I only notice them on Shabbat, up toward the ceiling; spiders. There’s nothing I can do about them because of Shabbat. I may not kill them, or even trap them to move them outside. I may not even plan to kill them after Shabbat, because...
"But to return, if I may use the expression, to the future...
“It would be madness, and inconsistency, to suppose that things which have never yet been performed can be performed without employing some hitherto untried means (Francis Bacon).” I use the same Succah every year, the same poles, the same canvas, the same support beams, and the...
[caption id="attachment_6143" align="alignleft" width="228" caption="Angelus Novus by Paul Klee"][/caption]My wing is poised to beat but I would gladly return home were I to stay to the end of days I would still be this forlorn -- Gershom Scholem, “Greetings from Angelus" [tr. Richard Sieburth} A Klee painting named Angelus Novus...
[caption id="attachment_6127" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Filling in the Gaps"][/caption]“Waiting for Godot” follows two days in the lives of a pair of men who divert themselves while they wait expectantly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. They claim him as an acquaintance but in...
I love water. I love the ocean. I love waterfalls. I love to go whitewater rafting. I love to swim. I love the Mikvah – Ritual Bath. I hate water. I hate finding water on the floor of my study. I hate when our garage is...
Taking my children when they were young on a trip. Finding the perfect gift for my wife. My grandfather’s face when I received my first s’micha – Rabbinic Ordination. Receiving a call from my Rebbi, HaRav Yochanan Zweig, telling me that my father called him...
My wife and I turned onto 26th street, between 6th and 7th, the New York City area known as ‘The Plant District’, and strange things began to happen. Storeowners ran outside and began to pull their security gates down, closing their stores. Others were rushing...
Iphicrates, a famous Athenian general, once fitted out his own fleet in the enemy’s manner, and sailed to a people he viewed with suspicion. When they welcomed him effusively and enthusiastically, he sacked their town, now that he had unmasked their treason. (Frontinus, Stratagems 4.7.23) I...
On the right-hand side of the Periodic Table is a set of elements known as the noble gases. “Noble” is an archaic, funny-sounding word, less chemistry than ethics or philosophy. And indeed, the term “noble gases” goes back to ancient Greece. There, in “The Symposium,”...
There are moments when I am so frustrated and upset that I cannot find the words to express my rage. English lacks the musical potency to insult with the same impact as Yiddish, but there are times when even Yiddish fails. (May your bones be...
The twelve-hour drive from Toronto for our annual Succot visit with my grandparents left me bruised, battered, and drained by all the fights my sister began with me. (I, of course, never started a fight.) We arrived in 1968, post riots Baltimore. Although I did...