As I compose this quarterly message about my rabbi-ing adventures, we’ve left the month of Elul far behind. The rabbis have traditionally encouraged self-examination and reflection starting on Rosh Hodesh Elul. I intensified my focus on High Holidays by leading religious services at the onset of Elul, first on Friday night in Los Alamos and then on Saturday morning at HaMakom in Santa Fe. The following day, I shifted (brass) gears and conducted the steampunk-themed wedding ceremony for a lovely young couple in Los Alamos. Elul can be expanded as an acronym for “Ani L’dodi V’dodi Li” – “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,” and the month is propitious for marriage.
Two weeks later, at the midpoint of Elul, Beverly and I were married in Brooklyn, New York, at a ceremony which lacked even a hint of steampunk but was unquestionably the most moving experience of my life. Having my two children, brothers, sister-in-law, niece, and mother safely arrive in time for the event was yet another demonstration that miracles still happen, and sharing in the love of all present including two of my dear friends from college and two of Beverly’s dear friends who held the four chuppah poles was literally heavenly.
We didn’t get to rest too long – Beverly and I headed off to Vienna, Austria, eight days later for the first of what I hope are several itinerant rabbi opportunities. Or Chadasch, the only progressive synagogue in Austria and my second home during my year in Vienna in 2008, invited me to lead High Holiday services this year. My preparation with both German/Hebrew and English/Hebrew machzors in front of me (couldn’t they have made the pagination the same?) led to a most rabbinically-satisfying enterprise from the beginning of Rosh Hashana to the end of Yom Kippur despite lingering hints of jetlag.
Credit goes to the wonderful members of Or Chadasch who willingly tried out all my spiritual experiments, tolerated my attempts at German, and listened and participated during my English sermons. Our worship together during the Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe) was an experience I will never forget and for which I am most grateful.
Back in New Mexico, my year-long Parashat Hashavua class is in its home-stretch, and we recently began the book of Genesis using Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno, a 16th century Italian exegete, as our commentator-of-the-book. These hour-long weekly discussions have been intellectually stimulating for me, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know Rashi, Rambam, Ibn Ezra, and Rashbam along the way. Their books have been sitting on my shelf unused for far too long, so it’s great to dust them off and put them to work.
New tomes have taken up residence on our bookshelves, but with all the traveling, there have been only a few recent acquisitions. With a gift from the Los Alamos Jewish Center, I now have what I suspect is the only copy within 500 miles of The Logic of Gersonides, a philosophical work by one of the major 14th century Jewish intellects, and my standing order of the Yerushalmi, the “other” Talmud, resulted in a few new volumes, namely the tractates Rosh Hashana and Sanhedrin.
Daf Yomi – a 7 ½ year commitment
As for reading, it’s been hard to find the time, in part because I have embarked on a 7 ½ year journey to read a page of the Babylonian Talmud daily, with hopes that I, along with probably a few hundred thousand others, will celebrate completion of the entire work in January, 2020. I’ll share more about Daf Yomi in my next missive, assuming I stay on track. In the meantime, I do recommend the following books which I consumed mostly on plane flights and while sitting in the sukkah: The Other Talmud: The Yerushalmi by Rabbi Judith Abrams (highly readable and informative), The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund De Waal (a fascinating Jewish family saga), Three Cities by Sholem Asch (translated from the Yiddish and great for transatlantic travel), and Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt by Robert Gottlieb (the story of an amazing and amazingly modern persona).
B’shalom, Rabbi Jack