A Message of Remembrance on Passover

Dear Colleagues, As we look ahead to the beginning of Passover, I want to share a bit of JDC history. Tomorrow – the eve of Passover – is the seventy-sixth anniversary of the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.  In 1943, April 19 was the night of the first seder, just as it is thisContinueContinue reading “A Message of Remembrance on Passover”

No hero is coming to save me.

My whole life has been marked by stories of heroes with superhuman powers. I grew up with Christopher Reeves’ Superman and Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane. A line that has walked with me throughout my life was delievered by Lois after Superman caught her after a fall from a skyscraper, “You’ve got me, but who’s got you?” Every time I meditate on this line, the same thought comes to me: “You may have saved me but who’s gonna save you?”

All Is Meaningless (ACAD: Ecclesiastes 11)

Just as you do not know how the breath comes to the bones in the mother’s womb, so you do not know the work of God, who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hands be idle; for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

All Is Meaningless (ACAD: Ecclesiastes 9)

The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no more reward, and even the memory of them is lost. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished; never again will they have any share in all that happens under the sun. Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has long ago approved what you do.

All Is Meaningless (ACAD: Ecclesiastes 8)

For the word of the king is powerful, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?” Whoever obeys a command will meet no harm, and the wise mind will know the time and way. For every matter has its time and way, although the troubles of mortals lie heavy upon them. Indeed, they do not know what is to be, for who can tell them how it will be?

All Is Meaningless (ACAD: Ecclesiastes 7)

Wisdom gives strength to the wise more than ten rulers that are in a city.
Surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning.
Do not give heed to everything that people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you; your heart knows that many times you have yourself cursed others.
All this I have tested by wisdom; I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me.