Leanne Shawler, Artist

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . The other day Rabbi/Cantor was recording a Torah portion for one of the B'nai Mitzvah students. I overheard and when she was done, I went into her office and said: "That sounded awfully a lot like the same tune for the V'ahavta." (Well, I said Sh'ma actually, but I meant V'ahavta.) Turns out that as the V'ahavta is part of the Torah, when you chant it you use the same tropes to chant it as the rest of the Torah. Rabbi/Cantor showed me how it worked in the printed Torah and the very next day she comes in and gives me some gifts: No, not the challah bread. But a set of Hebrew characters to stick on my fridge, some memory flash cards and a course book on learning Hebrew.  So instead of learning the Sh'ma/V'ahavta by transcribing what I hear, I'll be able to read it -- once I've applied myself to learning it, of course. Pretty cool, eh?

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . I begged for this T-shirt because I love the back so much. (The front has the preschool name on it.)

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . I think the part of the Micah 6:8 verse that strikes me most deeply is: "and walk humbly with your God." So I sat down and did a lectio divina meditation on the phrase. Walking with God is not trailing behind an authoritarian figure, not dancing ahead of One who delights in us even as God would much rather I walk with, alongside of. Not someone of who I demand answers. When I walk with people, I share my heart, my concerns, and my friend shares theirs. God, share your heart with me. Let me be in your heart And I in yours. Speak, your friend is doing her best to listen. Holy breath in, Sacred breath out, Words shared are already lost, But I promised to listen And so I shall.

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . So what is it that makes me declare that Micah 6:8 as my favorite verse. Because it shares so succinctly all that we need to do in acting out our love for God: to act justly - fairness is one of the things that I would call a core value (that it's due to being bullied as a child is beside the point). to love tenderly - another translation has "to show mercy". Or as in the prayer Jesus gave us "as we forgive others". A love that transcends our humanity. and to walk humbly with our God. Not to God, but with . Yeah, I want that. These words of exhortation are elsewhere in the Bible, in different words, from Jesus' New Testament, to Deuteronomy to Isaiah. It's a refrain that God has said again and again to those who believe through various prophets throughout the ages. And even though it's a favorite verse, it's a hard one to live into. I can judge unfairly with t...

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . My favorite verse in the entire Christian Bible is not found in the New Testament. No sirree. It's the prophet Micah: This is what the Lord asks of you, only this: to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8) I discovered this verse during my EfM (Education for Ministry) studies and when I became an Associate of the Order of the Holy Cross (AHC for short), my EfM mentor gifted me a piece of calligraphy with this verse, written by Br. Roy -- and look! It has Hebrew as part of the design. I think that's kind of neat, that it was there long before Judaism became a part of my life. Of course, this is the only loving verse in all of Micah... and there's a really neat diagram showing that on Theologygrams . (I didn't know if it would be cool to link the image here directly. Generally speaking, that isn't a cool thing to do without permission.) I st...

Last weekend saw an exciting update on the icon writing front. One in a good way, one in a bad way. Bad way first. I was adding the "blush" to Jesus' cheek when this happened: The green splotch kind of pointed at by Mary's fingertips is where the layers of flesh color paint lifted right off as I tried to fix an overdo of blush. I had to walk away from the icon and let it dry some before repairing it. You can't even tell I made a mistake! Here is how my icon finished up. I added a couple of layers of lighter paint on the background, but you can't really make that out in the late afternoon light except on the inside of the halo. And here's Helena's at the end of the day. The next is the good way: We are almost done! Next is the halos: gold leaf and red edging! Lots of prayers involved for that.

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . My hunch is that just by that title I've prompted frowny faces on both my Jewish and Christian friends. Maybe not. But you could have knocked me over with a feather at the Shabbabeque this past summer when I saw bread (a large loaf of challah) and wine being raised up during liturgy. Whaaaa---? Of course I read up about it. See the thing is, that the earliest of the Christian Eucharist services were not about the atoning sacrifice of Jesus (and honestly, these days I don't know how I feel about that, but that's a topic for future exploration). Instead it was a re-creation of the "table fellowship" (phrase used by Skarsaune in "In the Shadow of the Temple") that the disciples shared with Jesus. They wanted to remember that, to keep that part of their journey together alive. That last meal together might've been a passover meal, or a Sabbath meal. In any case, ...