Artwork by Harlem Renaissance painter, William Johnson

When we endure suffering, to have someone truly see, and to remain with us in the midst of it, is a powerful thing.

Life and living is a joyful thing, and we celebrate that during Holy Week. The season of Easter arrives in the midst of blooming flowers, the sparkle of the sun on raindrops...

I teach a course on growth mindset and neuroplasticity to college students. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to form new neural pathways, either by creating new pathways, or altering existing ones. We used to think that our brains' neural networks were highly adaptable in childhood, but then became more rigid in adulthood. Now we...

Last week’s blog introduced the topic of an embodied God. I noted a dichotomy between anthropomorphic descriptions of the divine, which can be found in the Talmud and the Midrash, and later interpretations that insisted that the divine was transcendent. It is precisely this tension that gives the God of the Hebrew Bible a vibrant persona,...

How did the ancient Israelites glean their understanding of the divine? How was the God of the Hebrew Bible characterized? Theologians and scholars have long interpreted the God of the Hebrew Bible as multifaceted and complex. These complexities are not mere inventions of scholars, but have their roots in the text themselves. In some instances,...

Our culture is built on multi-tasking and productivity. If we have a spare moment, we are often scrolling or looking over our to-do list. In the Old Testament, there are numerous times when we are encouraged to “be still.” There are actually at least 3 different verbs in Hebrew that can be translated as “to be still, to be...