dangerous passage through the narrowest of straits cupped basins...
More...
Subscribe to adenacb’s Recent Activity
0 Favorites
Around The Web