Chanukah begins at sundown on Sunday, November 28th this year. Just as we finish the last bits of those Thanksgiving leftovers, it’ll be time for latkes, the delicious, crispy fried potato pancakes traditionally eaten by many in the Jewish community. It is traditional to eat foods fried in oil for the eight night holiday, a…

Who doesn’t love the story of brave Esther, the young Jewish woman who worked in concert with her insightful uncle Mordecai to save her people from holocaust in ancient Babylon? The book of Esther is an example for me of what it looks like when exile becomes pilgrimage. Esther’s people had lost their homes and…

I’d long heard the salvation narrative presented in the Bible framed something like this: “…and then there was 400 years of silence from God between the conclusion of the Old Testament prophet Malachi’s ministry until the birth of Jesus.” These words may be technically correct if we explain that what we mean by this is…

Advent begins on Sunday, December 3rd. For the last 3 years, one practice that has helped me lean into the wait of Advent was to post a picture each day on Instagram that reflects a word or theme related to the season. (Here are links to my past years’ efforts: 2014, 2015, 2016 via Instagram, hashtag…

If you’re in search of a great holiday gift for a relative, pastor, or friend, a beautiful calendar is the gift that keeps giving all year `round. Last year, I heard of a few people who bundled my book about the Jewish and Christian calendars with a 2017 calendar.Moments & Days: How Our Holy Celebrations…

It’s the Wednesday after Easter. All the decent candy (chocolate bunnies and Starburst jelly beans) marked 60% off is gone from the clearance section at Walgreens. The candy may be gone, but it’s still Easter on the liturgical church calendar. The fifty-day Easter season mirrors the fifty days between Passover and Shavuot in the Jewish…