Danya Ruttenberg's Blog

As many of you may have noticed, this blog hasn't really been active for a while. A kid, a new job that I'm just starting, and the various other things that fill up a life have turned blogging into that thing I don't do anymore. Grad school was great for a lot of reasons, and time to blog was one of them…. Ah, well. As the waves of tech turn, I've finally gone and gotten myself a Twitter account. Follow me there if you are so inclined!

In addition to the new gig and various other freelance th

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The Passionate Torah is starting to get ready for its big debut in June! Yay. A wonderful review and profile in Publishers Weekly this week–I’m totally tickled:

The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism Edited by Danya Ruttenberg. New York Univ., $19.95 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-8147-7605-6

It is not often that an academic title about religion stimulates other parts of the body as well as the mind. Yet that is what Ruttenberg, a rabbi, and the 17 contributors to this collection of essays have accompl

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I’m teaching a class at the lovely retreat center Elat Chayyim this summer, from July 27-August 2. It’s on Jewish sex! What could be more fun than that?

Here’s the official copy:

Judaism’s sacred texts and great thinkers offer many inspirations, challenges and provocative questions about how we conduct our most intimate relationships.

How should a couple interact in the bedroom? How does sexuality impact our relationships with God and ourselves? Have feminism, queerness and new questions about

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The most excellent mikveh/community resource known as Mayyim Hayyim is having a benefit featuring Yavilah McCoy and four generations of her family’s music. It’s this coming Sunday, deets here. Ch-ch-check it out…

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Well, the aforementioned Sekrit Projeckt has come to fruition. His name is Yonatan, and he was born twelve days ago. He is a miracle and a joy.

Not sure how much I’ll blog about him–maybe some, probably more about things I learn getting to hang out with him than anything. Prayer is already deeper and more textured than I could have imagined. Especially when he’s curled up in his sling when I daven. More reflections to come, I’m sure.

In any case, for now? A nap.

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Hi, there. I know posting has fallen off a bit around here; sorry ’bout that. I’ve been busy gigging, cleaning up the last things that needed to be done on The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism, working on 3 other anthologies, a biggish research project, and a few other things that have come up, blah blah blah. I’ve also got a Sekrit Projekt in the works, probably will share more about that when the time is right.

In any case, today saw a nice review of Surprised By God on Feministing, the e

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Judaism has blessings for just about everything–smelling fragrant trees, seeing a rainbow, hearing good news, hearing bad news, encountering a friend one hasn’t seen in a year, and more. There is a blessing that one says upon seeing a non-Jewish king, and some would say that this extends to seeing a (non-Jewish) head of state, as well.

The blessing is:

ברוך אתה ה’ אלוקינו מלך העולם שנתן מכבודו לבשר ודם
Blessed are You, God our Deity, Ruler of the universe, who has given of His glory to flesh an

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As I’ve watched–mostly from afar, sadly, as I’m now living on the other coast–various communities and lots of people that I know respond to the death of Rabbi Lew, I have found myself thinking about some of the stuff in Tractate Moed Katan about mourning for a rav.

I don’t know if any of this will be of use or of solace to folks in the Beth Sholom community or other students of R. Lew’s elsewhere, or other students of other rabbanim elsewhere, but I offer it to all, each for their own purpose.

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I just got word that my first and most influential rav, Rabbi Alan Lew, died this morning. I’m a little bit in shock–he was only 65, and from what I understand this was not anticipated from anyone. From what I understand, he died while taking a walk, serving as a teacher at a rabbinic training institute. In his last day, I’m told, he taught, meditated, davenned, and went for a run–kind of a classic thing for the man.

I saw him last in early November, when I was in San Francisco for a book eve

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This'll be out this summer. Goodness knows the fonts or whatever might change before then, but I'm pretty sure this is more or less the final version.

In Boston-area event-ish news, I'll be giving a book talk at Eitz Chayim in Cambridge on Dec. 7th (this Sunday) and doing a lunch-and-learn at the Jewish Women's Archive in Brookline on the 9th. (Oh, and the always-awesome Judith Rosenbaum interviewed me for the JWA blog recently, too.) If you're local, come out and play!

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