An anonymous rabbi in the Talmud is quoted as saying, “I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying.” OK, maybe that’s not in the Talmud but rather attributed to Woody Allen. For me, there is no definitive Jewish answer to the question about what happens to us after we die, and this is consistent with the emphasis that Judaism places on life in the here and now. We celebrate life, and while death is inevitable, it is invariably a loss. I lost several friends and colleagues this past quarter; I conducted funeral services for Haskell Sheinberg and Pat Kristal; spoke at the memorial service for David Holtkamp; and led the unveiling ceremony for Louis Erhard. May their memories serve as a blessing. I hope my sole remaining visit to a cemetery this year is Kever Avot, the traditional visit before or during the High Holiday season. In addition to reminding ourselves of the end we, too, will face, we are reminded of the many lessons we learned from the lives of those who are no longer with us.
My rabbinic responsibilities this quarter included some joyous moments as well. I had multiple opportunities to lead Friday night services in Los Alamos. Included in my usual leading or co-leading for Friday nights and Saturday mornings at HaMakom in Santa Fe was a birthday blessing for Chazan Cindy. I also gave reprises of a couple of Jewish-themed talks: at HaMakom, I paid tribute to Jewish authors Else Lasker-Schuler, Dvora Baron and Esther Singer Kreitman; and I spoke on the Jews in Theoretical Division during the Manhattan Project for a visiting group from Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Friends of friends passed through Los Alamos on a multi-day bike trip, and I delivered an impromptu talk about my path to the rabbinate as well as a capsule summary of the history of the Laboratory and its current mission and research. Whenever I can, I inject a rabbinic story or teaching into an event, and I was successful in this regard at the annual membership meeting for the LAJC, at the Shabbat service honoring High School graduates in Los Alamos, and at the luncheon for Burton and Susan Krohn celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Several organizations within the Santa Fe Jewish community collaborated on a Yom HaShoah service this year, and I was honored to participate. And thanks go to Beth Shalom in Vancouver, Canada, who offered aliyot to me and Beverly at several of the services we attended while visiting Dov over Shavuot. By the way, their blintzes were exceptionally good!
The plane flight to and from Vancouver provided at least one block of reading time this quarter, and my reading list for this period is captured below. The Eva Hoffman book had been sitting unread on my shelf for some years, and coincidentally it has a Jewish Vancouver connection. The ordering is chronological, not a measure of entertainment value, and it mixes fiction with non-fiction. Celebrating life is high on my list, and reading is definitely one way to do so.
B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack
The Zookeeper’s Wife – Diane Ackerman
Lost in Translation – Eva Hoffman
Vladimir Jabotinsky’s Story of My Life – edited by Brian Horowitz and Leonid Katsis (originally published in Hebrew)
Storm Over Paris – Blanche (Blume) Lempel (translated from Yiddish)
Touching Heaven Touching Earth – Rabbi Shmuel Avidor HaCohen
Six Days of War – Michael Oren
Judas – Amos Oz (translated from Hebrew)
Modern Midrash – David Jacobson
Street of Steps – Yehudit Hendel (translated from Hebrew)
Rabbi Akiva: Sage of the Talmud – Barry Holtz
Jewish Stories of Love and Marriage – Sandy Eisenberg Sasso and Peninnah Schram
A Non-Swimmer Considers Her Mikvah – Mary Carter (New Mexico author)
Into the Fullness of the Void – Dov Elbaum (translated from Hebrew)