| A Passover Thought - 9 April 2023 |
| One part of the haggadah which gets relatively little attention is a paragraph in the magid section that is centered on three verses from chapter 24 of the book of Joshua: ב וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוֹשֻׁעַ אֶל-כָּל-הָעָם, כֹּה-אָמַר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, בְּעֵבֶר הַנָּהָר יָשְׁבוּ אֲבוֹתֵיכֶם מֵעוֹלָם, תֶּרַח אֲבִי אַבְרָהָם וַאֲבִי נָחוֹר; וַיּ . . .(more) |
| Back in Sri Lanka - 19 January 2023 |
| I’m back in Sri Lanka, and for the first time Avi has come along. We are having a great time, and I’m enjoying sharing my favorite places and things with her. We are now in Kandy, the main city in the highlands. It’s a very lively place, and I always find it exciting. Yesterday we took a walk around the beautiful lake in the center of town. On the way we saw a couple of kabaragoyas, Asian water monitors. This one was several feet long. There were also turtles sunnin . . .(more) |
| Birthday in Jerusalem - 22 November 2022 |
| Last week I returned home from a month in Jerusalem. As in recent years (except during the enforced absence due to Covid), I spent mornings learning Talmud at the Conservative Yeshiva, where the reception from the students and teachers was particularly warm. Before getting on the bus to the Yeshiva there was time for a cappuccino and croissant at one of the neighborhood coffee houses, and to practice my Hebrew I also bought a novel and started reading it. Avi joined me for . . .(more) |
| A Linguistic Note - 5 November 2022 |
| I am in Jerusalem, where the weather is cool, and the fall rains have just begun. After a thunderstorm one day, I saw this snail making his way very slowly across the sidewalk. I asked someone how to say “snail” in Hebrew and found that the term is שבלול shablul. (The word first occurs in the Bible in Psalm 58.) And then later the same day I discovered that pastries like cinnamon rolls are also called shablulim because they are shaped a bit like snail shells. . . .(more) |
| Morning in Philadelphia - 13 October 2022 |
| I'm enjoying a visit with Tamar and family in Philadelphia. I took a nice run this morning on the busy path that follows the Schuylkill river. When I got back, it was just starting to rain and the morning routine was getting going. First, we walked down the street to drop off Adira at her school. Along the way she greeted some of her many friends in the neighborhood. Then back at home Alby and Sherlock settled down on the couch for the first nap of the day, w . . .(more) |
| Dvar Torah for Parashat Ki Tavo - 19 September 2022 |
| This d’var Torah is short. It begins with a Buddhist tale, continues with a Hassidic tale, and concludes with a few words about the meaning of a song that many of us are familiar with. The Buddhist tale is called the Wannupatha Jathakaya. Here is a brief version of it: Long ago, when Brahmadatta was king in the city of Benares, there was a merchant. He would travel far and wide, and return home with goods to sell. One time h . . .(more) |
| Another Family Weekend and Another August Second - 31 July 2022 |
| Eight years ago our family got together for a summer weekend in the country. It's become an annual tradition that we observed over the last few days. This year's weekend was wonderful, with lots of swimming, walking, eating, playing games, and most of all, talking. This was, as always, one of the highlights of my year. Something that impressed me especially this time was how, even though in the course of the year we are able to spend so little time all together, it still feel . . .(more) |
| Studying Languages - 13 July 2022 |
| From the age of four until the end of junior high school I attended the Northern Illinois University Laboratory School, a small school where many of the students were, like me, children of faculty members. Despite the name of the school, most of the curriculum was not experimental (the exception was math, where we spent most of our time learning Venn diagrams, rather than doing actual arithmetic). But one unusual feature was French class. In fourth grade we started with twenty minutes a day o . . .(more) |
| Chester - 12 May 2022 |
| I’ve been enjoying a few days as a tourist in Chester, a beautiful and fascinating town in England. The city originated when the Romans picked this little hill near the mouth of the River Dee to be the headquarters of one of their legions. They laid out the camp according to their regular plan, and the streets of today still follow the arrangement of that Roman camp. The walls also partly follow the course of those that surrounded the Roman camp, and you can walk around the ci . . .(more) |
| Ulysses' Photo Albums - 6 March 2022 |
| My granddaughter chased a dancing leaf that autumn winds made fly. Before it dropped she turned and found another game, But I pursued and caught it so that now between some quarters and a mound of pebbles there it rests upon my dresser top. Old Tennyson’s old king speaks to me now as never in the past. There’s nothing strange in that because my seventh decade nearly has its hand upon my shoulder. I like him have been . . .(more) |
| Animals of SL - 30 January 2022 |
| I’m back in Sri Lanka after two years away, and enjoying it very much. However, the country is suffering from a number of problems, and though the omicron surge is just getting started here, that is not the most worrisome difficulty. Among the most serious problems are these: For some years the country has been carrying out infrastructure projects that it couldn’t afford, and in the process has become seriously indebted to China. They are now practically at t . . .(more) |
| The Nine Point Nine Percent - 15 December 2021 |
| I just finished reading a book by Matthew Stewart called The 9.9 Percent, The New Aristocracy that is Entrenching Inequality and Warping our Culture. He covers a lot of ground and makes a lot of good points, though most of them are not new. It makes sense to me, and resonates with some things I’ve been thinking. The 9.9% he refers to are the upper middle class, who he feels are benefitting from a political and economic system that is mainly in the service of the 0.1% - the really r . . .(more) |
| Thanksgiving 2021 - 29 November 2021 |
| I had a great Thanksgiving. All three of my daughters were here, and there were eleven people sleeping at my house - a new record! The chaos was delightful. Reva came for the day on Thursday, too. We had the usual enormous gathering at Louis's house, and then the next night a big meal at my house, as well. There were seventeen people around my table, also a new record for a non-Passover meal. Meals were cooked, coffee was drunk, games were played, puzzles . . .(more) |
| Another Birthday - 10 November 2021 |
| Another year has flashed by, and I am sixty-seven years old. I have nothing profound to say about this event, but I am happy to report that I am still learning new things every day. I count myself a fortunate man, and I am very grateful. |
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