Writing plays a major role in how I make sense of the world. Writing allows intuitions to evolve into ideas. It allows the time and space for complicated thoughts and feelings to express themselves in ways that honor their complexity. Writing takes our inner world and makes it available to others. It also allows us to look back on past thoughts, feelings, ideas, and sentiments by preserving them in an accessible format. While much of my writing is personal and therefore not available online or elsewhere, I have maintained several active blogs over the years. You can find those posts here, searchable in a variety of formats. If any of these spark a thought or conversation please drop me a line.
Recent Posts
Life Lessons, December 2024
Everything counts. Ideas are powerful and should be deployed with wisdom. Few worthwhile aims can be achieved through force alone. More often than not, things will manifest in their own time and according to their own schedule. The things we…
A Small Beauty
I took out the trash early in the morning. It was cold and dark. I dragged the bin to the street and put it in its usual spot– right underneath a streetlight. The glow of the streetlight made the thin…
A Blessing Upon a Child’s First Siddur
Many Jewish educational settings have special celebrations during which children receive their first siddur. I wrote this prayer with the intent that it be offered by community rabbis but it could easily be offered by teachers, parents, or anyone…
When We Sing We Pray Twice
Every so often our complicated Middle School academic schedule allows for a moment of Jewish creative inspiration. That was the case recently when we were able to offer a “breakout” Tefilah during our regular Tefilah time. Advertised as a “singing…
The Big Thing
There’s a big thing A thing we can all connect to a thing that’s true and real and beautiful and powerful and enduring of course it’s not a thing, but calling it the big thing is convenient and appealing in…
The Theological Quandry of the Cockroach
I recently found myself in a Tefilah discussion with 1st graders. We were exploring the idea that God created everything. From the smallest grain of sand to the tallest mountain, from the dolphins that swim within site of the shore…
Life Lessons, 11/20/24
Blessings don’t always feel like blessings. But they’re blessings nonetheless. It’s so much more enjoyable to catch someone at their best than at their worst. So much of life is about remembering. We have many teachers and often don’t have…
3 Elegies for Phil Lesh
Elegy for Phil Lesh 10/25/24 Turn your trumpet into a bass guitar And your bass guitar into a UFO And your UFO into Tom Thumb’s Blues And Tom Thumb’s Blues into The Midnight Hour And The Midnight Hour into a…
Concert Notes- Neranenah 7/30/21
Amazing band lineup featuring: Will Robertson- guitar, vocals, songwriting Caroline Goldberg- vocals Melvin Myles- vocals Joe Alterman- piano DJ Burel- drums Robby Handley- bass Julia Filson- fiddle Micah Lapidus- guitar, songwriting Liner notes for songs: Intention– this is a Shabbat…
Judaism 101
A way of life. An ancient wisdom tradition that constantly refreshes. A voice that speaks into the heart of daily living. An invitation to mindfulness. A dance with God. An embrace of the world and creation. A call to ethical…
The Awesome Light
This song is a bit of a paradox. It’s a Nigun with words. The paradox is that Nigun (plural Nigunim) is a style of Jewish music that has no words. So a Nigun with words is a bit of a…
To know the future
The future isn’t ours to know. But one thing is for sure, we’ll never know what the future holds until we know what the present holds. What I mean is this: If we don’t attend to the present moment, we…
Singing
I’m not a great singer. I wish I was. However, there’s a tremendous blessing for me as a musician and songwriter in the fact that I’m not a great singer. The blessing is, at least, twofold. The first blessing of…
Singing With Peter Yarrow
Earlier this week I got to sing with Peter Yarrow. Context: members of the Ebenezer Baptist Church and Temple Choirs were invited to sing with Peter at the opening night of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. The song– Blowing in…
Reflections on Jewish Music and the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival
Later this spring I will be a part of the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival’s spring showcase. Specifically, The Well, a musical Shabbat for which I am the primary composer and band leader, will be leading a Shabbat service/ concert at…
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Ti da di da di
It’s 1am. I don’t write much at this hour, at least nowadays. But I got a text message with some upsetting news and can’t fall asleep. The news doesn’t affect me directly, but it upsets me directly, and my mind…
Simple Reminders
Today is a new day. It has never existed before nor will it ever exist again. Each moment is an opportunity to be present physically as well as spiritually. Today will be full of experiences whose meanings will be different…
Inevitability and Possibility
Yesterday I found myself thinking about inevitability and possibility. I found myself thinking about inevitability because of this week’s Torah portion, Vayeshev. Towards the beginning of the portion we read about how Jacob loved Joseph more than his other 11!…
A Prayer for Healing
We need healing. Our world needs healing. I need healing. You probably do as well. To be human is to be broken and whole at the same time. To be human is to know that our bodies are beautifully imperfect…
Life Lessons 11/14/19
Sometimes you have to relearn your own song. The playground matters. Fall is either your favorite or least favorite season. Rarely in between. Cold weather= more pockets! There’s more going on in this moment than can ever be fully appreciated.…
Life Lessons 11/13/19
Sometimes there’s traffic. Sometimes there’s not. Sometimes it’s so easy to find a parking spot that you forget to appreciate how easy it was. While an affront to the drinker, it’s quite understandable to give the Diet Coke to the…
We are neighbors
Last night our HOA hosted the annual Halloween party for our neighborhood. 40-50 of us gathered in our clubhouse for a pizza dinner before heading out to trick-or-treat. I don’t know what came over me, but I suddenly felt an…
A Poem a Day
I just read a poem or two. It’s a rainy day and it seemed like a good thing to do. It reminded me that poets exist. Many more than we will ever know. It reminded me that we might be…
Beginner’s Mind Torah
Yesterday I had to transfer a Torah scroll from The Davis Academy Lower School campus to The Davis Academy Middle School campus. The scroll was being stored in an Ark that resides in a room adjacent to our Lower School…
3 Jewish Prayers Every Person Should Recite
This morning I found myself discussing the meaning of some of the daily prayers that Jews recite each morning. It reminded me of the relevance and maybe even the necessity of finding words like these to remind and guide us…
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Jewish Body, Jewish Soul
Jewish tradition honors both the body and the soul. The ancient rabbis understood that, as human beings, we experience the world through the body. Our senses, our physicality, our material self. They taught us to treat the body with respect,…
Final Delivery
I just observed a tender, inspiring, and profoundly human interaction. John, the UPS employee who delivers packages to The Davis Academy a few times a week, was asking for our receptionist Ms. Janice. As it turns out, he wanted to…
A Passion to Serve
Today I had the pleasure of hearing Sherry Frank speak about her life story as it is represented in her remarkable book entitled, A Passion to Serve: Memoirs of a Jewish Activist. As Sherry spoke, I found my heart opening…
In Memory of Robert Hunter
Laying in his bed and dying, his momma called him home. Did he see the dark star crash? If you look out of any window, you might see the dark star crash. Like a whiskey drunk china cat, with no…
A great definition of art
In episode #341 of the EntreLeadership Podcast, Seth Godin says the following about what it means to be an artist. He says that an act of artistry involves, “Doing something that’s not in the manual, something human, something generous, something…
Spiritual Reflections on Billy Strings @ Terminal West, ATL 9/6/19
A longtime and beloved friend and I went to the opening night of Billy Strings’ two night run at Terminal West in Atlanta. A quartet of super bluegrass and acoustic musicians, Billy Strings is on the rise and developing a…
Continue Reading Spiritual Reflections on Billy Strings @ Terminal West, ATL 9/6/19
We are blessed to know
We are blessed to know people. People like Davona. People who bring light and joy and sweetness into our lives. People who make our lives better. Simply by virtue of our bumping into them in the hallway. In the cafeteria.…
A Blessing for the Night Before School Starts
This blessing can be read the night before the first day of school, or the morning of… A Back to School Blessing for 2019-2020 Tomorrow our family goes back to school. While we are sad that summer break is coming…
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This Darkness Has to Give: 2019 GD Meetup Review
This year’s Grateful Dead Meetup at the Movies was my 3rd foray into the world of movie theater Grateful Dead weirdness. When I saw that the footage was a show from Giants Stadium 1991 I wasn’t sure what to expect.…
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The Music Plays the Band- Dead and Company, Atlanta, GA 6/29/19
The date was on my calendar for months. In some ways, the anticipation of a Saturday afternoon of Dead and Company is its own reward. Andy and I rolled down to the show with plenty of time to navigate the…
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Rocketman
I recently saw Rocketman, the Elton John biopic. I’m writing this short reflection as someone who is admittedly, not an Elton John fan. It’s not that I don’t like some of his songs or appreciate his musicality, it’s just that…
Satan & Adam- Film Review
Last night I watched the documentary Satan & Adam. It resonated with me as a musician, as a rabbi, and quite simply as a human being. The film chronicles the unlikely relationship between two blues musicians who met on a…
Shavuot: Receiving Torah
As Shabbat and Shavuot approach, I wanted to share a quick Hasidic teaching recounted by the great philosopher, Martin Buber. REVELATION EVERYDAY: The Kotzker Rebbe was asked: ”Why is Shavuot called (z’man matan Torah) ‘The Time that the Torah was…
Spiritual Review: BlacKkKlansman
This week I finally had a chance to watch Spike Lee’s 2018 film, BlacKkKlansman. It was excellent. While I’m not in a position to offer a full review of the film, there are a couple of spiritual themes that really…
Gratitude for the Tapers
I listen to a lot of Grateful Dead. Every once in a while, I pause to think about the fact that I can, with a few clicks on my phone, start streaming one of a thousand live performances from the…
ACC-GTM
I am so honored and excited to be performing a few of my songs with choir members from The Temple, Ebenezer Baptist Church, and Congregation Bet Haverim, at the opening concert of the ACC-GTM Convention later this month. Here’s a…
An Imam, a Priest, and a Rabbi
Earlier this week I hosted a panel discussion with interfaith clergy at The Davis Academy Middle School. The whole experience, from start to finish, felt very sacred. From our pre-huddle where we connected as colleagues and human beings to the…
Enjoy the Music– A Footnote to Yossi Prager’s Speech at Prizmah 2019
Approximately 1,100 lay and professional Jewish Day School leaders had the unique privilege of “being in the room” as Yossi Prager reflected on the legacy of the AVI CHAI Foundation as well as the future of the Jewish Day School…
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Glory
The Super Bowl is here in ATL. And with it, a ton of events of all shapes and sizes. Last night I had the honor of joining with friends from The Temple and Ebenezer Baptist Church Choirs as we sang…
Making Music in a Messed Up World
This MLK Weekend marked the 6th anniversary of my participating in the interfaith Shabbat service that brings together The Temple and Ebenezer Baptist Church here in Atlanta. It’s an electrifying, meaningful, and important evening of interfaith prayer, music, and connection.…
Stadium Rock
A few years ago I wrote a song called “Rise Up.” I was relatively new to Atlanta and didn’t realize that Rise Up happened to be the motto of our local NFL team, The Atlanta Falcons. My actual inspiration for…
moe.
I saw moe at the Buckhead Theater on Saturday night. Thus ending a 15-year hiatus from hearing the band in any way, shape, or form. And I am so glad I went. They blew my mind. As I listened to…
A Rabbi Walks into a Church of Scientology
Today I took a step outside my comfort zone. I visited and toured our local Church of Scientology here in Atlanta, GA. A bit of context. I’m a member of the Sandy Springs Interfaith Clergy Association. The group meets monthly,…
Jacob’s Journey
Imagine going to sleep. With a rock for a pillow. Imagine having a dream. And meeting God there. Imagine waking up. And discovering that God isn’t only in your dreams. That God is everywhere.In everything. In the rock. In the dirt. In the trees. In…
From the Depths
Last Saturday, 11 Jews in Pittsburgh, Pa were murdered during their Shabbat morning prayers. Each had a name. Each had a story. Each had a life behind and ahead of them. Each should still be with us today. But they…