I composed this quarterly rabbinic message immediately after dismantling our sukkah, and there is nothing quite like making me feel that the extended fall holiday season has come to an end as packing up the sukkah kit. Several years ago,…
Yearly Archives: 2016
Our Defects Make Us Interesting
I was asked to write a blog post for “Sinai and Synapses” about my being both a rabbi and a scientist. When I was five years old, I received a Newtonian reflecting telescope as a Hanukkah present from my parents.…
Posted in Uncategorized
Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like an etrog
It seems like we just celebrated Pesach and now I’m starting to panic about High Holiday preparations; how time flies! Beverly hosted a home seder for 14 people ranging in age from 4 to 80 (and everyone seemed to survive…
Posted in Rabbi Jack's Quarterly
Hair Today–Gone Tomorrow
On February 25 (16 Adar I) my mother, Shirley Shlachter, “breathed her last…and was gathered to her kin.” The Torah uses such phrases to describe the death of Abraham at the end of Parashat Chayei Sarah, a weekly reading that…
Posted in Rabbi Jack's Quarterly
Special and General Relatives
I think I’ve finally solved my book storage problem! Over Thanksgiving I visited daughter Orli who is spending an exchange year abroad in Dublin, Ireland, and my sightseeing included the Trinity College Library Long Room. Nearly 65 meters in length,…
Posted in Rabbi Jack's Quarterly