Back in November, I wrote about being inspired by a localized community in Bermuda. In February, I wrote about my own search for community. This song is a light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek take on the unending quandary of defining what community and neighborhood really mean in the ultra-customized, internet-driven age. I just wish I could find … More »
As you read this, do me a favor and press play here. Don’t worry, no instruments here, just a capella, so it’s omer friendly. There, now you’re listening to a niggun (wordless) melody I wrote. Treat it as integral or as background noise, just let it be part of the experience. First of all, let … More »
Religion comes from the Latin re-ligio, meaning to re-connect (thank you, middle and high school Latin for that nugget). If it were easy to do once and be done, it would just be ligion. But there is a constant need to reconnect, hence the re. Different parts of the morning liturgy in the siddur do … More »
As I considered this month’s topic of “Noble Ideals, Tarnished,” my first association went to the B-52’s song Love Shack, where at the end Cindy Wilson wails, “Tin roof, rusted!” This apparently became a slang term for “I’m pregnant.” Who knows why? But it sounds like a declaration – “noble ideals, tarnished!” So fatigue, lack … More »
A double post this month, moving from the personal to the communal: Our family recently took the uncomfortable step of leaving the congregation we joined 5 years ago when we moved to town. There had been a gradual realization that while it served many roles for us, it simply was not a good enough fit, … More »
We have very little left from the Kaifeng Jewish Community that apparently flourished for centuries. The synagogue was destroyed in 1860, and the Communist revolution stifled religious expression and openness to the West until the 1980’s. There are between 400 and 1000 Jews in Kaifeng today, though only 40 to 50 partake in Jewish activities, … More »
I just recently went on vacation, a glorious 6-day retreat with my wife (we left the kids with grandparents) on a cruise to Bermuda. It felt, on one hand, totally decadent and self-serving, on the other, so desperately needed and rewarding. The joint experience with 2023 other guests was not truly communal. In many cases, … More »
After a few attempts, this song found its inspiration in a piece by master glass artist and Baltimorean Gianni Toso. The piece, called “Birthright”, shows the kotel on two sides: one, with a more traditionally-dressed crowd in gender-separate reverence before the kotel, and the other with mixed dancing of Taglit-Birthright Israel participants in shorts and … More »
As I read through this month’s Shma, I was entranced by a thought expressed in Sharon Cohen Anisfeld’s piece “Rabbinic Calling: Our Work”. Sharon expresses initial reluctance to own the sense of ‘calling’ often claimed by Christian clergy, but finds rich grounding in the concept of shlichut (mission), and ultimately that work as rabbis can … More »