Second Class Citizen When he backed me up against the tree inching towards me menacingly with his big powerful car I couldn’t believe what was happening. I was holding the space for a car full of dogs waiting to… Read More ›
animals
On Belief and Action by Ivy Helman
My birthday was last Wednesday. Perhaps more than any other time of the year (yes, even more than Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), the days and weeks leading up to my birthday are filled with personal reflection. Not that religious… Read More ›
A Feminist Retelling of Noah’s Ark by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
My daughters came to me after Sunday School one day, concerned about a story they had heard in which God drowned almost everyone on Earth. So I sat down and thought about why a community might want to tell that… Read More ›
Musings On My Recent Road Trip by Esther Nelson
I love a road trip. It’s exciting to get behind the wheel of a car, get out on the highway (or bi-way), and just go. The road seems to stretch out forever in front of me, full of possibilities, adventure,… Read More ›
What is the Most Dangerous Breed? by Karen Leslie Hernandez
As I wrote in November, I am currently working at the San Francisco SPCA. I took the job to bring something different in to my life as I do the heavy work involved with my Doctor of Ministry. I LOVE… Read More ›
A Small Glimpse Into God’s Creation, In a Window by Karen Leslie Hernandez
Windows. We have windows everywhere. In our homes, stores, cars, buildings, our souls. Windows allow us to see in, see out, and reflect. We see ourselves, others, creation. This Autumn, I began a new job at the San Francisco SPCA,… Read More ›
The Dog and the Divine by Ivy Helman
When I was in high school, I once gave a speech summarizing what I had learned about G-d through my dog. I still chuckle at the idea. I cringe sometimes and wonder what others thought of the piece. Oh, the… Read More ›
Drop the sense of entitlement towards life by Oxana Poberejnaia
At the time of climate change and crises of capitalism we need to drop our sense of entitlement to comfortable life or even to life at all. Nature will not spare us just because we are humans. When the meltdown… Read More ›
Liberation Lessons for Pesach by Ivy Helman
Each year we read the story of our exodus from Egypt during the Pesach seder. The story is one of human liberation from oppression. Yet, most of the imagery we encounter, the drama of the story so to speak, involves… Read More ›
Exuberant Noise by Safa Plenty
She is the firefly that lights up our nights, her cherubed face, and cheeky smile, laying siege on our living spaces. Her tiny form occupying, our basement steps, as she joyously serenaded us in an infantile song, spanglish laced with… Read More ›
Watching “Noah” Brought Me Closer to Humanity by Andreea Nica
As a child, I enjoyed the story of Noah’s Ark. I would often imagine pairs of animals running for safety in Noah’s architecturally majestic haven. Practical questions didn’t enter my mind during this blissful period of naivety. I ignored the… Read More ›
A Sojourn in Antartica by Marcia Mount Shoop
Ok, so it’s not Antarctica, it’s Indiana, but it sure feels like Antarctica lately. At least it’s what I figure Antarctica must feel like: bone chilling wind that can cause hypothermia and frost bite in a matter of minutes; everything… Read More ›
Be-pistemology by Marcia Mount Shoop
Epistemology—the study or theory of the nature and the ground of knowledge, particularly with respect to the limits and validity of knowledges and the sources of knowledge. Being—the qualities and characteristics that constitute conscious existence; a living thing. I look… Read More ›
Speaking Up for Animals by Grace Yia-Hei Kao
“I hope that readers will rethink their consumer choices, monies that have long been offered at the expense of nonhuman animals–overwhelmingly female and exploited because of their female biology. We choose where our money goes, and in the process, we… Read More ›
Why a Kippah Reminds Me that Rationality Should Not Be Our Only Imago Dei By Ivy Helman
Neil Gilman in his book Sacred Fragments writes, “Since our faculty of reason is G-d-given, since it is the quality that distinguishes us from the rest of creation, and since all human beings share that same innate faculty, what better… Read More ›
(Non-Human) Animals on the Agenda by Grace Yia-Hei Kao
“[E]thical interest in nonhuman animals is flourishing.” To my delight, the New York Times recently chronicled the growing scholarly interest in human/non-human animal interactions in a story entitled “Animal Studies Cross Campus to Lecture Hall.” There are now more than 100… Read More ›
