Kabbalat Shabbat

Sharing My Shabbat Table

One of the most empowering things I have done since living on my own as an Orthodox Jewish “single” is ...

Candle Lighting’s Power to Connect and Transform Us

I’m thinking a lot about Shabbat candle lighting nowadays, in part because I’m awaiting the birth of my first grandchild ...

Bat Mitzvah as Rite of Passage into Self and Community

My daughter Ktoret Ashira was born on Yom Kippur in Jerusalem in 2001. Two and a half years ago we ...

Between the Holy and the Frustrating

It’s Friday afternoon in a quiet Maryland suburb. Cars pull into driveways and kids get off school buses, ready to ...

A Powerful Woman

As this summer, and this Jewish year wind down, I’m completing the painting and writing for my fourth illuminated book ...