Pro­duc­ing con­tent on the Web since 1995.


some say­ings of ר‘משבצונה“ל

For many years I have worked hard, and strug­gled with mas­ter­ing virtuous. Now, in addi­tion, I’m work­ing on becom­ing more virtual.
This is an expres­sion of that effort.
* * * * * * *

השיבנו ה‘ אליך ונשובה חדש ימינו
כעוד לא היו
* * * * * * *
ומביא גאלה…
לצאצאיהם

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All pho­tographs are by Mark Hurvitz unless they are obvi­ously not.

The pho­tos in the ban­ner at the top (only a shal­low sliver of a much larger photo) are either from our home or our trav­els and are offered for their beauty alone (though a brain-teaser for me: “Where was that?”).

st. paintings

At least three col­ors of painted mes­sages on the pave­ment. By the time there are three col­ors that fit within the photo, none can have any “mean­ing” what remains is the pattern.

3 pavements

Three pave­ments poured next to each other (con­tigu­ous), but not at a prop­erty line.

#blogelul : trust

don’t?

It is often hard to know whom to trust.

Each of the fol­low­ing but­tons were sold as nov­elty items. The first sug­gest­ing we trust Bernard Mad­off is very sad. The sec­ond is intended for fun.

I’ve never worn the first.

The other I wear at rab­binic conventions.

a shonda!

Date:
2009

Size:
5.7

Pin Form:
clasp

Print Method:
celluloid

Text
SHONDA!

TRUST

trust me, i’m a rabbi

Date:
2010

Size:
3.81

Pin Form:
clasp

Print Method:
celluloid

Text
TRUST ME, I’M […]

#blogelul : return

the month of elul begins once again

return

Hosea 14:2:
שׁוּבָה, יִשְׂרָאֵל, עַד, יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ: כִּי כָשַׁלְתָּ, בַּעֲו‍ֹנֶךָ.

I return to this writ­ing, that I have not vis­ited since early March, shortly before Pesach.

I have been many places, but now is the time for return.

As she did in antic­i­pa­tion of Pesach, my col­league of unimag­in­able strength, Phyl­lis Sommer […]

#blogexodus : numbers

the num­bers’ game

The chil­dren played by the shore, allow­ing the ball to bounce lightly on their fin­ger tips before they popped it over to the other side of the line. Now and then one of them dove into the sand try­ing to keep the ball from bounc­ing on the ground. Judy took […]

keep those cards coming

chang­ing technologies

Most peo­ple who know me under­stand that I am not averse to tech­no­log­i­cal change. I have been inter­ested in how com­mu­ni­ca­tions tech­nolo­gies have been used and changed for many years. In June of 2010, I wrote about my involve­ment in the devel­op­ment of what I called “the elec­tronic leaflet”. When I was in col­lege I stud­ied music and was involved […]

the new year; traveling for chocolate… and much more

Switzer­land was actu­ally “Plan B”

We had hoped to get to Fire Island (Long Island) at The Pines for Rosh haShan­nah to be with a col­league and at the beach. How­ever, because “the sea­son” at The Pines was still going strong, the two estab­lish­ments where we tried to book rooms could not com­mit, barely even return­ing our calls […]

when?

…when­ever”

How often have we heard peo­ple respond in this way?

I’m always ready to go out and enjoy life. But, the daily alarm of the sho­far in Elul reminds us to mix those plea­sures, and that time is…

Lena Horne [from notes on the Idel­sohn Society’s blog, to which I can­not link directly] sang this song “Now!,” writ­ten for […]

elul comes every year

prepar­ing for my beloved

As we begin Elul, the month before Rosh haShan­nah, prepa­ra­tions for the new year start.

blow­ing shofar

As I wrote last year (August 20, 2009) at this time, the Hebrew word אלול is con­sid­ered an acronym for the phrase from the Song of Songs: 6:3a…

אני לדודי ודודי לי = I am my beloved’s, and my beloved […]

Elul Homework 2 (I've done that too!)

con­fir­ma­tion and verification

Some­times we think that we are the only per­son who has done such ter­ri­ble things to oth­ers. It can be lib­er­at­ing and for­giv­ing for us, and those oth­ers like us, to learn that we are not alone. It also often feels good to have oth­ers “sign off” on rec­og­niz­ing that we may have […]

Elul Homework 1

now the real work begins

Talk about “trim­ming” or “uni­fy­ing” is easy. The dif­fi­cult task lies ahead. I need to seek out the peo­ple I have wronged, approach them and express to them my regret along with a clear plan as to how I will change my behav­ior in the future.

At this time every year I print out the work­sheet illustrated […]

Unifying my life as I trim my garden

As I wrote the other day, while I pre­pare dur­ing the month of Elul for Rosh haShan­nah, I think about what is periph­eral to my life, and what I should toss.

Aside from blow­ing sho­far each day dur­ing Elul, another prac­tice has taken on the nature of a daily rit­ual: the read­ing of Psalm 27.

Psalm 27

Accord­ing to Rabbi Ben­jamin J. […]