The Akedah Cycle: a sermon in poetry for the second day of Rosh Hashanah
My final semester begins

Welcome, new readers!

To all who are here via the very kind mention in Nick Kristof's Sunday New York Times column Is This America? (the online edition links to my post A gesture of repair, about raising money for new prayer rugs for the Al-Iman masjid in Queens) -- welcome. Come on in, make yourselves at home.

If you're new to Velveteen Rabbi, here are a few links by way of introduction. First of all, you might want to start with About Me -- a page which aims to offer a general introduction to who I am and what I'm doing here. (While I'm at it, allow me to point you toward my comments policy.) If you'd like to get a sense for who I am and what kinds of things I post here these days, here are five links to check out:

  • Roundup of JStreet conference posts -- I liveblogged the first JStreet conference last fall, shortly before my son was born. This post contains links to my eight writeups of different panels and sessions, plus a concluding essay about the experience overall.

  • The Akedah Cycle: a sermon in poetry for the second day of Rosh Hashanah -- This is the sermon I gave at my shul this year on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, when we read the story of the binding of Isaac. It's a series of ten linked poems which offer a variety of midrashic interpretations of the story. This is the sweet spot where my MFA and my rabbinic education overlap!

  • The Velveteen Rabbi's Haggadah for Pesach -- My own haggadah for my favorite festival of the year. Features traditional texts alongside contemporary poetry and illustrations.

  • Jewish/Muslim retreat chronicled at Zeek -- This post offers an outtake from the essay I wrote about a retreat I spent with emerging Jewish and Muslim leaders last year, and then points to the published essay in Zeek magazine.

  • Through -- My self-published collection of miscarriage poems, which I've made available for free in hopes that the collection will speak to the experience of the many other women who've endured this sorrow. For the other side of the coin, you might also enjoy my weekly mother poems which I've been posting since last November when my son was born.

Anyway: welcome! As an FYI, I moderate comments here, and sometimes it may take a while before your comments appear, so thanks for bearing with me. I hope you'll stick around a while.

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