I am sorry for the stresses in your personal life during 5784, but this was, in the end, a delightful read. May you go from strength to strength. I hope 2025, or 5785, does better by you, by Israel and by world Jewry. (I am not impressed with AI’s version of Hillel, either. A crown? a bound book? Surely a kippah and a scroll would be better choices, given the era.) Speaking as a Jew-by-choice for almost 50 years, I am sad about your past avoidance of Jewishness. Perhaps your journey will help you find your way to the riches it offers. Your brother’s way is not the only way to crack the code. We just received a lovely gift of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks’s two-volume set, Covenant and Conversation, Family Edition. If you are looking for a palatable deep dive into Torah it will be a good place to start, although you should find almost anything he wrote to be a great read.
Interesting article, can’t say I like the Ai art. Would have been better without it, if nothing nicer could be found.
UoT was home to Robertson Davies, an excellent author. Not notably Philo-Semitic but practical and would no doubt be deeply saddened by what has become of his treasured college. Such is life.
A fine piece of writing. Is the goal writing, or listening to the stories that need told soon, or is learning from Hillel... it is never too late to study Torah, or is to hear the voices of your listeners here embodied as readers and commenters and surreal advisers, or is it to figure out the final solution to the screwball comedy called Social Activism and God only knows THAT is a field SO Jewish it tastes of a lox & cream cheese schmeer from a gawd awful Deli in a USA suburban pre-Malls shopping strip mall.
My same olde 2 cents on steroids shouts yet again that four letter word to some - 'Torah'. So many Jewishy Jewish persons want to yell 'tora, tora, tora' like Kamikaze pilots anytime a tzit-tzit flaps or gawd forbid a fellow Jewish person says they actually do something 'really' Jewish.
Our self divisiveness knows no boundaries in making border lines self imposed over which one will 'never' cross over.
I suppose the famous old movie "Crossing Delancey (Street)" was already addressing all of the same issues which proverbially started with those Israelites who did not want to leave Egypt and transformed endlessly to our own generationally impaired fellow Jewish persons in political offices and university offices and offices of 'our own communities who just refuse to come clean over the turning point of Simcha Torah Oct 7, 2023.
To emulate Hillel likely means go directly to the Sources a) written and b) oral i.e. Torah in both senses.
To emulate the rightfully revered Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks of Blessed Memory ... above all his phenomenal breadth of reading and study in the secular fields.... he was a diligent devout student of Torah (written and oral and exegesis ad infinitum). But he also long had an Elder, a Mentor i.e. a Rabbi in Israel who was R. Sachs Rabbi. That is besides his unique connection with M.M. Schneerson.
I am a slow as well as a late learner. When you mention "prayer" it is worth reminding yourself (as you likely know a LOT more than I do) that the Amidah has also been referred to as "The Prayer". If many of our Elders called it such, then there is a good chance that is one foundation upon which to begin an earnest approach to readdressing one's Jewishness. Other than going regularly to a semi-Kosher deli for a schmeer etc. Or one can bring the keffiyeh mobs fresh cups of tea and conversational engagement as some churchlike means of infiltration.
One's options are endless. But if ya ask me:):):) most options are pointless. And it is possible that the most pointed option for success is to follow Hillel's timeless advice for each of us.... 'study Torah'. His example likely would have actually implied and implies written and oral and what transformed to R. Sacks style that also included endless engagement on a deep level with our Cultural exegesis of Talmud etc.
"Is it for (my children] I shall try to rouse myself for one last long interminable wrestle with my demons, my dear ancient sage Hillel?"
One wonders when Jacob spent his dark night wrestling on the ladder, did he see his adversary as a dybbuk or did he recognize it for what and whom it was?
Thank you for this! The art world's almost total embrace of Jew-hatred (to say nothing of the wider world's response to Oct 7) is utterly shocking, although in retrospect not surprising at all, given both historical precedent and more recent ideological trends. Still, seeing former friends and colleagues spout blood libels that have all the factuality and logic of a medieval monk hallucinating from ergot poisoning - and being celebrated for it! - is horribly depressing. Rejecting the contribution of artists like you (and now so many others) is their loss, of course - however minimally consoling that thought may be. But we're definitely learning where to draw certain lines, who actually stands for something and who lives by total hypocrisy (sadly, now the coin of the realm). Religious or not (I'm patrilineal and non- but not-anti-religious, myself), those essential principles summed up so sharply by Hillel clearly make all the difference. Best wishes!
I am sorry for the stresses in your personal life during 5784, but this was, in the end, a delightful read. May you go from strength to strength. I hope 2025, or 5785, does better by you, by Israel and by world Jewry. (I am not impressed with AI’s version of Hillel, either. A crown? a bound book? Surely a kippah and a scroll would be better choices, given the era.) Speaking as a Jew-by-choice for almost 50 years, I am sad about your past avoidance of Jewishness. Perhaps your journey will help you find your way to the riches it offers. Your brother’s way is not the only way to crack the code. We just received a lovely gift of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks’s two-volume set, Covenant and Conversation, Family Edition. If you are looking for a palatable deep dive into Torah it will be a good place to start, although you should find almost anything he wrote to be a great read.
Love this! Truly inspiring!
Interesting article, can’t say I like the Ai art. Would have been better without it, if nothing nicer could be found.
UoT was home to Robertson Davies, an excellent author. Not notably Philo-Semitic but practical and would no doubt be deeply saddened by what has become of his treasured college. Such is life.
A fine piece of writing. Is the goal writing, or listening to the stories that need told soon, or is learning from Hillel... it is never too late to study Torah, or is to hear the voices of your listeners here embodied as readers and commenters and surreal advisers, or is it to figure out the final solution to the screwball comedy called Social Activism and God only knows THAT is a field SO Jewish it tastes of a lox & cream cheese schmeer from a gawd awful Deli in a USA suburban pre-Malls shopping strip mall.
My same olde 2 cents on steroids shouts yet again that four letter word to some - 'Torah'. So many Jewishy Jewish persons want to yell 'tora, tora, tora' like Kamikaze pilots anytime a tzit-tzit flaps or gawd forbid a fellow Jewish person says they actually do something 'really' Jewish.
Our self divisiveness knows no boundaries in making border lines self imposed over which one will 'never' cross over.
I suppose the famous old movie "Crossing Delancey (Street)" was already addressing all of the same issues which proverbially started with those Israelites who did not want to leave Egypt and transformed endlessly to our own generationally impaired fellow Jewish persons in political offices and university offices and offices of 'our own communities who just refuse to come clean over the turning point of Simcha Torah Oct 7, 2023.
To emulate Hillel likely means go directly to the Sources a) written and b) oral i.e. Torah in both senses.
To emulate the rightfully revered Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks of Blessed Memory ... above all his phenomenal breadth of reading and study in the secular fields.... he was a diligent devout student of Torah (written and oral and exegesis ad infinitum). But he also long had an Elder, a Mentor i.e. a Rabbi in Israel who was R. Sachs Rabbi. That is besides his unique connection with M.M. Schneerson.
I am a slow as well as a late learner. When you mention "prayer" it is worth reminding yourself (as you likely know a LOT more than I do) that the Amidah has also been referred to as "The Prayer". If many of our Elders called it such, then there is a good chance that is one foundation upon which to begin an earnest approach to readdressing one's Jewishness. Other than going regularly to a semi-Kosher deli for a schmeer etc. Or one can bring the keffiyeh mobs fresh cups of tea and conversational engagement as some churchlike means of infiltration.
One's options are endless. But if ya ask me:):):) most options are pointless. And it is possible that the most pointed option for success is to follow Hillel's timeless advice for each of us.... 'study Torah'. His example likely would have actually implied and implies written and oral and what transformed to R. Sacks style that also included endless engagement on a deep level with our Cultural exegesis of Talmud etc.
"Is it for (my children] I shall try to rouse myself for one last long interminable wrestle with my demons, my dear ancient sage Hillel?"
One wonders when Jacob spent his dark night wrestling on the ladder, did he see his adversary as a dybbuk or did he recognize it for what and whom it was?
Praying that your brother improves. 🙏
Thank you for this! The art world's almost total embrace of Jew-hatred (to say nothing of the wider world's response to Oct 7) is utterly shocking, although in retrospect not surprising at all, given both historical precedent and more recent ideological trends. Still, seeing former friends and colleagues spout blood libels that have all the factuality and logic of a medieval monk hallucinating from ergot poisoning - and being celebrated for it! - is horribly depressing. Rejecting the contribution of artists like you (and now so many others) is their loss, of course - however minimally consoling that thought may be. But we're definitely learning where to draw certain lines, who actually stands for something and who lives by total hypocrisy (sadly, now the coin of the realm). Religious or not (I'm patrilineal and non- but not-anti-religious, myself), those essential principles summed up so sharply by Hillel clearly make all the difference. Best wishes!