77% Weekly

In ancient Rome, immediately behind the generals parading through the streets celebrating their most recent victory, there was a servant paid to repeat over and over to the lauded conqueror, “Memento Mori”—remember that you will die.   Can you even imagine Caesar, in his hour of victory and achievement, so intentionally humbled?   Wow.   […]

    It’s the first Monday of the month, so it’s a slightly chattier 77% Weekly.   ===   Beloved reader,   I’d love to frame it as “I am figuring out how to do things right,” but that doesn’t feel authentic.   I can’t frame it like that. Because I’m doing something wrong. I’m

Mistaken    I leave my cart near the lemons and limes and walk over to ponder Trader Joe’s robust selection of dried fruits—dried passion fruit rounds are a new fave.   A woman, mid-fifties, coarse salt-and-pepper hair, approaches my cart and starts to wheel it away.    I say, “I’ll gladly trade for the items

⅞ Time   “The challenge I’m putting before you is called ⅞ time,” I tell the Zoom screen containing the head and torso of the person with whom I’m doing spiritual direction.   “I don’t know what that is,” comes through my speakers.   “I’m not surprised,” I laugh, “I just made it up this

I’m sorry. I hear you.   The child whose day it is to empty the dishwasher did so before going to school today. Hooray. (It doesn’t always happen.) And I decide, before I disappear into ROTB work—in the spirit of everyone putting in a little extra effort—to load the contents of the very crowded sink

May. I have patience? Beloved, It’s May. Which is, pardon the bad pun, A-may-zing. The calendar seems to have flipped from March to May instantly. Time flies like an arrow. (And pardon the dad joke: fruit flies like bananas.) — All minutes (or any other quantity of time) are not the same length. Some time

A startling discovery about 2024—this year has 53 Mondays, not the standard 52. 2019: 52 Mondays2020: 52 Mondays2021: 52 Mondays2022: 52 Mondays2023: 52 Mondays2024: 53 Mondays2025: 52 Mondays2026: 52 Mondays2027: 52 Mondays2028: 52 Mondays This means the ratio of Monday newsletters (41) to weeks in the year (52) is not 40/52 (77%), but 41/52 (78.8%).

A Story of Humanity   I’m the 30-year-old assistant rabbi of Temple Judea — a congregation of a few thousand in Tarzana, California.   It’s my third year running high holy day services.   I’m in the main sanctuary. The senior rabbi is at the satellite location as the sheer number of people who want to

Friday night versus lies of spiritualigious patriarchy       Friday night. A set table. Shabbat Dinner.   The four of us at the living room table intone the centuries-old Hebrew candle blessing. And, I—as it is how my grandmother did it—have my eyes closed and rest my hands gently over my eyelids as we

Beloved reader, As has become a 2024 tradition, the first Monday of the month is written as a journal entry. Me directly addressing you. No story of my children and the dishwasher with some wisdom in it this week. What follows is a collection of 12 Rabbi Brian Wisdom Biscuits—spiritualigious quips and thoughts. Each of