Dear Friends:
 
My childhood Jewish religious education outside the home followed what I think was the conventional Conservative synagogue approach of the baby boom era.  We learned Bible stories and the aleph-bet, meeting a few hours every Sunday, from ages 5-9.  This was then augmented by two after-school weekday lessons which taught us to read Hebrew and recite some prayers.  That program started around age 10 and ended, for most kids, a few minutes after becoming Bar Mitzvah.  I actually lasted another year in what was called Hebrew High School which by my recollection only met on Sundays.  Our teacher was a most engaging Rabbi whose name I’ve forgotten but who memorably shared with us a passage from the Talmud, my first exposure to serious Jewish study.
 
In the pre-Bar Mitzvah period, I gained the skill of reading Hebrew (though with almost zero comprehension).  I also acquired the skill of leading a Shabbat morning service through mandatory attendance at Saturday “children’s” services.  Each week, a different class would be on the hook to provide leadership for various parts of the service.  The coveted position of cantor, which my brothers and I were all expected to seek, provided the prayer leader (shaliach tsibbur) with an opportunity to stand alongside Rabbi Ezra Perkal.  He seemed ancient to me then – in reality he was actually in his early thirties. Rabbi Perkal taught us the melodies for a typical Ashkenazi Shabbat service, and those remained dormant in my brain for a decade.
 
After age 14, Judaism played little role in my life until I arrived as a graduate student in Los Alamos and decided that there were probably worse ways to meet people in town than at the Los Alamos Jewish Center.  All those old melodies now were awakened, and I found that my singing could again help lead a congregation, this time one which comprised mostly adults. 

During the early 1980s, Rabbi Leonard Helman of Temple Beth Shalom in Santa Fe was under contract to visit Los Alamos roughly once a month to teach adult education, and he exposed me to the vast corpus of traditional Jewish texts.  It was a startling realization to me that Judaism was not something for children, and I embarked on a life-long study of the richness of our tradition, learning from other rabbis and teachers whenever possible.  I remember that Rabbi Helman taught a series on Pirke Avot, sometimes known as the Ethics of the Fathers, and we learned the passage (4:1), “Who is wise? One who learns from all people.”  I’ve been blessed to learn about and develop a love for Judaism from many people, and for this I am deeply grateful.
 
This past quarter I shared some of what I’ve learned from others on a variety of occasions including the Bar Mitzvah ceremony of the son of one of my first Bar Mitzvah students (time is flying by!!), at the annual Kochavim Israeli Dance Camp in Texas (I served as Beverly’s non-dancing spouse), at a Life and Legacy Jewish Endowment gathering in Albuquerque, at a Santa Fe Interfaith Leadership Alliance event, at the funeral and shiva minyans for a beloved congregant from HaMakom, and at the service honoring Los Alamos High School graduates.  I also learned either remotely or in person from Rabbis Tamar Malino, Azriel Fellner, Neil Amswych, Martin Levy, Berel Levertov, Ron Wittenstein, Avraham Kelman, Elizabeth Goldstein, and others.  And I close this PhysicsRabbi quarterly with a quote from Albert Einstein: “Once you stop learning, you start dying.”  May you all go forth and learn.
 
B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack
 

Last quarter’s reading list is below, with highlights denoted by an asterisk*

Dear Friends:
 
Beverly and I continued our transition from New York to New Mexico this past quarter, swapping out New York-style pizza for green chile, as we embarked on the arduous task of unpacking hundreds of boxes, many of them books, which had been stowed in our Los Alamos garage during our nearly month-long drive across country.  I discovered yet again that I am not as capable of handling change as I once was; I’m still adjusting to life without a daily National Laboratory routine. My focus is now on rabbinic activities, primarily in Santa Fe at HaMakom where I serve as rabbi, and in Los Alamos where I’ve often led Friday night services. 
 
One of things I admire about our Jewish texts is that the characters, even the most heroic and laudable among them, are all human with flaws as well as notably positive traits. Think of Moses (on occasion quick-tempered), King David (uncontrolled lust), and Jacob (deceitful). King Saul is particularly flawed at times, and the case can even be made that he shows evidence of manic-depression. I find it helpful to realize that we all experience emotional ups and downs, and our move to New Mexico challenged my mental health more than I anticipated. Through this period, I’ve been blessed with the support of my brother, Ted, my son, Dov, my primary care physician, and most of all, my helpmeet, Beverly. 
 
Before we recite the central passage of the morning Jewish worship service, the sequence of blessings known as the standing prayer or Amidah, we invoke the Divine as Tsur Yisrael, the Rock of Israel.  Perhaps the rabbis recognized that the Amidah, our opportunity to converse with G_d, forces us each morning to examine our lives, lives which can often seem bewildering or filled with change, sometimes driving anxiety. The image of the Rock of Israel, steadfast and unchanging, provides us with a degree of constancy and consistency that offers us comfort. 
 
During our road trip back to New Mexico, we stopped to join congregations in Roanoke, VA, Memphis, TN, and San Antonio, TX, and each experience was wonderful in its own way.  We met lovely people, learned new Shabbat tunes, and look forward to visiting those synagogues again. 
 
Despite the chaos of the move, I’ve been immersing myself in rabbinic activities.  Within the first two months of our return to the Land of Enchantment, I was privileged to conduct several lifecycle events including a Bar Mitzvah ceremony (kvelling over the fact that Dov served as the Bar Mitzvah tutor), a wedding, and a funeral, each of which represented a transition for those present.  Our Jewish traditions can provide that same comfort as we recite words from generations of teachers who draw on our rich text library. I drew on that library to teach a mini-class on How to Lead a Seder and then led or co-led seders for the HaMakom community in Santa Fe and the Los Alamos community. 
 
There are many ideas for classes I’d like to teach to the Jewish communities of Northern New Mexico and beyond, and I welcome suggestions for topics from potential participants.  In the meantime, it’s back to unpacking boxes and discovering books I never knew I owned! 
 
B’shalom, 
Rabbi Jack 
 
Last quarter’s reading list is below, with highlights denoted by an asterisk*


Rabbi Jack Shlachter
Judaism for Your Nuclear Family
physicsrabbi@gmail.com
www.physicsrabbi.com

My reading list for the past quarter is artificially inflated by several short works, but now that books are reappearing on my shelves, I promise to return to lengthier works – honest! 
 
The Sages (Volume 1) – Binyamin Lau; tr. Michael Prawer 

Moneyball – Michael Lewis (no Jewish content but all I could find at one point on our journey) 

Alfred Stieglitz (Jewish Lives series) – Phyllis Rose 

Lillian Hellman (Jewish Lives) –  Dorothy Gallagher 

The Pity of It All* – Amos Elon 

Yiddish Tales – tr. Helena Frank 

Kaddish and other Poems – Allen Ginsberg 

Rashi’s Daughters, Book 1: Joheved – Maggie Anton 

The Book of J – Harold Bloom and David Rosenberg 

Our Country Friends – Gary Shteyngart 

Codex Maimuni: The Illuminated Pages of the Kaufman Mishnah Torah 

New Mexico’s Crypto-Jews: Photographs by Cary Herz 

World of Our Fathers* – Irving Howe 

Falik and His House – Jacob Dinezon; tr. Mindy Liberman 

Solos and Ensembles – Philip LeCuyer 

You Are Not Alone: Solace and Inspiration for Domestic Violence Survivors Based on Jewish Wisdom – Toby
Landesman 

Blue Has No South – Alex Epstein; tr. Becka Mara McKay 

Frayed Light – Yonatan Berg; tr. Joanna Chen 

Arabic Folk Tales – Asher Barash 

Through an Endless Stretch of Land – Kadya Molodowsky; tr. Yaira Singer  
 

Dear Friends:

I begin this bittersweet missive with a paraphrase of a passage from the first major Rabbinic text, the Mishnah, in which Rabbi Nechunya ben HaKanah composed a prayer (M. Ber. 4).  This prayer expresses my own experience with the Jewish Center of the Moriches. “Upon my entrance, I prayed that no mishaps should occur because of me; and upon my departure, I offer thanksgiving for my good fortune in having been among you.”

In July 2019 it was “Go East, Young Man.”  Now it’s “Return West, not-as-young Man.”  I thought the title of this missive was cute, but it’s not terribly accurate.  Technically, of course, Beverly and I were living for the past two-and-a-half years on eastern Long Island, not in the boroughs of New York City, and I can’t remember that I’ve ever seen a Southwestern burro (Spanish for “donkey”) except for the statue in Burro Alley in downtown Santa Fe. Nonetheless, the title captures the focus of this past quarter which was our move back to the high desert of Northern New Mexico.  
 
While still in New York, Beverly and I ventured further out on the island for a weekend getaway in East Hampton where we davened in a gorgeous shul (Jewish Center of the Hamptons) which we’d Zoomed into on occasion.  In New England, I got to revisit the lovely Boston Synagogue on a brief trip to visit my niece, Ruby.  Both occasions resulted in aliyah honors for which I am grateful.  Closer to home (now our former home), I had the privilege of delivering a d’var Torah at Temple Beth El in Patchogue, NY, and TBE also generously offered me the opportunity to chant Haftarah on multiple Shabbatot.  
 
At the Jewish Center of the Moriches where Beverly and I were indeed privileged to serve, we held a mixture of Zoom-only and hybrid (Zoom plus in-person) events including a long-awaited Bar Mitzvah ceremony.  I also represented JCM at a few outdoor civic/public “menorah” (technically “Hanukkiot”) lighting events over Hanukah.  At one of those, I quoted from George Washington’s letter to the Touro Synagogue: “The Government of the United States… gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”  Our first president’s words remain remarkably relevant today.
 
Preparations for moving back to the southwest, including packing 85 boxes of books, put a crimp in my reading list (see below).  I guess electronic readers have a few advantages, but I’m still addicted to print copies on shelves.  Please send me your reading suggestions, and once we’re unpacked, I’ll resume my book-buying mania.  Until then, quoting from the aforementioned August 21, 1790 presidential brief, “May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.”
 
B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack
 
Last quarter’s reading list is below, with highlights denoted by an asterisk*


Rabbi Jack Shlachter
Judaism for Your Nuclear Family
physicsrabbi@gmail.com

The Rivals & Other Stories – Jonah Rosenfeld, tr. from Yiddish by Rachel Mines

Knowing God – Elliot Dorff

Structure and Form in the Babylonian Talmud – Louis Jacobs

The Story of Bible Translations – Max Margolis

Track Changes – Sayed Kashua (Thanks go to Phyllis for recommending this book to me)

Rav Kook’s Introduction to Shabbat Ha’Aretz – tr. Julian Sinclair

The Last Jew – Yoram Kaniuk, tr. Barbara Harshav

A Book of Psalms – selected and adapted from the Hebrew by Stephen Mitchell

The Doctrine of the Zaddik in the Thought of Elimelech of Lizensk – Louis Jacobs

People Love Dead Jews-Dara Horn

Rav Kook:Mystic in a Time of Revolution – Yehudah Mirsky

Zoom Torah – Mitchell Chefitz (Kindle)

A History of Jewish Literature Vol. 1 – The Arabic-Spanish Period – Israel Zinberg – tr. Bernard Martin

Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn – Daniel Gordis

Irving Berlin: New York Genius* – James Kaplan

Maimonides: Life and Thought – Moshe Halbertal

God: A Biography* – Jack Miles
 
and uncharacteristically, binge-watching the Israeli television series Srugim while in the midst of packing
 

Dear Friends:

The Talmud (BT Shab. 30a) says that “there is no marriage contract and wedding in which contentiousness does not arise,” but I find all weddings to be joyous affairs nonetheless. Beverly and I spent a week and a half in New Mexico in October, where I was privileged to officiate at not one but two weddings and meet with two other couples whose weddings are slated for 2022.  

I then headed into Brooklyn two days after our return to New York to perform another wedding ceremony. The process of registering to conduct weddings in New York City was complex, and it required that I muster both patience and persistence. Fortunately, I was ultimately successful and am now proud to have an officiant registration number from NYC.  I suspect that there is a pandemic backlog of wedding ceremonies in the offing, and I hope to help share in the joy of as many couples as possible.  

Recently, I was a student in a wonderful 8-lecture course taught by Rabbi Shai Held on the theme of Love and Judaism (I’m ever grateful that lifelong learning has been facilitated by the ubiquity of Zoom – perhaps this is the KAVOD [honor] of COVID).  The love that G_d expresses toward people can be transformed into the love we demonstrate toward each other, and I find that wedding ceremonies provide a powerful opportunity to witness this transformation.  
 
I also participated in other life cycle events over the past quarter including holding Beverly’s newest great nephew at a brit milah (I didn’t even come close to dropping him!), officiating at a Bar Mitzvah ceremony at the Jewish Center of the Moriches, and attending a funeral service for a JCM congregant, Michael Schondorf.  Mike was a sweet, sweet man whom I met at High Holiday services in 2019, and although he was trapped in Puerto Rico during much of the pandemic, it was always a treat when he was able to phone in to our Shabbat evening services.

Sadly, my first cousin, David Sherman, also passed away recently. I was honored to be able to support the family by leading a shiva minyan in the Chicago area. The presence of Beverly, my brother, Ted, my Aunt Bobbie, and my other cousins plus scores of David and Sue’s friends and family mitigated a bit of the grief in our loss of this special person. May Mike’s and David’s memories serve as blessings.
 
Various other rabbinic responsibilities continued to keep me out of trouble.  I enjoyed leading the plethora of Tishrei holiday services in hybrid mode (in-person plus Zoom) at the Jewish Center of the Moriches, taught some classes in advance of the High Holidays, worked a few times with the Sunday School, and even led a delegation to an exhibition baseball game featuring the Israeli Olympic team. I got to chant a chapter of the Book of Lamentations as well as Haftarot at a few nearby synagogues on Long Island and co-led services in Santa Fe on our New Mexico trip.

But the real highlight of my rabbi-ing is to chant the wedding blessings.  May the gates of Jerusalem ring with the sounds of joy, song, merriment, and delight – the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride, the happy shouts of their friends and companions.
 
B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

Scroll down for last quarter’s reading list.

Last quarter’s reading list, with highlights denoted by an asterisk*

Petty Business* – Yirmi Pinkus, tr. Evan Fallenberg and Yardenne Greenspan

With Roots in Heaven – Tirzah Firestone

Maybe You Will Survive – Aron Goldfarb and Graham Diamond

The Conversion of Chaplain Cohen – Herbert Tarr

The Abandoned Book and Other Yiddish Stories – ed. Eitan Krensky

The Jewish Wife and Other Short Plays – Bertolt Brecht, tr. Eric Bentley

The Silver Candelabra and Other Stories: A Century of Jewish Argentine Literature – ed. Rita Gardiol

The Culture of the Babylonian Talmud – Jeffrey Rubenstein

Last Bullet Calls It – Amir Gutfreund, tr. Evan Fallenberg and Yardenne Greenspan

Bugsy Siegel: The Dark Side of the American Dream – Michael Shnayerson

Burnt Pearls: Ghetto Poems – Abraham Sutzkever, tr. Seymour Mayne

Responsa in War Time – Division of Religious Activities National Jewish Welfare Board

Apiqoros: The Last Essays of Salomon Maimon – tr. Timothy Sean Quinn

The Greatest Story Ever Sold – A Considered and Whimsical Illumination of the Really Good Parts of the Holy Writ – Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor

The Modern Family and Jewish Law – ed. Walter Jacob

Oreo* – Fran Ross (If you are the person who suggested this book to me, I am very grateful to you)

Genesis – Bill Moyers

The Beijing Haggadah* – created by Leon Fenster

Sage Tales: Wisdom and Wonder from the Rabbis of the Talmud* – Burton Visotzky

On Cosmic Religion and Other Opinions and Aphorisms – Albert Einstein

Tel Aviv Noir – ed. Etgar Keret and Assaf Gavron, tr. Yardenne Greenspan

Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker – David Mikics

Understanding Genesis – Nahum Sarna

This past quarter has certainly seen Beverly and me venturing back out into the world more than any time in the previous year, driven in large part by our achieving fully vaccinated status.  (If you’re eligible for the vaccine but not vaccinated, I’d like to hear your concerns and share some guidance from a rabbinic perspective; see https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/2021-01/Vaccination%20and%20Ethical%20Questions%20Posed%20by%20COVID-19%20Vaccines%20-%20Final.pdf for some examples of relevant texts). 

With the generosity of the UJA-Federation of New York and the New York Board of Rabbis, we headed up to a retreat center in northwestern Connecticut for a few days of most fulfilling and much needed R&R, study, and fellowship along with about 20 New York rabbis.  From there, Beverly and I then visited the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, for their first day of reopening after a 15-month hiatus.  All this followed my engagement in an intensive, ten-day, remote Yiddish Book Center program entitled “The Great Jewish Books for Clergy and Educators.”

These rich activities together conspired to suggest to me that my reading of texts has become a bit too superficial, with a focus on quantity over quality, and I am now inspired to spend more time savoring words on the printed page rather than gulping them down.  Perhaps this message can apply to how we approach prayer in the sanctuary as well, and as we begin to prepare ourselves for the High Holiday experience, it may be helpful to practice dwelling on a single passage that catches our eye rather than feel bound to turn pages at the pace of the prayer leader.  Please consider giving this a try over the next few months as you attend worship services during the months of Av and Elul preceding Rosh HaShanah – note the subtle hint to familiarize yourselves with the liturgy before the Jewish New Year!

Several rabbi opportunities presented themselves to me these past months – among these were leading an in-person Bar Mitzvah ceremony at the Jewish Center of the Moriches (JCM) as well as one on a beach in Montauk, NY, delivering talks on the Aleph Bet and on Estrangement of Adult Children from Parents, giving a D’var Torah at HaMakom in Santa Fe over Zoom and one in person at Temple Beth-El in Patchogue thanks to the graciousness of my friends and teachers Hazzan Cindy Freedman and Rabbi Azriel Fellner respectively, offering short teachings at a JCM nature hike and a Life and Legacy Chai Tea, and sharing a blessing with a congregant at a round number birthday.  Perhaps most enjoyable, however, was serving as a remote guest “lecturer” as my son, Dov, taught a lesson to a 12-year old who is studying for Bar Mitzvah.  When I declined the request of the parents to teach regularly because of too many other obligations, Beverly suggested Dov as a Bar Mitzvah teacher, and he willingly took on the task.  I was beaming with pride (shepping nachas) as I watched Dov in action, and I look forward to the ceremony in 2022.  In the meantime, I’ll continue reading books from our home library, but maybe at reduced speed.

B’shalom, Rabbi Jack

Last quarter’s reading list, with highlights denoted by an asterisk*

Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader – Yale Jewish Lives series – Derek Penslar

Undula – Bruno Schulz – tr. from Polish by Frank Garrett

Responsa in a Moment: Halakhic Responses to Contemporary Issues Volume II* – David Golinkin

Essential Prose – Avrom Sutzkever – tr. Zackery Sholem Berger

Redeeming Relevance in the Book of Numbers – Francis Nataf

The Last Interview* – Eshkol Nevo – tr. Sondra Silverston

Studies in the Variety of Rabbinic Cultures – Gerson Cohen

The Tale of a Niggun – Elie Wiesel, illus. Mark Podwal

The Dark Young Man – Jacob Dinezon – tr. Tina Lunson

Ask the Rabbi: Women Rabbis Respond to Modern Halakhic Questions – Monique Susskind Goldberg and Diana Villa

Mother of Royalty: An Exposition of the Book of Ruth in the Light of the Sources – Yehoshua Bachrach

The Wandering Beggar – Solomon Simon

Rules of Estrangement: Why Adult Children Cut Ties and How to Heal the Conflict – Joshua Coleman

The Legends of the Rabbis Volume 2 – Judah Nadich

The Pharisees and Other Essays – Leo Baeck

City of Palaces – Poems by Isaac Berliner, Drawings by Diego Rivera, tr. Mindy Rinkewich

The Status of Women in Jewish Law: Responsa – David Golinkin

The Canvas and Other Stories* – Salomea Perl – tr. Ruth Murphy

Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious – Sigmund Freud – tr. James Strachey

Strange Ways – Rokhl Faygenberg – tr.  Robert and Golda Werman

Redeeming Relevance in the Book of Deuteronomy – Francis Nataf

Dear friends:

This “physicsrabbi” quarterly missive explores some positives that have emerged as a result of the ongoing pandemic.  In 2019, Beverly put many of our belongings into storage in Santa Fe and packed other items for shipment to New York based on a best guess of what we’d need during this Long Island adventure.  Among those things we had shipped were two that had received limited use previously, a shtender and a shoji screen (Japanese folding room divider).  Amazingly, these have both become invaluable over the past year. 

A shtender is a small (usually wooden) frame that holds a book, and it is most often associated with religious study.  I now realize that when I daven (pray) in a shul (synagogue), unconsciously I must be resting my siddur (prayer book) either on a podium (when I am leading a service) or on the back of the chair or pew in front of me.  Now that I am worshiping via Zoom, I place my book on the shtender and seem to alleviate some strain on my body.  My davening is conducted largely in my cloffice (a wonderful pandemic-inspired neologism combining “closet” and “office”), and to provide some privacy, we often put the Japanese screen in place behind me.  That screen was purchased years ago and never used until this past year, and it’s become invaluable as a room divider. 

The shtender and the Japanese screen are simply two examples of things we never knew would be so useful when they were acquired, and the same holds true for knowledge and experience.  We may not know at the time why there is value in some nugget of truth we learn or novel situation we face.  Yet down the road that piece of information or that lived experience can perhaps provide comfort.  The next time I learn something new which appears unnecessary or live through some episode that is difficult, perhaps I’ll consider that the value will only appear years later.  The ways of G_d are truly mysterious.

Aside from conducting the usual Zoom Shabbat services this past quarter, I led Tu BiSh’vat and Passover seders, a Purim service, a Yizkor service, Yahrzeit minyans for my Mom, a study session to override the fast of the firstborn, taught at the Sunday school once a month, and gave newly prepared talks on (1) Aleph Bet: Stories and Teachings from the Hebrew Letters, and (2) Seder Customs Around the World, as well as reprising a slide show on the (3) Jews in China, which we held on the Chinese New Year. 

Last weekend, Beverly and I took an excursion from Long Island into Brooklyn and got to see an art installation by a young woman we met at Kehillat Beijing who is now in New York.  Amalya Megerman showed us her Super Cleanse exhibit which explores deep questions, including the role of Jewish ritual.  You can also view some of her stained glass Judaica (and non-Judaica) pieces at http://amalyamegerman.com/shop.

At a Zoom Shiva session for a friend and colleague from Los Alamos, Karina Yusim, I marveled that friends and relatives currently living in Russia, Israel, and across the United States were all able to participate simultaneously.  Zoom has also been one of those positives to emerge from the pandemic, and I appreciated the respectful tone of the Shiva – everyone stayed focused on Karina and took their turn speaking.  To quote Ecclesiastes (3:7), there is a time for silence and a time for speaking.  Shiva provides us with the opportunity to support the bereaved through our presence, not through our chatter.  Yet the recent observance of Yom HaShoah reminds us that there is also a time to speak up and speak forcefully, particularly when the lives of other human beings are at stake. 

May we all have the wisdom to know when to speak and when to stay silent, and may our masks soon become unnecessary.

B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

Last quarter’s reading list, with highlights denoted by an asterisk*

Light and Shadow – Herz Bergner, tr. Alec Braizblatt

Jewish Theology in our Time – ed. Elliot Cosgrove

The World As I See It – Albert Einstein

And the Bride Closed the Door – Ronit Matalon, tr. Jessica Cohen

21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Harari

Stan Lee: A Life in Comics* – Yale Jewish Lives series – Liel Leibovitz

Honey on the Page – Miriam Udel

Faith After the Holocaust – Eliezer Berkovits

Printing the Talmud: From Bomberg to Schottenstein* – ed. Sharon Mintz and Gabriel Goldstein

Diary of a Lonely Girl – Miriam Karpilove, tr. Jessica Kirzane

Redeeming Relevance in the Book of Leviticus – Francis Nataf

Rereading the Rabbis: A Woman’s Voice – Judith Hauptman

King David’s Harp: Autobiographical Essays by Jewish Latin American Writers* – ed. Stephen Sadow

Selected Plays – Hanoch Levin (Vol. 1), tr. Jessica Cohen, Evan Fallenberg, and Naaman Tammuz

Reimagining the Bible – Howard Schwartz

A Mother’s Kisses – Bruce Jay Friedman

Wisdom of the Heart: The Teachings of Rabbi Ya’akov of Izbica-Radzyn – Ora Wiskind-Elper

Houdini: The Elusive American* – Yale Jewish Lives series – Adam Begley

The Name – Michal Govrin, tr. Barbara Harshav

None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948 – Irving Abella and Harold Troper

Dear Friends:
This quarterly message to friends and family about my rabbinic exploits marks the fortieth such missive and ten years of electronic summaries. (As always, if you want to opt out of these messages, please just send me a note to that effect). 

The number “forty” has special Jewish meaning.  We recall the forty days that Noah and company were on the ark and the forty days that Moses was up on Mt. Sinai.There were also the forty days that the spies were in Israel, and the Israelites heeded the majority who warned of the dangers of proceeding to the Promised Land rather than listening to the minority vote of confidence in Adonai.  The resultant punishment, a year for a day, was the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. More positively, Rabbi Akiva was 40 when he started studying Torah, and according to Maimonides (M.T. Hil. Avodat Kochavim 1:3) “Abraham was 40 years old when he became aware of his Creator.” 
 
It is central to my philosophy of Jewish education that we can approach serious engagement with Judaism even (or especially) well past the age of Bar or Bat Mitzvah.  My own experience is that not long after becoming Bar Mitzvah, I distanced myself from Judaism, only to return when, after a decade, I discovered that Judaism was far more insightful, wise, and profound than what I’d thought as a child. My primary rabbinic goal is to share this insight with other adult Jews who have negative connotations based, I think erroneously, on misunderstandings of our tradition.
 
To that end, we revived Saturday morning (Zoom) services this quarter at the Jewish Center of the Moriches (JCM), and our focus is on a discussion of the Torah portion, with an eye toward contemporary events. With Zoom, I also was able to lead Torah discussions with HaMakom in Santa Fe, share a teaching with Kehillat Beijing on Chanukah, and chant from the Chumash at Temple Beth El here in Patchogue. 

These and other events like our in-person (outdoors) JCM Sukkot, Simchat Torah, and Chanukah celebrations and my Zoom talk on the Mitzvah of Voting  to Temple Beth Shalom in Santa Fe hopefully provided adults with the opportunity to enjoy the beauty and wisdom (and challenges) of Judaism, even for adults who didn’t experience those pleasures as children. Life cycle ceremonies are other teaching moments for me, and I was officiant this past quarter at a wedding, a mezuzah attachment, a headstone dedication, and a funeral.
 
Whether you’re looking at age 40 from above or below, you can still gain an appreciation of Judaism.  New studies even suggest that 70 may be emerging as the new 40. A study conducted by Oddfellows, a non-profit friendship group, has identified 70 and beyond as one of the happiest times in our lives.  Perhaps they were thinking about adult Jewish education when they did the study!
 
B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

Last quarter’s reading list, with highlights denoted by an asterisk*

The Stranger: Immigrant, Migrant, Refugee and Jewish Law – ed. Walter Jacob
Apropos of Nothing* – Woody Allen
Relational Judaism – Ron Wolfson
Pain – Zeruya Shalev
The Invitation: Living a Meaningful Death – Miriam Maron and Gershon Winkler
Redeeming Relevance in the Book of Genesis – Francis Nataf
Redeeming Relevance in the Book of Exodus – Francis Nataf
Joseph: Portraits through the Ages – Alan Levenson
Mishkan Aveilut: Where Grief Resides – CCAR ed. Eric Weiss
Melekh Ravitsh: The Eccentric Outback Quest of an Urbane Yiddish Poet From Poland – Anna Epstein
Responsa in a Moment I – David Golinkin
The Dairy Restaurant – Ben Katchor
Fifty Shades of Talmud – Maggie Anton
Scripture Windows: Toward a Practice of Bibliodrama* – Peter Pitzele
Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures* – Adina Hoffman
Ernst Toller: Plays Two – tr. Alan Pearlman
Lessons from Lucy* – Dave Barry (infused with Jewish lessons though not explicit about it)
House on Endless Waters – Emuna Elon
In Potiphar’s House: The Interpretive Life of Biblical Texts – James Kugel
Robin Williams: A Singular Portrait – Arthur Grace (while virtually devoid of Jewish content, a singular comic genius worth examination, IMHO)
Pepper, Silk and Ivory: Amazing Stories about Jews in the Far East – Marvin Tokayer and Ellen Rodman
Midrash Aleph Beth – Deborah Sawyer
Darkness at Noon – Arthur Koestler
The Mystical Study of Ruth: Midrash HaNe’elam of the Zohar to the Book of Ruth – ed. and trans. Lawrence Englander with Herbert Basser
The Aleph Beit of Rebbi Akiva – tr. Yaacov Dovid Shulman (2 vol.)
Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
My Wild Garden – Meir Shalev
A Passage In the Night – Sholem Asch
Prince of the Press – Joshua Teplitsky
The Land of Truth: Talmudic Tales, Timeless Teachings* – Jeffrey Rubenstein

Dear Friends:
I was never very skilled in languages and only learned as I prepared this message that “mignon” is the French word for “cute,” as in “filet mignon.” But what about the word “minyan?”  The Hebrew word “minyan” refers to ten adult Jews who are required for public prayer according to Jewish tradition.  Note that these adults need not have celebrated the occasion of becoming an adult (at age 13) through a Bar or Bat Mitzvah ceremony to be included in the headcount.  And note also that we continue to worship together even without a minyan – there just are certain prayers (Kaddish, Boruchu, Torah reading from a scroll) that we reserve for those occasions when we have a minyan.
 
What does “minyan” have to do with voting, however?  “Minyan” is related to the word for “count” and also to the word for “vote.”  And in that sense, when we attend a worship service, when we help make up a minyan, we are casting our vote.  I incorporated this thought in my Erev Rosh HaShanah sermon and have been preparing an extended talk on voting from the Jewish text perspective.
 
The High Holidays themselves were a mixed blessing this year.  Although I spent many hours in my office/closet in our apartment rather than in a synagogue with others present, it was a treat to have relatives and friends from outside the Jewish Center of the Moriches (JCM) participating with us.  In addition to the regular services, we Zoomed children’s activities on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, including a skit performed by a dozen budding thespians.  JCM did hold a few in-person events (a pre-High Holiday presentation, a memorial/kever avot ceremony at the cemetery, shofar blowing and tashlich at the canal near the shul).  And I officiated at both a funeral and a wedding over the past few months.  For my JCM congregants I’m planning on carving out some live office hours if there’s interest.  But most of my rabbi-ing has been remote – conducting weekly Friday night services with JCM, leading Torah discussions for HaMakom in Santa Fe, reading from a chumash for Temple Israel in Riverhead, and leading services for my Dad’s Yahrzeit at Temple Beth-El in Patchogue.
 
Just as one can attend services either remotely or in person at many shuls, so, too, one can vote either in person or by mail-in ballot.  The important thing is to VOTE, and to get everyone you know to vote as well.  Let’s all help make a national minyan on November 3!
 
B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

Last quarter’s reading list, with highlights denoted by an asterisk*

Out of My Later Years – Albert Einstein
Jews on Broadway – Stewart Lane
Siberia – Abraham Sutzkever
They Changed the World: People of the Manhattan Project – aj Melnick
The Miracle of Intervale Avenue* – Jack Kugelmass
Living a Meaningful Life Without Purpose* – Gershon Winkler
My Uncle the Netziv – Baruch HaLevi Epstein
Three Times Chai – Laney Katz Becker
Jerome Robbins: A Life in Dance** – Wendy Lesser
Rosh Hashanah Readings – ed. Dov Peretz Elkins
Sparks of Mussar – Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik
God of Becoming and Relationship – Bradley Shavit Artson
The Great Escape* – Kati Marton

Dear Friends:
I am often struck by how meaningful, timely, and powerful our Jewish texts can be. Psalm 69:14 says, “May my prayer to You, G_d, come in a favorable time.”  The Talmud (B. Ber 7b-8a) asks what it means that a particular time is a “favorable” time, and answers by teaching us that a favorable time is whenever the congregation prays. Our prayers are offered whenever we feel so moved, but there is something synergistic about praying in community or even at the same time as others in the community, whether we can be physically present or not.  Perhaps this teaches us something about the value of Zoom in a time when it is difficult at best to worship inside our public spaces.
 
These past three months I indeed had my share of Jewish Zoom experiences.  At the Jewish Center of the Moriches (JCM), we’ve continued weekly Friday night Zoom services, and we’ve gotten a few folks from outside the Long Island area to join us, one “upside” of Zoom.  I’ve also co-led Zoom services on occasional Saturday mornings with HaMakom, nominally based in Santa Fe, and I was able to make it back to NY for lunch!

Speaking of no jet lag, Beverly and I had a wonderful week’s tour of Israel through JNF (Jewish National Fund) without leaving the comfort of our living room – and as the oldest (and only) rabbi on the trip, I got to lead the Shehecheyanu when we “landed.”

Beverly and I also took a Jewish-centered tour of Cuba through Ayelet Tours via Zoom.  Even more distant, there was a reunion of sorts on Erev Shavuot with many friends from the Beijing expat Jewish community, Kehillat Beijing.  Dozens of individuals joined in as we lit candles, listened to the talented klez musicians, learned about the traditional 613 mitzvot in the Torah, and caught up on everyone’s latest adventures. It was a tremendously enjoyable way to start the holiday.
 
On more than one occasion I taught a class I created during the pandemic entitled “My Son (or Daughter) the Doctor: Physicians in Jewish Texts,” sharing this talk with Limmud New Mexico, the East End (of Long Island) Jewish Community Council, and HaMakom. On a recent Saturday night I taught a mini-course for JCM on a book I read called “The First Book of Jewish Jokes” (see below), after which we shared some Jewish jokes (thanks, recent-bar-mitzvah Max, for your contribution!), and then I led a Havdalah service for those present.

Venturing into unfamiliar territory, I shared a story of isolation at a Story Slam for the nearby synagogue, Temple Beth El in Patchogue.  But my favorite Zoom experience was chanting the Priestly Benediction for a couple whose wedding plans went quite awry as a result of the virus. That text, from the Book of Numbers 6:24-26, continues to guide us to this very day, and may Adonai show each of you kindness and grant you peace.
 
B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

Scroll down for last quarter’s reading list.

Last quarter’s reading list is below, with highlights denoted by an asterisk*

God’s To-Do List – Ron Wolfson
A Jewish Refugee in New York – Kadya Molodovsky (tr. Anita Norich)
The Ineffable Name of God: Man – Abraham Joshua Heschel
Between Sky and Sea* – Herz Bergner
The First Book of Jewish Jokes – ed. Elliott Oring, tr. Michaela Lang
The Holy Brothers: Reb Elimelekh of Lizhensk and Reb Zusha of Anipoli – Simcha Raz
Making Physics: A Biography of Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1946-1972 – Robert P Crease
Hasidic Commentary on the Torah – Ora Wiskind-Elper
Hasidism – Buber
Fly Already – Etgar Keret
The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming – Lemony Snicket
Dear Zealots – Amos Oz
Karl Marx* (Jewish Lives series) – Shlomo Avineri

Dear Friends:
If ever there was a time to feel thankful for all of my many blessings, it is indeed now. Though we live on eastern Long Island and are immersed in a coronavirus hotspot, Beverly and I are healthy, I am still employed, and we have no problems getting groceries or other necessities.  Indeed, we have thoroughly enjoyed getting to eat three meals a day together and often take a walk to the ocean or to see the trees blooming. 

Sadly, so many have lost their livelihoods, their support network, their health, their friends and family, or even their lives.  May their memories not only be a blessing to us, but may they spur us to combat this disease and discover therapeutics and vaccines as swiftly as possible.  Keyn y’hi ratzon – so may it be G_d’s will.
 
Beverly and I spent a week in Israel just as the virus was gaining attention outside China; I was involved in a meeting at Soreq Nuclear Center south of Tel Aviv and visited a colleague at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be’ersheva. We enjoyed spending time with Beverly’s relatives and experienced Shabbat services in Shohom and Tel Aviv. My Hebrew improved slightly but not nearly enough to follow the lyrics of the many Israeli songs that Beverly has danced to via Zoom in our living room of late (that song list has mercifully NOT included the old classic from my youth, Zum Gali Gali).
 
My rabbinic duties this past quarter involved a mix between live events (adult education classes, a Tu BiSh’vat seder, Friday night and Saturday morning services) before the stay-at-home orders went into effect, and electronic events once we began our lives in the age of Covid-19.
 
As rabbi of The Jewish Center of the Moriches and with Beverly’s help as technical back-up, I’ve taught classes, led services and seders, read stories to the Sunday School, and worked with Bar and Bat Mitzvah students, almost all from the comfort of our apartment.  The electronic platforms have also allowed us to participate in Limmud Beijing and learn about a wonderful new Haggadah created by our friend from Kehillat Beijing, Leon Fenster (see https://leonfenster.com/about-the-beijing-haggadah). 
 
I hope each of you stays healthy, and as we become increasingly aware of the importance of staying in touch with each other, please drop me a line at physicsrabbi@gmail.com and let me know how you are doing.
 
B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

Adjusting to the stay-at-home order has taken a toll on my attention span, so many short pieces make up the bulk of my reading list this past quarter (*denotes favorites).
 

• Entire Yerushalmi Tractate Eruvin in one burst of two days while traveling
• Blood Covenant – Mitchell Chefitz  (my first e-book, a consequence of overseas travel)
• 1948* – Yoram Kaniuk
• Joe the Waiter – Y.Y. Zevin
• Voyage of the Visionary: Commentary of Rabbi Moshe Alshich on Jonah
• Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights?: The Four Questions Around the World – Ilana Kurshan
• Maimonides on Listening to Music – translated by Henry George Farmer
• Journey of the Soul: An Allegorical Commentary on Jonah adapted from the Vilna Gaon- adapted by Moshe Schapiro
• Five Cities of Refuge* – Lawrence Kushner and David Mamet
• God and Man in Judaism – Leo Baeck
• The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse – Charlie Mackesy (filled with wisdom though not specifically Jewish)
• A Chronicle of Hardship and Hope: An autobiographical account by Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller translated by Avraham Finkel
• Maimonides on Judaism and the Jewish People – Menachem Kellner
• Talmudic and Rabbinical Chronology – Edgar Frank
• The Song of Songs: A New Translation – Marcia Falk
• The Sabbath Epistle of Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra – translated by Mordechai S. Goodman
• The Abarbanel on the Yom Kippur Service in the Beis Hamikdash – tr. Rabbi Elimelech Lepon
• War and Terrorism in Jewish Law* – ed. Walter Jacob
• A Midrash Reader – Jacob Neusner