It’s OK not to be OK

A startling discovery about 2024—this year has 53 Mondays, not the standard 52.

2019: 52 Mondays
2020: 52 Mondays
2021: 52 Mondays
2022: 52 Mondays
2023: 52 Mondays
2024: 53 Mondays
2025: 52 Mondays
2026: 52 Mondays
2027: 52 Mondays
2028: 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%).

I’m not changing the name of the newsletter this year (or in 2029, 2035, 2040, or 2046).

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ION2BOK

A short message this week: “It’s OK not to be OK.”

At (almost) every Saturday service, I hold up a sign with this phrase.

It’s OK not to be OK.

Sometimes, as you can see in this composite image, I amend the “be,” turning it into the word “feel,” making the phrase “It’s OK not to feel OK.”

And it’s true—IT’S OK NOT TO BE OK. IT’S OK NOT TO FEEL OK.

It’s an important message.

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I Am Not Okay Today
by Jarod K. Anderson

I am not okay today.
So, in the absence of okay,
what else can I be?

I can be gentle.
I can be unashamed.
I can turn my pain into connection.
I can be a student of stillness.
I can be awake to nature.
I can sharpen my empathy
against the stone of my discomfort.

I am not okay today,
but I am many worthy
Things.

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Let’s keep this in mind.

We don’t have to shine the brightest at all times.

We can be OK even when we are not OK.

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💙rB

Stuff Gets To Me

March 6, 2026

✧✧✧ 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.”

My Letter to Habakkuk

February 26, 2026

✧✧✧ 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

Me, Rabbi.

February 25, 2026

✧✧✧ 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

It’s OK not to be OK

ION2BOK