Exodus 16: 1-31; 35 (New Revised Standard Version) The whole congregation of the Israelites set out from Elim; and Israel came to the wilderness... The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness....

1 Samuel 17 (New Revised Standard Version) Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle... The Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion...

Storytellers make choices all the time. We choose which parts of a story to lift up and which to downplay or omit; which characters to develop, and how; and which dilemmas to emphasize. This is especially true when it comes to stories from the Bible. It was so with the great biblical films and...

Code Switch - This NPR blog is one of the best places for new takes on race and culture, particularly the intersection of race with other identities and issues (like gender and class). >> npr.org/blogs/codeswitch Colorlineshttp://colorlines.com/archives/2011/11/jay_smooths_ted_talk_on_how_he_l…...

humorcomplexRowan Atkinson claims that people can be funny in three ways: by behaving in an unusual way, being in an unusual place, or being the wrong size.[*...

Morristown Unitarian Fellowship, getting a new multigenerational tradition started. In Peoria, Illinois the This reflection on the complexities of grief, grace and gratitude comes from the Rev. Julia Corbett-Hemeyer at the This blogpost by Rev....

https://www.google.com/search?q=menurkey&client=firefox-a&hs=V7…; Adorable.

Rabbi David Kudan asks, ReformJudiasm.orgHanukkahhttp://www.reformjudaism.org/blog/2013/10/15/looking-perfect-thanksgivu… one from Jewish cooking expert Tina Wasserman) featuring foods like latkes with cranberry sauce, and the term...

Guest post by Stephanie Carey-Marron. – Ed. This year, for the first time in our lifetime, Thanksgiving (November 28) coincides with the first day of Hanukkah (the evening of November 27 through the night of November 28). For most of us, it’s exciting. If you’re my husband, well…let’s...

A founding story of American Thanksgiving, reflected by the History Channel claims, " In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies."(Read source hereIndian Country Toda...

Blue Boat of Youth and Young Adult Ministries is doing something special to celebrate the unusual confluence of …; and Hanukkahcloud-spaceGregorian calendar while Hanukkah follows the lunisolarHebrew calendar. But, hey – http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/2343364/jewish/…...

Coming to your household soon...

From the Hebrew Scriptures, 1 Samuel 1:10-17, 20, New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Hannah was a very religious woman. She spent her days praying and trying to serve God by being a good woman and good wife. She wanted to be a good mother, too, but she did not have children. This made her...

From The Power of Now (Novato: New World Library, 2004). A beggar had been sitting by the side of a road for over thirty years. One day a stranger walked by. "Spare some change?" mumbled the beggar, mechanically holding out his old baseball cap. "I have nothing to give you," said the stranger....

Inspired by a story in Tales for the Seventh Day: A Collection of Sabbath Stories by Nina Jaffe (New York: Scholastic Press, 2000). Once a there was a great chef who was famous throughout the land. She was so good she taught other people how to cook and their food was almost as tasty as hers....

Noah's Wife: The Story of Naamah (C) Text 1996 Sandy Eisenberg Sasso. Permission granted by Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock, VT, www.jewishlights.com.

Adapted from Hebrew scripture. Once long ago, in the city of Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, there lived a man named Elimelech. Elimelech was married to Naomi and they had two sons, Kilion and Mahlon. The time came when a great famine struck Bethlehem and none of the farmers could produce enough...

Adapted from a Jewish folktale from Poland In this fun and participatory story a farmer lives in a house with his wife and children and the grandparents, and it is so noisy that he thinks he will go crazy. The rabbi advises the farmer to bring his animals into his home, too. First chickens, then...