Rabbi Lisa Edwards

Moving toward possibility

Published on August 1, 2012

Moses is 120 years old when, in this week’s Torah portion, Va’etchanan, he recalls his recent request of God: “I pleaded with the Eternal at that time, saying, ‘O Eternal God, You who let your servant see the first works of Your greatness and Your mighty hand, You whose powerful deeds no god in heaven or on earth can equal! Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan, that good hill country, and the Lebanon’ ” (Deuteronomy 3:23-25).

When your brother will be low

Published on May 15, 2012

He flopped down on the couch in my study, looking pale, upset. “What is it?” I asked, imagining a bad diagnosis.

Unloading the emotional U-Haul

Published on January 4, 2012

A funeral director once said, “In all the funerals I’ve attended, I have yet to see a hearse with a U-Haul trailer attached.” But while it’s true that “you can’t take it with you,”meaning material possessions, I’m not so sure about emotional possessions. How many of us have walked behind a casket where lay the body of a relative or friend with whom we were still talking? Or, wrenchingly, with whom we never had the conversation we meant to have?

A Moment to Focus

Published on March 29, 2010

I’ve taken to traveling light to avoid costly airline baggage charges. But my wife wisely reminds me that paying $25 to check luggage costs less than a chiropractor visit.

Unsung Heroes

Published on January 20, 2010

Miep Gies died this month, weeks shy of her 101st birthday. Gies worked for Otto Frank’s Amsterdam pectin company and was the main caretaker of the Franks, including Anne, and the four other Jews who hid for 25 months in the business’ back rooms. Those hiding in the Secret Annex managed, with the help of Gies, her husband and four co-workers, to evade capture by the Nazis until August 1944. Dispersed to various concentration camps, only Anne’s father returned alive. Upon hearing of his daughters’ deaths, Miep Gies handed Otto Frank Anne’s diary, which she had found and stashed in her desk drawer after the hiding place was discovered by the Nazis.

Esau’s Kiss

Published on December 2, 2009

After their grandfather died, a friend and her brother sat with an attorney.

Is It Sufficient?

Published on August 11, 2009

When I was a teenager, my friends and I used to laugh at the public service announcements that played nightly on television, back in the day of legal youth curfews: “It’s 11 p.m. Do you know where your children are?”

Speak Up

Published on June 17, 2009

I recently had the privilege of listening to Rabbi Arik Ascherman, an American-born Israeli rabbi who, often at great physical risk to himself, advocates for others through the organization Rabbis for Human Rights.

Open Doors

Published on February 18, 2009

Crossing paths

Published on December 18, 2008

Parshat Vayeshev (Genesis 37:1-40:23) How about, for starters -- crossed path by crossed path, person by person, angel by angel -- a rescued world?

Gay marriage ruling brings joy, faces fight

Published on May 22, 2008

We're goin' to the chuppa, and we're gonna get married . . . .

Commemorating Sorrows

Published on July 27, 2006

"Every head is ailing, and every heart is sad" (Isaiah 1.5). We read these words in this week's haftarah for Shabbat Khazon (Sabbath of Vision), the Shabbat before Tisha B'Av. The words seem especially poignant and true these past few weeks, as we watch in angst as events unfold in Israel, Lebanon and Gaza.

Life More Ordinary

Published on April 27, 2006

In this week's double Torah portion, Tazria-Metzorah (Leviticus 13, in particular), God instructs Moses and Aaron on the role of priests when people take ill.

Wisdom of the Ages

Published on January 26, 2006

Amazingly, two-thirds of all the people who have ever lived past the age of 65 in the history of the world are alive today, according to Ken Dychtwald, author of "The Power Years: A User's Guide to the Rest of Your Life." This suggests that our way-beyond octogenarians in the Bible were the exception, not the rule.

The Many Faces

Published on October 27, 2005

I just spent the weekend with more than 125 people (including 50 children) who came together because they are Jews with widely varying ethnicities and skin colors. They stay together because the intention of Bechol Lashon (In Every Tongue) -- the initiative on ethnic and racial diversity in the Jewish community and the sponsor of the weekend -- is to provide a time of learning and play in a Jewish atmosphere offering more than welcome.

Right the Wrongs

Published on August 4, 2005

Last January, I breathed a sigh of relief. The new domestic partnership law went into effect in the state of California, giving senior citizen and same-gender couples a range of state rights nearly equal to the rights given married couples in California.

In so doing, California became second only to Massachusetts in seeking to extend the civil rights of its residents, and many members of the Los Angeles Jewish community, myself included, knew we finally had the legal protections in place that are so critically important to the security of our families.

Why Scapegoat?

Published on April 21, 2005

In response to the three clerics who made the front page of The New York Times, in just one week several hundred clergy, mostly from the United States, signed on to a letter of support for WorldPride in Jerusalem, saying, among other things, that "Jerusalem, a living, holy city, a pilgrimage site for people of many faiths and many beliefs, increases in holiness when all are welcome within her walls."

Another Chance

Published on March 3, 2005

With great sadness my friends decided to divorce in January 2001. They had given themselves one year into the new century to see if they could make it work, and it didn't seem as if they could. Then, in 2002, they happily reconciled. When asked why, they say Sept. 11 brought them back together; it helped them refocus their priorities.

Right Words

Published on July 15, 2004

Torah Portion. "Why do human fingers resemble pegs? So that if one hears something unseemly, one can plug one's fingers in one's ears." -- Babylonian Talmud Ketubot 5b

Tend the Fire

Published on April 1, 2004

Torah portion.

What’s in a Name?

Published on January 22, 2004

When Jews come across the biblical name for God -- spelled yod-hay-vav-hay in Hebrew -- custom teaches us to substitute the term Adonai ("my Lord"), for according to Jewish tradition those letters are the unpronounceable name of God.

Permission to Grieve

Published on November 20, 2003

Years ago, one of my colleagues had the awesome task of officiating at the funeral of a 9-year-old girl killed by a car while riding her bicycle.