Please Touch
I want to place before us two items, which at first wouldn’t seem to be connected with each other, but hopefully will emerge as… Read More
I want to place before us two items, which at first wouldn’t seem to be connected with each other, but hopefully will emerge as… Read More
In our family growing up, outside of the Torah itself, the most sacred text was the Star Wars Trilogy. I’ve lost count how many times we have seen the first three of the Star Wars movies. But, I do know that there are whole sections of Star Wars dialogue that we have committed to memory. And, this dialogue played a special role in David’s childhood. Read More
There is an old elephant joke that goes like this. “How do you catch an elephant?” And, the answer is: “You need a milk bottle, a tweezers, a piece of thread, and binoculars. First, of course, you have to look for an elephant. Then, when you find an elephant, you take the binoculars and you look through the opposite side so that the elephant looks really tiny. Then you pick up the elephant with the tweezers, you tie the little thread around him, and you gently lower him into the bottle.” Read More
A few weeks ago, there was a headline making story about a fisherman named Blair Doucette who caught a blue lobster in the waters off of Prince Edward Island. Doucette had never caught a blue lobster before in his 35 year career. He had only seen one on television. There are actually 2-5 million blue lobsters in existence, but since there are a lot of lobsters in the world, only one in millions is blue. So, Doucette was very excited to catch one. And, instead of tossing it in with the other lobsters, he took it home, fed it in a little tank, and he eventually donated it to an acquarium. And, many of us have seen photos of Doucette’s blue friend on t.v. or on the Internet. Read More
In the recent movie X Men: First Class, the two main characters, Professor X and Magneeto are friends, but they are soon to be opponents, because they have opposing philosophies of life. Both Professor X and Magneeto are leaders of a group of mutants. These are human beings with extraordinary superpowers. Professor X can read minds. Magneeto can bend steel with his magnetic hands. All the mutants have had to hide their special talents because they mark them as different. And, their difference from other people has been a source of great pain to them. It has led them to be rejected, ridiculed, feared and isolated by other people. Read More
I was in Washington, D.C. this past week to attend the AIPAC conference to lobby on behalf of Israel, along with 10,000 other people, the largest ever. Our own Seattle contingent more than doubled this year from 42 to 90. And, I was especially proud of the six high school and college students from our congregation who were part of our group. Read More