5/40





The 77% Weekly



The Religion-Outside-The-Box Newsletter






February 2007 – Issue 5/40



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Greetings!

The 77% Weekly:
The Religion-Outside-The-Box Newsletter
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understanding) 40
out of 52 weeks a year.


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(Rabbi Brian will be on paternity leave until issue
6/40 —
February 19. Larry Keene’s Simple Prayers
will be
gracing the The 77% Weekly
until Rabbi Brian returns.)










Simple Prayer: Seeing Stars
 

Laurence C. Keene

Dear God, I have noticed from a lifetime of
observing people, that there are two distinctly
different kinds of individuals I seem to encounter
on a daily basis: those who look upon their
circumstances in life and see nothing but mud, and
others who look up and around themselves and only
see stars. Mud and stars. They are both there, to be
sure, but most of us seem to only see one or the
other. I saw a woman the other day standing
knee-deep in mud but all she could see were stars. I
have seen others standing on the crest of a high
mountain on a crystal clear night and all they could
see was mud. What people see in life, O Lord,
doesn’t seem to have much to do with where they are
in life at all. It seems to have so much more to do
with who and what kind of people they are. Help me,
dear God, to see stars even in muddy situations.
Give me hope, dear Lord, when I am up to my knees in
discouragement. I am not asking you to change my
circumstances; I am just asking you to help me to
change the way I look at them. Keep me from seeing
less when I could be so much more wonderfully
blessed by seeing more. Don’t let the mud in my life
keep the stars from shining for me.

















Stuff Gets To Me

✧✧✧ As I pack up to leave after my workout, someone asks me, “Hey, Rabbi, how are things going?” I’m not one for small talk. Especially after being called by my title. “Well,” I reply. “I’m sad.” “Why?” “I’m thinking about the girls who went to school in the morning in Minab, Iran—over a hundred of them—killed by a bomb.”

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My Letter to Habakkuk

✧✧✧ To my dearest pen pal, Habbakuk: First, let me say, no one remembers the prophets who did not deliver on the goods. Your predictions came true. And, 2500+ years later, you are still remembered. Do you remember Lenny, that guy? Kept going around Judea telling people “the goats will lay down in green pastures,” and, then, remember? It started

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Me, Rabbi.

✧✧✧   I am a rabbi.   I have a Masters Degree in Hebrew letters and a Doctorate of Divinity, and I am ordained as a rabbi.   I have each credential framed, in my office, just behind where I sit.   They’re not individually affixed to the wall—they lean against one another in a stack.   I like the

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