Thursday, July 9, 2009

The Velveteen Rabbi

The Velveteen Rabbi is Rachael Barenblat. She is not a rabbi, but she is a writer, a poet, a lover of Torah, and a rabbinic student. Here is an older post on the weekly Torah reading that deals with Balaam and his donkey. I think you'll appreciate how this articulate young Jewish woman approaches this passage, taking it seriously and drawing meaning from the story.

1 comment:

Judy H. said...

Great blog title! I enjoyed her post tremendously. One of the things that stood out was Rabbi Greene's comment that "The quality and clarity of each prophet's message depend on the community he or she represents and the degree to which that community is willing to say, 'Let us do and listen.' In other words. . . The efficacy of a prophet depends on how ready her community is to truly and actively listen."

The problem with many fundamentalist religious communities, such as my own, is that they are not willing to even listen, let alone "do".