77% Weekly

Beloved reader, Today, I’d like to reintroduce myself—because some of you are new, and for many of you, it’s been a while. And sometimes, it’s good to review. — A little over 3,000 people read this—The 77% Weekly—my 40/52 weeks-per-year spiritualigious newsletter. All but two readers receive it electronically, like you are. Two readers—James and […]

Beloved,   In the past few weeks, some things—things that usually don’t bother me—irked me.   Like the line at the grocery store.  It pissed me off yesterday. I usually don’t mind.   I coined the phrase “spiritual barometer” to refer to a thing that sometimes annoys and sometimes doesn’t.   My favorite example is

Most nights, for the last few months, at 7pm—the time we once banged pots and pans in appreciation of healthcare workers during COVID—I stand on my front porch and play “We Shall Overcome” on my French horn for the neighborhood to hear.   I do it to remind me about hope.   Because I know

Jane and I, engaged to be married in about six months, are driving in her small white Honda Accord. We’re going from our newly-purchased home in Los Angeles to visit her mother Betty, who is in declining health in Las Vegas.   We are on the I-5 freeway, climbing the steep, miles-long grade referred to

I want to teach you how to cultivate patience in one aspect of your life. Actually, I’d like to teach you to have patience with ALL aspects of your life—but I can’t fulfill that offer. What I can do is offer you a technique that I have used with people to help them gain patience

The route the dogs and I take on our three-times-a-day, once-around-the-block walks is governed by the presence of other people walking their dogs. My guys get so excited upon seeing other canines that we must cross the street or turn around to avoid being on the same side of the street as other dogs. This

For my twenty-fifth birthday, January 8, 1995, I decide to celebrate by getting stoned for the first time. I figure it will be fun. A laugh. A memorable escape from the cerebral, constantly thinking, thinking, thinking in rabbinical school in Los Angeles. I ask my study partner to help me make it happen, and she

End of summer, 1994. A hot classroom on Hebrew Union’s downtown Los Angeles campus.  A dozen of us just back from our first-year of rabbinical school in Israel sit facing a rabbi in a bespoke suit.  It’s bootcamp for budding rabbis.  In fourteen days, we will each be deployed to Podunks around the western United States,

December 2024 Portland, Oregon My family is out and I’m putting away items that have accumulated in the dish drainer. I’m on the phone with Larry, my best friend. If you don’t know about my relationship with Larry, he’s an 87-year-old retired minister and sociology professor and my role model in learning to be kind.

On New Year’s Day, David D. Sicher died, becoming what one in Judaism euphemistically refers to as ‘of blessed memory.‘ As Jewish tradition emphasizes a prompt burial (and he and I were close), I flew from Portland the next day and officiated the service on Friday. What follows is a description of the setting and