Posts by Cyril

If you were to look at the Days of Awe from 36,000 feet, you would see something that you may never have seen before.  You see, the Days of Awe are not simply Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  They are really a 53 day period beginning at the start of the month before Rosh Hashanna.…

In the middle ages, it is well known that the Jewish community was constantly under assault.  Anti-Jewish crusades, daily anti-Semitism and periodic bursts of manic Jew hatred was simply a way of life.  So what did the Jews do?  Their response was not to hide and cower and discard their Jewish selves.  Instead, their resistance…

Many years ago, I found myself in the bottom of 30 foot hole digging in an archeological ruin in Israel.  My discoveries were hardly earth-shattering although my partner and I found a floor of the very earliest Cannanite dwelling in Tel Dan.  If you ever read ‘The Tel’ the very first floor of the very…

While Standing (Six Feet Apart) on One FootJuly 8, 2020 So now it appears that we are at some kind of a point in this pandemic when we are supposed to open the schools. The politicians know that the virus tends to be more fatal in older people so they can’t really say ‘Let everyone…

While Standing (Six Feet Apart) on One FootJune 22, 2020 I love science. Always have. When I was in school, I couldn’t wait for science class. Biology mesmerized me. Physics tried to satisfy the many ‘whys’ that danced around in my head. And chemistry – oy gevalt – the hardest of all the disciplines was…

While Standing (Six Feet Apart) on One FootJune 8, 2020 As my congregants will tell you and for which they jokingly ridicule me, I am not a sports fan. Of course I have been to sporting events and enjoyed them – especially hockey. But I could not name the players on any team, its statistics…

While Standing (Six Feet Apart) on One FootJune 4, 2020 When the President walked to the Episcopal Church through a phalanx of armed guards to hold up a Bible for what was a photo op immediately after his announcement to send in the troops, I fully understood in my own frame of reference what the…

While Standing (Six Feet Apart) on One LegMay 28, 2020 The Jewish festival of Shavuot begins this evening. In case you are unfamiliar with the holiday, it lands on the 50th day after Passover begins. It is the time of the first harvest, the time of the giving of the Torah, and the season of…

While Standing (Six Feet Apart) On One Leg May 21, 2020 I went to the race track once and bet on a horse. No, really, I did.  In fact, I learned to read the racesheet, compared the track conditions to the track conditions the horses were used to running in, looked for other characteristics and…

While Standing (Six Feet Apart) On One LegMay 18, 2020 Of all the Zoom conferences I had in the past two months, I had a most unusual one last night with my colleagues from Camp Erin. Camp Erin, if you don’t know, is a nation camp movement and my local camp a 2 day summer…