“While your fire is burning, roast your pumpkin.” So said Rabbi Yohanan somewhat cryptically in Talmudic Tractate Sanhedrin (33b), but whatever he meant, I don’t think he was referring to a non-Jewish holiday at the end of October. It is the start of the month of Cheshvan as I write this message (Cheshvan being the favorite of rabbis the world over because it is the only month without any holidays)!
Backing up a few months for this quarterly e-mail, however, finds us in Av which traditionally begins with sadness, and I observed the anniversary of the destruction of the Temples, Tisha B’Av, in Alexandria, VA with Congregation Agudas Achim while on travel in D.C. Later in Av I marked my father’s 27th Yahrzeit by leading a minyan in Los Alamos. Likely Rabbi Yohanan was saying that we should seize opportunities and use our time wisely. Beverly and I indeed seized the opportunity to join millions of Americans and witness the total solar eclipse on the last day of Av, and clearly the month went out in a blaze of glory. What an amazing experience! We joined the Mt. Sinai Congregation in Cheyenne, WY for Shabbat services a few days before totality where, in addition to an Aliyah, Rabbi Moldo provided me with a speaking slot. I described eclipses from both physics and Jewish perspectives, and the talk also led to an extensive article in the Intermountain Jewish News (Denver).
My rabbi-ing these past three months of course centered on my visit to Beijing, China, where I was thrilled to celebrate the High Holidays with Kehillat Beijing for the fourth year in a row. The congregation of ex-pats always amazes me, and the number of young Jewish adults is simply wonderful. There are many intelligent, opinionated Jews in their 20s and 30s, and each voluntarily identifies with the vibrant Jewish community. We had a thought-provoking discussion about the State of Israel over a Shabbat Shuvah retreat between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, and I now look at the words of Prayers for Israel much more carefully thanks to the discussion leaders. Over the course of our two-week trip, I also provided some insights into the structure of a worship service and gave a talk at the Moishe House about Jewish mysticism. Between the holidays, Beverly and I took a two-day vacation to Harbin in northeast China and saw two restored (but not functioning) synagogues and a Jewish cemetery in this city that once counted among its residents as many as 20,000 Russian Jews.
Life cycle events fill in the gaps, and I ran the gamut last quarter from blessing children at a consecration service on Shimini Atzeret (the day before Simchat Torah) to teaching some B’nai Mitzvah students to conducting a wedding to chanting a wedding blessing in Boston for Beverly’s niece to presiding over a funeral for long-time Los Alamos resident, Ruth Sherman, z”l (may her memory serve as a blessing). I also gave a few other talks around town – one to students, postdocs and early career staff at Los Alamos National Laboratory entitled (Non) Standard Deviations about various detours from a standard scientific research career, including my rabbinic ordination and responsibilities; and another talk at a local church where I summarized the Jewish View on Hope to a Faith and Science group. All in all, I’ve been roasting plenty of pumpkins and using the light to illuminate my reading – my last quarter’s book list is below.
B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack
Addiction and Its Consequences in Jewish Law – edited by Walter Jacob
Adventures of a Mathematician – Stan Ulam
Four Stories – Etgar Keret
Crafting the 613 Commandments: Maimonides on the Enumeration, Classification, and Formulation of the Scriptural Commandments – Albert Friedberg
Moon: A Brief History – Bernd Brunner (in preparation for the eclipse)
Alter – Jacob Dineson (tr. Jane Peppler)
The Thirteenth Tribe – Arthur Koestler
The Extra – A.B. Yehoshua
Lost in America* – Sherwin Nuland
Inside Woody Allen – Stuart Hampl and Woody Allen
The Jews in Harbin – Qu Wei and Li Shuxiao (a wonderful gift from a friend in Beijing)
O Jerusalem* – Collins and LaPierre
Preserving the Hunger: An Isaac Rosenfeld Reader – ed. Mark Shechner
I, Sarah Steinway – Mary E. Carter (not yet published but keep your eyes open for it soon)
Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein – Abraham Pais
Legends of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng – Xu Xin
And a special thanks to Joe and Janet Eigner for their generous donation to my library and the libraries at HaMakom in Santa Fe and the Los Alamos Jewish Center