“None of us had ever met this Rabbi before, and he ended up getting around 30 percent of his speech correct. I was standing with my grandmother’s body on my left and my mother to my right as this backup Rabbi started the eulogy: ‘We’re here to celebrate the life of … it’s here somewhere … one second … Miriam Bat Leah.’
Someone corrected him. ‘It’s Leah Bat Miriam.’
(more…)“The next Shabbat, when we go out for a walk, I depart from the path and tell Ilana about the lone anemone. She says that she also saw it on that same day, and follows me. It takes a few minutes for us to find the splash of red in the midst of the already dulled green of the grass. We stand and stare at it for a long moment, this bright smile alone in a moor of memory. We move on, and the anemone comes with us, untouchable, ephemeral yet unchanging, in the depths of our hearts.”
Source: Haim Watzman, “The Anemone’s Smile”
Please excuse the self-focus, but in case you missed it—you can catch my first full-fledged “online reading,” featuring work from Birthright: Poems, right here. (Recorded on April 5, 2020.)
“In every generation a person must see himself as if he has gone out of Egypt. We are still in the narrow straits, still constricted, with so many people in our world still gasping for breath. May the angel of death pass over us and those we love, and may this Passover be the harbinger of our redemption.”
Source: Ilana Kurshan, “Pesach 5780: The Bare Bones”
“My calendar this week is more full than it could be at any physical shul I know of, even if other factors didn’t keep me home. There is Torah study, challah baking class, rabbi-led meditation, readings by Jewish authors. There are more options for Shabbat services or daily minyans — like the one being offered every weekday by MyJewishLearning — than I could attend in a year. Sure, livestreaming services have existed for a while now. But every time I tried one before, it meant watching from a camera placed on a balcony or in an aisle, the backs of people’s heads reminding me I was only an observer of someone else’s community. Now I can see the rabbi’s eyes. I can chat with everyone there. I may be welcomed by name.
(more…)