An American Sentence in 12 words Inspired by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel z"l (1907 – 1972) The Sabbath is a #palace constructed in time, rather than in space. https://twitter.com/kaddish_s/status/1504020662503067649 The prompt: #palace (#storyin12) https://twitter.com/storyin12/status/1504019648450379776/ What's an 'American Sentence'? Allen Ginsberg, inventor of the American Sentence, felt that the haiku didn’t work as well in English.… Continue reading Time, or: Space
Racism is man’s gravest threat to man, the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason, the maximum of cruelty for a minimum of thinking.-Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907 – 1972)
A personal prosery prompt Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote: “We are constantly dying alive. From the view point of temporality we are all dead except for a moment.” It’s true, you know. As we turn the calendar page to 2021, I think to myself: well, that was a moment. Death on either side, the Rabbi… Continue reading The way of life between
Given my dazedness and state of shock last July, I had no preconceived assumptions nor expectations of my sudden, unanticipated status as a mourner. Then, abruptly, in the middle of Papa's funeral, I found myself stung sharply with tenderness towards the friends and family who had been closest to him. Papa lived a rather solitary life due… Continue reading The skeptic’s kaddish for the atheist, 43
https://youtu.be/mNzUH-FskpY My kaddish journey has been uneventful recently. I've settled into my commitment, and the days are going by. On Tuesday, I saw a poster on the building opposite ours indicating that a neighbor had just died. She was a very elderly woman who would often sit on the patio between our buildings in the… Continue reading The skeptic’s kaddish for the atheist, 35
Last week, I laminated a copy of my parents' wedding invitation, which I found in my Babushka's apartment (my mother's mother) after she passed away in late September. She was gathered unto her ancestors less than three months after my Papa (Blog #8). A day or so later, it happened that my aunt gave me my Dedushka's (my mother's father)… Continue reading The skeptic’s kaddish for the atheist, 30
No small number of the memories evoked for me by my father's death are those of his most oft used expressions, but his voice is fading from my recollections. I am struggling to hear the sound of him; but his turns of phrase, textured with his rhythm and inflections, are looped and shuffled. Nearly all of… Continue reading The skeptic’s kaddish for the atheist, 29
This entry is in honor and memory of my grandmother Maria bat Shmuel and Sima, who passed away a few days ago, at Shabbat's twilight. Babushka's determination to live was tremendous, particularly given her frailty and failing constitution. Last summer, after being intubated in the hospital and suffering from a calcified heart valve (among other… Continue reading The skeptic’s kaddish for the atheist, 8
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