Seasons of Love

The People of Israel Live: The October 7 pogrom opened an old Pandora’s box. The questions asked about G-d during the Holocaust and through our long history of persecutions were raised again on that black day. 

Where was G-d? Where was His infinite mercy in our moment of need? And why do we keep talking to Him even when He doesn’t seem to be responding?

As we approach Yom Kippur, our Day of Atonement, these are questions that we Jews all over the world are asking now, have always been asking, and will be asking until the arrival of the Messiah. And perhaps afterward.

Lubavitch International Editor-in-Chief Baila Olidort offers one response.

Editorial: The People of Israel Live

By Baila Olidort

It was a sunny, balmy day when I visited the site of the Nova Festival, and the Nahal Oz army base several months ago. As we stood in the charred remains of the observation room, where the young IDF heroines on duty on the morning of October 7 were burnt alive, a rabbi recited the Kaddish. 

The place was a charcoal shell, soot, ashes and the smell of smoke still filling the air. I heard myself uttering the plea–which we now say every day in the prayers between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur: Avinu Malkeinu, our Father or King, avenge the spilt blood of your servants. 

It reminded me of my visit to Poland some years back when I walked through the barracks and stood speechless at the ovens in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. The earth outside was covered in a carpet of fresh green grass, as if to conceal what happened there, as if to silence the voices of the murdered millions who continue to call out. 

But I heard. I heard their voices “crying out from the ground.” The sun was setting, the buses were leaving, but I couldn’t tear myself away. I owe them, I thought, as their unheeded cries thrummed in my head.

The October 7 pogrom opened an old pandora’s box. The questions asked about G-d during the Holocaust and through our long history of persecutions were raised again on that black day. Where was G-d? Where was His infinite mercy in our moment of need? 

Yet at the funerals of all the murdered, mourners chanted the Kaddish: Yitgadal v’Yitkadash Shmei Rabbah they said while burying their loved ones who were slaughtered when no one came to their help. 

The prayer extolls G-d’s greatness. Although confused by what felt like His absence, I too found myself crying out to Him to avenge the spilt blood of our people. 

A year later, when hostages are still being held and Israel continues to fight for its life, I am not sure how to understand this. 

How do we understand the Jews of the Shoah who went to their deaths with the Ani Maamin–”I believe”–on their lips? What was this declaration of faith about? Why do we keep talking to Him even when He doesn’t seem to be responding? We deeply want to keep Him in our lives, to maintain our bond with Him even when we feel He fails us. Why?

I am not the first to wrestle with this question and I won’t be the last to accept that it remains unresolved–that I cannot plumb the depths of the mystery around this relationship, and around the unrelenting faith that the Jewish people continue to avow in times of great darkness and profound uncertainty. 

Just listen to the songs Israelis have been singing in recent months, and again on October 7. 

The lyrics are optimistic, promising that Israel will prevail. They are about our unshakable faith in G-d and His unbreakable covenant with us, his eternal people. About our strength to withstand all the attempts to destroy us. 

One song that has become wildly popular since October 7 declares the eternal survival of Israel: “For even in our highs and lows and in our most difficult hours, Hashem watches over us and none can overcome us . . . The people of Israel live.” 

On the first anniversary of October 7, I listened to Israeli radio. All through the night, every individual who was killed in this attack was named, talked about and remembered. 

That’s how it is in Israel–every person counts, every death leaves a vacuum. The void is therefore huge, with Israel in profound mourning. And even as it mourns, it is pursued by persistent, powerful and ruthless attempts to annihilate us. 

Why haven’t we given up? What is it that keeps the people of Israel going against an avalanche of evil bent on destroying us?

The late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks considered this question. 

He suggested that perhaps it is not certainty that defines our faith, but the courage to live in its absence. 

Maybe that is why, as ravaged as Israel was by the October 7 massacre and the subsequent attacks, its people have become stronger, not weaker, more determined, not hopeless. 

Going into Yom Kippur, it is good to know that even as our questions stand in all their fullness, we are right to deepen our conversation with G-d. 

For it is especially in the great uncertainty of our time that this mysterious reservoir that we call faith makes it possible for us to gain and grow. Maybe this explains how we carry on instead of caving in, and why the brutal and barbarous enemies that surround us on all sides fail always to crush us.

Am Yisrael Chai. 

May the Jewish nation be inscribed and sealed
in the book of life and peace. 

 And then there was this surprise from NYC's Park Avenue Synagogue.

Park Avenue Synagogue introduced a new practice during Rosh Hashanah to mark the end of a Jewish year that included the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7 and the war and turmoil that has followed: 

A cohort of Broadway performers sang “Seasons of Love” from the popular rock musical “Rent” on the bimah. The performance took place during services on Thursday, Oct. 3, the first day of Rosh Hashanah. 

According to Cantor Azi Schwartz, it was the first time Park Avenue Synagogue hosted Broadway performers on the bimah during High Holidays. He told the New York Jewish Week that he wanted to tell the congregation that 

“Broadway can be your home, the sanctuary at Park Avenue can be your home and Judaism is your home — and they all exist together.” 

“Our year has been filled with sorrow and strife. How can we celebrate? How can we kvetch, knowing the pain of the hour? Our response, authentically, is by way of love, seasons of the love,” 

said the congregation’s senior rabbi, Elliot Cosgrove, introducing the performers as they began singing from the back of the room, making their way to the bimah. 

Cleared for Publication

A Poem: By Israeli poet Dael Rodrigues Garcia. Translated by Michael Bohnen, Heather Silverman, and Rachel Korazim. One of two poems read by historian and writer Simon Schama at the London October 7th Memorial.

* Announcers on TV and radio say this before reading the names of the soldiers killed on a given day. It means the families know already. The word hutar is used here and in the line referring to “open season."

**Hidden places: The poet noted that this is a reference to a Talmudic discussion of Jeremiah13:17 “If you do not heed this, my soul will cry in hidden places because of pride.” Our sages explained that God has a hidden chamber where He weeps for Israel’s pride which was taken from it and given to other nations. The sages questioned the presence of weeping, since I Chronicles 16:27 says that “it is joyful in His place. They explained that the innermost chambers are for hidden weeping, while in the outer chambers there is no weeping. Talmud Hagigah 5b.

Rosh Hashanah 5785

Dip Your Apple In The Honey: It's Rosh Hashanah! And, as we begin a New Jewish Year, please remember - as Rabbi Adam Rosenbaum of Denver, CO; of Livingston, NJ; and now, once again, of Charleston, SC has taught us -

There is hope for the world.
There is hope for your life.
The way it is now is not the way it must be. 

Abq Jew warmly invites you to check out
this now-classic Rosh Hashanah hit from 5772:

Dip Your Apple!

by The Fountainheads of Ein Prat

No apples, pomegranates, babies, or smartphones

were harmed in the filming of this video.

Please don't feed babies honey.

===============================

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Abq Jew knows (and knows you know), are special times for our Jewish hearts, minds, and souls.

The Ein Prat Fountainheads have - as always! - touched our hearts. Now, here is something that will touch our minds and souls.

From My Jewish Learning's Perspectives on Avinu Malkenu:

Inscribe Us Five Times 

“Our Father, our King, inscribe us in a book.” 

The five petitions of “Inscribe us in a book” correspond to the Five Books of Moses.

The first, “Inscribe us in the book of happy life” corresponds to the Book of Genesis, in which the creation of all things, meaning life, is spoken of.  

The second, “Inscribe us in the book of redemption and salvation” corre­sponds to the Book of Exodus, which speaks of the redemp­tion from Egypt. 

“Inscribe us in the book of maintenance and sustenance” corresponds to the Book of Leviticus, which speaks of the holy sacrifices and thank-offerings, for the es­sence of sustenance must be in holiness.  

“Inscribe us in the book of aiding merit” corresponds to the Book of Numbers, which speaks of the Twelve Tribes that camped near their standards, every tribe being a Chariot to its root, that is to say, to the patriarchs, because of whose aiding merit we are alive. 

“Inscribe us in the book of forgiveness and pardon” corresponds to the Book of Deuteronomy, in which Moses our master upbraids Israel for all they did that was wrong, and which contains the scriptural portion of teshuvah (repentance), by means of which we merit forgiveness and pardon.

– From Uziel Meisel’s “Tiferet Uziel.” Reprinted from S. Y. Agnon’s anthology “Days of Awe,” published by Schocken Books

And Abq Jew points you toward The Blogs of The Times of Israel, where -

• Gary Epstein has posted Compromise is Overrated: Give War a Chance; and 
• Jonathan Muskat has posted Rosh Hashana in the Shadow of Tragedy: Balancing Fear and Joy Amid Uncertainty.

L'Shana Tova Tikatevu –
May you be inscribed for a good year!

Something About Rhode Island

And Pagers: Well. Mr & Mrs Abq Jew have just returned from a delightful visit to Rhode Island, the Ocean State, where (see July's Our House) members of their now-wonderfully-extended family do cheerfully reside.

And still others reside, just as cheerfully, drivably (yes, that's really how you spell it) close.

Rhode Island, for those of you who have only flown over (it doesn't take long!) on your way to Boston, has many islands - but is not, in itself, an island. It is the smallest US state by area, and the seventh-least populous. It is also the second-most densely populated state, after New Jersey.

Having many islands and beaucoup waterways, Rhode Island is a natural breeding ground for bridges. At least one of them, the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge (see photo above), is gorgeous. 

Want to see even more beautiful bridges?
See January 2020's The Bridges of Christian Menn.

And then there's the Washington Bridge, which carries I-195 traffic to and from Providence, the state capital. Actually a rather nice-looking bridge. However -

Washington Bridge has fallen down, or is in extreme danger of so doing. So it's sorta closed, causing traffic tie-ups for other ways around Providence. The state recently called for bids to tear down and replace Washington Bridge; there were no bidders.

No blog post, Wikipedia entry, or other piece of writing about Rhode Island would be complete without mention of Roger Williams, a refugee who in 1636 fled religious perseecution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and founded Providence on land purchased from local tribes.

And boy, could he play the piano! Williams had 22 hit singles – including the chart-topping "Autumn Leaves" in 1955 and "Born Free" in 1966 – and 38 hit albums between 1955 and 1972.

Anyway, here is a nice song about Rhode Island, written and performed by Timmy May. With lyrics, so we all can sing along.

And here is the official (since 1996) state song of Rhode Island. The lyrics are by Charlie Hall, and the music was written by Maria Day. Once more - we can all sing along!

NOTE: The song "Miles and Miles of Texas," famously recorded
by famous country-western band Asleep At The Wheel,
was originally intended to be about Rhode Island.
It was titled (but not entitled) "Yards and Yards of Rhode Island,"
and had noticably fewer verses that its successor hit.

In what Abq Jew had intended to be the closing of this blog post, here is an image of Rhode Island's state flag.

The flag of the state of Rhode Island, Wikipedia tells us, is white and consists of a gold anchor in the center (a symbol for hope) surrounded by thirteen gold stars (for the original Thirteen Colonies and Rhode Island's status as the 13th state to ratify the Constitution). 

A blue ribbon below the anchor
bears the state's motto in gold:
HOPE

Hope is something we can all use more of, it currently being in short supply with regard to The State Of The World. And then came "Operation Below the Belt," according to many observers (but not according to participants)

One of the greatest intelligence operations in history.

Memes, you want? The Internet generated abput eighteen zillion of them, a curated selection of which can be found in Abq Jew's friend Jacob Richman' s website, right here.

In closing - really! - Abq Jew calls your attention to the attention-grabbing headline in The Washington Post, which Abq Jew read as

Deli owner knew of problems before
ship hit Baltimore bridge, U.S. alleges

Abq Jew figured they must be talking about his beloved new relative-by-marriage Shawn Margolis, the (former) owner of Sig's Place, which recently closed after operating for over twelve years in Middletown and almost ninety years on Aquidneck Island.

But no! The actual headline, Abq Jew only later realized, was 

Dali owner knew of problems before
ship hit Baltimore bridge, U.S. alleges

and was, appropriately, about the container ship that recently hit Baltimore's Key Bridge. But - as long as we're talking about delis - Abq Jew cheerfully brings your attention to the about-to-be-real kosher (of course)

This blog post shows what and how much
can be accomplished just one day after
receiving Covid and Shingrex shots. Oy.

What, Me Worry?

The Alfred E Neuman Show: Now that summer, by which Abq Jew means school's out summer vacation, officially ended in America over Labor Day weekend - if it hadn't ended in your community already - Abq Jew would like to remind you that

What, Me Worry?

The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine

the Norman Rockwell Museum's exhibit will continue in Stockbridge, MA (yes, that's in the beautiful Berkshires; see September 2019's The Night the Well Ran Dry) until October 27th ONLY. That's right after Simchat Torah, so you should plan accordingly.

Or, as Editor of Jewish Stuff Andrew Silow-Carroll recently wrote for JTA -

Americana meets meshuggeneh at a museum exhibit about MAD magazine

There’s a delightful “what if” moment at the start of “What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine,” a new exhibit at the Norman Rockwell Museum here. 

In 1964, MAD commissioned Rockwell himself to paint a portrait of Alfred E. Neuman, the humor magazine’s gap-toothed mascot, as he might have looked in real life. Correspondence featured in the exhibit suggests that Rockwell — grand master of gentle, folksy, even cornball Americana — was close to signing on with what MAD called its “usual gang of idiots”: goofball masters of sophomoric, anti-establishment satire.

In the end, Rockwell turned down the offer. “I think I better back out of this one,” he wrote. “After talking with you, and my wife who has a lot more sense than I have, I feel that making a more realistic definitive portrait just wouldn’t do. I hate to be a quitter, but I’m afraid we would all get in a mess.”

We didn’t lose just a marriage of comic sensibilities, but of ethnic ones: the “goyish” and the Jewish, mid-20th century style. Rockwell’s world is full of farmers and fishermen, country folk and small-town shopkeepers. 

MAD seemed to have been born on the Lower East Side, come of age in the Bronx, and found its voice somewhere between Brooklyn and Broadway.

And as the exhibit makes clear, that impression is not far off.... 

All right - the article appeared way back in July, as the summer was just getting started and you may not have had vacation plans yet. 

But Abq Jew is just getting around to it because ... well, just because. In any event (but specifically for this event), ASC tells us -

This Jewish sensibility abounds in the “What, Me Worry?” exhibit (whose name comes from Neuman’s catch-phrase). In a parody of “High Noon” from an early issue, a cowboy sings, “Do not forsake me oh-mah-dollink” in Yiddish dialect. In a later “Dick Tracy” lampoon, Al Pacino’s character, “Big Boy” in the original movie, becomes “Big Goy.” 

A parody of “Funny Lady,” the 1975 sequel to “Funny Girl,” mocks Barbra Streisand’s take on Fanny Brice’s put-on Yiddish accent. “With that ‘Jewish’ routine, I think she’s killing Vaudeville,” says one audience-member. “Yeah,” says another, “but she’s adding new life to Anti-Semitism!”

 

The apotheosis of this deeply ethnic, self-mocking and even self-protective Jewish voice is found in the 1973 parody of “Fiddler on the Roof.” Titled “Antenna on the Roof,” it’s represented in the exhibit by the original cover painting of Neuman as the fiddler. 

Drucker and writer Frank Jacobs set the musical in a tinseled, clearly Jewish suburb, and changed the Sholem Aleichem adaptation into an angry indictment of Jewish assimilation.

“Now that we’ve seen the Mess you’ve made,” the villagers of Anatevka sing to a cast of nouveau riche Jews, “We’re afraid God wants back his melting pot!” It’s an entire Philip Roth novel in a seven-page comic.

Did you grow up MAD? 

Abq Jew did - in Valley Stream (see June 2023's Let's Twist Again!), although it's almost too long ago (BC = Before California) for him to remember.

Six Funerals and a Wedding

Rachel Weeps: There is little that Abq Jew can add to the sorrow, anger, and pain we are all feeling this week - as the Jewish World sits shiva.

From our JCRC-NM:

Dear Friends, 

The Jewish Community Relations Coalition of New Mexico is devastated at the news that Hamas has killed more than six hostages, among them the American Hersh Goldberg-Polin z”l, whose story we have come to know so well through the tireless advocacy of his parents Rachel and Jon.

We mourn the loss of these innocents, Hersh, Eden Yerushalmi z”l, Carmel Gat z”l, Almog Sarusi z”l, Alex Lubnov z”l, and Ori Danino z”l.

Our hearts are with their families and loved ones, may they be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. We pray that the remaining hostages will soon be returned home safely.

Am Yisrael Chai,

Jane Wishner and Alonet Zarum Zandan - Co- Chairs

The story continues.

As Abq Jew wrote last October - 

There is a story in the Talmud of two processions – a wedding procession and a funeral procession – that meet at an intersection too narrow to allow both to pass. One of the processions will need to step aside to allow the other to progress; but which one should go first? 

The rabbis concluded that the wedding procession should get the right of way. Why? Because hope and optimism about the future (as represented by the bride and groom) should always take precedence over the past. We are a people who believe in the future – even in the face of sadness.

Avi Mayer, the former Editor-in-Chiel of The Jerusalem Post, wrote on X:

In the Jewish tradition, it is customary not to postpone a wedding, even during a period of mourning.

Our belief in life precedes even our deep pain over those who are no longer with us.

And so I find myself at a wedding this evening here in Jerusalem.

Life always comes first.

וְיֵשׁ־תִּקְוָ֥ה לְאַחֲרִיתֵ֖ךְ נְאֻם־ה״ וְשָׁ֥בוּ בָנִ֖ים לִגְבוּלָֽם׃

Fall 2024 @ OASIS Abq

 Great Courses of Jewish Interest

Abq Jew is pleased to inform you that
OASIS Albuquerque has just announced
their Fall 2024 line-up of classes!
Registration opens on
Wednesday September 4
but you can Wish List your selections now.

OASIS Albuquerque Executive Director Scott Sharp and his staff continue to bring you new and interesting class offerings, and continue to make sure there are plenty of courses of Jewish interest.

This session's courses and instructors include,

but are by no means limited to:

Death Beliefs & Funeral Traditions

Wednesday September 25 @ 12:30 - #186

Instructor: Gail Rubin

What It Is: Customs and traditions to honor the dead vary greatly from past to present and place to place. What do different religions and cultures believe about life and death? How do funeral traditions vary among different religions? Gail Rubin shares some of the fascinating practices from around the world.

Slow Travel in New Mexico:
A Transforming Experience

Friday October 4 [Rosh Hashanah 2] @ 12:30 - #212

Instructor: Judith Fein & Paul Ross

What It Is: Award-winning journalists describe a slow approach to travel and photography. Slow travel is the secret to opening doors, meeting people, participating in surprising events, experiencing joy, and making each trip–no matter how long or short–deeper, richer, and an adventure that is uniquely yours. A different and transformative way to travel around the word and in your home town.

Spinoza: Heretic or 

God-Intoxicated Man?

Thursday October 10 @ 10:00 - #187

Instructor: Michael Nutkiewicz

What It Is: Benedict, or Baruch Spinoza (d. 1677), was excommunicated from the Dutch Jewish community and went on to write some of the most controversial books about philosophy, religion, and political theory. Look at Spinoza’s life and the circumstances surrounding his excommunication. Touch upon his philosophy as well as his critique of religion. Learn why Spinoza’s life represents the coming Age of Enlightenment, and why he has sometimes been called the first “modern man.”

Roger Williams, Dissenting Puritan

Separation of Church & State

Wednesday October 23 @ 10:00 - #156

Instructor: David Crowley

What It Is: Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, broke with the notion of civil support of religious belief and practice, effectively creating the political doctrine of separation of church and state in the American political ethos. Moreover, he did this a century and a half prior to the First Amendment. We look at Williams’ founding of a new colony that sought to honor the free exercise of religion.

Brujeria: A History of

Witchcraft in New Mexico

Monday October 28 @ 10:00 - #211

Instructor: Rob Martinez

What It Is: The history of witchcraft in New Mexico is a fascinating subject that spans the Spanish Colonial, Mexican, and US Territorial periods. In this presentation about brujería and hechicería, witchcraft and sorcery, Rob Martinez looks at actual case studies from historical documents that help to explain why, even in current times, such beliefs still persist in New Mexico.

Poland & The Holocaust:

An Exploration

Wednesday November 13 @ 10:00 - #159

Instructor: Christopher Zugger

What It Is: Poland had a population of three million Jews in 1939. Over the course of the war, Hitler opened 400 camps there. Challenges to rescues included fear, blackmailers, betrayal, prewar anti-Semitic attitudes, and harsh Nazi persecution of Jews and Poles. Any assistance to a Jew could bring death and even the destruction of whole villages. Hear stories of rescue, loss, the work of both the Catholic Church and Żegota ending with how Communist rule affects retrieving history.

The Genius of Leonardo da Vinci

Wednesday November 13 @ 12:30 - #160

Instructor: Timonthy Graham

What It Is: Scientist, inventor, engineer, architect, and creator of the world’s most famous painting; there seems no end to the accomplishments of Leonardo da Vinci. Timothy Graham sets Leonardo’s amazing innovative prowess against the shifting background of his career, as da Vinci moved from Tuscany to Milan and into the service of the king of France. We consider why he chose to write backwards. And we explore the mystery of his most beloved work, the Mona Lisa.

Why is Leonardo in a list of Great Courses of Jewish Interest?

Click here to find out!

Paradise Bronx

And The Spaldeen: The Bronx is a hand reaching down to pull the other boroughs of New York City out of the harbor and the sea. 

Its fellow-boroughs are islands or parts of islands; the Bronx hangs on to Manhattan and Queens and Brooklyn, with Staten Island trailing at the end of the long towrope of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and keeps the whole business from drifting away on a strong outgoing tide. 

No water comes between the Bronx (if you leave out its own few islands) and the rest of North America. The Bronx is the continent, and once you’re on it you can go for thousands of miles without seeing ocean again. 

The other boroughs, for their part, cling to the Bronx for dear life. The chafing and strife of this connection have made all the difference to the Bronx.

So begins Ian Frazier's masterful essay - yes, about The Bronx, of all places - in the July 22 issue of The New Yorker. Want to know more about The Bronx?

Thirteen bridges connect Manhattan to the Bronx, and two more cross the East River from Queens. Other links exist underground in tunnels and pipes, which carry subway lines, drinking water, gas mains, power cables, and wastewater. 

Every which way, the Bronx is sewn and bound and grappled and clamped to the rest of the city. Every kind of transportation passes through it or over it. 

Walking on Bruckner Boulevard one morning, I was stunned by the loudness of the trucks. (No other borough has truck traffic like the Bronx’s, partly because its Hunts Point market, for produce, meat, and fish, is the largest food-distribution depot in the world.) 

I also heard cars, vans, motorcycles, an Amtrak train, airplanes, and, on the lower Bronx River nearby, the horn of a tugboat pushing a barge. Even during the emptiest days of the Covid shutdown, the Bronx’s pulse of transport kept pounding.

Interstate highways slice and dice the borough. The interstates within the Bronx’s borders are these: On the west, running approximately north and south, is I-87, also known (in the city) as the Major Deegan Expressway, or simply the Deegan. I-87 is bound for Albany and Canada. 

The Bruckner Expressway, a.k.a. I-278, connects to I-87 in the southern part of the borough. From there, I-278 veers to the northeast. 

Across the borough’s middle, I-95, a.k.a. the Cross Bronx Expressway, that road of infamous history, moves traffic east and west before merging with the Bruckner. Then it veers north, and follows the coast up to New England. 

A spur, I-295, splits off and goes south across the Throgs Neck Bridge to Queens. Another spur, I-678, also goes to Queens, over the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge. 

At the point where I-678 goes south from I-95, the Hutchinson River Parkway goes north from I-95, crosses the Bronx, and continues into Westchester County.

Too much information? You can believe Abq Jew when he says he understands. Abq Jew is a Brooklyn / Valley Stream boy, whose excursions into The Bronx have been precious few and extremely far between. 

For which, Abq Jew is very, very happy.

But ... Ian Frazier's writing is just too good to let Paradise Bronx pass. Especially when he talks about 

The Spaldeen

The so-called Spaldeen, that pink rubber ball cherished in memory, could be employed not only in stickball (with a bat made of a broken-off broom or mop handle, the broken end rubbed smooth on the pavement) but also in fistball (no bat required), handball (ditto), stoopball (in which you threw the ball against a stoop and your opponent played the bounce), and jacks (one game in which girls, who generally didn’t play ball, might also use a Spaldeen). 

Manhole covers in the streets were set into the pavement at regular intervals. 

For a stickball batter to hit a Spaldeen the distance of three manhole covers—“three sewers”—was considered amazing.

Abq Jew is extremely happy to report that he has, indeed, completed 74 revolutions around our Sun, his favorite star in the Milky Way! 

And Abq Jew reports this on what would have been the 100th birthday of his father, Richard W Yellin z"l. Still miss you, Dad!

After Tisha b'Av 5784

Consolation for What We Lost: Following Tisha b'Av, there are seven prophetic readings of consolation - all from Isaiah - that comfort us after the Black Fast and prepare us, emotionally and spiritually, for the upcoming High Holidays.

This year, many of us New MexiJews - and many of us in the worldwide Jewish community - refuse to be consoled over the losses we have suffered. How can we ever dance again?

And this year, many of us Jews show strength and determination to move joyfully toward the future. We will dance again! 

Abq Jew has heard a story, about a certain rabbi, who had a very particular Tisha b'Av custom.

Every year, after the Black Fast was concluded, he gathered up all his copies of Eicha (Lamentations); all his Kinot (Elegies); all his Tisha b'Av sermons - and burned them.

Why? Because each year he hoped - no, he believed, and he wished to openly demonstrate his belief - that God would make this the last sad Tisha b'Av, and that next year we Jews would all dance again - to celebrate the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the return of all the Jews to the Holy Land.

But slowly.

It's no longer Tisha b'Av.
But it's still October 7th.

To start us off on our voyage to JOY, here is a video that's been going around the Internet. The place is the Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome (Italy). The piece is "Summer," from Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. 

The pianist is Julien Cohen. The 10-year-old violinist is YeonAh Kim.