G-d and Us

I met them in my car. There were maybe 10,000 or so of them hovering about. Some looked like Walt Disney cartoon angels, others were straight out of store window displays or greeting cards. Some looked like the plaster angels I used to buy in a Mexican market

She's only seven years old, and the doctors say she has lost her battle with cystic fibrosis, that she will live only a few more weeks. But for some reason, nobody has stopped praying...

While I was deployed to Iraq, a lone Jewish Marine Corps Officer among hundreds of Iraqi soldiers in a remote region of the Syrian border, I had to live with keeping my religious identity to myself. I couldn't even have "Jewish" on my dog-tags

Walking the paths of Auschwitz, I began to doubt humanity and its Creator. I felt suspended in a world I could not comprehend...

We walked past shops that looked like they'd been bombed away. Smoke was rising from the burning debris. A family looking through a heap of rubble at a place they once called home...

Knowing that You are all-capable, knowing that You certainly could have arranged it that I should reap the intended benefit without needing to experience the pain, how do I justify the suffering that You inflict on me?

Pamela lit the Menorah for the first time that Hannukah, a little Menorah that Mrs. Shaffer brought us. And then she continued lighting her candle for the Sabbath every Friday. Without fail, ever...

From earliest infancy, we cry and smile as a form of communication. But with whom are we communicating when we weep solitary tears? With whom are we sharing our joy when we smile to ourselves, alone and unseen?

He'll arrive at dawn, just as my morning coffee begins to percolate. Long after it has grown dark outdoors I’ll observe his familiar figure, as lights throughout the building systematically switch on, tracking his progress from room to room

So, we answer the soul’s call. We learn about our roots, about the heritage bequeathed to us by our ancestors, and we make the transition to the Jewish way of life. Yet, something is amiss...

A strange thing has happened since my diagnosis. It seems that G-d's voice has grown louder. Too loud, sometimes...

"Jay," my friend wrote in his e-mail, "I don’t think you should go to shul and ask G-d for forgiveness. This Yom Kippur you should stay home, and G-d should beg you to forgive Him for what He's done to you"

Or perhaps it's the other way around: we care, simply and only, because You, G-d, care

G-d's appearance at Mount Sinai was not subtle. Mountains shook, thunder crashed. the divine voice reverberated through the galaxies. But He's kind of disappeared since

In a few days, when my daughter wouldn't notice, I will unobtrusively discard it -- who has room for so much clutter? But at that moment, the crumpled piece of paper was the most precious thing in the world

I have a vision of You that is both magnificent and horrible, tolerable only in Your completeness, bearable only when I remember or occasionally glimpse that in being All, You also blend dark and light

Song of Songs on Friday evening in the little Moroccan shul on Shimshon Street in Jerusalem is a string of multiple solo performances

There is the shape of the letters themselves. The dance of black and white on the page. The delight in having these strange lines take on sound. The surprise when, all at once four or five of these shapes group together to make a word with length, depth and dimension

And suddenly, one night, don’t ask me how or why, the point widened. Suddenly You were everywhere, too many places for me to reach at once, for me to contain....

He squinted toward me and in a hushed tone, lest he disturb the water, said, "It's like a life force, isn't it?"