Dear Friends:

My last three rabbinic months have been busy but generally joyous, and I write this latest installment of roughly quarterly missives to you before the crunch of Purim and Passover. “Generally” but not exclusively joyous – the shortest day of the year brought with it the loss of Jay Wechsler, a truly unique source of daylight to the Jewish community of Los Alamos and to the entire town. I felt deeply fortunate to spend a few hours with Jay on Shabbat afternoon right after Thanksgiving, Beverly and I traveling straight up to Wyoming immediately after I co-led the LAJC-United Church Thanksgiving celebration with senior pastor Rev. David Elton. It was a wonderful visit, and Jay was in great form, regaling us with stories of the early days while surrounded by his children and grandchildren. I was greatly saddened and shocked to learn of Jay’s death, and I tried to pay back a small fraction of my debt to Jay by conducting the remembrance service attended by hundreds of his friends. Jay Wechsler had no equal, and may his memory serve as a blessing for us all.

Speaking of equals, in preparation for the trip I learned that Wyoming is called the Equality State because of the rights women have traditionally enjoyed there, and I chose to speak on the topic of Women and Equality in Jewish Tradition at the synagogue in Cheyenne after Friday evening services, thanks to the logistical arrangements provided by Rabbi Harley Karz-Wagman. This talk was perhaps less controversial than my description of Ghosts and Goblins in Rabbinic texts delivered after Halloween in the historic former synagogue in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Truth be told, I think those who attended were simply being patient while waiting for Beverly to teach some Israeli folkdancing.

My teaching was not restricted to adults this past quarter – I spent most of a day lecturing on Judaism to approximately 70 students in three different Humanities classes at the Los Alamos High School. It would not be an exaggeration to say that 70 people got their first taste of Talmud study while listening to the story of the prospective convert and Rabbis Shammai and Hillel. Our study at the Los Alamos Jewish Center in conjunction with my monthly Shabbat weekends in town has focused on the prayer book and Torah service mechanics, and we’ll be continuing this series this weekend with an exploration of the closing passages of the service. The series was beautifully interrupted when I officiated at the Bat Mitzvah ceremony for the charming and newest adult member of the Los Alamos Jewish community, Kayleen Lederman. At HaMakom in Santa Fe, I delivered my annual contribution to the monthly adult education lecture series with an examination of Jewish Ethical Wills, a largely hidden but beautiful literary genre. Also at HaMakom, we celebrated with food (and even hard liquor) upon completion of an extended set of weekly Talmud classes focused on a passage in tractate Baba Metzia. Our new classes started a few weeks ago and use the weekly portion as an introduction to the father of Torah commentary, Rashi.  My plan is to switch commentators with each book, shifting (I think) to Ramban for Leviticus. These classes are a real joy and motivate me to study parshat hashevua.

Not to worry, I still found time over the past few months to both purchase and read books. New additions to the bursting bookshelves include the six books in the Jewish Lives series published by Yale University Press (Sarah Bernhardt, Emma Goldman, Moses Mendelssohn, Solomon, Leon Trotsky, and Hank Greenberg so far), New Talmudic Readings by the French philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas, and The Modern Jewish Girl’s Guide to Guilt edited by Ruth Andrew Ellenson. I had an added dose of reading time as the secular calendar came to a close, and this gave me the opportunity to compare three separate Israeli autobiographies, Life on Sandpaper by Yoram Kaniuk, My Russian Grandmother and her American Vacuum Cleaner by Meir Shalev, and Curriculum Vitae by Yoel Hoffmann. Three more diverse memoirs would be hard to find, but I recommend all of them unabashedly. Despite the crowded shelves, I also welcome your suggestions for new books.   

B’shalom, Rabbi Jack

Dear Friends:

Rabbis around the world love Cheshvan, the month we have just begun, because it has NO HOLIDAYS!!  This past month was quite busy, as expected, with High Holidays at the Los Alamos Jewish Center, the congregation to whom I am so grateful, followed by Sukkot followed by Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah (I attended five different synagogues in three days), and to top it off, Beverly and I decided to “end” the season by going to Roswell, New Mexico, for one of my semi-regular Shabbatons.

I enjoy greatly visiting with my Jewish friends from Roswell and Carlsbad, and I think we all had fun with the discussion topic for Shabbat afternoon of Ghosts and Goblins in Rabbinic texts. Nevertheless, I’m now looking forward to some rest and relaxation.  My current focus is on a planned Friday evening/Saturday morning Shabbat back at the Los Alamos Jewish Center on December 9-10 when I’ll be leading the congregation and providing a review on the mechanics of the Torah service – when do we rise, how do we recite the blessings for an aliyah, what is the etiquette surrounding the scroll, etc.

I began turning my thoughts to teshuva this year by teaching a class up in Taos, New Mexico, at the start of the month of Elul on the liturgy for this season – I’d forgotten how much I like offering educational programs at the Taos Jewish Center. My mother then joined us for Rosh HaShanah, and I dedicated my evening sermon to her, speaking on rabbinic parallels to the teachings of my parents during my youth (how does Pirke Avot address the concept of waiting an hour after eating before going swimming?).  The highlight of Yom Kippur for me, unquestionably, was listening to Orli chant Kol Nidre – the only comparable thrill in past years was hearing Dov blow shofar.  I thought Orli’s singing lifted the entire congregation to the level of the angels – one of the goals and images of Yom Kippur – but you’ll have to ask another congregant if you want an unbiased opinion of the beauty of that moment.

I concentrated my cantorial energies during the holidays, as usual, on evening services and Musaf, and as a result I had those tunes running through my head for weeks afterward.  The formal end to the holiday season, Simchat Torah, started off on a wonderful, spiritual level with a service led by my dear friend and colleague, Rabbi Malka Drucker, at HaMakom congregation in Santa Fe.  Rabbi Malka graciously allowed me to assist her as we unrolled the entire scroll in a circle of congregants and shared insights on individuals based on the parsha at his or her fingertips.

One of the great joys of being a rabbi has been conducting wedding ceremonies for former Bar and Bat Mitzvah students, and I was treated to this opportunity again in August when I served as the officiant in New York for one of my favorite “kids.” Perhaps I’ll receive phone calls from her two brothers when they decide to get married in the future!

My rabbi-ing duties often extend outside the synagogue – a notable recent example being a presentation at the annual conference of the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society on the Jews in Theoretical Division at Los Alamos during World War II.  I hope to reprise this talk in the future through the Los Alamos Historical Society – it was a lot of work preparing the talk but thoroughly entertaining to learn about some of the giants of physics.  

Of course I just had to buy a few books to gather the information I needed – one recent purchase was a copy of The History of the Los Alamos Jewish Center by Rabbi Abraham Shinedling (1958).  Keeping it company on my increasingly crowded bookshelves are a few other newcomers including A Torah Commentary for Our Times by Rabbi Harvey J. Fields (1995) and The Study of Judaism: Bibliographical Essays by Richard Bavier (1972).  Lest you think that all my purchases are highbrow, I also now have a copy of Old Jews Telling Jokes by Sam Hoffman (2010), and please don’t ask me about Dr. Drobkin (he’s on page 183).

As for reading in my spare time, I’ve gotten great pleasure of late from a relatively recent Israeli novel called Thera by Zeruya Shalev translated from Hebrew into English, a memoir entitled In Search of Memory by the Nobel chemistry prize winner and Viennese-born Eric Kandel, and the graphic novel The Cardboard Valise by one of my favorite artists, Ben Katchor.

I hope the month of Cheshvan brings you (and me) some welcome reading time, and may your prayers from these past High Holidays all be answered.

B’shalom, Rabbi Jack

Dear friends:
Let me begin this next installment in my series of ~quarterly rabbi-ing updates by thanking the many people who responded to my pre-Pesach missive. All of your ideas for improving these e-mails were read carefully, and I hope this message reflects your suggestions.

Our weekly Talmud study at HaMakom in Santa Fe has taken on a life of its own – we are exploring an extended passage in B. Bava Metzia 83a ff., and the discussions have been wonderful. Who would have guessed that Jewish texts provide so much insight into the sex lives of corpulent rabbis?

My shabbatons in the southeastern part of the state have also continued with visits this past few months to both Roswell and Carlsbad. I’m hoping to become a regular presence at these two small but special congregations, and in addition to conducting services, I’ve delivered talks on Romantic Love in Jewish texts and The Messiah from a Jewish Perspective, the latter to address a growing concern with Messianics (Christians who adopt many traditional Jewish practices) in these areas of New Mexico.

Over Memorial Day weekend, my most supportive and significant other, Beverly, and I participated in Limmud Colorado, an intensive three day adult Jewish retreat and educational festival (see http://www.limmudcolorado.org/). I was privileged to teach a class as well as chant Torah at one of the services, and I found the talks by some of the other presenters to be absolutely inspirational.

It seems like every time I turned around there was another opportunity to offer a brief rabbinic text to suit an occasion. Hadassah held its 2^nd annual Israel Independence Day celebration, and I shared a few Talmudic words about the importance of medicine in our lives. Jay Wechsler, iconic leader of the Los Alamos Jewish community for nearly 60 years, was honored at this event, and then only a few months later, with his family surrounding him, my son Dov blew a shofar and I chanted the Priestly benediction to wish Jay a safe journey to Wyoming where he is now recuperating and living with his son.

My European home away from home, Vienna, was my destination for a 10-day excursion in conjunction with a scientific conference, and it was an indescribable delight to worship again with my dear friends at Or Chadasch. I got to chant a bit of Megillat Ruth, and we studied together (in German, English, and Hebrew) on Erev Shavuot; it was probably just fatigue at a late hour, but I thought I even understood some of what we were saying!

The Los Alamos Jewish Center renewed and expanded my contract starting on July 1, but the Las Conchas fire (which began just as Dov, Orli, and I joined many members of the Los Alamos Jewish Center in a surprise birthday celebration for a dear friend) forced us to spend the first shabbat in forced evacuation in Santa Fe while we feared, once again, for our town. All the Santa Fe (and several Albuquerque) Jewish institutions rallied to our support, and we arranged an impromptu ceremony on July 3 when the town was reopened as we escorted the Torah scrolls safely back into their Los Alamos home.

Almost 80 people, with a wonderful balance between Los Alamosans and Santa Feans, joined in a potluck thanksgiving this past Friday evening as Los Alamos said “thanks” to our Santa Fe neighbors.  (The August issue of the monthly publication of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico, a.k.a. the New Mexico Jewish Link, is posted at http://www.jewishnewmexico.org/section.aspx?id=3 and has an article about our experience).

My rented apartment continues to fill up with more books – some highlights of the past three months were the latest JPS volume (Numbers) in The Commentator’s Bible series, a used copy of The Jews of Poland by Meir Lew (1944) and The Cardboard Valise by the brilliant Ben Katchor. And yes, I have been reading as well. A few of my favorites these last few months were Sacred Trash (Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole), a truly fascinating account of the treasures and personalities associated with the Cairo Geniza, Tales of the Ten Lost Tribes by Tamar Yellin whose writing continues to captivate me, and the massive Memoirs of Elias Canetti (those overseas flights are good for something), this last tome a suggestion from an alert reader of my previous message who wanted to feed my hunger for descriptions of fin de siecle Vienna.

May your month of Av be followed by introspection and celebration, and may all your experiences be re-Jewvenating.

B’Shalom, Rabbi Jack

Dear friends:
As one of the special Jewish people in my life, you are a recipient of this message, the first in what I hope will be an ongoing, ~quarterly series of updates on my rabbi-ing (OK, not a real word but one I enjoy) in many venues. Your feedback is most welcome.

As always, my greatest love as a rabbi is in teaching adults; highlights for me over these past several months were talks I prepared and delivered on Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll in Jewish texts, The Sinai Covenant (or Take Two Tablets and Call me in the Morning), Can Aliens be Part of a Minyan? (in conjunction with my roughly bimonthly itinerant rabbi-ing in Roswell, New Mexico) and a semi-scholarly lecture I gave on Maimonides and Judah HaLevi, the Polar Opposites of Medieval Jewish Philosophy. I am continuing a weekly Shabbat Talmud class with HaMakom in Santa Fe at the hideous hour of 8:45 AM, but the group is so dedicated and receptive that I almost don’t curse the alarm.

On the more somber side, I had a difficult period in late 2010 which found me conducting three funeral services in as many weeks, following on the heels of numerous hospital visits. It was hard to be unaware of my own mortality amidst all this sadness, but as always I appreciated the opportunity to help some families find comfort through our Jewish traditions. Not for the first time in my life did I find myself singing Psalm 121 in a hospital room, but this time I had a nurse come by and say it sounded nice out in the hallway. I think I was getting a message to shut the door.

Other rabbinic visits were a bit different though no less thought-provoking and included trips to the Santa Fe Juvenile Detention Center and the Los Alamos County Jail. At this Pesach season when we are commanded to be thankful for our freedom, it is valuable to remind ourselves that even in our society we are not all free.

Life cycle events continue to play a role in my rabbinic life, and I felt privileged to conduct a trio of weddings last summer. The one in Princeton, New Jersey, was especially enjoyable for me because my daughter, Orli, accompanied me on the trip. At that wedding she got to see her Dad outnumbered by dozens of physicians, several of whom (bride, groom, best man, maid of honor, groomsmen, bridesmaids,…) were under the chuppah. How many doctors does it take to….?

I found time to conduct Friday night services and even chant part of Megillat Esther at my favorite European synagogue, Or Chadasch in Vienna, Austria.  Particularly memorable was when the subway decided to stop running and I had to hoof it to the shul, arriving 20 minutes late.  The congregation started without me, yet they welcomed me most graciously to the bimah (as soon as my eyeglasses unfogged). I get the best part of the deal in Vienna – in return for my involvement with a truly wonderful community, I received a copy of their brand new siddur with my name inscribed in gold lettering on the spine. I never knew before that I was a Rabbiner!

I had great fun when HaMakom held a social event at my apartment called “Jack in the Books,” and I got to show off my library to over two dozen book lovers. In addition to my new siddur, I’ve recently acquired the last volumes of the ArtScroll Yad Avraham Mishnah series and am finding it a valuable rabbinic text tool. A full shelf was recently filled with the second edition of Encyclopedia Judaica – the articles written after 1971 are certainly most welcome, but I miss all the lovely pictures from the earlier edition.  Another recent arrival was by my teacher, Rabbi Gershon Winkler, who wrote “The Judeo-Christian Fiction” which promises to be provocative.

I haven’t just been BUYING books – my numerous trips to Vienna have afforded me a chance to catch up on some reading as well. Especially noteworthy were “Maimonides, Spinoza and Us” by Rabbi Marc Angel (the inspiration for my aforementioned Maimonides and HaLevi talk), “Dybbuks and Jewish Women in Social History, Mysticism and Folklore” by Rachel Elior (the choice inspired by my active involvement with HaMakom), and “The Road into the Open” by Arthur Schnitzler. This last book gave me an even greater appreciation than I’d had before of fin-de-siecle Vienna and its debt to Jews.

If you’ve managed to read this far, I applaud you and hope to send you another message in this vein in three or four months.

May your Pesach be joyous, restful and re-Jewvenating.

Chag kasher v’sameah,

Rabbi Jack