WORDS THAT BREATHE

Rabbi Paul Kipnes and Father Ross Porter opened an interfaith series at Congregation Or Ami asking where God is when life hurts. Here's what happened.

Rabbi Paul Kipnes remembers URJ camp and NFTY leader Paul “PJR” Reichenbach, exploring the quiet, disenfranchised grief of losing a mentor.

I wrote this the day she buried her mother, trying to hold prayer and grief together as she recited the first Kaddish for her.

When someone we love dies, Judaism offers the gift of shiva. But what happens when family, work, travel, health concerns, or distance make traditional shiva impossible? Rabbi Paul Kipnes explores meaningful Jewish practices that can help mourners honor a loved one, embrace grief, and find comfort when sitting shiva is not possible.

When both my parents and mother-in-law died within 20 months, everyone wanted to help. Yet I wasn't ready to receive. Here are 8 ways to help that supported me until I was ready for me.

The misery of mourning and the overwhelming desire to help. I remember it well after each of my parents and my mother-in-law died. Three...

After 11 deaths in 11 days, I had it out with God. It was time for the conversation with the Creator that I had been putting off.

A poem providing insight into mourning during the in-between times.

Don't Wait: Lessons from my father-in-law Murray Novembert. (Yom Kippur sermon)

A poem about facing the moments over the High Holy Days - small but meaningful - when my dad won't be there.

A poem about those moments when I'm not feeling the sadness in the midst of the mourning.

Poem about when a friend visited me during my dad's shiva.

Standing for Kaddish that first time is surreal. This poem captures the multitude of feelings as I stood in temple to recite Kaddish for my father Ken Kipnes.

I am still a mourner. A poem about how my body - tears, trembling shoulders, welling up of emotions - remind me that I am still a mourner. Remembering my father, Ken Kipnes.

Where do I find a minyan in Disneyland when I need to say Kaddish for my father? Outside It’s a Small World, after all! There, my students ensured I had a community for Kaddish.

Low level sadness, right beneath the surface, is the constant guest in the heart and mind of the mourner. This poem reflects those feelings during shloshim for my father, Ken Kipnes, Papa.

A spoken word poem about the theological questions that arise after the death of a loved one. Written as I think about my father Ken Kipnes.

A video that explores what it feels like to be a mourner, featuring my poem - The Secret Life of a Mourner.

A video that explores what to say to a mourner. Of particular significance for me since my father Ken Kipnes died.

A poem about my experience as a mourner following the ritual of not shaving during Shloshim.