November 9, 2016.......The Morning After I am not a believer in serendipity. Nonetheless, I am always pleased when it shows up. I went to sleep late on the night of Tuesday, November 8th already understanding that Donald Trump was headed to victory. Awakening early on Wednesday morning, I made [...]

In one of my High Holy Day sermons this year, I explained my support for Massachusetts Ballot Question #3, which would prohibit certain methods of farm animal containment, a measure fully in consonance with Judaism’s command that we not inflict unnecessary suffering on animals. In that same sermon I [...]

OCTOBER Helen Hunt Jackson Bending above the spicy woods which blaze, Arch skies so blue they flash, and hold the sun Immeasurably far; the waters run Too slow, so freighted are the river-ways With gold of elms and birches from the maze Of forests. Chestnuts, clicking one by one, [...]

Several years ago I wrote a song whose chorus runs like this: Like summer lightning Beyond the horizon You know the storm is coming You just don’t know when..... That’s the way I’m feeling at this moment....unsettled, expectant, fearful of a storm of hitherto unknown proportions which may break [...]

I don’t think that I will ever fully leave behind memories of my childhood summers in Baltimore which were characterized, primarily, by swampy, relentless humidity. Hence the appeal of a poem about an icehouse and, hence, my deep appreciation for New England’s clement climate! Wishing you a pleasant end [...]

As I sat down to write this column, word of the horrific terrorist act in Orlando was spilling across the news. We’ve been told that it was a record-setting act of gun violence in our nation and we are left reeling, angered, frustrated and –perhaps– frightened. It is all [...]