Shabbat Inspiration with Diane

Regardless of our politics, this week’s quiet yet uplifting inauguration ceremony helped each of our psyches. Just as in the days of the Civil War, we may have differing opinions, very diverse ones at that. Yet a leader who is pledged to be a peacemaker may be just what we need at this time. This week’s inauguration proceedings also emphasized the power and importance of God in proper leadership. I loved the opening pastor’s reference to God as the “Holy Mystery of Love,” for His overwhelming love of us and His teachings grow our abilities to love unconditionally. Its presence is a mysteriously inscrutable reality. We receive this power to love from HaShem. God was present in multiple... Read More →

It seems for quite some time now that even the simple things aren’t simple. Coincidental with the onset of Covid, or perhaps stealthily sneaking in even before then, life for so many of us has been more challenging than usual. I know I’ve talked about seasons in our lives, the good times and inevitable tough times, too. Yet this rather lengthy season has been different. Many of the little day-to-day tasks we didn’t even have to think about have become exceptionally difficult, not to mention when we have events in our lives that would be hard anyway. Nothing seems easy any more, or at least many routines are not routine. My work life has been unusually stressful for multiple reasons for... Read More →

As a new year starts, it brings a fresh opportunity to evaluate so many aspects of our lives. We start with hope of leaving behind that which holds us back – unhealthy eating, judgmental thinking, entrenched opinions, unhealthy lifestyle choices, and perhaps the one most difficult to recognize, and deal with, toxic relationships. As people who walk so closely with Yeshua, and work to do so on a daily basis, my go-to is to forgive, seek peace, be open and accepting, put my needs last. For me, as I’ve shared before, these traits even were part of my wiring before I found Yeshua as a result of my childhood where being a parent pleaser and peacemaker were tools of survival. So it has been a... Read More →

As 2020 comes to an end, at least for me, it is going out with a bang! We’ve shouldered together a year of challenges ranging from the quite personal to global. As we’ve processed together we’ve marveled at the universality of our experiences, be they history repeating itself or personal health or financial struggles of ourselves or loved ones. When we are in the thick of it these situations feel like they’re only happening to us. So like Job. Why me, Lord? In fact, adversity is the human condition. We are not in Olam Haba. Over the year we’ve reflected that our personal perspectives and perceptions, molded by genetics and life experiences, define the perceived quality of our lives.... Read More →

I doubt anyone can disagree with the statement that this has been an unusual year in so many ways. I do not want to put to words the many challenges, all of which made almost unbearable living in the grip of COVID-19. On the other hand (as Tevye would say), perhaps we are ending this year with signs and wonders from HaShem that remind us of His presence, that He’s got this, that hope is real. Even in mainstream media the story of the “Christmas Star” has hit the headlines. This close conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter that occurred this week was the most brilliant close orbiting of these two planets since 1226. Some say a phenomenon like this, which at that time also included Mars, may... Read More →

This Shabbat encouragement was written a year ago and is as timely now as then as our first Nor’Easter of this season hits just as last year’s did at this time. Surprisingly also, this week’s headlines, though slightly different from last year’s, still cry with the challenges we face. Yet news of the increasing death toll from COVID is tempered by stories of hope as administration of the vaccines continues to expand. On the heels of our musically oriented thoughts over the past weeks, I once again share the thoughts below: Today the Nor’Easter is hitting us hard. From my window as I watch the strong north wind blowing the snow literally horizontally with its force, in the same view, I... Read More →

Last week we reveled at Joshua Nelson’s ability to cross racial, religious, and cultural boundaries by his personage and music style which blend Jewish and gospel traditions. In our present day divisive world, the ability to embrace and yet unite diversity in such an uplifting way is beyond wonderful, true healing to our societal soul. On the heels of the section of the Chagigah program that had just introduced Joshua Nelson , the host went on to discuss a unique characteristic of the incoming Biden administration. He noted that Kamala Harris’ husband Douglas Emhoff is Jewish, and that each of President Elect Biden’s children married Jewish people, so Biden’s grandchildren are Jewish.... Read More →

This week on Emerson College’s Chagigah Sunday morning radio program there was a discussion of Joshua Nelson whose nickname is “the prince of kosher gospel”. In introducing one of Nelson’s works, the host of the show gave his listeners some interesting background about this unique Jewish singer. Joshua Nelson is an African-American Jewish gospel singer born of Jewish parents. He was raised in Brooklyn, attended a black Orthodox Jewish synagogue there, and was later educated in Israel. He blends Hebrew texts with gospel melodies as well as arranges Jewish liturgical songs in gospel style. Joshua is equally comfortable teaching Hebrew at his Reform Jewish synagogue in South Orange, New... Read More →

I recently saw an interview of Michael J. Fox, of “Back to the Future” and other fame. He was being interviewed about his upcoming fourth memoir entitled No Time Like the Future. As you may know, he has had Parkinson’s Disease for the past 30 years and a couple years ago had surgery to remove a tumor from his spine. After long and grueling rehabilitation to learn how to walk again, he suffered a severely broken arm requiring complex surgery to place 19 pins and a plate, again setting him back for a long rehabilitation period in order to do even simple daily tasks. It was after this last health crisis that even he questioned his optimism and had to dig deeper, thus inspiring his most... Read More →

This week as I was watching the long range forecast on the local TV weather report, I was struck by an interchange. I must say, we have been blessed with an amazingly mild fall (well, until this week). We’ve enjoyed many days of 60s and sunny. When looking at the forecast, however, there were predicted a few colder days, and then a warming trend by the end of the week. As the weather reporter shared this forecast and noted disappointment in the cooling trend, the other newscaster commented “But it’ll be warming right back up there by the end of the week.” At the time, it felt like the other newscaster’s comment was dismissive of the weather person’s observations. Rather than an... Read More →

Last week we looked at the importance of good leadership in bringing together diverse opinions. We used the metaphor of a parent and children in thinking about leaders and the important role they play in creating a world in which people can live together in harmony despite their differences. In tweaking that further in analogizing families to societies, another truth is that often children in the same family have had very different life experiences. Unfortunately, one child may have been favored over another for a long period of time. In those cases its even more important for a parent to nurture respect and fairness between the children. It’s important for a parent to help a child see... Read More →

As I watched the election returns, the divisiveness of our country so vividly displayed by the red and blue state blocks, I thought about our times. It was enlightening to listen to various commentators analogize these days to the polarization after the Civil War, or the economic chaos after the Great Depression. The point being made was how Abraham Lincoln worked to bring our nation together as did FDR in the 1930s. Such behavior by our country’s leaders at those times is not unlike the role parents have when quieting their squabbling children. So often the little ones are unable to see the viewpoint of their sibling. Each knows he or she is right! The disagreements can lead to real... Read More →

On today’s jog a small snake slithered across my path. I’m not a snake person, so my initial reaction was “Ewww. . . “ Objectively, it was rather pretty with a bold yellow stripe down its back and rather graceful in its slither. Yet for me, just not one of my favorite things, one I find hard to appreciate although in nature’s framework, quite beautiful, and important, I would suggest. Even if not, one of HaShem’s creations so who am I to judge? We easily can think about how beauty is subjective. A movie with a twist on this theme is “Shallow Hal”, a Farrelly brothers film, which comically portrays a hypnotized shallow Hal (Jack Black) dating a 300 pound woman but seeing her as Gwyneth... Read More →

Recently I encouraged us to fight for our sense of well being, that special place of shalom with HaShem, that place of no fear for we have given our feelings of anxiety and stress over to Him. We also fight for just causes, a lifelong passion for me, a reason for my choice of becoming a lawyer. More importantly, fighting for justice for the other can impassion each of us in this world with so many reasons and opportunities to fight to right wrongs. And we often have to fight to see the good in others. Last week as I watched the town hall meetings between our two presidential candidates, and trying to not focus on politics for the moment, but rather, a bigger issue, I was most moved by... Read More →

This morning Sid asked me if I wrote a Shabbat encouragement this week. I said “no”. My feeling on these has always been that if one comes during the week, I will share it. If not, not. I do know, however, through the feedback I receive that some of you have come to look for them on Thursday evenings. And actually, for the last ten years or so, they’ve been fairly constant. I’ve also found that when my life is hectic, stressful, busy, distracted, my time in that special space with HaShem is so interrupted that I just don’t feel the inspirations. As you know from last week, that’s where I am at the moment. The carve out times I have with HaShem have been amazing to lift me up, kind of... Read More →

We have been in a rather prolonged season of challenge, not only societally, but for many of us, personally as well. I know many of you have walked with me as I have shared some of my own hardships over the last several months. The purpose of sharing those, and the few more I’m about to, is not to whine, or to make me more relatable, or to bring you into my world for narcissistic reasons. Rather, I’m making a larger point – I’m guessing my experiences are not unique in the sense of understanding the universality of stress in one’s life. My hope is to inspire you to fight! In my 45 years of practicing law, over the last several weeks I have never been more challenged. I am receiving... Read More →

This year’s Days of Awe were like none other during my life. This unusually special time was in line with this year being one of intensity, focus, drawing us to Him even more closely as we sever the ties of what separates us from Him. I, and so many others, have experienced amazing “synchronicities”, “coincidences”, situations where we clearly know HaShem is working on us, guiding our next steps to live lives closer to the example of Yeshua, leading us to more fulfilling lives of love, lives more full of love. It’s as if these COVID times have become the impetus for reawakening, restarting, new eyes, new hearts, deeper digging into our souls to get to more profound truths about... Read More →

What more can I say than has already been said? In law there is a phrase “res ipsa loquitur”, the thing speaks for itself. Such was her life. What a woman, what a person, what a visionary, what a blessing, what a legacy. No words are needed to describe her for her life by how she lived speaks for itself. A life of valor. As I was participating in Erev Rosh Hashanah services last Friday, the news of Justice Ginsburg’s death came over my cell phone. Normally, it would be turned off. In these days of Covid, however, as president of Ruach sometimes Rabbi Nathan and I need to text during services so my cell phone is left on just in case. I have to say that her death occurring during these... Read More →

The following Shabbat encouragement is one I have sent before during this time of year. It has been so well received, and its message as relevant today as when first sent, that I am sharing it with you again as a reminder to some, and as this week’s encouragement for those new to our group since then. I have also made some edits and new remarks tucked in here and there: Awhile back I learned that the orange and yellow colors of our fall foliage are the result of carotenoids which are in the leaf throughout the growing season. The reason the leaf looks green until fall, however, is that chlorophyll is abundant during the growing season when the plant replenishes the chlorophyll. After... Read More →

In keeping with my new knowledge of the artistry of Chadwick Boseman, Sid and I watched “42” this week, based on the story of Jackie Robinson, the first black athlete to play Major League baseball. What a story. . . As more accurate portrayals of the lives of our black brothers and sisters come to light, through song, art, movies, and sadly the headlines, we can only begin to understand the level of underlying pain that has been endured over centuries. The story told in “42” was particularly troubling since 1947 was not really all that long ago, at least for us Baby Boomers born just a decade or two after that. Slavery is a horrible part of our American history and studied as such. Even... Read More →

Last week we were saddened by the untimely passing of Chadwick Boseman, the star of the recent Marvel adventure film “Black Panther”. I have to admit, I had not watched the movie until Sunday evening when it was shown on ABC, followed by a tribute to the late star. Such an amazing young man, with so much to say, and taken from this realm so soon. I intend to watch his portrayals of Jackie Robinson, James Brown, and Thurgood Marshall in three of his other films. It occurred to me that many of our “superhero” powers as adults developed from challenges we faced as children. I know my rescuer tendencies relate to my feeling the need to protect my siblings from an abusive father. Similarly,... Read More →

Last week we thought about the effect Covid has had on spectator sports and the arts. We pondered how such developments may have occurred in ancient time only after our earliest ancestors may have first tamed their environment enough to survive. Similarly, the last six months have challenged us in basic ways with certain food scarcities, travel limitations, financial challenges, health adversity, and have brought even our modern society to a place similar in these ways to our predecessors. The centrality of God in ancient society compared to His being sidelined in many parts of our modern world is a striking difference however, one which we perceive may be changing for the better as a... Read More →

This week I was reading about Broadway and the possible plans to start ticket sales in January for the 2021 season. Broadway being blacked out since March is so incomprehensible. So many impacted by this reality. Not to mention the countless musicians, singers, artists, museums, and performance venues that have been brought to a standstill due to Covid. Zoom is great but is not designed for real time transmission of music. Even dancers and other performers can no longer perform in venues as in the past. The arts have been practically shut down absent creative workarounds. The world we have lived in since March is not one any of us have ever experienced. I confirmed this with my 93 year... Read More →

I must thank my Shabbat encouragement community for the many responses of love and support. Encouraging the encourager is an unanticipated blessing beyond my words. I recognize it deeply as HaShem’s “angels” in the flesh working through each of you, and even through my knowing others share these feelings silently in their hearts. Thank you all. As you listen for Him, as you see and hear the same sights and sounds with new eyes of revelation, as you work to still the sounds of distraction, as you prioritize time with our Abba, you may notice the peeks at him unfold not at once, but with glimpses, as a beautiful butterfly who opens its wings to reveal their full glory. We cannot see His... Read More →

As I jogged after services last Shabbat, I recognized that there is a pattern to these times I spend with HaShem. I always start out smiling, praising, singing, overwhelmingly loving my Abba, joyous in Him. This goes on for quite awhile. Then I tend to be very quiet in my head and that is when HaShem “speaks” to me in the sense that I see previously unseen connections and insights about something I see along the way or new thoughts related to my times of prayer and meditation while jogging. When I listen in this way, “synchronistically” there will often be lyrics at that precise moment in the same songs I hear every jog that relate to or emphasize the thoughts He inspires. This... Read More →