Torah In The Times

Times article today about a Torah.

Richard Wright At The Opera, Richard Wright At The Show

Spoke about miracles today and how they don't work. Went through some Torah structure supporting the point in and around Yitro. Listened - heard some brilliant ideas from kids.

Ben Nanasi said that people always say they wished in olden times when there were miracles - but if someone from then appeared and saw life today they'd see all the advances as miracles!

Rosie Spiegel noticed that Yitro and Moshe, the Torah goes out of it's way to tell us, are always greeting eachother. it reminded me of the story of the letter delivered over many years that was blank except for the Dear X at the top and the Love Y at the bottom. The idea being that some things are hinted to by words but their truth is flying beyond, resting between. The Torah doesn't tell us about touch feely long talks between Moshe and Yitro, but the greetings convey the profound love.

Everyone wanted to know about why every time Yitro is mentioned it says he was Moshe's father in law. Ariel Fremed suggested that it was to give Yiro credit for taking Moshe in to his family. I thought it was to give Moshe credit for his influence on Yitro.

We discussed the use of the word Am - and how some say that it refers to the lower echelons. Some say the complaints and the Eigel were all the Eirev Rav. Sarah Teichman wondered if that's not scapegoating and escaping our own responsibility. This reminded me of how the command to be kind to strangers is stressed so many times. And this reminded me of Adam's passing the very first buck.

This will probably be the last installment of Richard Wright's haiku:

The naked mountains,

Washing themselves in spring rain

As green fields look on.

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That sparrow bent down,

Its head tucked beneath its wing, –

Sewing a button?

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A darting sparrow

Startles a skinny scarecrow

Back to watchfulness.

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The creeping shadow

Of a gigantic oak tree

Jumps over the wall.

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As my anger ebbs,

The spring stars grow bright again

And the wind returns.

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On my trouser leg

Are still a few strands of fur

From my long dead cat.

To 12W

How to say goodbye
When you just said hi?
How do 4 years fly by?
Oh-the lingering why

The students come and go
Time moves fast yet slow
There is so much to know
So much love to show

Is there any end?
Is it teacher/friend?
There is so much to mend
My heart, my self- I extend

Peace Like A River *

how i long for sleep.

did i just say sleep or peace?

i would like both. please.

Ner Hashem Nishmat Adam

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A colleague of mine went to sleep on the first night of Passover and never woke up. May his family find comfort. We often hear sayings about living each day like it's your last. This man was not old or sick. There was no warning. How many are the lessons of a decent man's sudden death?

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"Once we made a promise we swore we'd always remember: No retreat, baby, no surrender." What does that Springsteen quote say to you? Have you ever had something that you swore you'd never back down on? What promises to your self have you kept? Broken?

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Bob Seger wrote: "Dreams die hard and we watch them erode. But we cannot be denied the fire inside." Did you ever have a fire in your belly? Did you ever keep a fire inside burning for a long time? Did it ever burn strong at first and then you surrendered your will, let the fire peter out? How does it feel when you retreat and surrender? How does it feel when you persevere?

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Someone told me that tears are the sweat of the heart. What do you say about that? Is it cathartic to cry? Embarrassing? Healthy? I saw a picture once of Ronald and Nancy Reagan crying. She was wiping her eyes and he was blowing his nose. Did you ever notice that men cry through their noses?

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I'm In Awe Of Richard Wright's Haiku

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My shadow was sad

When I took it from the sand

Of the gleaming beach.

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From across the lake,

Past the black winter trees,

Faint sounds of a flute.

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My cold and damp feet

Feel as distant as the moon

On this autumn night.

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A sick cat seeks out

A stiff and frozen willow

Under which to die.

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In my sleep at night,

I keep pounding an anvil

Heard during the day.

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Burning out its time,

And timing its own burning,

One lonely candle.

Im Tirtzu

...;

What does it mean to be tired? Is it physical? Mental? Mixture? Did you ever feel that you're the tiredest man/woman in the world? Ever feel guilty, if you've had the above mentioned experience? What tires you out?

What does it mean to be hungry? Is it about food? Is it about stomachs? Minds? Do you monitor your hunger? Is spiritual hunger a metaphor? What about spiritual anorexia? A day will come, the prophet tells us, when there will be a famine in the land - a famine for Torah? Is this positive or negative?

Have you ever felt quick results from any medicine? Aquafor is a miracle cream for me. I don't know what it is. But from the cold my knuckles get all cracked. Over Yom Tov I held back from putting the ointment on and it got pretty unpleasant looking. But the Aquafor works magic. It's almost like it simply erases the cuts and sores. Any thoughts on this? (Try to answer without using the word eczema).

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Did you ever go somewhere for a brief time and find that it's its own world. Pesach for me is that way. I present about 20 times. I meet many people of many varieties. It is as rich as rich can be. Exhausting yet fulfilling. And then ...

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For some reason an old Monty Python scene comes to mind. A man's in front of a firing squad about to be shot. Then the screen gets fuzzy and he's on a hammock being served lemonade by his grandmother. He gazes into her countenance and says "Thank G-d it was all a dream." And she says, "No. This is the dream." Then he's back in front of the firing squad.

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There's a Twilight Zone episode in which a washed up boxer wins because a little boy wishes for him to win. When the boy tells the boxer that he willed him to win via his dream for him the boxer says that it's impossible. And then he's back on the ground, down for the count.

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How powerful do you think dreams are? Was Herzl right? How do you define real and dream? Have you held on to your dreams? Some? All? None? Have you seen a dream become real. Have you lived through what seemed real fading into a dream?

Richard Wright - Winter Edition

Entering my town

In a heavy fall of snow,

I feel a stranger.

Just enough of snow

To make you look carefully

At familiar streets.

The arriving train

All decorated with snow

From another town.

;

Some artists peak young. Some become less popular but their work stays up high. Paul Simon has still got it. To me - this song, with it's simple story, and precise details, can rip your heart out any day. (If you find it in youtube let me know).

Something I Cannot Recall

Here's one of the guests at the place I worked at for Pesach (where I still am, sitting, exhaling) . Her name is Barbara and she's been here all nine years that I have. Seconds after I took this she received a call from Israel on the camp line. Soon she came back and told me that her niece Yaffa, who I know, is engaged. And I said, and meant, Mazal Tov!

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Pesach is gone - "Why she had to go I don't know - she would not say..."

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My talk on poetry went over well so I made it a two parter. I've fascilitated three sessions of situational dilemmas taken from You Be The Judge. People really shined in those discussions. Speaking of shinhing, the talent show - which I emceed tonight - went well. Two people that were in my improv workshop did a scene and it went well. There were 14 acts and it was all put together in the minutes and after Yom Tov.

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I once heard a son say when his father was being honored, that he was happy to see that what his father always told him had come true for his father. His father always told him that if you do the right thing, without looking for recognition, in the end the recognition will come. This resonated for me when I heard it, sitting next to my dad, who had said this to me implicitly throughout my life so far. And I referred to this and said it when my father was recently honored:

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Do you think it's true that recognition of goodness eventually comes? Always? Sometimes? Never? Does it matter if the recognition comes? Should it matter? Is it best that what we do be just between us and G-d and whomever may be a recipient of our deed? Is this possible? The Zohar says that if you do a mitzvah and you tell someone, you lose the mitzvah. What does this mean to you?

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On a different note: Over the holiday I learned of one decided divorce and one broken engagement. Do you ever hesitate to ask someone about their other half? So many relationships seem to be tenuous and if you lose track things may have broken without your knowing. So I'm afraid to ask. Anyone have anything to say about that?

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I recently came across a Billy Collins poem about a dog writing his master from the afterlife. Take a look. What do you think?

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More from Richard Wright:

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Holding too much rain,

The tulip stoops and spills it,.

Then straightens again.

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Leaving the doctor,

The whole world looks different.

this autumn morning.

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A spring sky so clear

That you feel you are seeing

Into tomorrow.

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A balmy spring wind

Reminding me of something

I cannot recall.

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A valley village

Lies in the grip of moonlight:

How lonely it is.

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Settling on the screen

Of the crowded movie house,

A white butterfly.

Not Missing The Flatlands

What was Yaakov's nature? Was he an Ish Tam, as he's described as a boy, sitting with his face buried in a book? When he meets Lavan and says he's a brother, Chazal hear him saying; "I'll play ball however you want. You want to shoot straight, fine. You want to play crooked with me, then I'll be playing you move for move. Could it be there was a process Yaakov went through? How would you describe his process?

Do you think that in life we have to go through a process, similar to the one Yaakov did? Could it be that the dealings with Yaakov and Lavan were necessary to make him who he was? To make the Jewish People who we are as a group and as individuals?

Did you ever notice that Lavan means white and Edom means red? What can we glean from this about different types of adversaries? What do you think of the saying "man's inhumanity against man?"

When my friend Seth Berman left the theater with his father, as a kid, after seeing Bang The Drum Slowly his father turned to him. Then he said, "that move was about man's inhumanity against man." Sounds right.

Can someone small or old or feeble still act in an inhumane way? Are big and loud and tough talkers more dangerous or just more scary (or neither) (or both)? Did you ever meet someone with a tough style and find that they're very compassionate? Did you ever encounter someone who proves to be dangerous who smiles and speaks in terms of endearments?

I sit on a balcony of an suburban looking home built incongruously at the edge of the camp grounds that are hosting me this week. The days here have been rich. My time here always reminds me of Magic Mountain. It's about a man who goes to visit a sanatorium and gets taken in by the life and world apart. As Wikipedia puts it: "In the opening chapter, Hans is symbolically transported away from the familiar life and mundane obligations he has known, in what he later learns to call "the flatlands", to the rarefied mountain air and introspective little world of the sanatorium."

Who Told You A Calf To Be?

On your left please find more of my Pesach camp, what some readers are calling "a beautiful setting."






Heard this sung this week and recalled it from a vague long world ago. 'Tis beautiful.


More from Richard Wright:


Amidst the flowers
A China clock is ticking
In the dead man's room.

No birds are flying;
The tree leaves are still as stone,
–An autumn evening.

Standing patiently,
The horse grants the snowflakes
A home on his back.

Crying and crying,
Melodious strings of geese
Passing a graveyard.

In the setting sun,
Each tree bud is clinging fast
To drying raindrops.

The crow flew so fast
That he left his lonely caw
Behind in the fields.

Retzeh VeHechalitzenu

Side view of the synagogue I've been praying in for these past nine Passovers

Camp IF

It's been a long time since I posted a picture of me. This is a self taken photo in my room here at the retreat center where I'm working.

Good Moed All.

Forever Reliving

I am nobody:

A red sinking autumn sun

Took my name away.

l

That was written by Richard Wright. As were these:

;

As the sun goes down,

a green melon splits open

And juice trickles out.

lk

Spring begins shyly

With one hairpin of green grass

In a flower pot.

;

An apple blossom

Trembling on a sunlit branch

From the weight of bees.

;

Make up you mind, Snail!

You are half inside your house,

And halfway out!

;

A new friend mentioned Wright's name upon hearing my haiku. Wright wrote thousands of them. And he had a rich (sadly short) whole life besides.

lj

Marty and I were talking about freedom and he cited this:

"Since the Exodus,

freedom has always spoken

with a Hebrew accent." ;

k

- Heinrich Heine

k

How many lives have you lived in your lifetime? How many lives have you lived today? Sometimes I feel like I've lived more than one life within my life. One of the ideas suggested regarding the egg on the seder table is that an egg and The Jewish People share the distinction of being born twice. The egg comes out of the hen and then the chick exits the egg and is born. The Jewish People left Egypt and then they exited their former existence through receiving the Torah and were born.

l

My take on the line about seeing yourself as if you went out of Egypt has recently come into sharper focus. "In every generation a person is obligated to see himself as if he went out of Egypt." It doesn't say that every generation of people must view themselves as having exited Egypt. The wording is actually saying that in every "generation" that a person is living through, every "dor," a person must see himself as if he/she went out of Egypt. In my childhood, my teens, my twenties, etc. I am exhorted to see myself as if I went out of Egypt.

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We experience slavery and are freed, we struggle with our relationship with G-d, with our freedom, with ourselves, we resist guidance, feel trapped between the Mitzrim and the sea, sing joyfully and then complain we're thirsty, hungry, thirsty again. We get our food and drink and comfort. We forget/reject G-d, then get hit by Amalek, then run to G-d for comfort while also feeling angry that He had them attack us, and we wander in the desert and enter the holy land and pray in The Temple and get exiled and return and and and. We are forever reliving the experience of exodus and beyond.

l

As I write this I am tired and fulfilled. I've been in a whirlwind, still am. So far I've run and oneg, two sedarim, given six hour to hour and a half long shiurim, run one improv workshop, one trivia competition, run every minyan, davened form the amud several times and lainined one day of Yom Tov... I've done a lot more - there's a lot of white fire.

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I debated deleting that last paragraph. It wasn't a long debate. More white fire.

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Someone told me today "you snooze - you lose," but I kept thinking a good snooze is what I need to win.

h

As always I wonder who reads this. I get he feeling that many glance. These words are not so much meant for glancing. Maybe it's better to keep m words and thoughts to myself. What's the point of sharing?

Last Year.

Last year it was more wintry.

Last year I felt more like sharing.

Last year I was a different man.

CKV

My Hagaddah

Haven't had the chance to update it. Thinking a lot about our own Mitzrayim's, and our own chametz - and when I say ours I say mine.

A friend forwarded me an email that I shared with her years ago from a dead friend, when he was still alive. i thought he's never write me again, but today he did - surreptitiously...

A nice man named Marty shared a lot of wisdom with me tonight. Bits: Marshal McLeuen said that prayer is reversed thunder. And he thinks it was Schiller who said that freeedom has always been spoken with a Jewish accent. And I.M. Pei said "strength is born of constraint and dies of freedom." Marty said it about freedom, but google has it this way - sounds right.

A Name And A Detailed Life

I want to write about Pesach, want at least to link to last year's Haggadah helper. Please G-d, soon I'll link.

Bought two Pesach related books tonight on an impulse at B&N. One is called Seder Stories and the other is The Four Questions Around The World. I'm thinking alot about the seder - wish there was more space to discuss things during the seder in my situation.

A student of mine told me that her mother requires everyone to bring something to the table relating to a theme. This year's assignment is to speak about someone inspirational who's worked toward freedom in the world. i told her about Frances Bok and that's who she's going with.

What does G-d repeat over and over that he wants Egypt to do? (It seems to me that the most repeated point is to know that there's a G-d.)

Why is it then that even after they let the Jews go, G-d's still pushing for that knowledge with the same words?

Why is it that when The Jews finally do get out and really see what's happened it says that they believe? Is believing higher or lower than knowing?

And what's the point of the blood on the doorposts? And who or what is the Mashchit?

And why do they have to ask for the jewels, etc.

And why isn't Moshe's name in the Hagadda? (On a good year I find the one place where he actually is mentioned in the Hagaddah - where is that again?)

Lamdus aside,doesn't it sound like we're supposed to see ourselves like we went out of Egypt all the time - in every generation - not just on the Seder night? Could it be that this means that we're supposed to always be learning lessons from the story, appreciating our own process of redemption by applying the metaphor of Mitzrayim?

Why are children in the center of the seder? Could it be (as my friend Donny Besser suggests) (and as one of my mentor/hero's Rabbi Pesach Oratz plans to quote in Donny's name at his seder) that they are better than adults at imagining. They get it. They see the frogs and the splitting of the sea. And we play along. Maybe while we think we're teaching them, what's happening is that they're leading us to a place where we normally don't go?

What does it mean that if G-d didn't take us out we'd still be slaves to Paroh in Egypt? Is that a fact?

Why did Pesach stick with the less affiliated more than Sukkot? Do you feel bad for Sukkot?

Pick a character from the story and see it from his or her side (Paroh, Moshe, Miriam, Aharon, a simple Egyptian, a simple Jew).

Make up a story for an Egyptian or Jew at the time. Give them a name and a detailed life.

Sigh-Sigh-Yaynu

'Tis better to feel good than look good, to be than to dazzle.

I wonder about how noisy and crowded people's insides are.

If you listen to anyone's story long enough you may come to like them.

Where there's friction there is warmth.

Sometimes you talk so loud that no-one can hear you.

Sometimes you are so tired that it's a sign to stop sleeping.

We tell people how to treat us.

We mock the thing we are to be.

A small procedure is when it's done on someone else.

G-d gave us his word, also his world.

You drowned another and drowned, and he who drowned you will drown.

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The Hebrew word for drowning and for nature are the same root.

The Hebrew word for protest and for belief are the same ordered letters.

Paroh's name is made up of a mouth than contains evil.

Lavan's name indicated his posture of purity.

Edom's name reveals his intent for blood.

Noach's name is his charm reversed.

Eir's name is his evil reversed.

Dovid, his mentor, and his father all had names that were palindromes.

The word in Hebrew for giving is a palindrome.

The sea split as a consequence of Miriam's childish dreams.

The women packed Tambourines!

The Soul Of Wit

Nice links, starting with a piece about being old and wearing purple.

A really catchy song. The story behind how it became popular (in England) is interesting.

Discuss. Digress. Enjoy.

Chuck Bennet called me Friday about his exclusive article on the Yankee Stadium curse set into play by a T shirt buried by a Red Sox construction worker fan into the foundation. What would you say on the topic of curses? Why are nasty exclamations and bad wishes referred to with the same word? Do you believe in people giving curses? What do you know of the Jewish View on this topic? Have you ever been cursed? What was your reaction?

Bertrand Russel was once asked by his dentist where it hurt. And he said the hurt was in his mind. How much of what we experience is in our heads? Can we figure it out? Is it healthy to do that kind of math?

Rabbi Benjamin Blech years ago wrote in Newsweek in the My Turn column about The Little Train That Could. He felt that stories message is a bit much. He told the story of his friend who was dying from an illness. His friend said to him, "This wouldn't have happened if only I'd fought harder." What are your thoughts on this?

In The Kuzari a searching king is told that his intentions are good but his actions are bad. This is sometimes used as a critique of others. What are your thoughts on this critique? Take context into account? Is it relevant that some people are more action people and some more idea people? Explain. Digress. Enjoy.

They say that the Kotzker Rebbe said: "If I am I because you are you and you are you because I am I then I am not I and you are not you. But if I am I because I am I and you are you because you are you then I am I and you are you." How would you put that into your own words? Do you think it is relevant/true? How does this play out in your own life?

Questions: The Pre Sleep Edition

1. Rabbi Shimon Schwab suggested that Yaakov's lying down to sleep on his way to meet Eisav was an act of faith. Do you think going to sleep can be an act of faith? Has it ever felt like that to you? When?

2. There are two prayers in Judaism where we ask that our dreams be blessed to be good. Can you name them? Do you believe in good and bad dreams? Do you have a good dream story to share?

3. When do we pray to angels? What do you make of those prayers? What's your take on angels? What have you heard or read in Jewish sources? Do angels play any real role in your life?

4. There's a prayer before bed in which we forgive anyone who hurt us. Rav Moshe Feinstein once said that he said that prayer nightly and meant it and was therefore up to date and didn't have to cram when Yom Kippur came. How does the idea of forgiving others before sleep rest with you?

5. When I was a little boy and my parents wold lay me down to sleep I'd say - May G-d Bless Mommy and Daddy and All The People I Love. What childhood memory of prayers before sleep do you have? Why are the moments before a child goes to sleep so profound and precious?

Been A Long Time

Share your thoughts.

1. Jacob wrestled with G-d. What does it man to wrestle with G-d? Is that something we're supposed to do? When have you wrestled with G-d?

2. Some teenagers lost friends in a tragic car accident (Rachmana Litzlan) and they told their rabbi that they weren't going to the synagogue for the high holidays because they were too angry at G-d. Their rabbi told them to go to Shul and to bring their anger in with them. Are we allowed to be angry at G-d? May we bring G-d directed anger into Shul?

3. When we say we're angry at G-d, what else might we mean? When we say we're angry at someone, what else might that mean? The rabbis say there are 4 categories of anger in terms of how strong and long people's anger's are. They do not list a category of never being angry, nor do they list a category of always being angry? Do you think these categories should be included in that list?

4. To what extent do people consciously change? At a certain point is it not worth trying? Is it normal to reach an age or stage in life and then coast or freeze in that place? Does being spiritual or religious or Orthodox or any other such label address this question?

5. The word Tzibur - some say - stands for Tzadikim, Beinonim, and Reshaim hinting that a community is comprised of all types of people - righteous, average, and the opposite of righteous. What does this mean to you? What feelings does it bring up? Is it OK to not be a Tzadik? Can it be that people's categories change over time, eb and flow?

6. What is your definition of an intellectual? What other definitions can you imagine? Do you ever discuss man having free will versus G-d controlling everything? Did you ever write a paper or give a lecture on this topic? Do you think there are people who stay up all night talking about these types of questions but never publish or present about them? Do you think there are people who research and present about these topics but don't speak about them much in a natural way in their lives?

7. What do you wish most for people to think or say about you? In your life? After 120? Do you what people think about you matters. In Avot it says that if the spirit of people rests well with a person then so does the spirit of G-d? Discuss the complexities of that rule.

8. Mesillat Yesharim opens with the question of what a person's purpose is in this world? What do you think? Do you know what he says, and what do you think of that?

9. The rabbis say thee are 3 pillars of the word: Torah, Avodah, and Gemilut Chasadim. Does calling them pillars imply they're each equally important? Do you see them as equal? How do connections to these values reflect upon a person's religiosity?

10. Rav Yisrael Salanter said it's harder to change one trait than to learn all of Shas? What do you take from those words? If you follow the thought through to its natural conclusion, what might be the implication?

11. Someone was once telling a friend about a difficult experience and ended by saying - "in the end it was OK" And the friend asked, "Well, what if it wasn't OK?" Are you OK with things not being OK? Discuss the difference between things not being OK because of your choices or due to circumstances beyond your control.

Histakel

i

Always use sin-screen:

Remember your source

Know your destination

Who do you answer to?

The ultimate I sees

Supersonic ear hears

Your story writes itself

Sometimes People Smile Too

Just got home from a dinner honoring my parents - they should live and be well. What to write? It is a blessed gift to have the chance to publicly thank and praise your parents in their lifetime may they live and be well for many years to come.

When I practiced my speech I kept breaking down in tears - good tears. I went back, went deep. In the actual speech, G-d helped me edit and choose from my 15 paragraphs. And He helped me stay pretty composed. I'm told it was under 10 minute's and it seems that that old saying about words from the heart holds true.

Along with my parents a lovely young couple with 3 children were honored. (Perhaps I shouldn't share this. I never know. To me, a blog is a funny place resting somewhere between public, poetic, private, real, exposed, raw, polished and personal). The wife of the couple came over to me and said that I made her cry with my words about my parents and that she only hopes that one day her offspring will grow up and speak that way about her.

There were several moments tonight that scratched against my heart in the best way. I will, for now, try and keep the rest between me and G-d.

It's always a great joy to hang with my niece and nephews. They are up there on the list of fans of my comedy - especially my youngest nephew. He wanted jokes and I tired to provide.

I told him how I sometimes fill out forms and write my name: Neil. Then the form comes back and says Niel. And I wonder - do people look at the form and think: "Poor guy, can't spell his own name - we'll fix that for him."

How about when telemarketers call and ask "Is this Mister Flashamaineeee?" I say yes, and compliment them on their good judgement. Really - do they make bets, who can mispronounce in the most ridiculous way?" Do they think Flashamaineeee s a name?

How about the automated operators?
Machine: "Say yes or no."
Me: "Yes."
Machine: "Did you say no?"
Me: "I said yes, y-e-s, YES!!!"
Machine: "I'm sorry I'm not understanding you. Would you like to speak to an operator?"
Me: "Yes"
Machine: "Did you say no?" "If you said no, say yes."
(I refined that original routine as told it to my nephew and I like the way it came out.)

One woman came up to me after my speech and said - I was hoping you'd tell jokes, but guess you don't do that unless you get paid, huh? She should have just sat next to my nephew.

One of my niece and nephews' favorite routines is one I never really do on stage. It's about the many ways you can ruin a joke. We had a good time tonight plugging in different jokes and how to ruin them. I told them the story about the time that someone told me a joke for about half an hour that I already knew and that cold be told well in about 45 seconds. Maybe you know it? The punchline is "Sitting Shivah."

I am feeling good right now; proud and glad that my parents live inside me.

Quietly Courageous

They say it works

if you work it

and so we do

falling and rising

for ages, again

G-d takes pride

till one day

sometimes

people smile too

Armadillo

Often I prefer to leave the subject line of an email blank. Is it going to make the difference of if you open it or not? "Oh, it's from Fleischmnann...Subject is 'Hello." No. I don't believe I'm in the mood to read a message from him with that title. If he'd have gone with 'Armadillo" that'd be a different story.

The question of titles comes up regarding blog posts. Sometimes I leave it blank. But omitting a heading doesn't feel right the way it does with emails. A post is an essay of sorts and that earns it the right to a title. Once or twice I've gone with Untitled as a title. Cop out? Perhaps. I'll just tell you that Peter Himmelman's most powerful song is called Untitled.

Someone recently sent me an email and the heading was a question mark. And for that second till I opened it I experienced irrational fear - had I said or done something that was being questioned, had I hurt the sender/friend in some way, was my whole essence being questioned with that mark? I opened to to find a question about Jewish Practice, the kind of question I love to bounce around in my hands like dice, to google and think about.

Someone know once got an email from his boss, the subject of which was a string of six or seven exclamation points. And inside was a frantic message about something that was already moot by virtue of having been taken care of by my friend.

I am sometimes proud of my memory. Lately I've been wondering if it's a burden in part, besides the major blessing piece. I think a lot of artists carry so much and then present it back out there. But carrying heavy loads can strain you in every sinew. Still, for the moment, I will share with you a memory from elementary school.

I was called for an aliyah and ran out of my row. When I returned the kid next to me glared at me and I smiled back blankly and he said, "You think it's funny, huh?" And I had no idea. Apparently I'd banged into his knees the way one sometimes does when running out of the row one's sitting in... Something about that stuck me and in my mind, connected to the exclamation point email.

Sonja Sohn, when asked about who her inspiration was answered spontaneously that it's like a ball of rubber bands. There are so many strands of so many people of so much influence. Maybe all of life is like one of those rubber band balls.

Shabbos is approaching. May we all really get it this week. A connection with Shabbos, which reminds us of the connection we strive for with people, which is a shadow of the connection we yearn for with G-d.

A Light Post On Weather

o

WEATHER REPORT RELATED ROUTINES

THAT I RECALL;

IN TRIBUTE

TO A DEAR FRIEND'S MEMORY

OF A PHONY WEATHER REPORT MESSAGE

I LEFT ON OUR SHARED ANSWERING MACHINE

YEARS AGO WHEN HE WAS WORKING AS A RABBI

AND A CONGREGANT WAS MYSTIFIED (AT BEST)

BY MY ATTEMPT AT HUMOR

(OF WHICH I HAVE NO RECOLLECTION).

1. IT'S 5O DEGREES AT THE AIRPORT,BUT WHO CARES? - I DON'T KNOW ANYONE WHO LIVES AT THE AIRPORT. (GEORGE CARLIN)

2. THE BAROMETRIC PRESSURE IS LOW, BUT WHO CARES. I NEVER HEARD ANYONE WORRY ABOUT IT - "CANCEL THE BAR MITZVAH, THE BAROMETRIC PRESSURE IS VERY BAD." (JACKIE MASON )

3. OUTLOOK FOR TONIGHT - DARK. WITH SCATTERED LIGHTNESS COMING IN TOWARD MORNING... (CARLIN AGAIN, FROM SAME 70s HIPPY DIPPY WEATHERMAN ROUTINE.)

4. SEINFELD: WHEN I WANT TO KNOW THE WEATHER - I PUT ON ROMPER ROOM - IF THE BUNNY IS WEARING HIS YELLOW RAINCOAT, I KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON.

5. BILLY CRYSTAL AS OLD JEWISH MAN REPORTING WEATHER: "OUTLOOK FOR TODAY, DON'T BE A BIG SHOT - TAKE AN UMBRELLA!"

May We Be Blessed With A Great day

l

Who is brave, you ask?

Answer: Can we ever know?

- Not seeing inside

;

The day is starting - has started, as I've been up for two hours. A fellow teacher just came in and remarked about my meta post from last night. He's a good man who chose teaching over dentistry. i will resist any lines about similarities and pulling teeth. Oops.

h

The Chovat HaTalmidim writes that learning Torah is like sitting with G-d. How can anyone do that and not be happy, he wonders. He goes on to answer his own question - it's not easy. But we need to try to access that part of us that knows - Ashreinu Mah Tov Chelkeinu.

l

I long to live one minute at a time. While living in the past and future is exciting - I wonder if the present has a bigger pay off. This is something I'm thinking about as I move on with today.

l

Wishing everyone a great day.

;

PS - Recently a colleague/friend criticized that I always end my Dvar Torahs with a blessing of -may we fulfil the ideas just brought out. He says I should just let it be, let the point stand. And that it smacks of similarity to popular cliched ending of Torah speeches. Thoughts dear readers?

"Once I Used To Join In"

I don't feel like posting. Feel free to peruse the archives. Here's a past post that comes to mind. Hmmm.

One Year Ago Today

Two Years Ago Today

Three Years Ago Tomorrow