Editor’s note: This message is reprinted from a weekly shabbat email sent March 19 to HBHA families and friends.
This week was the Grammys! For those of you who weren’t paying close attention, the winner of the Best Comedy Album went to Tiffany Haddish — the first black woman to win this Grammy Award since Whoopie Goldberg won it in 1986. The name of her show? Black Mitzvah (now available on Netflix!).
As we handed over our one way tickets to the agent at the gateway, we knew that there was no turning back. Here we are making that giant leap of a transition from a small town called Brooklyn, New York, to the big city of Lawrence, Kansas.
The Jewish calendar as we know it today was designed by Hillel II. The name was really Hillel, but we add or call him Hillel II so as not to confuse him with the famous Hillel, who lived several centuries before him.
We don’t speak enough about domestic violence in the Jewish community. This is true of all Jewish communities. Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twersky, one of the foremost experts and advocates in the Jewish community regarding mental health and the issues of domestic violence and substance abuse, saw mental health issues, and relationships in particular, through spiritual care lenses.
“Flowing upward through a confusion of dreams and memory, …I surface. My eyes open. I am awake.” So, begins a day in “Crossing to Safety” by Wallace Stegner. We awaken these days with anxiety that presses from multiple directions. Each day, too, we live with the hope of crossing to a safer place in our lives.
As we inch closer to our son Michael becoming a Bar Mitzvah, it is nothing like I ever imagined it would be. Looking forward to this Jewish milestone, I can’t help but look back to 1989, the year of my Bat Mitzvah.
We can’t always win. And sometimes we make mistakes. And sometimes we get caught and punished. And sometimes it feels unfair. And sometimes it is just a bad day. But it still hurts. Like many of you, Leslie and I watched the Super Bowl with hopeful anticipation. As one quarter rolled into the next, the excitement gave way to loss and sadness.
It is hard to believe that it’s been a year since COVID-19 emerged. In the past 12 months our lives have dramatically shifted as we embraced life during a pandemic. The question we ask ourselves is what now? There is still so much confusion and unknown, with constant changes and upheavals coming our way. Where do we go from here?
I first discovered the writing of Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, who passed away this week at age 90, as a beginning rabbinical student. His spiritual and Hasidic writings gave emotional lift to my classes on Jewish law.
Next week’s haftorah (reading from Prophets), “Shabbat Shekalim”, contains the following verses: (2 Kings 11:19-20; translation from Artscroll)
