A prayer for peace

In this Yom Kippur sermon, Rabbi Tovlev gets deep and vulnerable about his past struggles with depression. He shares that this darkness has given him heightened appreciation of the light. Many of us go through our days focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, not noticing the blessings that surround us. When we pause to look around, we can see the beauty and goodness in our world and our lives. We only have one life to live, but are we truly living?

A Kol Nidre sermon about life and death. On Yom Kippur we ask the question, "Who will live and who will die?" These questions are not merely theoretical. We only have one life to live -- what is truly important in life? When tomorrow isn't guaranteed, we have to ask ourselves today: are we living the life we want?

"Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things." An exploration into kindness and situations when kindness is not nice. We must be people who resist oppression even when we go against the status quo and risk our reputations.

We cannot claim to care about the hostages and then support actions which directly put their lives in danger.

we are all always transitioning, through space, time, identity, transitioning

A poem in response to the US presidential election

Our struggles are not with each other; we must unite in the shared struggle for peace

Different levels of our soul: nefesh, ruach, and neshama; how to keep our neshama pure and bright.

Rosh Hashanah sermon about belief & disbelief in God

A Rosh Hashanah sermon on the power of showing up in community and bearing witness to each other's pain

our memories the memories we have of others are faulty things inconsistent, disjointed, warped by emotion which ones carry on? which are...

"the heart is never so open / as when it is broken / let it break, let it break"

It is not enough to protect trans kids if we are not empowering and honoring trans adults. Much of the transgender rights movement has...

Stories from my own life on diversity which have taught me about ignorance and efforts to move past it.

In preparing to apply for rabbinical school, I was meeting regularly with my rabbi. In one of our meetings he prepped me through a mock...

An explanation of why I am a Zionist who supports a ceasefire in Palestine.

A couple years ago, one of my professors died from an illness we all hoped she’d recover from. The whole college was in mourning over...

Ruach wind, spirit, the invisible force felt but not seen falling leaves surround me thank you God for the wonder of creation

the weather has turned the sun takes its time to rise slowly slinking into position in the sky not quite reaching the top tenderly...