O One; Distant One, Dear One, Let me not be blind to the beauty and ugliness and truth that my eyes don’t see, and are as present as the scent among fields of lavender and the warm summer air on…
Tag: There’s a God in My Soup
Religious experience, or at least the experience of religion.
How To Say Thank You
THE ROOT OF RELIGION, SOME say, is our need to express gratitude for being alive. Sometimes we need to express it to others, but don’t know quite how. Here’s one way: http://www.gratitudecampaign.org/. (Note to hipster friends who don’t dig the…
Why I’m Not A Rabbi
IF YOU DIDN’T KNOW THAT I was once studying to become a rabbi, then you probably haven’t talked to me much during the last 10 years. As detailed elsewhere, I returned to Judaism in 1997 after a whirlwind tour of…
HY”D Janusz Korczak – 1878.1942
TEACHING JEWISH KIDS THEIR HERITAGE was, to me, one of life’s greatest joys; I began doing it for pre-B’nei Mitzvah students (read: 11-12 year-olds) in 2000, retiring when I got sick in 2008. It was the high point of any…
One Nice Thing
IF YOU ARE AS SNARKED-OUT as I am, sick and tired of the recreational character assassination which passes for modern culture, please: 1.) Click on the “Comments” link below. 2.) Add either something nice someone did for you, or something…
Why Is This Night…
… DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHER NIGHTS? Well … Aside from each evening — each moment — being unique and therefore different from any other before or since: On all other nights, the world rotates from sunlight into darkness. Tonight the…
Sometimes I Hate This Job
I’M PUTTING OFF WRITING A eulogy. Doesn’t everyone? Linda Tomback is a good friend who used to attend our Saturday morning Torah study. Her death is the eighth in our congregation in the past two years; the first two were…
This Week In Torah: Vayak’hel/Pekudei
VAYAK’HEL/PEKUDEI (Exodus 35:1-40:38; haftarot I Kings 7:51-8:21 and, because Nisan starts on Tuesday making this a special Rosh Chodesh Shabbat, Ezekiel 45:16-46:18) WRAPS UP THE BOOK of Exodus by building the Tabernacle: the traveling God-tent whose structure and contents are…
Pithyism #2
THE REASON WE NEED each other is that life rarely contains enough different viewpoints to even begin understanding Life.
Awe and Inquiry
He looked up. “What are you sketching?” She held out a pad, on which was written: AWE AND INQUIRY God is good. God is. God. . He frowned. “What’s the point?” She grinned. “Exactly.”
Minute Mitzvah: Praise Wow
And now, another Monday Mitzvah with a side of motivation. Today: Hold God in awe. THIS ONE’S TRICKY FOR ATHEISTS, so in the interests of universality, let’s assume we’re not talking about the Cranky Old Man raining smites and frights…
Pithyism #10
CIVILIZATION IS NOT BASED ON agriculture, technology or finance — but solely on its members’ unspoken agreement to behave sensibly. Take that away …