Blog

Well, as you can see, I'm not updating this section of my site very much these days. If you'd like to keep up to date on my work, I'd suggest: Signing up for my newsletter! Following me on Twitter! Following me on Facebook! Following me on Instagram (in case I...

At long last, here's the schedule-in-progress for Rabbi Ruttenberg's travels to talk about Nurture the Wow and so many other things.  Check back soon--more dates are in the process of being finalized and will be added as they're official.  To inquire about bringing...

I'm thrilled to share with you that my next book, Nurture the Wow: Finding Spirituality in the Frustration, Boredom, Tears, Poop, Desperation, Wonder, and Radical Amazement of Parenting will be released by Flatiron Books in April. And just as exciting, you can...

I'm so excited to release my ELI talk into the world. It's on parenting as a spiritual practice--the ways in which our experience of parenting can be transformed by bringing in some Jewish notions, and the ways in which our understanding of Judaism can be upended by...

Evidently if you've sent me email from this site in the last YEAR I may not have gotten it. Which is pretty much The Worst Thing Ever.  It should work now, I hope--I had issues, thought I fixed them, and then discovered that they were not fixed.  As far as I can tell,...

One of the mitzvot associated with Passover is that of removing chametz, leaven, from one's domain. In contemporary practice, this involves not only getting rid of pasta and cookies from the cupbord, but also, for many, cleaning everything (most especially the...

It's come to my attention that some people have had problems emailing me through this site (aka emails aren't going through!) We're working on fixing that--but in the meantime, if you need to find me, please email rabbi DOT ruttenberg @ u.northwestern.edu. Thanks!

"When the month of Adar enters, we increase our joy!" So declares the Talmud (Taanit 29a). The Hebrew month of Adar—which began Saturday night—is famously a month of joy, of celebration. There are a few obvious reasons for this—the winter is finally ending...

Danya Ruttenberg On Joy and Yom Kippur (This sermon is protected by a Creative Commons license. Please link and attribute.) For most of my life, I thought of Yom Kippur as a time that was serious, bordering on the dour. It’s a time for fear and trembling, a time for...