Arias

A Devar Jonah Conversation Ari.A Alpern (This version is set up to start a conversation) A salam Ah laykum.  Shalom A lay chem, Peace be Upon You. And upon you Peace. Welcome to our devotional conversation on the Quran. We will read and recite together, from “The...

Bar Mitzvah Boy Syndrome? Yes.Time To Grow Up   Time magazine the late spring of 2011 asks: Sex, Lies, and Arrogance: What Makes Powerful Men Behave So Badly? Why is it that the higher one rises in a power hierarchy the more likely they are to commit indiscretions?...

Beyond Sunday School: A Call to the Children of Israel.  If you, like many, stopped your spiritual education at age 13 or 12, you may see the world like an adolescent. Similar to The High Priest Aaron, of blessed memory, modern rabbis are not able to prevent the dance...

My “I Have a Dream Speech”  of Shabbat Shalom ( In memory of Rabbi Edwin H. Friedman ) Rabbi Friedman of blessed memory is my main rabbinic mentor. In his final book, A Failure of Nerve, the good rabbi challenges each of us to have our own “I have a dream speech.”...

A:  Mastering the Final Name. Be a Baal Shem Tov A Review  Say A, The Final Name, or Ah, as in say Ah Aleph God   In A Beginning   add lamed say Ale, or A lah Plural of majesty Al o heam, not L o him in A Beginning creating continuously, in your goodness Ma ah say B...

On Reading Wallace Stevens with Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary  Poetic allusion must be "recognizable not only to a coterie of poets and gentlemen scholars, but to a whole culture as well." John Hollander   My diction is ary Sitting pretty upon this Arête I...

Gnomologia of Elijah  For Theo, who prefers poetry You are the task, (as Rebbe K teaches), and no disciple, far or wide; and the Teacher, and the Savior of your own life.  So what is Decisive? Sinai? Calgary?  Only The A Ascent. Arête, Says this Prophet of...

Announcing: A REAL Event in Ten Acts Sealah!   Act One: From A to Z  A to Z As easy as A-lijah ascending Zion Meeting Moses And Kafka on the way All Knowing The decisive thing, The truth beyond the coffin Is taught and learned. Sealah! Ari-A one To the zebra shawled I...

Taiku The burden of Elijah T.A.I.K.U.? All solved? Haiku. Well versed!    (For Ezra, Once Again) A legal debate in the Talmud the Rabbi’s are unable to settle is referred to as a Taiku, an acrostic for “Tishbi will resolve.” That  would be me. Oy. It’s not enough that...

    Alenu Agonistic A ; Alenu Agnostic A     Is A equal to not A? What may we really say about God?   If the Negative is given (As with rabbi mm and k) Is the positive merely Idolatry?   Is certainty not idolatry? I am not sure.   Is it upon Us, Alenu, To solve the...

Poems before Prophecy  A Poets Prayer:  Ezra. Help. Do poets pray? What if a becomes e And we are consumed in this conversation? Collaborations? Poetry as duet? A seminary for prophets? Ezra. Let us go then and keep it succinct. An event poem. Include a match with...

The Final Belief: Recite and Read (One Rabbi's Appreciation of the Quran)   (Before beginning):         Spend one full year organizing An Ecumenical Conference On how to read Scriptures Which only you attend.       While the Quran, according to some Muslims, is not to...

Broken and Stained glass

Good News: ( What one Rabbi and one student taught me about the Gospels.)  When I attended rabbinic school in Jerusalem the only person who read the Gospels was the Dean, an erudite scholar of Semitic languages. I would be the only disciple to follow in his footsteps....

Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour Light the first light of evening, as in a room In which we rest and, for small reason, think The world imagined is the ultimate good.   This is, therefore, the intensest rendezvous. It is in that thought that we collect...