Traditional prayer books often include a listing of blessings for various occasions. With this quarterly message, I’d like to introduce you to some you may wish to use when the opportunity arises.
On seeing the wonders of nature – Praised be the Eternal, Ruler of the Universe, who reenacts the work of creation.
This was the blessing that struck me as Beverly and I watched the lunar eclipse from our sukkah at the very beginning of the holiday of Sukkot. What an amazing sight, and how fortunate we feel to live in an area with such clear skies. Building the sukkah (even with a kit) was a challenge because we returned on the day after Yom Kippur from two weeks in Beijing and only had a small window in which to do the construction. Nonetheless our time with Kehillat Beijing was again fantastic, and I hope we’ll be invited back to provide rabbinic support. The community is just wonderful, and we felt truly honored to be welcomed so graciously. In addition to leading the usual High Holiday services, I led two Friday night services, offered some rabbinic counseling, shared a few teachings at meals, directed a Torah-portion skit at lunch and an evening discussion at the Great Wall retreat over Shabbat Shuvah, and even hosted a game of G_d Bingo (my invention!) at the Moishe House. The latter was really just an excuse to eat M&Ms.
Over the past quarter I recited blessings at several special events, chanting a birthday blessing for Beverly’s Mom in Brooklyn, belatedly welcoming into the world the two grandchildren of our dear friends, the Benjamins, wishing a friend from the Los Alamos Jewish Center well on her relocation journey back East, and closing the HaMakom annual membership meeting in Santa Fe. The two synagogues closest to our home have kept me busy, especially during the extended fall holiday season, and I particularly enjoyed teaching the religious school kids how to shake the lulav and prognosticating for congregants holding up the completely unfurled Torah scroll on erev Simchat Torah. Although we had a large crowd by Santa Fe standards, it wasn’t quite up to the group needed for the blessing recited upon seeing 600,00 or more Jews together (Praised be the Eternal, Ruler of the Universe, Knower of secrets).
What with our traveling, I had some time to read both fiction and non-fiction this quarter. Highlights from the fiction section of our library included Memories and Scenes by Jacob Dinezon and Poor Matza by Avrom Reisen, both collections translated from the Yiddish, Infiltration by Yehoshua Kenaz and Murder Duet by Batya Gur, both translated from the Hebrew, and a recent work by Stuart Rojstaczer entitled The Mathematician’s Shiva (warning – some knowledge of fluid mechanics is helpful!). On the non-fiction side, I enjoyed Sacred Treasure – The Cairo Genizah by Rabbi Mark Glickman, Maimonidean Criticism and the Maimonidean Controversy, 1180-1240 by Daniel Silver, Einstein: His Space and Times by Steven Gimbel (warning – some knowledge of relativity could be helpful!), Between the Lines – selected essays by Gary Rosenblatt, editor of the Jewish Week, The Lost Matriarch – Finding Leah in the Bible and Midrash by Jerry Rabow, and reaching farther back in time, Revealment and Concealment – Five Essays by Haim Nahman Bialik, and Treatise to Salah Ad-din on the Revival of the Art of Medicine by Ibn Jumay, a contemporary of Maimonides. I suppose that when Beverly calls me to say that another huge load of books has arrived, I should recite the blessing on hearing good tidings (Praised be the Eternal, Ruler of the Universe, who is good and does good.
Amen and b’shalom,
Rabbi Jack