(Sermon delivered yesterday morning. Feel free to skip it if Jewish resilience isn’t your thing.) HERE’S A QUESTION: Why are we still here? The traditional opening of any Jewish morning prayer-service, and also what Jews say upon first entering the…
Author: Neal Ross Attinson
Neal Ross Attinson is one of those text-compulsives who feels naked without a keyboard, or at least a a pad and pen. He is unafraid of adverbs, loves astronomy and gastronomy with equally unabashed passion, and lives with/in an eclectic library in Sonoma, California.
Rhythm Section
THE OLDEST SOUND on this planet is ocean waves breaking. Think about THAT for a while.
Thirsty Work
What did Moses do wrong? IN THIS WEEK’S TORAH PORTION, Chukat (Numbers 19:1-22:1), Moses disobeys G?d’s command to speak to a rock and thereby produce water for the thirsty Jews and their animals. Instead, Moses – perhaps in grief over…
How To Write
SUCCINCTLY.
Any god who is mine but not yours, any god concerned with me but not with you, is an idol.”
– Abraham Joshua Heschel
Elder Weisenheimers
THERE IS MUCH VALUE IN friendships – even more so in those that are decades long. In 1986, I began working at the Northern California Renaissance Pleasure Faire’s fencing booth. Dubbed the privateer ship “Cardiff Rose” (after the 1976 Roger…
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
— Bumpersticker seen this afternoon (2505.21)
Salad Nights
HYPOTHESIS: A THREE-INGREDIENT WHISKED DRESSING. Experiment: Appropriate measures of olive oil, anchovy paste, and fresh lemon juice. Analysis: Something’s missing. Experiment #2: A dab of Dijon, a modicum of maple syrup. Conclusion: !!! Replication: You’re welcome.
Hyphenated Theology
TO ME, GOD IS NOT a Being to be worshipped – but a Presence to be experienced. (YMMV.)
The Bag
ONE OF MY FAVORITE QUOTES from The Lord of the Rings concerns Frodo Baggins’ loyal manservant and steadfast friend Sam Gamgee. It’s a narrative quote, not dialog, and it describes Sam’s knapsack as stuffed full of (quoting from memory): “……
Where Are You?
(Sermon for Parashat Vayikra [Leviticus 1:1-5:26], 4/5/25.) THIS WEEK’S TORAH PORTION, LIKE the entire book of Leviticus it’s taken from, asks: “How do we get close to G?d – and survive?” Leviticus’ answer is excruciatingly detailed – so much so…
Instant Equilibrium
A BIT PRICEY, BUT O! so worth it. Occasionally, and despite my usual decent breakfast (homebaked bran-ginger-date-pecan muffin, high-protein yogurt, and coffee), I am apt to suffer hypoglycemia while perambulating about Sonoma. (There was even the time a few months…