My issue with the climate movement is that in focusing on small individual responsibilities like paper straws and meatless Mondays, we fail to address bigger, systemic issues like animal agriculture, food deserts, and how billionaires can but are electing to not end hunger in America.

Could a physical planner make it possible to schedule a life fully in the secular world, while also respecting and appreciating the unique cycle of Jewish time?  Many different artists and creators from across the streams of Judaism have envisioned different answers to this same problem.

When I returned to Manhattan after seven months at Adamah, things I had previously taken for granted jarred me. Why do all the fruits and vegetables at the grocery stores look the same, and why are they wrapped in plastic? Why isn’t everyone composting (don’t they know how magical it is)? How are we producing so much trash each day? The accepted norm now seemed abnormal. 

Sukkot is a holiday to celebrate the harvest, and though I was three stories above the earth, I celebrated my own harvest: a place to live, groceries in my fridge, a job, quiet neighbors, a laundromat down the street.

One of my favorite sweets for as long as I can remember is baklava – flakey layers of buttery filo and crunchy nuts, all soaked through with a special honey-sugar syrup until each piece is heavy with gooey goodness. I think there must be some genetic imprinting from my Sephardic ancestors who spent centuries in the Ottoman Empire for me to love it as much as I do.