Rabbi Bruce's Reflections on Life

 Happy Thanksgiving, In Jewish tradition, one fulfills one's obligation for prayer when one says amen to the prayers of whoever is leading the worship experience....WITH ONE EXCEPTION. When one is giving thanks, although one can say amen to the prayers of others, each person must find something for which to give thanks.  On this Thanksgiving, as all of us acknowledge we are living in challenging times and facing various hurdles in different aspects of our lives, I hope that Thanksgiving gives us the opportunity to search for the blessings in our lives and acknowledge them. I am teaching a course in the Holocaust this semester at George Mason University and have taught about Viktor Frankl's book, "Man's Search for Meaning." and the power of hope. Two of my favorite quotes from Viktor Frankl, are the following:(see below) Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cann...

 Dear Friends and Family, I have been privileged to be able to lead a number of sessions recently about the election, Krystallnacht, which occurred Nov. 9 and 10, 1938 (the night of broken glass that many feel is the event that began the Holocaust), recent events in Amsterdam, and Veterans Day. I quoted the following poem which I hope inspires you in the way it inspires me.  I thought it was an anonymous poem but recently found the name of the author in this version.  (See below) As we think about the strong feelings that people have about the recent election, the recent violence in Amsterdam, recall the horrors of those nights in Germany 86 years ago, and remember and honor all those who serve in the military, this poem speaks to something we all can do. We live in a world with deep division and much tension.  A friend recently illustrated this with a grammatical joke. What do you call it when the past and present walk into a bar? Tense We live with tension and coul...

 Dear Friends, Sorry to disappoint you but there will be no song lyrics in this blog:-) I want to talk about masks.   Recently, I  was giving a presentation at a local retirement facility about the masks we wear and how we celebrate a day on which we wear masks and go trick or treating.   I talked about the day on which Jewish people wear masks, which is our holiday of Purim.  Please do a search and learn more about this holiday in the Jewish calendar. We had a discussion about the reference to Yom Kippur as Yom Kippurim, a day like Purim where we also wear masks including wearing the mask of being a pious person who sincerely wants to be forgiven  How many of us are sincere in our desire to be forgiven and how many of us are only wearing a mask? Our discussion included asking the residents to talk about the masks they wear.  One of the residents emotionally described how she wore a "polite" mask and never told people how she felt.  As she describ...