blogs/brentspodek

My wife Alison and I had the incredible honor of being invited to the White House Hannukah reception on December 17. We went as representatives of Beacon Hebrew Alliance, the town of Beacon and of the entire mid-Hudson Valley.

First is a recap of one of the more extraordinary experiences of our lives; further down are some thoughts on what it all means.

The Play by Play

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Prayer does not cure cancer.

Prayer does not end endemic racism.

Prayer gives voice to our souls, focus to our lives and comfort to our egos. Nothing more, nothing less.

At those moments when we are down, the liturgy tells us that we have been given another day on this planet because the Creator has faith that we will do something useful, productive, beautiful with this day.

At those...Read more...

Back in the day, the patriarch Isaac was a thirsty man looking for a good drink.

In Toldot, the parsha or Torah reading for this week, we hear how Isaac can't access the wells which his father Abraham had dug, because they had been filled in with dirt. So now, he needs to get water for himself.

There is water to be found in those wells, to be sure, but as is often the case with biblical wells, there is metaphor to...Read more...

Last night, I got some stressful news, so I stayed up late trying to rectify it.

Of course, I was so agitated on account of working till nearly midnight that I had trouble sleeping.

That meant that in the morning, I was tired and cranky even after my second cup of coffee. Which was unfortunate, since the schools were closed and I was home with my...Read more...

A little more than three years ago, I went on a week long silent retreat in Western Massachusetts.

It was late winter, and I spent a lot of time on walking meditations, tracing paths over the snow and through the woods.

My goal was to focus on my footsteps, but my thoughts kept coming back to a conflict that I was stuck in with a particular person. I had arguments with this person...Read more...