micro-miskhan a home for pacifist Torah learning
founded by
Rabbi Anita Josefa Barzman MD
about micro-mishkan
Rabbi Anita Josefa Barzman MD founded micro-mishkan to offer a place to gather and connect with Torah in meaningful and life-changing ways.
Here, Rabbi Dr. Barzman shares her weekly pacifist Torah commentaries and a selection of her poems on similar themes.
Our study of Torah can deepen our understanding of ethics and compassion, and inspire us to act to promote justice and peace in our precious world.
Study, gather, create, change the world.
what is a mishkan?
a mishkan is a dwelling place, a home, from the Hebrew verbal root √שכן (sh-ch-n): to dwell, to settle, to abide.
what dwells inside of you?
your innate curiosity, your questions, the inner wrestling you do as you try to live an ethical life, your desire to learn and to act with justice and compassion... all dwell inside of you - your mishkan.
On this season: Yamim Noraim, Sukkot, Simchat Torah
V'zot Habracha Simchat Torah 5787 - Forever changed since October 7 - Finding the blessings
micro-mishkan Torah learning Sukkot 5787 Connecting the dots: Ingathering + Kohelet (Ecclesiastes)
Sukkot 5786 -Can we find joy in a time of collective face blindness?
Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Parsha Beresheit from 5784 to 5785 Still Praying for Peace
Rosh Hashanah 5786 - The earthquake we need
Rabbi Barzman on Genesis: Beresheit - Toldot
Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Parsha Beresheit from 5784 to 5785 - Still Praying for Peace
Beresheit 5786 - Darkness into light; parsha and haftarah
Noach 5785 Doves | Olives | Peace
Noach 5786 - Now we're talking: The Tower of Babel, and why this Rabbi is learning Arabic
Lech Lecha 5785 Unity of blessings, diversity of curses
Lech Lecha 5786 - War isn't murder: Abram's violence, his vision, and his fever dream
Vayera 5785 Abraham and Collective Punishment | The Innocent Along With the Guilty
Vayera 5786 Mob Mentality | Debasement of Ethics
Chayei Sarah 5785: His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him...
Chayei Sarah 5786: Chayei Sarah 5786 - Grief can connect us: Small letter, large meaning
Toldot 5785 - Wells, Water, Strife, Shalom || From impasse to broadminded coexistence
Toldot 5786 - Toldot 5786 - We exist to heal the opposites
Rabbi Barzman on Genesis: Vayeitzei - Vayechi
Vayeitzei 5785 Being Jacob's Ladder - Standing firm for goodness and justice
Vayeitzei 5786 - Getting to Angels Camp: The certain place where we encounter God
Vayishlach 5785 Esau's kiss: an affiliative and healing act: "Righteousness and peace have kissed"
Vayishlach 5786 - Can we heal, rather than perpetuate, divisions?
Vayeishev 5786 - You must leave a pledge... the challenges of facelessness
Hanukkah / Miketz 5785 Two Haftarot God's ruach within us
Miketz 5786 - Blood reckoning | What is the value of a life?
Vayigash - Who could refrain that had a heart to love? Can tears dissolve the hardness of our hearts
Vayigash|Vayechi 5786: Are we lost? Is contemporary Judaism experiencing dementia? Memory & trauma
Vayechi 5785 - A community of peoples | Many voices, one voice
pierced | going blank
a poem that resonates with the theme of the universality of grief
Rabbi Barzman on Exodus: Shemot - Yitro
Shemot 5785 Turning toward the light in difficult times
Shemot 5786 - Connecting with the goodness that is hidden in our hearts
Vaera: Hardened hearts: we are inured to cruelty. The plagues are problematic. Collective punishment
Bo 5785 The plague filling all of our houses
Bo 5786 - Night vision: What can we see in the dark? A darkness that can be touched...
Beshalach 5786 Let's wake up: rightfully dumbfounded, arousing ourselves from the ethical wilderness
Yitro 5785 | Haftarah Isaiah 9:5 Imagining peace
Yitro 5786 At high altitude - a riff on eagles' wings and mercy
Cultivating a preference for peace at this critical moment in history
Rabbi Barzman on Exodus: Mishpatim - Pikudei
Mishpatim 5785 - Hands empty or full, pierced by God's love
Mishpatim 5786 - Obligations of fire-starters
Limits of our responsibility when we spread hatred and cause damages; what is our obligation to restore lost senses of safety and peace?
Terumah 5785 Bringing our gifts willingly
Terumah: exploring a willing heart that is also impelled to give.
Terumah 5786 - Can two walk together without having met? Creating sacred space
The magnetic pull of the energy field between the two cheruvim atop the Ark; The two cheruvim atop the Ark: the space between is where God comes to meet us; the space between where we meet one another, face to face.
Tetzaveh 5785 - Confronting collective punishment in this week's Haftarah
The Haftarah for Tetzaveh includes instructions for collective punishment; at this moment in history, it is essential for us to explore this with clarity and a commitment to ethics.
Terumah 5786 - Can two walk together without having met? Creating sacred space
The magnetic pull of the energy field between the two cheruvim atop the Ark; The two cheruvim atop the Ark: the space between is where God comes to meet us; the space between where we meet one another, face to face.
Ki Tisa 5786 - Bearing unbearable transgressions: what is required of us in this critical moment?
What idols do we worship? Can we repair damage that arises from deep places of aggression and violence? Can we do the work, now, of repair of our own selves (tikkun ha'nefesh) and repair of the world (tikkun olam)?
Vayekhel - Pikudei 5786 - which of your precious...
The Mishkan, so precious, that we build in the world and inside ourselves... what is precious to you?
Rabbi Barzman on Leviticus: Vayikra - Metzora
Vayikra 5786 - Let us be called: small alef, large imperative to connect to justice
Hearing the still small voice inside of us that calls us to act for peace and justice
Vayikra 5786 Learning to love Leviticus: Lesson & Questions for today - Categories of Transgressors
The obligations of leaders, "anointed priests" , and each of us, to repair and restore justice
Tzav 5786 - In a time of war, how shall we turn back? Shabbat HaGadol Haftarah
The Sun of Righteousness Shall Arise: A call to repair our alienation from our most dearly held ethics and values in a time of war
Shemini 5786 - Diligently Inquire About the Deaths of Children
Children dying by violence in today's world: how do we respond?
Tazria Metzora 5786 - Are we made impure by war and vengeance?
Reflections for this moment: are our attachments to cruelty, hatred, and injustice separating us from the sacred?
Terumah 5786 - Can two walk together without having met? Creating sacred space
The magnetic pull of the energy field between the two cheruvim atop the Ark; The two cheruvim atop the Ark: the space between is where God comes to meet us; the space between where we meet one another, face to face.
Ki Tisa 5786 - Bearing unbearable transgressions: what is required of us in this critical moment?
What idols do we worship? Can we repair damage that arises from deep places of aggression and violence? Can we do the work, now, of repair of our own selves (tikkun ha'nefesh) and repair of the world (tikkun olam)?
Vayekhel - Pikudei 5786 - which of your precious...
The Mishkan, so precious, that we build in the world and inside ourselves... what is precious to you?
Rabbi Barzman on this season - Adar
Shabbat Zachor 5786 - Amalek as the Shadow: Remembering to transform, not to destroy
Jung's concept of the Shadow, which cannot be blotted out, but rather must be encountered and transformed, individually & collectively.
1 Adar 5785 Nourished by truth
Rabbi Barzman on Devarim - The Book of Deuteronomy
V'zot HaBerachah 5786 - The Torah is our true inheritance
Ha'azinu Turned around, in the wilderness again
Nitzavim 5785 - Taking a stand against collective punishment
Nitzavim 5785 - Taking a stand against collective punishment
Ki Tavo x Elul 5784 - Impossible Algebra
Ki Teitzei 5785 - What is a nest? Wounded child, no surviving family
Ki Teitzei 5784 - You must not be indifferent - Returning what is lost
Shoftim 5785 - Rules of war: Are Jewish lives more valuable than others' lives?
Shoftim 5784 - The Narrow Place of a Siege
Eikev 5784 Truth or Consequences
Va'etchanan 5784 The Contranymics of Possession
Devarim 5784 Virtual Inheritance - Nonfungibility
Rabbi Barzman on Parashat Ki Teitzei
Ki Teiztzei 5785 - What is a nest? Wounded child, no surviving family
Ki Teitzei 5784 - You must not be indifferent: returning what is lost
Rabbi Barzman on Parashat Ki Tavo & Elul
Ki Tavo x Elul 5784 - Impossible Algebra
Nitzavim x Psalm 27 / Elul 5784 Extraordinary points
some of Rabbi Barzman's other pacifist Torah commentaries