Every morning for the last 15 years or so, I log-on to “Religion News Service,” an online publication with reliable, well-researched and documented coverage of global religion news. I learn about faith as practiced around the world by Islamists, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Jews and indigenous and folk tribalists living in the far corners of this earth. Through the years, I have passed on to readers of The Shofar many of these stories about Jewish traditions [...]
A strange question was put to me a few days ago, and I’ve been dwelling on it, stewing about it ever since. The telephone rang. The caller was a reporter from Newsday, wanting to know about the situation in our shul swirling around the news that Rabbi Capela would be leaving his position as spiritual leader. An experienced reporter in my own right, I gave no details to this reporter, nor to the Suffolk Times [...]
As we approach the High Holy Days, I am reminded of a discussion held in our sanctuary one recent Shabbat morning. A question was posed: “What is holy?” It was a reasonable question. Prayer after prayer in the Siddur refers to holiness — the holiness of God, the holiness of Shabbat, even the holiness of prayer itself. If you Google “holy,” you will find terms as inscrutable as the word itself — words like [...]
Rabbi Suzan Lipson has been working daily at our shul for weeks. She told me she was bothered by the state of the shul’s library — books shoved onto shelves wherever there is a space, no regard for order. She asked me if I’d mind if she straightened up the shelves, put the books into categories, and made a database so we would know what we have. Would I mind? Was she kidding? A [...]
As I write this message for the July issue of The Shofar, the outdoor temperature is pushing 92 degrees, and my hair is bushing-out uncontrollably from the humidity. I’m reminded of another scorching hot day one summer long ago. I hope readers will find charm in the story, and wisdom in the postscript. In the tradition of the proverbial chicken that crossed the road to get to the other side comes this story about [...]
Two years ago, I was nominated and elected president of our shul — again, having served in the position about 15-or-so years earlier. Friends from my other lives around the country responded to the news with condolences, commiserations, and various forms of body language to suggest tough luck, misfortune and mercy. They would be so wrong. Oh, of course I understood that, like life itself, the administration of a synagogue could be messy from time [...]
From the north-facing windows of my apartment here at Peconic Landing, I look out at the daffodils that have pushed up through brown earth — earth still frozen hard from a cold winter inserting itself into spring with arduous reluctance to let go. Has it been ever thus, or am I just feeling the chill so much more this year? And yet, there they are — persistent, determined little bunches that add a burst of [...]
For my column this month, I’m borrowing from the correspondent who had inspired my March column with his statement: “I try to do a good deed every day.” An insightful concept, I reasoned, one with a path forward for the good of self and the world. I wrote about it, and some readers wrote back to me that they had thought about it. I hope they are continuing to do so. Now, with a little [...]
In one of the many messages that fill my email inbox daily — messages offering ideas, suggestions, advice, opinions, objections and complaints — one of our members told me in one of the more helpful daily messages that he tries to perform one act of kindness every day. Now that’s a welcome idea. Just imagine what a world this would be if the more than eight billion people who inhabit our planet would, in each [...]
It’s February, the month on the Gregorian calendar to celebrate love. Yes, I am aware that Valentine’s Day, observed on February 14, traces its origins to Christian martyrdom. In the third century, Emperor Claudius II Gothicus of Rome arrested a priest named Valentine for defying a Roman decree that forbade soldiers from marrying. Alas, poor Valentine, beheaded in the name of love. And there did he lie, poor fellow, alone, unrecognized, unheralded for his sacrifice, [...]
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