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Wrestling With the Past, Giving to the Future

03/07/2024 08:50:28 AM

Mar7

This past week, after years of silence, I reconnected with my Parisian host father. This was a man who had welcomed me into his family for six months in the spring of 1999 and made an indelible imprint on the person I am today. Interestingly, he hails from the American South, but he moved to Paris in his 20’s and made a life for himself for himself in the City of Love, marrying an elegant and joyful powerhouse of...Read more...

A World of Stories

03/01/2024 08:14:54 AM

Mar1

We do not wish to see the forest

We wish to see the trees, the tree.

The child, not the human race.

This fragment of poetry was found in the fragments of posthumous writings by Yehuda Amichai, the renown Israeli author and poet.  I think of them often, especially when the world feels as overwhelming and heartbreaking as ours...Read more...

Priestly is the New Black

02/23/2024 08:01:12 AM

Feb23

Move over, Joseph and your amazing technicolor dream coat… This week, it’s Aaron and his sons getting a fashion upgrade! As Israel’s newly consecrated priests, they cannot help but impress, thanks to some ornate sacral vestments for “dignity and adornment,” complete with a colorful robe, tunic, headdress, and sash. As high priest, Aaron’s garments are topped off with a breastplate, ephod, precious...Read more...

Inside and Out

02/14/2024 03:14:28 PM

Feb14

A story is told of a sculptor in Ancient Greece who was hard at work on his latest masterpiece.  Day after day people would walk by and marvel at his creation.  As the sculptor neared the end, one passerby remarked that there was something he could not understand.  “Sir, if you’ll permit me,” he said, “your sculpture is magnificent, but why do you work so hard on the back of it?  Won’t it be...Read more...

Mishpatim

02/08/2024 04:53:19 PM

Feb8

This week, I found myself caught in the wild west of internet lawlessness, on the receiving end of expletive filled messages from a total stranger, triggered by an unfavorable review on eBay. After a few attempts at resolving the conflict in a civilized manner, I finally stopped responding to the stranger’s increasingly virulent threats and insults, choosing instead to make a report to eBay about inappropriate...Read more...

Lessons in Unlikely Places

02/02/2024 09:55:00 AM

Feb2

Last weekend I drove over an hour to a town in Connecticut I had never been to.  Granted that describes many towns in Connecticut seven months into living in Cheshire, but this one drew me in because it’s the location of The Book Barn.  If you’re as much of a bookstore aficionado as I am, and you’ve never had the pleasure of visiting this remarkable one in Niantic, you must check it out!

Among the bargains I came home...Read more...

Who's in Charge Here?

01/25/2024 02:57:04 PM

Jan25

In these turbulent times, wouldn’t it be great to have a divine roadmap? Perhaps even a magical insurance policy that prevented accidents and guided us away from dangerous situations? How about a divine bodyguard to give us complete protection, to fight our wars for us, without getting our hands dirty? Wouldn’t it wonderful to have complete confidence in our purpose, knowing that our leadership was...Read more...

Out of the Dark

01/19/2024 10:41:01 AM

Jan19

As we begin this week’s Torah portion, Bo.  Seven plagues have come and gone, everything from frogs to lice to cattle disease.  Each time Pharaoh relents, then grows hard-hearted and stubborn.  And the Israelites remain enslaved.

Now, as the time for the Israelites’ freedom draws near, Pharaoh has grown even more stubborn, so much so that the Torah tells us God now hardens his heart, rather than Pharaoh...Read more...

Grand Designs and Random Events

01/12/2024 12:01:51 PM

Jan12

Maybe it’s due to the start of a new year, but I find myself thinking about patterns lately.  Not visual or tactile patterns; the ones on my mind are less concrete, invisible in fact, to the naked eye.  They pervade our day to day lives, and they have a great deal to do with how we function. 

Do we ever … procrastinate, for example?!  Or are we the...Read more...

Sh'mot

01/05/2024 10:32:53 AM

Jan5

It’s a story we have heard time and again. Jacob and his sons have passed away, and a new Pharaoh has come to power in Egypt. He sees that the Israelites are growing in number and, afraid that they wouldn’t be loyal to Egypt in case of invasion, he decides to enslave them and tries to kill off their male children. Moses, a beautiful boy whose Levite mother could not bear to see him killed, is miraculously saved from death through the...Read more...

Sat, July 27 2024 21 Tammuz 5784