After a test of my RAV4’s tires and suspension coming down a 4.5 mile stretch of rocks and pits, Amelia and I stood on the perhaps manufactured beach along the Debsconeag Deadwater at Omaha Beach. We were swarmed immediately by Maine’s patent cocktail of black flies and mosquitoes, in spite of our best efforts with
There have been a number of moves within the USCJ, and an article or two from Modern Orthodox rabbis lately encouraging traditional or observant Jews to be more receptive to intermarriage. With a lot of intermarried friends, I’m loathe to go on too much of a tear about this. However, coming from a family that
Today is the convergence of Mother’s Day and Lag BaOmer, so it makes for a nice oasis in the midst of the joyless wasteland that is Sefirat HaOmer. I haven’t shaven except for National Guard duty, and though I listen to jazz on the merits of Rabbi Willig’s opinion, I don’t truly enjoy it. It’s
Author note: I realize I am a little bit late to the party with this post. By this time, the show is old news. I am still troubled by some of the responses from parents. ✡ ✡ ✡ You get a call from your child’s summer camp. Your child is talking about hurting themselves, because
“They departed in the form of white smoke, rose easily upward, waved their hands in parting, and viewed with pity all those who remained behind. Then they danced gaily in celebration of their new freedom, before disintegrating into the air.” ― Joseph Bau, one of the Schindlerjuden, from Dear God, Have You Ever Gone Hungry?
The world presents itself in two ways to me. The world as a thing I own, the world as a mystery I face. What I own is a trifle, what I face is sublime. I am careful not to waste what I own; I must learn not to miss what I face. Rabbi Abaraham Joshua
Pesachim 2a, right from the mishna says, “On the night of the 14th of Nissan, one searches for chametz by candlelight.” This is called bedikas chametz. The rabbis hotly debate the whys and whatfors (and accompanying minutia), but what it comes down to, for me, is a fun but weird way to get my children to
My wife, Leah, and I are engaged in some classes for an endeavor of major consequence for our personal lives. It’s a cause we believe in, temporarily suspended when we came down with a case of the Nezzie over two years ago. The problem with these classes is that they are group classes, and they
Tablet’s Liel Leibovitz offers us a rehash of Ron Rosenbaum’s 2009 Slate Article, telling us that Billy Joel is basically a master of evil, the musical corollary to Donald Trump. Eat my ass, Leibovitz. I wasn’t jiving in junior high to Trump’s Art of the Deal. Our civics teacher latched on to “We Didn’t Start
Commiserating with Judith on adjacent ellipticals at the JCC (and posting it to Instagram) may feel like you’re fighting anti-Semitism, but seriously, no, it’s not.
Writer, President of Bangor's Congregation Beth Israel, soldier, programmer, father, musician, Heeb, living in the woods of Maine with three ladies and a dog.
Director of Education for Congregation Beth Israel in Bangor, Maine, special educator and former school board member, mother to Amelia and Nezzie.
