
Lifeboats. Summer. Bridges. Helpers.
Lifeboats. Summer. Bridges. Helpers. The rapid succession of a toddler-drunk-on-power messes is overwhelming. I’m exhausted by the sheer number of (what seem to me) reprehensible

A Friday Night Tradition
Religiously. Every Friday night, religiously, I do a particular tradition. I do the same ritual religiously every Friday night. I’m not misusing the word religiously

Loving Enemies
Thoughts on loving our enemies ✧✧✧ Three Saturday Services in a row the group and I interacted around the topic of loving our enemies. Here

Oh, Honey.
Fall, 2025 I’m sitting in my favorite chair in the living room. The sky is getting darker. It’s almost dusk. I check the time: 4:40

It’s o.k. to seek love.
Beloved reader, I am redoing the rotb.org website. Again. Why am I redoing the website again? Because a website older than (blank) years is (blank

Apple-Banana-Cap
An apple, a banana, and a baseball cap.🍎🍌🧢 ✧✧✧ I arrive at the wedding venue super early. My preference, always, is to arrive early, find

Deleted Scenes from the Book of Jonah.
A few weeks ago, in writing to you about the High Holy Day services, I referenced stopping the telling the story of the fish-dwelling prophet,

Liar, Liar, Pants on fire
Text Late May 2020, and I’m talking to Phil, my beloved father-in-law. I’ve returned home from yet another protest that “Black Lives Matter” — and

Jonah in the Dog Park
Ten minutes before I begin leading High Holy Days services, a large dog leaps up and takes a softball-sized bite from the bottom of the

-1 • Emotions
✧✧✧ Vignette #1 “I’m afraid I won’t be able to get through them,” the future bride says laughing, bu tearfully. I’m crafting a bespoke marriage

rB’s Handy, Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Boundaries
Note: Setting boundaries is like painting a room. Before you actually start painting—which is, relatively, the easy part—there is a lot of prep work.

Don’t Believe Everything You Think
“I must be a bad person,” my friend J tells me. I called J just as I started my mid-day dog walk. He continues, “Maybe

Love4You
Hi. It’s me. Brian. Rabbi Brian. Writing to you, beloved. How are you?What’s going on?How’s life? Me?Getting used to having a house without my son.

The 4:1 Rule
4:1 Rule — It’s not easy. But it’s doable. And, worthwhile. I hear the canister signaling that the process of carbonation is complete

Where Love Meets Us
5:6 WHERE LOVE MEETS US One day, after swearing me to secrecy, a friend, stammering and sheepish, admitted she was experimenting with wearing