Today is January 4, 2025 -
Today is January 4, 2025 -
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Hanukkah (work the spelling out amongst yourselves, people) will always have a special place in my heart because I was born on the closing day of the festival (back in 1958). Until last year’s (covid) Shabbat of Hanukkah, Hillel Kaplan (who shared the same bar mitzvah haftarah with me) chanted Roni v’Simchi, the haftarah from Continue Reading »
These seem like basic questions, but covid and zoom have added some complexity to these considerations. This past Shabbat, I found myself on zoom from a hotel room near Dulles International. I was in town to officiate a Sunday night wedding, and some Shabbat plans with a host family fell through as that family tested Continue Reading »
There’s a Hebrew phrase ‘acharay hachagim אחרי החגים which resonates with Jewish professionals the world over — let’s say there’s a conversation unfolding during the summer and the question is about when a certain project or meeting can be scheduled — the answer might well be: acharay hachagim, after the holidays — because Tishrei is Continue Reading »
The series called Jewels of Elul has been around for quite a while, maybe 20 years. As the title suggests, these daily bits come out each day of Elul, the final month of the Jewish year. The one I’m sharing (below) caught my eye due to its musical connection, and the writer’s insights resonate with Continue Reading »
School is starting up, and the dog days of summer are here. The High Holy days (too early this season!) follow on the heels of Labor Day Weekend. And amidst all the normal, unexceptional benchmarks, there’s the elusive and disruptive (and dangerous) reality of covid. As I write these words (August 2), there are in-person Continue Reading »
Hello hello hello! Happy June & July! As the Grateful Dead sing: “Summer’s here,and the time is right for dancing in the street!” OK, I have to back up a minute —the falling covid mortality numbers and the rising vaccination rates (Hallelujah!) are certainly a cause for celebration. It’s also true that there’s so much Continue Reading »
Some recent glances at headlines bluntly remind me that, as a species, human beings have a painfully long road ahead … Immediately following a headline talking about an imminent Disney World opening was a headline describing a catastrophe of biblical proportions crushing India. And right on the heels of the guilty verdict for George Floyd’s Continue Reading »
Jewishly speaking, we’re in the thick of doing the numbers. As I write these words, we’re heading into the finale of Passover. The Haggadah provided us with the wonderful who Knows One Song — the numbers are powerful shorthand for core ideas that we pass along. A six-digit figure that morphs along at blazing speed Continue Reading »
Shalom & Happy New Year! The past year has been such a blur in many ways, and each of us has felt tested as we make adjustments and lean into a changed world amidst a pandemic. In every aspect of our lives — work, entertainment, prayer, dining out – we’ve made adjustments. And, no, we Continue Reading »
December 2020 — unlike any other that we can recall. Regarding the vaccine(quite possibly more than one), we all know that ‘help is on the way.’ In the meantime, we hope and pray for a peaceful and orderly governmental transition, and — perhaps, more daunting— the ability and desire to heal deep wounds felt by Continue Reading »