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, [...]

Happy New Year. The word of the year is brain rot. I thought you might want to know that. I hope the word does not reflect accurately on any of you. The Oxford University Press, publisher of the august OED, the Oxford English Dictionary, has chosen “brain rot” as its word of the year. “It was quite a journey for brain rot,” The New York Times said, the word having triumphed over contenders that included [...]

When we think about Hanukkah, we think about miracles — the miracle of Judah Maccabee, who fought for freedom against the Greek-Syrian oppressors. And the miracle of the single cruse of oil that miraculously burned for eight days and eight nights. These events occurred more than 2,000 years ago, in the 2nd century A.D. And as they have for millennia, Jews the world over have celebrated these miracles in a festival of lights known as [...]

On Saturday, Oct. 12, along about 7 p.m., magic happened at 519 Fourth Street, right here in Greenport. Following a day-long schedule of Yom Kippur services, it took only a magic minute to transform the community room into a haven abuzz with activity, chatter, and the good fellowship of friends and neighbors. Together, we had come through the rituals, the liturgy, and what we had discovered after a hard look at ourselves and our thoughts [...]

When did you last move from one domicile to another, downsizing in the process? Maybe you have yet to experience that upheaval, or having done it, you might rather allow the passage of time to swallow up that memory. The selling, the giving away, the trashing — what goes in which pile? The sorting, the packing — only to discover that what you can’t possibly live without, alas, can’t possibly fit in the new space. [...]