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Rocket Science and Kissing

01/22/2020 10:42:12 AM

Jan22

Rabbi Brent Spodek

Some people are "rocket science smart" - they can comprehend intricate, complicated things, like how rockets can blast people into space. 

Some people are "kissing smart" - they can master things that are hard to do well, even if they are easy to understand, like how to kiss someone you love. 

I know plenty of people who are smart in one or the other of these ways, but very few who are smart in both of them. 

Rabbi Shai Held is both types of smart. 

His scholarship is incredible - his intellectual biography of Abraham Joshua Heschel is a masterpiece, heralded by Jewish and Christian intellectuals for how it analyzes Heschel’s thoughts and insights. On a more immediate level, Shai’s collection, The Heart of Torah is the text that the staff and clergy of BHA study together at the beginning of our weekly meetings. 

Shai’s heart is incredible as well, both in the public and private spheres. Though he is not always physically well, he has been arrested for protesting the murder of Eric Garner on the streets of Manhattan, and when my wife Alison was in the hospital, he was never too busy - despite his many responsibilities - to come and sit with an old friend. 

I am honored and delighted that Shai is going to be speaking at BHA one week from tomorrow, on January 30. He’ll be talking about the role of love in Jewish thought, and I hope you will click here to come out to hear from one of the most important Jewish thinkers and leaders of this generation. 

Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784