I enjoyed your essay, and just watched a YouTube video about your synagogue and the couple that leads it. It sounds like a great community!
Thank you for including "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening", which brought back childhood memories. It was the first piece my then-pre-teen brother ever set to music, which eventually led to his work as a Broadway musical director.
I enjoyed your essay, and just watched a YouTube video about your synagogue and the couple that leads it. It sounds like a great community!
Thank you for including "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening", which brought back childhood memories. It was the first piece my then-pre-teen brother ever set to music, which eventually led to his work as a Broadway musical director.
….our God is still talking to His Prophet Poets. (According to Robert Alter, all the Prophets in the Hebrew Bible were poets.)
The message is about the manifestation of His Will in this dimension, through His Words written and spoken and,
the Fall is at an end.
Soon His Judgment will begin.
Now, the final dregs of the rot are on the stage in open sight,
to unvent His Rage,
when the time is due.
So far nothing but sheer misery for decades on end, only writing, reciting, and waiting..incubating… salivating too..
Btw, a new development for us here in NM!
We were victims of a Hate Crime, Dec 16th, when my daughter’s car was rammed in broad daylight in our driveway! It was captured in 2 videos.
It made a clear statement to the HOA, and the APD,
bc this is the most secure, guarded, surveilled, patrolled, and supposedly safe community in NM and he drove in thru the gate, was questioned by the guard and he could see himself, and his car, license plates too, on the huge video screen, mounted at the entrance gate.
So, a brazen dare!
For about a year I’ve been house bound here, bc I cannot tolerate seeing people so blind, under mind control, and led by the nose, as the Nazis grow ever more bold.
But I do find comfort that it’s only a matter of time until the tables finally turn.
My mother passed way suddenly two weeks ago on the eve of Chanukah and you have given me a beautiful way to think of her. As a link in a never ending chain. Thank you.
I like what you have explained here. We all seem to be on the periphery of G*D’s plan; and each has an edge for a reason, yet none of us has the entire view.
I used to revel in Esther's story; the female heroine in a Biblical book where a woman saves and God's name is not mentioned. I literally got an Esther tattoo. Then I reread the story...and my entire Jewish education ruptured. Esther does not convince the King NOT to kill the Jews, so much as Achashverosh puts out a decree to allow Jews to fight back against genocidal pogroms. Then the next day, Jewish fighters return, this time as attackers, pillaging and killing. Was that choice one of self-defense, or offense? Pre-emptive strikes to safeguard the next generation, or anger / retribution clouded as righteousness? I struggle with this. Not only how my Jewish education only taught part of the story that makes us "feel good" and left out the bits that confuse me (and likely, my teachers, too), but also with what the turn at the end of the story conveys about Jewish ethics around offense / defense. I want to uplift a feminist reading of Torah, and my own Judaism was defined very early on by The Red Tent and Yentl. But in the Book of Esther: amidst strength there was violence; amidst courage, a lack of compassion; amidst defense, fear-driven anger. What should we take from that part of the story? (p.s. I'm honored to be commenting on your work!)
From email:
I enjoyed your essay, and just watched a YouTube video about your synagogue and the couple that leads it. It sounds like a great community!
Thank you for including "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening", which brought back childhood memories. It was the first piece my then-pre-teen brother ever set to music, which eventually led to his work as a Broadway musical director.
I find the Torah to be both timeless and timely.
From email:
I enjoyed your essay, and just watched a YouTube video about your synagogue and the couple that leads it. It sounds like a great community!
Thank you for including "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening", which brought back childhood memories. It was the first piece my then-pre-teen brother ever set to music, which eventually led to his work as a Broadway musical director.
From email:
….our God is still talking to His Prophet Poets. (According to Robert Alter, all the Prophets in the Hebrew Bible were poets.)
The message is about the manifestation of His Will in this dimension, through His Words written and spoken and,
the Fall is at an end.
Soon His Judgment will begin.
Now, the final dregs of the rot are on the stage in open sight,
to unvent His Rage,
when the time is due.
So far nothing but sheer misery for decades on end, only writing, reciting, and waiting..incubating… salivating too..
Btw, a new development for us here in NM!
We were victims of a Hate Crime, Dec 16th, when my daughter’s car was rammed in broad daylight in our driveway! It was captured in 2 videos.
It made a clear statement to the HOA, and the APD,
bc this is the most secure, guarded, surveilled, patrolled, and supposedly safe community in NM and he drove in thru the gate, was questioned by the guard and he could see himself, and his car, license plates too, on the huge video screen, mounted at the entrance gate.
So, a brazen dare!
For about a year I’ve been house bound here, bc I cannot tolerate seeing people so blind, under mind control, and led by the nose, as the Nazis grow ever more bold.
But I do find comfort that it’s only a matter of time until the tables finally turn.
All the best to you, .
From email:
Lovely. And yes, certainly more miles to go.
Thanks Phyllis dear — for the reflections on Jewish heroes — and for the poem.
From email:
Lilia once said to me that your writing is lyrical. This piece certainly is.
My mother passed way suddenly two weeks ago on the eve of Chanukah and you have given me a beautiful way to think of her. As a link in a never ending chain. Thank you.
Beautiful.
Beautiful piece, moved me greatly.
I like what you have explained here. We all seem to be on the periphery of G*D’s plan; and each has an edge for a reason, yet none of us has the entire view.
I used to revel in Esther's story; the female heroine in a Biblical book where a woman saves and God's name is not mentioned. I literally got an Esther tattoo. Then I reread the story...and my entire Jewish education ruptured. Esther does not convince the King NOT to kill the Jews, so much as Achashverosh puts out a decree to allow Jews to fight back against genocidal pogroms. Then the next day, Jewish fighters return, this time as attackers, pillaging and killing. Was that choice one of self-defense, or offense? Pre-emptive strikes to safeguard the next generation, or anger / retribution clouded as righteousness? I struggle with this. Not only how my Jewish education only taught part of the story that makes us "feel good" and left out the bits that confuse me (and likely, my teachers, too), but also with what the turn at the end of the story conveys about Jewish ethics around offense / defense. I want to uplift a feminist reading of Torah, and my own Judaism was defined very early on by The Red Tent and Yentl. But in the Book of Esther: amidst strength there was violence; amidst courage, a lack of compassion; amidst defense, fear-driven anger. What should we take from that part of the story? (p.s. I'm honored to be commenting on your work!)