Tag: Jew

  • Tuna fish and such

    “Tuna fish” is redundant. “Tuna” “Do you mean the fish?” You don’t have to do that with “German Shepherd.” “We should have said, ‘German Shepherd Dog.’ That’s how we ended up with Hanz chained up in the backyard. Well, you can’t leave them loose after two world wars. And wouldn’t you know it, they don’t…

  • Boundaries & Birds

    Hi Friends, Hello from FCI Miami where the geese and birds had babies and are training them around the lake. It’s pretty cute, and an unexpected joy to watch. A few quick Torah thoughts for this week: I’ve been learning Bava Bathra (Basra), a tractate of Talmud that deals largely with architectural & civil planning…

  • “Manning Up”

    A strange set of stories introduce us to Israel’s greatest prophet and leader in this week’s Parsha, Exodus: “It happened in those days that Moses grew up and went out to his bretheren and observed their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man, from his brethren. He turned (faced) this way…

  • It’s a pleasant torture

    A friend here, Martin, was chatting with me and said his mom was always asking him, “What trouble is you trying to get out of”? It occurred to me, what if she’d asked him, “What are you trying to get into?” Are you trying to get into business? A healthy relationship? School? A nicer community?…

  • In the Image of the Creator

    I have been thinking a lot about hunger lately, because I’m often hungry here. The kosher meals, cheap TV dinners full of soy, sodium, and fillers, are calorie-short, even if you could eat all of them. They are frequently moldy or full of melted or broken bits of plastic. I kept a log for a…

  • Judaism through new eyes

    Shavua Tov. This was a laid-back Shabbat with some nice highlights. “Bek” (Dennis Gogel), the German soldier who discovered he’s Jewish in prison, attended Friday night services and got his first Aliyah to the Torah (being called up to the Torah) this morning. I was leining (reading the Torah), and it was super nice to…