Filed under: Uncategorized
-Hamas’ Holocaust Museum — don’t get your hopes up…
-Girl Scouts: suffering same fate and issues as Jewish Organizations
This post comes to you from Highland Park, IL., where IU’s Jewish A Capella group, HooShir, is touring. We have been singing for schools of all ages, elderly homes, and Shuls – hopefully putting smiles onto faces and representing IU as only modern versions of Lecha Dodi and DF’s Lechi Lach (to name two…in alphabetical order) can do.
I regret not embracing my vocal potential growing up – which isn’t to say that I’m that great – but maybe I wish I had been in a few more choruses. I played in bands, it was my thing, I digress. I have been finding true joy in singing with this group, and really feel the power of performing for audiences.
Apologies that this post, or most posts of late, lacks introspection and real thought value. I assure you that said thought value still passes through my head, it just hasn’t made it to the pages of this blog – not quite yet. I’m tired – not of learning or of discussion or intellect, but just of this routine. I’m ready for summer, and to get back into the consistent swing of this blog.
Until next time, lilah tov.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I had a completely restless night, literally void of any sleep whatsoever.
I tossed and turned – at 4:30 a.m. I stooped to literally counting sheep – to no avail. Too many things were racing through my head all night – and I’m not sure why. Not huge issues, but things that one thinks about, ya dig?
By 6:30 I had decided attempting sleep was futile, and got some reading done. Productive. Nice.
But the most beautiful part of this morning is without a doubt the sunrise I just watched. Something, in retrospect, I had never seen happen in these Hoosier skies. I hope to change that.
I’m off to wrap myself in tradition: in dangly white strings attached to a familiar shawl, and in leather straps and boxes containing Judaisms tenants. After watching that sunrise, to enter this day via the prayers Jews have davened to for thousands of years seems more fitting than usual.
A connection develops and strengthens with Gd; with Judaism; within my Jewish identity. A perfect beginning to this day. I just hope there is a nap waiting for me this afternoon.
Blessed are you Adonai, who removes sleep from the eyes and slumber from the eyelids
Yom Tov L’kulam
Filed under: Nature, Thoughts, Torah | Tags: Beach, CA, Hannah Senesh, Natural Beauty, Venice Beach
It’s officially been two weeks since my last post – such a shonda! I apologize: it is not for lack of want (of posting) or for lack of material, rather an insane schedule filled with tests, essays, and glorious traveling.
This week – IU’s spring break, combined with a free ticket from Southwest (accumulated miles, gotta love ‘em) – finds me soaking in beautiful 75 degree weather on our West Coast, somewhere I admittedly do not spend enough time, for obvious monetary reasons. Today a friend and I traveled to Santa Monica’s Venice Beach, with it’s unique compilation of colorful people, obsession with the hippie lifestyle (read: marijuana and headshops), amazing restaurants, shops, and of course the beach.
Taking a break from window-shopping, my friend and I walked along the beach – something I have not truly had the chance to do in several years (several years too many). The crashing waves and cool sand between my toes seemed to take a hold of me: imbuing within me a profound sense of appreciation for my surroundings. I was overwhelmingly calm.
In my moment of bliss I whispered to myself the blessing for observing natural beauty, which teaches us that everything beautiful is deemed an expression of God’s revelation to us:
Barukh atah Adonai eloheinu melekh ha-olam, shekakhah lo b’olamo.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Master of the Universe, Who has things such in His world.
I said it because I don’t say it enough – most of us don’t. Throughout my childhood going to the beach was something I adored and looked forward to day in and day out. I cherish the time I spent buried in the sand or laying under the sun, because these times were void of peer pressures and the worries of a child. Today because they are free from technology, worries of world peace, and front pages strewn with presidential elections and Yeshiva massacres.
For quite some time I have been trying to find escape space – in which these concerns can be put into the back of my mind. I think I need to spend more time among nature, and the beautiful wonders Gd has put on His earth.
Though perhaps out of context, the famous words of the Israeli poet and hero Hannah Senesh also came to mind as I stood on the doorstep of the Pacific:
- אלי, אלי, שלא יגמר לעולם
- החול והים…רישרוש של המים
- ברק השמים…תפילת האדם
My God, My God: May these things never end: The sand and the sea
I recommend that each of you spend time on a beach, or sitting in a green field. Who knows how inspired or touched you may become!
