I’m going to divide this month’s book report into two posts because there is a whole lot of reading goin’ on! I want you to enjoy these updates, not slog through them.
So… what’s been happening?
It looks like Thanksgiving is going to be just the three of us this year, so I am putting in some extra effort to make it feel festive.
I started my masters program and love it so far. My first class entails reading The Five Scrolls (Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther) (and they threw in Jonah just for fun) and using various interpretive strategies to read them. I have learned how to look at them with different “intertexts:” texts from other parts of the Bible, rabbinic texts such as midrash and Pirkei Avot; and modern texts. We are also going to delve a little into Jewish feminist Bible interpretation, which overlaps with the other methods.
It is completely asynchronous: I read the weekly lectures when they become available each Wednesday and interact on the class forum throughout the week to answer the prompts and engage with the other students. All 14 students are in the masters program and seem to be coming back to school later in life like I am. It has been really enjoyable to learn from them and hear their stories and interpretations. One is a rabbi and one is a priest! Since it’s a relatively small school and program, I imagine I’ll encounter them again in future classes. My Spring courses will be “Judaism’s Encounter With Modernity” and “History of Sephardic Jews,” each 8 weeks. I’m loving it!
I am in the middle of writing a mid-term paper for the above class, reading this week’s material, preparing for a Hebrew final exam, and working through some other reading for various Mussar classes.
I’ve been spending most “virtual school hours” in my office. We take a couple walks each day and stop to have lunch together.
Oh! I finally went to my eye doctor and yes, the time has come… my eyes are getting older and I am getting “progressive” lenses. I will be able to stop having to lower my glasses down my nose a bit to read things. I am so grateful for my eyesight. Every day, all day, I enjoy beautiful colors and people and words. I think it’s a scientific miracle to have corrective lenses that allow me to see.
I finished a large and a small diamond painting made from photos I took in Tzfat, Israel. I have one more large Jerusalem one and then I’ll figure out where to place them.
I’m glad the election is over and am also devastated at the polarity within this country. I sense we could be on the verge of tipping into a civil war between liberal democracy and totalitarianism or authoritarianism. It seems that half of us are feeling threatened in various ways and don’t see anyone addressing their problems, with extremism and random hatred as a byproduct. Of course there would be desperate reaches for someone to heal these gaps and address their problems, and the past 4 years has proven that that person could be just about anyone, but the anti-Semitism, riots, and uncompromising views still shock me. When relatives don’t talk to each other because of politics, things have come to an extreme. As an antidote to that, here’s a list from Brightly of books to help kids express gratitude.
All else is going smoothly here. Virtual school will continue for at least another couple of months for us because the virus numbers are higher than ever before. The school has had two confirmed cases of COVID so far, but seems to be doing a good job keeping things normal for the few students that need in-person school.
Let’s talk books… first, some fun finds:
15 holiday cards perfect for book lovers and some fun bookish socks on BookRiot.
CarrotTopPaperShop – SUCH cute reading stationary, bookmarks, mugs, etc. I ordered the calendar.
I joined Libro.fm for audiobooks and will probably cancel Audible.com. I think I already mentioned here that I support independent bookstores by buying through bookshop.org or my favorite local shops instead of on Amazon.
Prayers of the Lost and Found: 10 Reflections on Becoming a Prayerful Human Being by Aryeh Ben David
I have taken two 4-week workshops with Aryeh so far and am really enjoying his way of thinking and teaching. The first was on prayer, so I read this little book by him that is all about connecting to words of the heart. I love that each short chapter concludes with some guiding questions. This book is for anyone of any background.
I have underlined many gems inside, like “Taking control of my spiritual life begins with me letting go of control of my spiritual life” and “What would my life look like if I were totally crazy insanely awake and alive?”
Jonah and the Meaning of our Lives: A Verse-by-Verse Contemporary Commentary by Steven Bob
This is a really cool book. Each chapter is just a couple of pages, but he guides us through the story of Jonah by asking and answering relevant-to-us questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What provides meaning to my life? How do we accept responsibility? What makes us grow?
The Lions of Fifth Avenue: A Novel by Fiona Davis
A historical mystery set in the New York Public Library two generations apart. An excellent story with strong characters and is a quick read!
“Somehow she’d always believed that if she just loved everyone enough, all would be well, that love would be the snowfall that blanketed the crevasses and jagged edges of their world, smoothing them out into a gentle field of white. Maybe she was wrong.”
We Gather Together: A Nation Divided, a President in Turmoil, and a Historic Campaign to Embrace Gratitude and Grace by Denise Kiernan
I read this on Kindle the day it came out because I thought it was about our current divisive times and how to focus on gratitude as an antidote. Although it wasn’t anything like what I thought I’d be reading, it was still interesting to learn how our national holiday of Thanksgiving came about. We hear about Sarah Josepha Hale’s long life of writing and editing in the late 1700s and her hope of creating a holiday centered around thankfulness. We hear of her interactions with 4 presidents to make it come about.
From the Preface: “In the midst of strife and suffering, when violence and hatred seem to dominate the news of the day, finding blessings, however big or small, can feel like an insurmountable, even Pollyanna, task. When we’re besieged by gloom and feeling alienated and frustrated, hopelessness and anger seem the only logical stances from which to formulate action. We kick into emotional survival mode. But it is precisely in those moments that seeking reasons to be grateful is most important and, as modern neuroscientific evidence continues to support, even healing and curative. Giving thanks when there seems little to be thankful for can offer moments of unity amid division, elicit empathy rather than foster estrangement, and perhaps promote a moment’s peace. Toiling to uncover that little speck of gold amid so much emotional dross, we commit to coming together even when we feel forces ripping us apart.”
And Kiernan writes in the Epilogue: “The irony was not lost on me: I was wrapping up a book titled We Gather Together just as the phrase ‘social distancing’ was establishing a strong and saddening foothold in the English language. Adding to the required physical isolation so many have endured, painful emotional challenges have at once divided and united Americans as we confront again, with a renewed strength and fervor, the systemic stronghold hate and intolerance continue to have on our culture. These dual pandemics have, as many crises do, thrown into sharp relief not only that which saddens, frustrates, and angers our souls, but that which ultimately has the power to uplift them.”
Here For It: Or, How To Save Your Soul in America: Essays by R. Eric Thomas
“If I don’t know what I want, how will I know if I’ve got it?” I listened to the author read this on Libro.fm and enjoyed his sense of humor. He tells of his awkward childhood and youth, his unique way of seeing the world and understanding himself, how his sarcastic writing was discovered and how his life has changed. One story in particular about a very close friend moved me to tears. There are very few people in our life who “get” us and noticing and appreciating that connection is huge. For the most part I thought his witty ideas and perspective were worth the listen.
Of course my excerpt is about books and reading!
“But through it all, there was a constant tethering me to the idea of a future… the library. … In the book stacks, I found The Bluest Eye and The Color Purple and Giovanni’s Room and David Rackoff’s Fraud, and more. I saw a new version of ‘otherness’ in those books. And the pages kept turning. At the end of every one was a wall waiting to be broken down, a lurch toward becoming. A new paragraph in a story with an ending far different from what I’d ever dared imagine.
“Every story, whether truth or fiction, is an invitation to imagination. But even more so, it’s an invitation to empathy. The storyteller says, ‘I am here. Does it matter?’ The words that I found in these books were a person calling out from a page, ‘I am worthy of being heard and you are worthy of hearing my story.’ It seems simple but it’s a bold declaration. How many times in life do we receive the message, implicit or explicit, that what we’ve experienced or what we feel isn’t noteworthy or remarkable? The books that I found in the library, ones that I deeply understood and ones that seemed so outside of my experience… all carried the same hopes: to be seen, to be heard, to exist.”
Next time…
November, Part 2 will include news about our how Turkey Day went, some volunteer projects, and whatever else happens between now and then!
I’m currently reading and will review these books and most likely more (insert eye roll):
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho. Almost finished and it is excellent! Highly recommend.
The Fire Within: The living heritage of the Musar Movement by Rabbi Hillel Goldberg
Gratitude by Oliver Sacks. I’d read it before but am reading it again for a Mussar class I’ll be facilitating.
Judaism for the World: Reflections on God, Life, and Love by Arthur Green. Absolutely stunning so far. I’m having to read it with a pencil so I can mark passages and thoughts I like. It’s the kind of book where you are constantly going back and forth from text to footnotes (which could be their own book!).
Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, may his memory be for a blessing. This was just published in September, so it was his last book since we just lost this international philosopher and teacher.
