My recent posts…

Parshat Lech-Lecha 5785

We make assumptions about others based on what we see: what they wear, what they drive, their work, past-times… And we project upon the other who passes our superficial entrance exam what we want them to be — i.e., more like us!

Yom Kippur Singing

My recent posts...Over the decades, I have composed melodies for some of the texts we use in our prayer services. (I've written English interpretations of the texts for a few of them.) Some of them are posted here so we can sing them together at Shirat Hayam and, even...

Thank you for listening

Jul 21, 2017

Maybe it’s the radio, maybe the reception in our bedroom; we can get only pop stations on the bedside radio/alarm. Over time, we’ve gone through the top-40 choices we could get, moving up the patter/banter/humor levels from middle school to high school to working world. On our current default wake-up morning show, there is a fair amount of brief call-in comments or conversations on the air. To me, the most notable thing about those calls (other than the respect shown to every caller) is that, without fail, the host thanks each caller for listening to his program. It struck me this morning that, despite the relative bathroom humor and celebrity-centered talk, this was something worth emulating. We generally remember to thank those who do things: kitchen or office volunteers; event or committee chairs; regular service attendees; lay leadership. I feel that I do not offer enough personal thanks to them and to the people who are, in effect, our listeners: you who read this blog; you who occasionally attend a service or participate in an event, class or program; you who keep Shirat Hayam in mind when marking occasions with donations; you who entrust your children to our teachers and caregivers; you who call the office to check on the time for a service or for Shabbat candle-lighting; you who make calls through the Caring Network; you who make the effort to patronize our gift shop; you who enable a loved one to be active at Shirat Hayam. It takes a lot of people to keep Shirat Hayam vibrant, and, of course, more ideas and more hands and hearts are always welcome. Thank you!