I’m sitting here in front of our wood stove, sipping on a mug of spiced apple cider. We had our first serious snowfall of the season last night. I joke about being “of a desert people,” but I think my ancestors’ extended stay in Lithuania resonates more. I love the cold. When I was a
Like so many other Mainers, we were without power from Monday morning through Friday night, and again Saturday morning. What an experience. We were already planning on buying a generator and transfer switch rig. I work from home as a programmer and writer for my civilian job, and so keeping the computers running (my primary
The High Holidays are over. I’ve mentioned before in posts that I sort of key our sense of time off of our Jewish holiday schedule. It’s a good way to live, in anticipation of this or that time of communal celebration. In between Simchat Torah and Passover, aside from Shabbos and what minyan times we can
I awoke the other night, prior to Rosh Hashanah, to what sounded like the terrified scream of a teenage girl. I checked on Amelia immediately. She was snoring in her bed in the third floor loft. No, the sound was coming from outside. It wasn’t an owl. We have plenty of those and their noises don’t
Last night, serendipity caused a delightful convergence that reminds me the distance between Jews is largely arbitrary. Our shul had three people and our permanent non-Jewish guest (a displaced Southern gentleman with a heart of gold) turn out for selichot, so we crossed the street and joined a service led by our local Chabad shaliach. It
.אהוב את המלאכה, ושנא את הרבנות, ואל תתודע לרשות
Love work; despise public office; and do not be intimate with the ruling authorities.
Pirkei Avot 1:10
It was only about a quarter of the mile up the East Branch Penobscot from the Lunksoos put-in when Atticus and I saw the bull moose. I’ve lived in Alaska and spent many nights in the Adirondack and White Mountains backcountry. I’ve seen moose. On Fort Richardson, Alaska, where I was stationed in the Army,
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
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
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
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.
