| Dear Friends: Recently I scanned the headlines of the online news, and in my haste, I mistook what was written as bitcoin for the Hebrew word “bitachon,” Bitachon is generally translated as “trust.” (Somehow, I think that putting one’s trust in digital currency is a case of misplaced trust, but I’m not qualified to devote a quarterly to my views on finance). On the occasions that I have faced some difficulty in life, I have tried hard to reflect on all the good fortune I’ve had in my life so far. In this way, I’ve attempted to shift my focus and thereby trust that things will work out, even if it’s not obvious how that can happen. In all honesty, this technique has not always been successful, and a few times I’ve depended on anti-depressants and medical guidance to help me turn the corner. But generally, it is nothing short of amazing that things tend to get resolved favorably for me. During an unanticipated and significant funding cut at the Los Alamos National Laboratory decades ago, I and over a hundred of my colleagues suddenly found ourselves without jobs. At the time, one of the Laboratory’s higher-ranking managers was an acquaintance of mine through the Jewish community, Harry Ettinger. Harry graciously met with me and offered advice on how to find a different position at the Lab. That conversation led to a significant deepening of our friendship, and just recently, I had the sad honor of officiating at his funeral. May his memory serve as a blessing to all who knew him. Physicists are trained to be skeptics (this trait often drives the spouses of physicists to distraction). Perhaps for this reason, a quotation from The Road into the Open (1908) by Arthur Schnitzler (tr. Roger Byers, p. 293) resonates with me. “One can never be deceived when one mistrusts everything on earth, even one’s own mistrust.” I might add that I cannot help but be struck by the prescience of a comment on the back of my edition which describes the book as “a finely drawn portrayal of the disintegration of Austrian liberal society under the impact of nationalism and anti-Semitism.” One hopes that I don’t misread “American” for “Austrian.” Along with my normal worship service leadership in Los Alamos and Santa Fe and several adult education programs this past quarter, and in an effort to help build community, I spoke with many congregants by phone to see how they were faring. More than a few people shared with me some significant problem with which they were dealing (fortunately no one spoke explicitly about their unhappiness with their rabbi). As best I could, I provided a sympathetic ear. In hindsight, I might have served these individuals better if I’d recited a passage from the medieval ethical masterpiece entitled Duties of the Heart (circa 1080) by R. Bachya ibn Paquda; tr. Moses Hyamson, Vol 1 p. 295, which states, “What is Trust? It is tranquility of soul in the one who trusts.” I wish you and yours tranquility of soul, and encourage you to invest in bitachon (not bitcoin). B’shalom, Rabbi Jack Last quarter’s reading list is below Rabbi Jack Shlachter Judaism for Your Nuclear Family physicsrabbi@gmail.com www.physicsrabbi.com |
| Quarterly reading list with highlights designated by * Futureman – David Avidan; tr. Tsipi Keller How to Get More Out of Being Jewish Even If: – Gil Mann Filled with Fire and Light – Elie Wiesel Look There: New and Selected Poems – Agi Mishol, tr. Lisa Katz Who By Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai – Matti Friedman Medicine and Jewish Law Volume 1 – ed. Fred Rosner Mercy of a Rude Stream (Volume 1) – Henry Roth The Sh’ma and Its Blessings – ed. Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman I’ll Cry Tomorrow – Lillian Roth Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean – Edward Kritzler Bad Rabbi and Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press* – Eddy Portnoy Dineh: An Autobiographical Novel – Ida Maze, tr. Yermiyahu Ahron Taub Judah Benjamin: Counselor to the Confederacy* – James Traub Hebrew Matters – Joseph Lowin Creating Sacred Communities – Ron Wolfson and Brett Kopin The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann – Ananyo Bhattacharya Everyman – Philip Roth Meditation and the Bible – Aryeh Kaplan The Theology of Abraham Bibago – Allan Lazaroff Ravelstein – Saul BellowClick here for a recording of my recent “Santa Fe Distinguished Lecture Series” talk on some of the colorful characters of the Manhattan Project and their Jewish connection. Click here for a recording of part 1 of a 2-part class entitled “Jewish Perspectives on Termination of Pregnancy,” presented at the Los Alamos Jewish Center. |