The tragedy of loss has touched every single one of us. Some have been touched by the unexpected loss of a favorite celebrity or sports icon. Fans of the Boston Celtics felt the untimely loss of Len Bias two days after he was drafted and still wonder what level of greatness he would have brought to the franchise and how iconic a player he might have become. When we think about the shock of Tupac Shakur’s death at the age... Read more
People have been eating symbolic foods almost as long as we’ve been cultivating plants and raising animals for food. Eating food for what it represents makes abstract concepts like fortune, security, and longevity, concrete, as well as enabling us to literally digest and internalize them. Eating is also an act of building or strengthening community. We reach out to others, share both what we have and what we hope, and build kinship and cooperation. Most symbolic foods point to either... Read more
The capacity to transport people to a different place emotionally by expelling breath into a horn is rare, but we can recognize numerous examples: lifted up by the contagious joy in Clifford Brown’s “Daahoud”, immersed in a stream of cool in Miles Davis’ “All Blues”, or awakened by the piercing notes of a shofar. While the shofar lacks the melodic tones of a trumpet, it makes up for that in conveying a sense of urgency. The... Read more
Spiritual insights can emerge from unexpected places. While we might expect to obtain insight from someone journeying solo through the wilderness or an expert ruminating on the lessons learned through meditation, rarely do we expect to find enlightenment in the newspaper. Can we glean awareness and understanding from sources that more typically inform us about the world of policy and politics? Can the headlines provide directions for our personal quests, especially during this month of Elul as we prepare for... Read more
The capacity to transport people to a different place emotionally by expelling breath into a horn is rare, but we can recognize numerous examples: lifted up by the contagious joy in Clifford Brown’s “Daahoud”, immersed in a stream of cool in Miles Davis’ “All Blues”, or awakened by the piercing notes of a shofar. While the shofar lacks the melodic tones of a trumpet, it makes up for that in conveying a sense of urgency.The reasons given for the sounding... Read more
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