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I’m currently sitting in the 10+-year-old chair, listening to the sounds of rain on the top of the tent, and writing the words that will turn into this very article you are currently reading. It is my tradition to spend the evening and the day of Yom Kippur in a tent.

You are more likely to win the lottery if you buy a ticket.

Wading out of a hard time is awful. But it’s really all we can do. There is no panacea. No miracle fix. No post-it note on the side of a monitor—“take time to notice what is right”—will instantly un-funk a funk.

Don’t try so hard.

Be ok being a bit disappointing.

  Kim, who bakes the artisanal matzah I annually send to friends throughout the US, tested COVID positive in the weeks before Passover, when production usually starts. “Brian,” she said on the phone, “I can’t make the …

Dear reader, let me ask you, where are you on a scale of one to five in accepting other people’s love?

  An overdue apology from organized religion. We lied. Those of us who work in organized religion lied to you. We also might have shamed you. Some members of the clergy might have even physically abused you. …

Sometimes, when a trauma happens, there is some time before hurt registers and before the emotions flow.

Sometimes, we find ourselves witnessing something that doesn’t hurt yet, but certainly will.

Some things done in the name of God by people of religious communities have been some of the lowest acts of humanity.

While I’m not the clergy-person who might have caused you hurt, I would like to apologize on their behalf. Because, it seems, they owe you an apology—and at this time they are unable to give it to you.

To those affected by the discovery of mass graves of First Nations’ children In Canada.

Do you also tell yourself that you don’t have the right to be upset when you are upset? What if, instead, we trained ourselves on compassionate self-talk?

For the sake of learning, I’d like to ask you to consider the circumstances since the start of 2020 as a grand psychological experiment.

“You can’t win an argument. You can’t because if you lose it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it.” ― Dale Carnegie, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”

Emotions are feelings. They happen naturally. Emotions are our response to being alive. As we are human–alive and awake–we have interactions with the world, and we experience emotions. Expressing emotions in a healthy manner is the birthright of every human being.

“If somebody gave me $100,000 a week to move somewhere and live in a mansion and be a big shot, I’d refuse it. I want to be right here. It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

Chats with Larry is a podcast of phone call conversations of Rabbi Brian with his best buddy, Larry Keene, a retired minister and sociology professor.

Stop doing as you are accustomed to.
Get off your default setting and opt-in.
Do something, even as small as a longer breath of air, differently.

It wasn’t until two years ago that I finally understood the magic of Christmas. I tell people with regard to Passover seders that until you’ve been to at least three of them, you don’t really get the genre. I guess I needed a few Christmases of doing it to understand that it’s not about the tree and the gifts.

Decompress. Share. Feel seen. Be real. Stay as anonymous as you wish. Your parishioners, congregants, local colleagues, subordinates, and superiors needn’t know that you are cracking around the edges, losing hope, etc.

Do you treat the world, the universe, reality as a partner with whom you’ve been in a long term relationship?

Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, a day, according to Leviticus 23:27, which is supposed to be a day of strict rest.

Larry says that good people never think they are doing enough. Maybe you don’t have to be brilliant today, either.

I walk to a wall made of 216 interconnected, 8 x 10 photos of “black lives taken by racial violence.” Memories of standing before a pile of shoes at Auschwitz come to mind. I try to imagine the full, robust life of each person whose life—whose infinite, valuable, beautiful life—was snuffed out because of racial violence.

Rabbi Brian & Devin Daugherty talk to people who are looking to become anti-racists. Enjoy.

JOIN RABBI BRIAN’S INCLUSIVE & FUN WEEKLY SERVICE. ALTHOUGH THE WORD “SERVICE” MAKES IT SEEM A LITTLE STIFF. I’D THINK ABOUT IT MORE LIKE SOME OF RABBI BRIAN’S FRIENDS ARE HANGING OUT AND TALKING ABOUT SPIRITUAL ISSUES.

“Social Distancing” doesn’t mean we can’t still come together.
Join me every day of the week for an hour of discussion on various relevant spiritual topics.

  To soothe souls in election year, Portland Rabbi seeks 10K+ meditators. This beautiful, full-color, 8.5″ x 11″ book of simple, enjoyable instructions will get you meditating. Follow the frustrated Stallion  and the slightly-competitive Dragon I teach …

Patience is the amount of time you can remain in acceptance. With you in mind, figuratively, I created a 20-minute total over five days mini-course about patience and accepting reality as it is.

An exercise in self-love.

WE NEED TO STOP LETTING THE SMALL THINGS SLIDE. Stop putting yourself and your needs first. Stop blaming the world outside for your irritation. Stop making excuses for not treating this world as though your every action matters. Stop pretending that the occasional Chick-fil-A doesn’t make a difference. 

Complaining is like bad breath – you notice it when it comes out of someone else’s mouth, but not when it out of your own. My words: Complaining gets in the way of our finding gratitude with what is.

Someone sent me a meme of Jesus bungee jumping from a crucifix. A month later, I read a book that  took this meme to a whole other level – thatJesus suffering on a cross was only first used as a religious symbol around the year 960 c.e.

Is that a word? Tittynope? Really? Who says it is or not? And, this leads Rabbi Brian to wonder about the seat of our own spiritual authority. A light video. Fun with spiritual stuff. Enjoy.

Rabbi Brian reminds us that the point of Easter and Passover is that we are forgiven, liberated, free. We forget that, cause we know the story too well. Imagine if you didn’t. And, imagine what you need freedom from?

I get the idea: thinking leads to judgment, and judgment leads to problems.

Welcome to The Resistance Bible Study Podcast​​​​​​​
Listen in. Engage. Resist.

This week:
Baptists are my friends

I didn’t think that I would be interviewing the acting dean of a Baptist seminary. But, you know, life…

Learn along with me as I talk with Dr. Tracy Harman.
Please listen to this.