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Rabbi Bachman's Blog |
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Ideas
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a day in the life of rabbi andy bachman building community at congregation beth elohim in brooklyn
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But Tree
Omer Day Twenty-Two
The cooler weather today in Brooklyn has one literally davenning for those steamy days of summer and yet the air is so fresh that it directs the mind toward the visual reality of springtime and the results are rather entertaining.
Today, while watching a softball game in Prospect Park, the wind, sun and clouds [...]
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Moments of Truth
Omer Day Twenty-One
The resilience of age.
I wonder how old Akiva was when he said, “Everything is foreseen, yet freedom of choice is granted.”
Did he have the confidence of youth or the wisdom of old age?
I had this in mind this morning when I went to do a baby naming for a revered family in the [...]
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Toward an Aesthetic of Obligation
Omer Day Twenty
Last night, while walking to Shul to welcome Shabbat, I had this idea that maybe the next idea for liberal Jews will be about building the language of obligation into the lives of non-orthodox Jews. It may appear to be counter-intuitive.
After all, Reform Judaism, for example, was born of the [...]
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Relief for Burma
Omer Day Nineteen
Relief Efforts for Burma
One of the worst humanitarian disasters in years is unfolding in Burma, in the aftermath of a devastating cyclone that tore through the country. Nearly 100,000 people are presumed dead, tens of thousands remain missing, and one million are homeless. This terribly tragic situation has been amplified by [...]
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Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk
Omer Day Eighteen, continued
Rabbi Dan Bronstein and humorist Ben Greenman exchange some pretty essential information on the New Yorker website, about Sony’s long-anticipated release of 3 Stooges DVDs and digital downloads at iTunes.
Omer relevance?
You try schlepping 49 days in the desert without a schpritz of seltzer to move things along!
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Hope: The Big Picture
Omer Day Eighteen
Yom Ha’Atzmaut: Israel’s Independence Day
The twentieth century for world Jewry was one of the most traumatizing and triumphant centuries of our long and dramatic existence. It began with the dislocation of millions of Jews from pogroms and anti-Semitism in the Pale of Settlement and toward the promise of freedom in America, [...]
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The Hope from the Slope
Omer Day Seventeen
The American synagogue is a place where many rituals of American Jewish life take place: the bris, the baby naming, the bat mitzvah, the funeral, and the discussion about Israel. Each of these has a form and structure of its own; and each, by design, is meant to lead one somewhere–to [...]
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How Old Would You Be Today?
Omer Day Seventeen
For the second time in a week, a member of the Congregation over the age of 80 has come into my office asking about going on the next CBE trip to Israel.
Last winter, 36 members of our community traveled together, traversing the country from the north to the south, steeped in history, culture, [...]
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Emily Berger at Painting Center; Eric Pesso at BWAC
Omer Day Sixteen
CBE member, trustee, and social activist Emily Berger is also a painter and her beautiful works will be on display at the Painting Center beginning May 20.
This piece, Nightwatch,
gives an eery and moving sense of the challenges we often face when searching for light–it isn’t always as readily available to us as [...]
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The Altar of Goodness
Omer Day Fifteen
Rabbi Akiva said, “All is foreseen; yet free choice is granted. The world is judged with grace; yet all is according to the predominance of the deeds.” (Pirke Avot, 3.15)
Here is another opportunity to explore the spiritual discipline, if you will, of the Omer period.
Maimonides explains that Akiva was attempting to [...]
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