A version of this email was due to go out on Thursday evening. But 85 people were murdered in Nice that evening, so we decided to hold off until this…
This has been a shocking week to be in England. I feel very sad. The overarching thread of the emails that I write for the Hazon list is our theme…
Na’aseh v’nishmah – “we will do and we will learn” – are the words with which the Jewish people received the Torah, which we celebrated last weekend. The words are…
Hazon will be in the Celebrate Israel Parade in New York this Sunday, riding bicycles alongside our Topsy Turvy Bus. Many people would not mind if we were not there;…
Hazon’s tag line, built into our logo, is “Jewish inspiration. Sustainable communities.” These four words are an imperfect attempt to summarize not only an ethos that underpins our work, but…
It’s spring, we’re counting the omer, much is happening. I wanted to say something about the nature of Isabella Freedman as a Jewishly-inflected retreat center – why that is so…
What do we read? The vital lesson of Hillel in the 21st century. I was mooching around the internet, looking for a copy of the (excellently-named) Chazon Ovadia (the haggadah…
The current iteration of ideas and programs that are encompassed by “Jewish Outdoor, Food, Farming & Environmental Education,” ie “JOFEE” for short, is less than twenty years old. But Pesach…
This is the week of the golden calf. This is the week where the children of Israel are described as the “stiff-necked people.” This is the parsha that describes Israel…
This week’s parsha includes the famous line: “Let them make for Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell amongst them.” You can parse it, learn it, sing it, reflect on…
Had he lived, today would have been the birthday of Reb Shlomo Carlebach, z”l. Like David Bowie and Alan Rickman – each of them, also, of blessed memory – he…
Rosh Chodesh Kislev, 5776 I got back to the US on Tuesday, after a swirling Israel trip that was rich and intense and thought-provoking. I share with you a few…
I’m tired but feeling good. We rode today from Jerusalem to Ashkelon – 162 riders, on the first day of our 2015 Arava Institute Hazon Israel Ride. It was a…
The name of this week’s Torah portion, Lech Lecha, means both “go forth” or “go out” and, more literally, “go to you.” It’s the week in which Avraham and Sarah…
My Bobbie, as we called her in Manchester when I was a kid, (my father’s mother, z”l) was born on this day – in 1892. How crazy is that? That’s…
I’m here at Isabella Freedman, learning about shmita with a group of Israelis and Americans, and noting in relation to shmita that the next few months has an interesting conjunction…