When you juggle, your instinct as a beginner is to focus on the ball in your hand. It feels safer. Tangible. Manageable. But the moment you stare too long at what you’re holding, you lose sight of what’s already in motion. The balls in the air begin to drift. The…

When you first learn to juggle, it’s tempting to focus on just one ball. You watch the one in your hand. You track it carefully. You try to control it. But the moment your attention narrows too tightly, the rest of the pattern collapses. The balls in the air don’t…

There is a moment in juggling that almost disappears if you’re not paying attention. The ball leaves your hand, rises into the air, reaches the top of its arc, and begins to descend. For a split second, it is weightless. Suspended. Neither rising nor falling. If your throw is careless,…

There are moments in history when it feels impossible to hold everything at once. Grief presses in from one side. Anger rises from another. Fear hums beneath the surface. And yet somehow, life continues. We still show up. We still gather. We still light candles and say blessings. What does…

Somewhere along the way, many of us absorbed the message that adulthood means seriousness. We become professionals. We carry responsibility. We lead. We teach. We show up for other people’s most vulnerable moments. Slowly, quietly, play begins to feel optional—childish, even indulgent. Rabbis are not immune. In fact, rabbis may…

Rabbi Akiva did not grow up a prodigy. According to tradition, he was an illiterate shepherd until the age of forty. Forty. At a time when most people assume their path is already set, he was just beginning to learn the aleph-bet. He didn’t come from a family of scholars.…

We live in a moment that rewards certainty. Nuance is suspicious. Complexity feels exhausting. Public discourse pushes us toward choosing one side, one identity, one story. The pressure to simplify is constant. But Judaism has never been comfortable with only one voice. The Talmud preserves arguments for generations—both sides recorded,…

Impulse, Discipline, and the Space Between Throws In Jewish tradition, we speak about the yetzer hara—often translated as the “evil inclination.” But that translation is misleading. The yetzer hara isn’t a cartoon villain sitting on your shoulder. It’s impulse. Urgency. Ego. The part of us that wants things now. The…

It’s not an accident. For more than a century, Jews have been wildly overrepresented in comedy. From the Borscht Belt to Hollywood, Jewish humor has shaped American culture in disproportionate ways. Think about figures like Mel Brooks, whose satire fearlessly mocked power and exposed absurdity. Or Joan Rivers, who turned…

When we picture Jewish learning, we usually imagine a beit midrash: long tables, open books, the hum of argument, the rhythm of sacred text moving back and forth between study partners. And that image is real and t has sustained us for centuries, but it is not the only place…

People sometimes ask me how I became a rabbi who juggles. The honest answer is: I didn’t decide to combine two abstract identities. I discovered that they were the same kind of thing. Juggling is not something you believe in, it’s something you do. Judaism, at its best, works the…

Purim is a holiday of surprises, reversals, and joyful celebration. We wear costumes to disguise ourselves, we spin groggers to drown out Haman’s name, and we feast and rejoice as we retell the story of Esther. But did you know that Purim and juggling have a lot in common? Juggling,…

The first time I picked up three juggling balls when I was younger, I was thought it would be easy. I had seen plenty of people do it, tossing them effortlessly through the air. How hard could it be? Then I tried. Within seconds, the beanbags were falling everywhere. My…

In the 2nd century, Rabbi Akiva stood before 24,000 empty seats. His students, his entire school, had just died in a devastating plague. Everything he had built, everything he had worked for, was gone. If anyone had a reason to give up, it was him. But instead of surrendering to…

The first time I walked into a juggling convention, I knew I had found my people. The room was alive with movement—balls, clubs, and rings flying through the air—but even more importantly, there was a spirit of openness and connection. The crowd was wildly diverse. There were the pros (at…

I have been juggling for many years, but have never made it to more than a five ball cascade. Juggling three wasn’t so hard, four only a bit more challenge, but five took months of practicing. I would love to do more, but usually I am fine with what I…

Every juggler knows the truth: you will drop. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner with three scarves or an expert juggling seven clubs. Drops are inevitable. But here’s the secret—drops aren’t failures. They’re part of the process. In Judaism, we have a similar approach to mistakes. No one gets…

A group of young foxes wrestles in the snow, tumbling over one another in joyful chaos. A dolphin leaps from the water, spinning midair before diving back into the waves. Even crows and other birds have been seen sliding down snowy rooftops just for fun. Animals play, not because they…

The Power of Counting On the Jewish calendar, the Counting of the Omer is an ancient tradition, bridging Passover and Shavuot. For 49 days, we pause each evening to mark time, counting one day closer to receiving the Torah—a journey that encourages reflection, anticipation, and spiritual growth. In a way,…