Category Archives: Memory
Faithfully Practicing Resurrection
The bedtime stories my father told me in our cramped apartment in the gritty Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn sketched a magical, mythical place… [even] the darker stories about hiding from the Cossacks among the tombstones… I needed to get to … Continue reading
Posted in Memory, Poetry
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Sinai’s Appealing Thunder
I will not float in space un-tethered lest a cloud obscure the very fine line in my heart that separates good and evil. I have no life-line without the lightning and the thunder that I heard at Sinai. (Click here … Continue reading
Posted in Holidays, Memory, Midrash, Poetry
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Never Too Early, Never Too Late
On the 9th anniversary of my father’s death— It seemed to some ancient sages that the Book of Ezekiel opens years after the start of the prophet’s career. Instead of beginning in the fifth year of the exile of King … Continue reading
Posted in Events, Life cycle, Memory, Midrash, Poetry
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Monumental Presence
(In memory of Talia Agler) The solace of a gravestone is its solidity—a feature carried in the Hebrew word matzevah, meaning “firmly fixed.” But a gravestone need not merely be a solid surface that reflects the past. It can be … Continue reading
Noah’s Flood: Outer Landscape and Inner World
An ancient sage and a modern poet, each named Yehuda, give different life to the images of the biblical flood story. The terrain of the flooded world reminded the 4th century sage, Rabbi Yehuda ben Simon, of Psalm 36:7: Your … Continue reading
Posted in Memory, Parshat HaShavuah, Poetry
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The World is Filled with Remembering and Forgetting
In the world of the Bible, memory is prized. There are many commands to “remember,” and some, “not to forget” along with the resigned admission that you likely will forget. The need to remember and remind is a theme that … Continue reading
Posted in Days of Awe, Holidays, Memory, Names, Poetry
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