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• At Hanukkah, how do we kindle the lights within ourselves?

  November 29, 2015 3:17pm

  “The life breath (the soul) of a human is the lamp of God,” it says in the Book of Proverbs.

• Marking the passage from slavery to freedom

  March 23, 2015 11:16am

  What are the ways that our experience of Passover can shed light onto how we experience transitions in our own lives?

• What the Shmita year can teach us about Hanukkah

  December 11, 2014 5:22pm

  Some ideas on how the biblically ordained law on the land can help open up another dimension of Hanukkah.

• Who will live and who will die? Confront the ultimate question

  September 17, 2014 11:23am

  The metaphor of God counting our deeds in the book of life during the High Holidays enables us to make our lives count, Dasee Berkowitz writes.

• Considering ‘Next year in Jerusalem’

  April 7, 2014 3:01pm

  The end of the Haggadah, with the promise to arrive “next year in Jerusalem,” is just as ripe for exploration as the beginning.

• At Thanksgivukkah, celebrate uniqueness of the separate holidays

  November 20, 2013 4:49pm

  How the specialness of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving can enhance the revelry of both holidays.

• What children can teach us at Rosh Hashanah

  August 27, 2013 12:29pm

  Cultivating a relationship with God comes easy for children, and they can teach adults — if we only slow down to listen, writes JTA contributing writer Dasee Berkowitz.

• In experiencing real freedom, the importance of boundaries

  March 11, 2013 2:15pm

  One of the lessons of Passover is that only within boundaries and structure can we experience true freedom, Dasee Berkowitz writes.

• A Purim directive: Laugh it up!

  February 11, 2013 7:08pm

  Purim is a holiday that isn’t ripe with laws and ritual obligations, but the Scroll of Esther offers a directive for observance that is clear: Jews should make the days “of feasting and joy.”

• With a candle each night, celebrate the many dimensions of courage

  November 30, 2012 7:14pm

  Overcoming our most natural desires and exercising personal restraint is a kind of heroism. At Chanukah, the suggestion here is to dedicate each night to this kind of everyday courage.