I have always been curious about the spaces between where society says we should be and where it is we actually are.

While my Jewish ancestors have keenly built a fence around time-honoured beliefs and practices, I’ve found myself called to the texture of the wood, the holes in the otherwise uniform design and the question of whom gets to take up the fence and if we are to be guided by a peeking glance at the vision inside of it or as insiders, who open the fence, paint the fence and lead all that is sacred from the inside of us, back to the fence, out to the great wide world in front of us.

My dream is for the Jewish People to exist proudly, Jewishly, in all the places this strange, beautiful world calls us to love and to be.

It’s curious I’ve chosen this path. What with a childhood and early adulthood spent on the periphery.

But the palette of my adoption, disability, queer identity, work and food addiction and recovery and chronic illness stir deep within me to celebrate and integrate what many people regard as the margins into the existing blanks surrounding Jewish text and life.

Because Jewish tradition was made with room to breathe

(I mean, just look at a page of Talmud).

Because Torah was made for gorgeous and intricate you and me.

If we cross paths with each other, I hope for us to explore the places of the deepest and most vulnerable human needs – yours, ours and everyone else’s.

And with cups of story, hope and a little gumption/chutzpah, to be a blessing, by seeking the blessings overflowing in ourselves and the universe together.