Month: 1 Av 5785 (July 2025)
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A Story of 1.25 Diopters, or, How to Get Judaism into Focus
“Sooooo….it’s time to consider reading glasses or progressive lenses.” The younger-than-me Optometrist said with a smile. I love that more stories in my life involve people that are younger these days. I can see a future curmudgeon blossoming. I’ve been reading, a lot, all my life. It’s one of many tools I used to ensure…
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Tragedy Is But One Ingredient for Change
I’ll always remember seeing a Israeli Muslim doctor on TV a couple days after October 7th 2023. The fact that he was Muslim matters, since he was working in Israel in an Israeli hospital and talking about Jewish victims of the Hamas attack. My memory is hazy, but I believe he was a pathologist, which…
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Listen Up, You Who Struggle
שְׁמַע “Listen.” The first word of the Sh’ma, the statement of faith for Judaism. If I had my way, any faith statement would begin and end with that word. Listen. Just listen. In Hebrew, which I’ve come to love in ways I never expected, every letter and word offers doorways of endless meaning. “Sh’ma” doesn’t…
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Let’s Do the Time Warp Again: In the Beginning
בְּרֵאשִׁית, Bereshit, “In the beginning…” Not really. But let’s do a little time warp here. It’s just a jump to the left and then a step to the right. It’s 1984 and I’m born. It’s one of those years with an accompanying vibe that is not lost on me in 2025. How Orwellian can it…