Miriam Karp

As I rounded the corner on 50, mortality wasn’t a far-off abstract notion that had little to do with me. My mom was struggling with dementia and decline. I had lost some close friends. So when my friend Tamar asked if I might be willing to try this practi...

During the engagement period, I continued to be pestered with occasional waves of doubt and fear—not based on anything tangible, just phantoms in my mind.

As we read and discussed a talk of the Rebbe, the mellow tone changed. It was still amiable, but getting a bit heated. Voices rose. Faces got flushed.

Too much of our world seems dense and impervious to any glimmer or shard of light. But that nucleus remains. In each of our souls. In each kernel of creation.

Rebbetzin Menucha Rochel was a beloved and revered foundation of the Hebron community for 43 years.

A wiry man with a neatly trimmed graying beard, Sam was pacing back and forth in the small hospital room when I knocked. He greeted my, “Hi, I’m Chaplain Miriam” with friendly intensity and dove right into his story, his challenges.

When that certain blaring tone is heard in the hospital halls, when the screens are broadcasting those ominous words “Code Blue,” I drop everything and hurry. As the on-call student chaplain, I’m part of the emergency team that responds to a patient who’s...

There’s a famous story in the Talmud about a man who implored G‑d to end a severe drought. Choni the Circle Maker drew a circle around himself and refused to leave until the desperately needed rain fell. Bassie Shemtov is another kind of circle-maker, cre...

On a crisp spring morning, I found myself in a lovely, almost surreal setting: an upscale cafe in a quaint, artsy village in Mishkenot Sha'ananim, the first Jewish neighborhood built outside the Old City in late 1860. I sat both matter of factly and full ...

Since we were clearly visitors, people made room for us and guided us to the front so we could see through large, tinted windows.