IN THE WAKE OF SINGER and prolific synagogue-music innovator Debbie Friedman, I find myself mourning her death but ambivalent about her legacy. The mourning: If you worship at most “progressive” (i.e., non-Orthodox) North American synagogues, you’re familiar with her work…
Tag: people
Ones I have known, if even tangentially.
Vicaritor Rex (noun)
ONE WHO OR THAT WHICH provides a satisfying and compelling sense of the little guy “getting his own back.” (See: David, Goliath and; Slater, Steven; Man, Tank.)
“What do YOU like about being a spiritual leader?”
THIS QUESTION WAS POSED TO me by a friend who’s considering the path. Since I have some small experience with the subject, and some readers have some interest in it, I’m posting my reply here and will be absolutely unoffended…
Introductions
SOMETHING HOLY/TENDER/FRAGILE/GIDDY THERE IS ABOUT someone introducing a member of one world to a member of another: as, one’s relatives to one’s colleagues, one’s colleagues to one’s friends, one’s friends to one’s relatives. It’s more than just a person-to-person connection.…
Pithyism #6-7/8
EVERYBODY IS A BIT LOONY, until you understand their reasons.
Viral Into Life
WE’VE ALL SEEN THOSE VIDEOS of people semi-spontaneously bursting into song in public places, to the bemusement, amusement, and eventual participation of the earshot citizenry. Let’s take it offline, folks. Bust into song. Right now. Wherever you are and with…
Fear of Fear Ourselves
WE ARE FROZEN INTO SOCIETAL uselessness through fear of liability: who’s responsible, what are the ramifications, an obsessive-compulsive moral handwash. Perhaps that’s one reason scapegoating is so popular: release of tension. Everything flows when the ice is cracked with a…
What Do You Say To A Partly Naked Woman?
SHE WAS WALKING UP THE hill toward us through the sea of sprawled bodies surrounding the stage at Laguna Seca Speedway, where some friends and I were enjoying three days of the Grateful Dead and Los Lobos in the summer…
Season’s Regreetings
THE NEXT TIME SOMEONE OUTSIDE your comfort zone wishes you a merry holiday-you-don’t-celebrate, don’t take umbrage — just wish them a happy “Same To You.” This three-syllable Teflon Shield of Banter will save you from giving and receiving earnest but…
One Conversation
WE WERE DISCUSSING SYNAGOGUE FUNDRAISERS, and I suggested an egg toss. E. G., who knows who he is but may not want you to, looked at me with the sad seriousness of the ex-military and first responder. “Eggs aren’t for…
Listen Up
TODAY IS THE NATIONAL DAY of Listening, which, if you hadn’t heard — and I hadn’t until about five minutes ago, which saddens me because it’s such a neat idea and it’s in its third year — is dedicated to…
Reb Drunkard’s Wisdom
THE MAN WITH THE UNWASHED face was dressed in baggy street-person clothes which seemed to cushion the cold concrete beneath him. He was laying in front of the Carl’s Jr. restaurant in San Francisco’s Justin Hermann Plaza one cool night…