The morning service is not one long extended event, but rather a series of events, like scenes and acts in a play, or movements in a symphony. For those who understand it, it is filled with sweeping crescendos and moments of high drama. The basic structure is this: We begin with a short series of prayers, focusing on our personal identity, place, and time. This is called Birkot Hashachar, morning blessings. This is followed by Pesukei D’zimra, [...]
Prayer is the pathway to G-d, the experience of a dimension of our lives which transcends the day-to-day, and reminds us that we have a place in eternity. Sounds great, but we live at a time when talent for praying is not our strongest suit. To pray well, we must get in touch with our deepest selves. That is no easy task. To pray well, we must “know before Whom we stand.” No easy task, [...]
The first of the ten commandments begins with the word “Anochi,” meaning “I,” as in “I am the Lord your G-d…” The mystics point out that the first letter in “Anochi” is an aleph—which paradoxically enough is a silent letter. The idea being that before G-d even speaks a word, the world stands in silent anticipation for whatever concrete statement is about to be released from the infinite. The “silent letter’ before a parent speaks is [...]
It is with great sadness that The Shofar reports the unexpected passing on June 13 of Roberta Conway, long-time partner of esteemed shul member Arthur Riegel. Those of us who knew Roberta will remember her warm smile and delightful sense of humor. She will be greatly missed. The Shofar joins the membership in mourning her death.
Alan Greenspan, the influential economist who steered U.S. monetary policy during his five terms as chairman of the Federal Reserve under four presidents, died June 22 at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 100. Greenspan helped to define modern American capitalism from the final years of the Cold War era through the dawn of the digital age. He presided over the Fed during one of the longest economic expansions in U.S. history, a boom [...]
Manny Nosowsky, a New York Times crossword puzzle creator who delighted solvers with his witty, pun-filled puzzles for nearly two decades, died on May 20 in San Francisco. He was 91. Dr. Nosowsky had been practicing urology for about 20 years when he faced a sudden bout of health issues. In 1983, at age 51, he gave up medicine and retired. To fill time, he joined his wife in solving crossword puzzles, and he decided [...]
Billie Tisch, the last of the original four family members whose philanthropic legacy endures in the prominent educational, cultural and medical institutions that bear their surname, died June 7 at her home in Manhattan. She was 98. Mrs. Tisch was the widow of Laurence A. Tisch. Mr. Tisch and his brother, Preston Robert Tisch, became self-made billionaires by transforming a kosher hotel in Lakewood, NJ, into the Loews Corporation, a conglomerate that began as a [...]
Albert Wolsky, a prolific Hollywood costume designer who won Academy Awards for his sequined ensembles for “All That Jazz” and who transformed Olivia Newton-John’s character from saintly to seductive in “Grease,” died May 23 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 95. After fleeing Paris with his family during WWII and settling in New York, Mr. Wolsky accumulated more than 80 screen credits, winning him a reputation as “the dean of Hollywood costume designers.” [...]
Rafe Pomerance, an environmentalist who discovered in an obscure 1979 report that burning coal heats the atmosphere, which roused him, Paul Revere-like, to warn the public and politicians about climate change, died on May 21 in Washington, DC. He was 79. Mr. Pomerance emerged as the central figure in a whole-issue article in The New York Times Magazine in 2018, “Losing Earth” by Nathaniel Rich. The article later expanded into a book and is now [...]
James Burrows, master of the television situation comedy, who was a creator of “Cheers” and directed more than 1,000 episodes of that show and other TV classics like “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Taxi,” “Frasier,” “Friends,” and “The Big Bang Theory,” died on June 19. He was 85. Mr. Burrows earned a reputation as the “Steven Spielberg of sitcoms,” winning 11 Emmy Awards and receiving 47 nominations in a career that [...]
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