I am thankful to be able to write yet another quarterly Rabbinic message (I’m actually particularly thankful to be writing this today because I’m getting over a bug which could have been much worse). The Talmud (B. Men. 43b) quotes Rabbi Meir who says that one is obligated to recite one hundred blessings daily. That may seem like a lot, but here’s a challenge for you – come up with ten things for which you are thankful for on each of the next ten days. I think you’ll be surprised at how profound an effect this has on your outlook.
Life cycle events, regular services, and some presentations kept me busy rabbinically this past quarter. We had a Bat Mitzvah ceremony in Los Alamos for Evia Alexander, marking a second-generation of Alexander B’nai Mitzvah celebrations. It was most enjoyable to see the whole Alexander clan together for this Simcha. We also had a truly remarkable celebration at HaMakom in Santa Fe as the entire community shared in the joy of Itai Rosen’s becoming a Bar Mitzvah. End-of-life events remind us to be thankful for our very lives; I participated in a tahara to help prepare a body for its final journey to the grave, led an unveiling ceremony at Guaje Pines in Los Alamos, and assisted Beverly in marking both the end of her 11-month kaddish recitation and first Yahrzeit for her mom, Justine Post.
I love to interject brief teachings at events, and opportunities for such teachings occurred at the general membership meetings for both the LAJC and HaMakom as well as at the wonderful Matriarchs event honoring six inspirational women at HaMakom. Beverly and I were thankful to receive aliyot at Madison Jewish Center where we were married years ago and at Beit Tikvah in Santa Fe where we joined the congregation during our relaxing December break.
More extended teaching opportunities were presented by the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society where I spoke about “Fat Man and the Development of a Plutonium Bomb: A Crisis at Los Alamos and the Jews Who Solved It,” by Los Alamos National Laboratory which recorded my talk entitled “Sine Qua Non: Foreign-Born Scientists at Los Alamos,” and by my friends Ron Duncan Hart and Gloria Abella Bellan who filmed me delivering a talk on “Jews in Theory” about the Jews at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwLsS8gkpVw&index=4&list=PLmg8fwxbUbH38Ydd5AjftD7W9sxnVfBcl
I’m of course thankful for all the books we’ve acquired as well as those which I’ve read over the past quarter (my reading list is below), and I’m also appreciative for the books I’ve been gifted recently including “Just Call Me ‘Mr. Lucky’: An Ethical Will Entwined in an Autobiography” by HaMakom member Chuck Friedman and “Sholem Aleichem – Jewish Children” from the Gaon Jewish Classics by the aforementioned Ron and Gloria.
Both Dov and Orli were in Los Alamos for a brief spell, and I am thankful that we had a delicious and festive meal with them on Shabbat evening courtesy of Beverly. I especially liked giving both kids their traditional Shabbat blessings live instead of at a distance.
I look forward as always to hearing back from you, particularly if you try the thankfulness exercise I outlined at the beginning of this message. You might start by being thankful you enjoy the gift of reading.
B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack
Quarterly Reading List:
Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space – Janna Levin
Abraham – Bruce Feiler
The Dove Flyer – Eli Amir**
Hasidic Responses to the Holocaust in the Light of Hasidic Thought – Pesach Schindler
The Akedah – Louis Berman
The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age – Segre and Hoerlin
The Ladder of Jacob – Kugel
Einstein and the Rabbi – Naomi Levy*
How to Be an Extremely Reform Jew – Bader
All the Rivers – Dorit Rabinyan
Three Floors Up – Eshkol Nevo
If All the Seas Were Ink – Ilana Kurshan*
When General Grant Expelled the Jews – Jonathan Sarna
Textual Knowledge: Teaching the Bible in Theory and in Practice – Barry Holtz
Adam and Thomas – Aharon Appelfeld
The Parable and its Lesson – S.Y. Agnon
The Exodus – Richard Elliott Friedman*
The Undoing Project – Michael Lewis