
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.

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

Me, Rabbi.
✧✧✧ I am a rabbi. I have a Masters Degree in Hebrew letters and a Doctorate of Divinity, and I am ordained as

Way Through
✧✧✧ Hugh’s dad died a few weeks ago. Hugh is a dear friend and Presbyterian minister in Waterloo (just west of Toronto), Ontario, Canada. I

Flash Bang
✧✧✧ My buddy Marc meets me near my house at 3:30 on Saturday afternoon so we can bike to the small park named for Elizabeth

Hiawatha Johnson, JR.
January 2026 — Portland, ORE Hiawatha Johnson, Jr., a mentor and friend died. Summer 1985 — Magic Camp Oakdale, Long Island I’m 15. He’s 30.

The Delay
2026 issue #03 — The Delay I’m in my buddy David’s car. He’s driving me from my mom’s apartment in NYC to Newark, NJ, where

Lifeboats. Summer. Bridges. Helpers.
Lifeboats. Summer. Bridges. Helpers. The rapid succession of a toddler-drunk-on-power messes is overwhelming. I’m exhausted by the sheer number of (what seem to me) reprehensible

A Friday Night Tradition
Religiously. Every Friday night, religiously, I do a particular tradition. I do the same ritual religiously every Friday night. I’m not misusing the word religiously

Loving Enemies
Thoughts on loving our enemies ✧✧✧ Three Saturday Services in a row the group and I interacted around the topic of loving our enemies. Here

Oh, Honey.
Fall, 2025 I’m sitting in my favorite chair in the living room. The sky is getting darker. It’s almost dusk. I check the time: 4:40

It’s o.k. to seek love.
Beloved reader, I am redoing the rotb.org website. Again. Why am I redoing the website again? Because a website older than (blank) years is (blank

Apple-Banana-Cap
An apple, a banana, and a baseball cap.🍎🍌🧢 ✧✧✧ I arrive at the wedding venue super early. My preference, always, is to arrive early, find

Deleted Scenes from the Book of Jonah.
A few weeks ago, in writing to you about the High Holy Day services, I referenced stopping the telling the story of the fish-dwelling prophet,

Liar, Liar, Pants on fire
Text Late May 2020, and I’m talking to Phil, my beloved father-in-law. I’ve returned home from yet another protest that “Black Lives Matter” — and