Monday, August 29, 2022
Sunday, August 28, 2022
Thursday, August 25, 2022
Hadar's RSI Summer Gathering 2022
Here's Hadar's description, copied from Facebook:
And my own comments, also copied from Facebook:
Ahat Sha'alti: Song and Study for Elul
Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz
When? Tuesdays, 7:30-8:45 PM
Sept 6-20 (3 sessions)
Recited each day of Elul and throughout the yamim noraim (Days of Awe), Psalm 27 serves as a core liturgical anchor of the season. Over the course of 3 sessions of singing and learning together, we'll root ourselves in both the soundscape and reflective potential of this important prayer. Join us and help create a unique space of song, spirituality, and connection as we prepare for the High Holidays together. Light refreshments will be served at 7:00 PM.
Register here.
Hadar is not live-streaming this, unfortunately, but I hope they'll record it and make the recording available.
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
A walk in Central Park's North Woods
We took advantage of the relatively decent weather (low 80s Fahrenheit) to go for a nice long walk around the northern reaches of Central Park, where it seems to me that most of Central Park's waterfalls are located. I love waterfalls, even if they're small--there's nothing Niagara-sized around here. :) Here are a few falls, and other goodies, that we saw.
Sunday, August 14, 2022
Parashat Vaetchanan, slightly belated: Great explanation of why the Torah proclaims that G!d is One
Read here.
Shema Yisrael: In What Way Is “YHWH One”?
Thursday, August 11, 2022
the light lab: fascinating podcasts about Jewish prayer
Fascinating discussions about Jewish liturgy (the written text) and prayer (the "text" of the heart) take place every other Thursday on Jewish educator/singer/songwriter Eliana Light's light lab podcast. You can listen on Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Most of the episodes are discussions among the co-hosts, but some are interviews. My favorite interviews thus far are today's Episode 28: Excavating the Secrets (with Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz), Episode 18: Siddur as Work of Art (with Rabbi Elie Kaunfer), and Episode 10: Why Worship? (with Cantor Rosalie Will), and this episode advocating the inclusion of worshipers with chronic health
problems and/or disabilities: Episode 24: Chronic Congregation (with Rabbi Emily Aronson). Each episode comes with a full transcript (handy for those with hearing problems) and separate show notes (highlights, with definitions, explanations, texts, and links.)
If you're interested in tefillah (Jewish liturgy and prayer), these podcasts are well worth an hour or so of your time every other week.
Tuesday, August 09, 2022
I finally joined "headband nation." Or maybe not. :)
Given the so-called speed with which my grows--I haven't had a haircut since before Pesach--this is as close as I'm likely to get. :) But at least a headband keeps my hair out of my eyes and off my neck (which is nice in 90-degree weather), and is a lot easier on my scalp than hair-clips and/or barrettes.
See the original, from March 7, 2021--I've had only two haircuts since then, and my hair has hardly grown an inch.
Olivia Newton-John, R.I.P. :(
I'm not going to lie about it--it's unnerving when people my own age or younger die. :(
I have fond memories of "Grease," in which Olivia Newton-John co-starred, except for the ending, which I wrote about here.
Monday, August 08, 2022
Touro Synagogue (in Newport, RI)
The weather decided to cooperate, much to our pleasant surprise, so we were able to go on a tour of Jewish Colonial Newport after all. Rhode Island was a haven for religious freedom in colonial times, though Jews couldn't be citizens. But they certainly could be wealthy merchants, and some of them were. Some of the Jewish homes were quite extravagant. The Jewish community of colonial times in Newport was Sefardi, as was and is the Touro Synagogue, which we toured next. Here are some photos.
"Boutique" hotels & bed-and-breakfasts may not be for everyone
A few days before Rosh Chodesh Av, we decided to sneak out of town for our first overnight trip since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, now that we're both double-vaxxed and doubled-boosted. Taken aback by current hotel prices, we decided to try a boutique hotel to save money. Little did we know that we were in for some unpleasant surprises.
We arrived in Newport, Rhode Island looking forward to seeing the Touro Synagogue but not knowing how to get to our hotel, and I gave them a call while my husband--our "designated driver" since I've had four rounds of eye surgery--handled the wheel. Boy, was I surprised when my call went straight to voice mail. That's never happened to me before. And they never called back, either. Since neither of us has ever gotten around to installing a GPS app on our phones, we just checked a few maps until we were able to figure out how to get there.
It gets worse, folks.
When we pulled up to our hotel at roughly 5:45 PM, there was not a single staff member on duty. All we found, lying on a table at the entrance, was an envelope with our name on it, which contained a note stating our room number and telling us that the key was inside our room. We looked around and realized that this beautiful old mansion had no elevator. So my poor husband, who's been spared two broken wrists, ended up bumping our suitcase up two flights of stairs, and carrying it down again the next morning. This is not a job for an 80-year-old. At least the staff member who was on duty in the morning got our suitcase down the porch stairs and across the parking lot to our rented car.
Mind you, this was a beautiful place, well stocked with toiletries and absolutely spotless. But a place like that is not for older people and/or people with health problems and/or disabilities. This is just a fair warning that you get what you pay for. It's worth the extra $100 for us to stay in a "real" hotel that offers an elevator and actual service.
How a Child-Killer Set the Stage for Today's Republicans to Revel in Cruelty
"It turns out this is not just politics; the roots of this brutal movement in today’s GOP run from a 1927 child murderer, through a greedy real-estate lobbying group, to Ronald Reagan putting both of their philosophies into actual practice and bringing morbidly rich right-wing billionaires into the GOP fold.
. . .
In 1980, billionaire David Koch ran for vice president on the newly formed Libertarian Party ticket. His platform
included calls to privatize the Post Office, end all public schools,
give Medicare and Medicaid to big insurance companies, end all taxation
of the morbidly rich, terminate food and housing support and all other
forms of “welfare,” deregulate all corporate oversight while shutting
down the EPA and FDA, and selling off much of the federal government’s
land and other assets to billionaires and big corporations.
Reagan, who won that 1980 election, embraced this view in his
inaugural address, saying, “[G]overnment is not the solution to our
problem; government is the problem.” He then doubled down on the idea by
beginning the systematic process of gutting and crippling governmental
institutions that historically had supported working people and the
middle class.
The child-killer who inspired a movement
Reagan wasn’t just echoing the Libertarian vision; he was also endorsing Ayn Rand’s “objectivist” view of the world, which traces its roots to a murderous sociopath in 1927."
See the whole article here.