Dear Friends:
My last three rabbinic months have been busy but generally joyous, and I write this latest installment of roughly quarterly missives to you before the crunch of Purim and Passover. “Generally” but not exclusively joyous – the shortest day of the year brought with it the loss of Jay Wechsler, a truly unique source of daylight to the Jewish community of Los Alamos and to the entire town. I felt deeply fortunate to spend a few hours with Jay on Shabbat afternoon right after Thanksgiving, Beverly and I traveling straight up to Wyoming immediately after I co-led the LAJC-United Church Thanksgiving celebration with senior pastor Rev. David Elton. It was a wonderful visit, and Jay was in great form, regaling us with stories of the early days while surrounded by his children and grandchildren. I was greatly saddened and shocked to learn of Jay’s death, and I tried to pay back a small fraction of my debt to Jay by conducting the remembrance service attended by hundreds of his friends. Jay Wechsler had no equal, and may his memory serve as a blessing for us all.
Speaking of equals, in preparation for the trip I learned that Wyoming is called the Equality State because of the rights women have traditionally enjoyed there, and I chose to speak on the topic of Women and Equality in Jewish Tradition at the synagogue in Cheyenne after Friday evening services, thanks to the logistical arrangements provided by Rabbi Harley Karz-Wagman. This talk was perhaps less controversial than my description of Ghosts and Goblins in Rabbinic texts delivered after Halloween in the historic former synagogue in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Truth be told, I think those who attended were simply being patient while waiting for Beverly to teach some Israeli folkdancing.
My teaching was not restricted to adults this past quarter – I spent most of a day lecturing on Judaism to approximately 70 students in three different Humanities classes at the Los Alamos High School. It would not be an exaggeration to say that 70 people got their first taste of Talmud study while listening to the story of the prospective convert and Rabbis Shammai and Hillel. Our study at the Los Alamos Jewish Center in conjunction with my monthly Shabbat weekends in town has focused on the prayer book and Torah service mechanics, and we’ll be continuing this series this weekend with an exploration of the closing passages of the service. The series was beautifully interrupted when I officiated at the Bat Mitzvah ceremony for the charming and newest adult member of the Los Alamos Jewish community, Kayleen Lederman. At HaMakom in Santa Fe, I delivered my annual contribution to the monthly adult education lecture series with an examination of Jewish Ethical Wills, a largely hidden but beautiful literary genre. Also at HaMakom, we celebrated with food (and even hard liquor) upon completion of an extended set of weekly Talmud classes focused on a passage in tractate Baba Metzia. Our new classes started a few weeks ago and use the weekly portion as an introduction to the father of Torah commentary, Rashi. My plan is to switch commentators with each book, shifting (I think) to Ramban for Leviticus. These classes are a real joy and motivate me to study parshat hashevua.
Not to worry, I still found time over the past few months to both purchase and read books. New additions to the bursting bookshelves include the six books in the Jewish Lives series published by Yale University Press (Sarah Bernhardt, Emma Goldman, Moses Mendelssohn, Solomon, Leon Trotsky, and Hank Greenberg so far), New Talmudic Readings by the French philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas, and The Modern Jewish Girl’s Guide to Guilt edited by Ruth Andrew Ellenson. I had an added dose of reading time as the secular calendar came to a close, and this gave me the opportunity to compare three separate Israeli autobiographies, Life on Sandpaper by Yoram Kaniuk, My Russian Grandmother and her American Vacuum Cleaner by Meir Shalev, and Curriculum Vitae by Yoel Hoffmann. Three more diverse memoirs would be hard to find, but I recommend all of them unabashedly. Despite the crowded shelves, I also welcome your suggestions for new books.
B’shalom, Rabbi Jack