Deep Thoughts
This is an email that I sent a few weeks ago to an esteemed Rabbi Wolbe from a line of esteemed Rabbi Wolbes who sends out a weekly message regarding Torah parsha, upcoming Torch events and a "sermonette". These are some of my comments on part of the sermonette. I also copied a friend, mother of 4 and teacher/speaker/rebbitzen who is the head of the women's division of that same organization, and personally invited me to come to a women's conference in January that left me invigorated. Sometimes it's good to vent!
From: Brenda Namer [mailto:bnamer@Petrohawk.com]
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 5:14 PM
Subject: RE: To Be A "Mensch"
So I'm scrabling to make the house ready for Shabbat after I went to the VIP Shabbat program Friday morning at my son's pre-school and I read your article to take a break.
This part really moved me:
only this time it is not the Nazis who are finishing us off but we who are gradually doing it to ourselves through assimilation and intermarriage. The Jewish people are literally disappearing as we speak.
We have moved back to Houston (I'm native, my husband Israeli) and I struggle to keep our identity as a Jew in Galut - only bringing it up if someone notices that I am speaking Hebrew throughout the day to my husband on the telephone, food choices, etc
I haven't really come to grips with the fact that I am making a life for my family here and not in Israel.
Maybe that IS why I've found my way back to my roots here - to be the token Jew (it always seems like that is the case in my daily circle and with the choices I've made - {I went to LSU in Baton Rouge rather than Tulane where my mother went or UT Austin where my brother went}) who shows others around me that we are not all like the sterotypes and what I think it means to be Jewish. And of course to help others strengthen their Jewish identity by being comfortable with my own Jewish identity.
Thank you for these weekly drasha - it gets you thinking and sometimes even sparks a spark.
Brenda Namer
This is what I got from the author of the sermonette and whose children are at Sephardic Gan
From: TORCH [mailto:torch@torchweb.org]
Sent: Tue 1/29/2008 8:59 AM
To: Brenda Namer
Subject: RE: To Be A "Mensch"
Hello Brenda,
Thanks for you kind and touching words. I agree and think that just about the only way for a Jew to stay connected, especially in "galut" is by being empowered through Jewish learning. When we learn, we connect, and are able to stay strong and feel part of a community. I welcome you to join our learning opportunities.
All the best,
Aryeh
(have you ever gotten a note signed with just a first name from a distinguished learned Rabbi? Its a first for me too - and then last week he added me as a one of his 145 friends on Facebook..., its a new generation!)
This is what my friend wrote back later:
Sent: Mon 2/18/2008 11:50 PM
To: Brenda Namer
Subject: RE: To Be A "Mensch"
Well Spoken, Brenda. You are a wonderful Jew for others to meet and learn from…
What a warm fuzzy, just thought I'd share with the blogosphere!
1 comment:
Wow, two mondo blogs! I enjoyed reading all of them aloud to Yoav. I especially appreciated your BMA's. Yet another reason to move back here - a lot less fear of children disappearing from the park (we even have lost children gemachim), and if they do disappear, they're just running in the street in traffic, no one is kidnapping them.
Um, usually. Bli ayin hara.
And here you just have the million-tiny-pebbles in the playground, as opposed to wood chips (wood, as you know, is too expensive here).
As for the kinim, want me to send you a bottle of 'Lo Baroshli,' the herbal anti-louse oil I put on my daughter's hair every night? That or the 50 shekel Assy 2000 super-duper lice comb? I can send it back with Micah - lemme know!
I hope you combed out your own hair too!! ICK! There's a reason to shave your head!!
Anyway, lovely note you sent to 'Aryeh'. My husband knows him. The TORCH guys are incredibly cool, all around. His little brother learns at the yeshiva down the block from us! Small world! And my husband was lucky enough to meet Rav Volbe (as he was called here), whose sfarim we had, who as my husband says, "I had the zchus to meet him for 20 minutes, and it changed my entire life." We have his sfarim, Alei Shur, and his book on chinuch banim, which is small but wonderful. Want a copy? Hebrew or English, lemme know.
Seriously, if you want Micah to bring back any Israel nostaliga (chocolate spread? Binders with only two rings? Green squash for 20 SHEKEL A KILO (gotta love shmita!)? Petel? Tushi brand toilet paper?), just let us know!
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