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Guest Post: The Five Best Pieces of Fiction Dealing with Judaism
Interested in reading some fiction that depicts Judaism in a realistic and interesting way? Check out these five fantastic novels. f The Chosen by Chaim Potok The story of Danny Saunders and Reuven Malters follows the friendship of two Jewish boys living in Brooklyn after World War II. Read More »
How A Heart Can Be So Big
u The words, and the context brought tears to my eyes. There are blessings and there are blessings. This one came from the heart and entered the heart: “I wish you the best year of your life in every way. Read More »
Haiku, Poem, Me
; Every message is a message in a message Spoken unspoken ————————————————— For David (after psalm 27) Did anyone before you ever say “G-d is my light?” I doubt it And if they did, they didn’t say “and my salvation” Read More »
Like Riding a Bike, Childhood Never Leaves Us
. Soon, teaching. I can’t believe that it’s been 5 years since I last taught the start of Breishit. On the other hand it feels like yesterday that my colleague Rachel Besser (she should live and be well) (I wonder if that bet with Donny is still on) Read More »
“Clean favored, and imperially slim” (click)
d I’m in the first quarter of Christine Lavin’s autobiography, Cold Pizza for Breakfast. She’s a good writer. In college she had a lively friend named Vickie who she lost touch with. A few years after university she tried to get her on the phone and the number she dialed found her with Vickie’s mother on the other line. Read More »
“This Book I Just Wanted To Go Quietly”
Tonight I read a poem by Stephen Dunn called “The Book and I.” It starts like this: Already I lived in an unmanaged world – from a book I needed something different. And along the way it wouldn’t hurt, I kept thinking, if I could please, please, be enthralled. Read More »
My Take On Essa Einai
? אֶשָּׂא עֵינַי אֶל הֶהָרִים – מֵאַיִן יָבֹא עֶזְרִי . עֶזְרִי מֵעִם יְהוָה – עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ “I will lift my eyes to the mountains – from where (literally, from no where) will my help come? My help comes from G-d, creator of heaven and earth. Read More »
Inyanei DeYoma: Link Heaven Revisited
My soul yearns for G-dMore than watchmenWait for the morningMore than watchmenWait for the morning (translation from Metzuda machzor ) k A Pre R”H Thought. On the role of happiness in this season. Check out this vort from Lavender garden. Let’s plan before to hold on after. Post R”H Thoughts From Two years Back . Read More »
I Found This to be 200% True
Lost In Electronica Read More »
Thoughts From The Book Store Floor
I am hungry. I wish I meant that in some deep metaphorical way, and that would probably be true and that’s all fine and good. But what I mean to say is that it’s 8: 30 and I had a light lunch and one and I could use some fuel. And yet I’m sitting in the poetry aisle of Barnes and Noble. Read More »
What’s Your Struggle?
Summer break was nine full weeks. There was a beginning , a middle , and an end. Each three week section also had a beginning, middle, and end. This is the beginning of the last full week of the end of vacation. Imagine the following: There’s a mountain you must climb. Read More »
Let It Be Forgotten
BY SARA TEASDALE l Let it be forgotten, as a flower is forgotten, Forgotten as a fire that once was singing gold, Let it be forgotten for ever and ever, Time is a kind friend, he will make us old. g If anyone asks, say it was forgotten Long and long ago, As a flower, as a fire, as a hushed footfall In a long forgotten snow. Read More »
Shavuah Tov
One of my favorite divrei Torah is the commentary the Baruch She’Amar’s take on the mishnah which says that if two people sit and there are no words of Torah exchanged then they are considered leitzim – scoffers. He notes that it doesn’t say that they have to talk Torah as their main topic, rather that Torah should come up in the conversation. Read More »
Pre Shabbos Thoughts – Ellul/Ki Teitzei 5770
Six days and ten posts ago I said that I was going to try to not write till my book was done. I’ve tapered off a bit on the blogging and made progress on the book. I have about ninety haiku in, all transliteration and Jewish terms out, a lot of G-d, am still debating points. Read More »
All Who Are Touched By Death
M aybe it’s for the dead O r maybe for the living U nderstanding what it is feels impossible R ight now I am in it, yet don’t know what it is N ever think it won’t happen to you I somehow believed that N eeds: ours, theirs, G-d’s – which are real? G -d please help all who are touched by death. Read More »
Arthur Miller’s Secret Son
See comments for article. Read More »
One Of The Better Of The Pop Emails I’ve Received
A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small Texas town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on. As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. Read More »
Tonight’s Fortune Cookie Message
“If I bring forth what is inside me, what I bring forth will save me.” Read More »
Her Lips Speak From The Grave
dwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Aug 4, 2006 Dear Neil, I really wish you’d see about getting your poetry published. Read More »
Hearing a Hollow Echo He Hesitated
p I just discovered rules and pointers about haiku on shadowpoetry .com. The article discusses showing versus telling, and I can’t imagine a better example of two similar haiku, one that gets it right and one that missteps. Read More »
What Color Is Your Life?
Just got home from Shabbos , fed the horse, parked the buggy. I filled in for a Shul rabbi at Shaloshudes , filling in for another next week. It could be a good gig, filling in for vacationing rabbis during August. I am feeling down on the blog at the moment. Read More »
Kum La’asot Retzon Borei/HaMelech BeSadeh
g For a parsha piece on Shoftim that I’m fond of, written all in haiku, click here . For another short Shoftim thought- on what it means to be tamim and another about judges – see here . Read More »
Reciting L’Dovid Hashem Ohri (Click For Link To Audio Shiur)
The following talk of Rabbi Dr. Shnayer Leiman was listened to and adapted into writing in memory of my dear mother Freida Maryam bat Binyamin Maneleh . The Mishnah Berurah (TK ”PA) writes that (in his part of Europe ) it’s a minhag to say LeDovid Hashem Ohri (27)from Rosh Chodesh Ellul through Sukkos . Read More »
My Uncle From Oz
Today’s google logo, what they call their doodle, pays tribute to The Wizard of Oz. It’s an easy free association for me, that movie leads right to Uncle Sig. The third photo above was obtained from the website of Jeffrey Pidgeon . Jeffrey, I believe, correctly identifies and describes my great uncle. Read More »
During my five year sojourn in Israel I bought this picture for my mother (ZL ) and father (HSLABW
During my five year sojourn in Israel I bought this picture for my mother (ZL ) and father (HSLABW ). The artist’s name was Bar Ami, I believe. He was Israeli but had spent some time living in Riverdale . His work, to me is amazing. He uses pesukim in small letters to make a picture that relates to the text. Read More »
3 Late Afternoon Haiku
We’re dodging bulletsSo close to the borderlineYet nobody bleedsWhat does happy mean?My grandparents never thoughtAbout such a wordDo we believe inAnything besides ourselvesOr even that much? Read More »
13 Haiku of the Day
f What does laughter mean? We exit for a moment Return healthier What does friendship mean? I need you to define it Can’t do this alone There’s almost no space between this world and the next my poems, my breath I have strabismus Worry about my Read More »
And Yet Is A Full Sentence
This summer, in my mind, I broke the break down into nine weeks (full -not part, no meetings). That means that there are three sections made up of three weeks each, forming the beginning middle and end of summer vacation. There are three full weeks during which I don’t have to go in to work. I went in last week, but it doesn’t count. Read More »
You Have A Lot Of Explaining To Do
1 – Is it just me? In my mind there’s something profound about how when you drop something it often ends up so far away from where you expected it to be. Explain why you agree or disagree. 2 – James Taylor said the secret of life in enjoying the passage of time. Read More »
In The Order In Which They Were Written
lp I’m writing a book So are you, and he, and she The book of our lives The hat on the desk Made an impression on me And still it remains My Chasidic rebbe’s hat Between us back in high school What is that saying About playing with fire? I can’t Read More »
Re’eh: On Explaining Events With Certainty
Devarim 11: 29 speaks of the mountains, one of blessing, one of curse. Many like to point to these two mountains today and note that one is plush and the other barren. However, Rav Shimshon Pincus cites the Gemorah in Sotah which says that these were not two mountains, but two mounds of ash. Read More »
Story of the Day
The group in charge of increasing the enrollment in gehenna, or hell, was discussing ways to get more people to sin. One suggested encouraging them to steal. But the others all protested that the laws against theft were too strict and not enough people would sin by stealing. Another suggested encouraging people to lie. Read More »
Rabbi Shalom Rosner on Re’eh 5770, Adapted By Rabbi Neil Fleischmann: We Are All Individuals
f ” Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse” (Devarim 11: 26) In the Hebrew there is a contradiction withing this verse. Read More »
Haiku, Contest, Jokes, Inyanei DeYomah
There’s a scene in The Sunshine Boys in which Walter Mathau’s character has a hard time opening a door and his nephew tells him to jiggle and not force it. That popped in my head and this came out: Wiggle, don’t force it True about sticky locked doors and true about life g I went in to work today. Nice people. Nice place. Read More »
Pre Prayer
I recall years ago at my holy place of employment,the yeshiva I am blessed to teach in, a senior rebbe turned to me as we were both on computers before davening , “Is this mutar ?” Early morning prep is popular as evidenced by how hard it is to get use of a copy machine at 7: 30 AM. That’s when there’s a lot of email checking and test finishing. Read More »
Unnamed
Name the elephant Call him Phil, Bob, anything Just don’t name him Neil Read More »
A Light Poem
Too many candles Walking the streets all alone While the darkness thrives Read More »
H.o.t.d.
As for me, I’d sooner write a thousand poems than organize two. Read More »
A Sigh Post
Right after my mom died, seven months ago (sigh), I bought a book called The Neshama Should Have An Aliyah. I bought a bunch of books relating to the sudden inyanei deyoma . This one has a particular focus, though it is at the same time broad and practical. Read More »
Seeking Physical Relief and Reward
It is not unusual for people to share with me their pain, their secrets, their complaints against G-d. This is an honor. Being with people in hard times is sad, and yet it is a rich and meaningful time of connection. It is my inclination as a person, and as a rabbi, to stick up for G-d, and to believe that things are the way they are meant to be. Read More »
Guest Post
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 Go Team! By Rabbi Pesach Sommer Warning: I will be using guilt, persuasion and thought to get those of you who do not regularly exercise to start.I never saw a serious relay race until last week. As I watched the race at various checkpoints, I noticed something incredible. Read More »
Sun Dried Thoughts
I love Shlomo Carlebach’s vort that sometimes someone wants you to reach out to them, but when you do they run away. Most people let it go at that. The secret to consoling someone who craves comforting is to come back a second (third?) time. Reb Shlomo teased this idea out of Yirmiyahu’s ” nachamu ,” folled again by ” nachamu . Read More »
