Gmar Tov

"I meant to call you before RH.

I meant to email you before RH.

I meant to I meant to.

Sorry."

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I just received the above message as part of an email from a friend. Most of the email was Torah. What could be better?

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Friendship in Torah
No better combination
The deepest of truths

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It's been a while since I last used the wireless to write on the blog mamesh right before sleep. Rosh HaShana felt authentic, was intense. I wasn't very sleep filled and yet the hour and a half nap today as all it takes for me to now now that I need to be asleep, but not feel tired enough to get there immediately. I committed to going to bed and to use posting as my pre sleep activity.Reading is the usual pre sleep activity.

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I just finished a book I'd been reading fr the last month and a half or so. It's called Darkness Visible by William Styron and if you're a person or know any people, I highly recommend it. He gifted the world with this book. It's short because he took the time to make it short. I found this book to be meaningful and hopeful and helpful - all because It was so real.

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My Yom Tov was packed with davening that went to three and then meals that went to 5:30 and then davening again. This book was the little bit of "secular" reading that I did on these holy days. It seems right that I finished this book on the first days of the new year.

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There were several little kids around I opened up a can of worms (being 7 to 9 year old boys they would have liked if that was literal) when I told one joke. Thus started the mantra, "Another one." The repertoire's not that big - but they liked hearing them repeatedly and trying to deliver the lines effectively themselves. See if you know an of these ten examples:

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What do you get when you put a lock on a Aron Kodesh?

What bracha do you say when you sit on bubble gum?

What bracha to you say on fatal poison?

What's it called when someone fires a gun at you in Shul and you fire back?

Why did the cow go to shul on Yom Tov?

What do you call Kosher LePesach Animal crackers?

What do you do if a camel falls on you?

How many Jewish mothers does it take to change a light bulb?

What Navi was married to a bird?

Pete and Repeat were on a boat, Pete fell off - who was left?

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One of the footnotes I read in my machzor explained that matzmiach yeshuah means that yeshuah is a process that grows like a seed. Reminded me of the idea of the arba ge'ulot versus the arba leshonei geulah... So important to remember.

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Social workers say

"Remember it's a process"

Cliched yet so true

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On Sunday I went to a shiur and wrote this:

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"A good place to be."

First day of social work school

The addict said this

We had reasons, he had truth

Safe, in shiur, I recall

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Here's a tanka about a word that came of of someplace, I don't know where or why.

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Why the word shanty?

I wrote shount with h and t

I meant to write sound

And then shanty came to mind

And going to shanty town

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One of the two shiurim I heard on Sunday focused indirectly on the question of why we have 100 shofar sounds on R"H. Tosafot says that it corresponds to the 100 cries of Sisrah's mom.

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Sisra's mother cried

Fighting profound hopelessness

Spinning hope from pain

No wonder she made the cut

Her shofar cry is ours

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Face at the window

She questions where her son is

The general son

Confident answers come up

Killed by intuitive truth

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Someone who I didn't expect had it in her told me a great insight about how governments need opposition parties and so do institutions.

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Heart Judaism

The opposition party

Keeps the whole afloat

A little love is like salt

Preserving fear and respect

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Click here to see a jazzy performance of the song I'm thinking about:

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Cohen paraphrases;

asks, may I ask who's calling?

What did Leonard mean?

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As sleep approaches I think about the business of this season. It's a hectic time. A lot of selichot, davening, shofar blowing, eating. The school year is underway, yet the program is interrupted by all of the above. Test scheduling and acculturating is difficult. A new school year is like a new pair of shoes that takes time - but it's harder when you don't get to wear them for a while straight.

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So many thoughts rushed through me at various points over The Days. It seems pretty clear that Hagar was in a place with wells and bushes. It was called Be'er Sheva. But when her skin canteen runs out of water she can't see beyond her emptiness. G-d shows her that there is a well right there - doesn't make it appear, just helps her see. Maybe.

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Here are some free flow questions bursting out of the gate. When I say you and mean me, that's why I never ask for who the bell tolls ) poo poo poo).

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Is Judaism natural for you? Is it forced? Is it your whole life? How do you define yourself? People speak of left and right and middle in regard to religion - can you help me out here? What do these terms mean? Do you read this blog consistently? I am wrong in thinking that blogging and me might not be the world's best match? Is blogging about how often you post as opposed to being an archive of meaningful thought? Is Rosh HaShana a holiday for you or more a holy day? Is it serious? Is it festive? Did you critique any of the following: A chazan's singing? A rabbi's speech? The time davening ended? Why?

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Pre sleep we say a little prayer offering forgiveness. We say it every day, as it applies to every day. We all get little (?) stirrings of anger or jealousy towards others (just as two examples). Sometime we act or speaking inappropriately to others. As I write from bed, hoping for many things - not least, that sleep will be surrounding me soon, I think of forgiveness.

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People sometimes they they're sorry and they mean - don't hurt me. That's what a student means when they think they can can get away with coming in late and you say something and they say sorry. Hurt maybe is the wrong word. Sorry = I want to get away with this. Is that what we mean when we say sorry to G-d? Let's hope not.

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Good Night and G-d Bless

He blogs while thinking of hope

And a hopeful note

About peace..yes, perhaps - peace

Good Night And G-d Bless Us Please