New Years Eve 2007

It is the six o'clock on the last evening of 2007. An hour ago we watched the last sunset of 2007 over the Pacific from the bluffs of Solana Beach, just north of San Diego.

What will 2008 bring? Will it be a year that lives up to the e-greetings and holiday cards that passed between so many of us? Perhaps it will. Perhaps this will be a Hallmark year. Perhaps instead waiting to behold our fortunes and misfortunes in 2008, we may resolve to create a year of greater peace, greater generosity and greater awareness of blessing. All of these are within our realm of creation.

Wishing you a year of blessed creation.

The Jewish Question

The phrase the Jewish question originated in the writings of Karl Marx. It referred to the issue of Jewish integration into European culture. It was not in itself a derogatory phrase but rather a question concerned with assimilation and integration. The Nazis more famously bastardized the phrase to mean, what should be done about the Jews? History tells us the "final solution" was the Nazi's answer to that question. Today though, it might be wise to invest interest in a new Jewish question because our spiritual survival might depend on it. Today, the Jewish question might aptly be asked by the Jew who wonders whether a synagogue service in any language bears any relevance to his or her daily life. Many synagogues today are suffering because they are failing to provide a meaningful answer to the Jewish question. They are relying on the power of obligation, guilt or some undetermined predilection to ensure that Jews remain Jewish and engaged in the process of inquiery. Perhaps on this, the penultimate night of Chanukah, or dedication, as it translates, we can dedicate time to our Jewish question(s) and to seeking satisfactory answers.

Shabbat Posting - Dec. 7, 2007

Last night we had a visit from a dear friend and her four year old son. Earlier in the week, someone had entered her apartment while she and her boy were outside playing. The intruder stole her son's two wrapped Chanukah gifts and a video camera. Ironically, other items of greater monetary value were left untouched in what must have been a speedy robbery. Our friend, who writes for a wonderful children's website, gocitykids.com, (highly recommended) emailed her colleagues across the country in her anger and upset over the stolen items. Before the sun had set on that same day, the UPS delivery man was at the door with children's gifts. My friend's colleagues from across the country whom she had never met arranged for her boy to receive gifts at Chanukah. Moreover, they sent an email asking our friend to choose from either a selection of video cameras or a virtually endless supply of children's books from Barnes & Noble.

Last night we lit the third candle and sang two blessings. The second one praises G-d who "made miracles in their days (of the Maccabees) and in our days." Who says that miracles great enough to bring tears of joy to our eyes do not still occur everyday?