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Text of the page (random words):
n author neal ross attinson posted on 2025 03 05 2026 08 25 categories writ tags arm s length bloggage books craft creating pr reading the cook for any price writers leave a comment on welcome to an ai free almost all text zone sinchronization sic as the high holy days approach a time for an accounting and confession of personal and communal sins we may rightly ask just what is a sin anyway many of us living as we do in a differently oriented culture might equate sins with something inherently evil but the jewish understanding is rather more nuanced judaism teaches that there are three categories of sinful acts each described as aveirahs loosely translated as line crossings 1 khet an archery term for missing the mark think of it as an inattentive or ignorant error 2 ahvon a just this once or what s the harm behavior 3 pesha knowing what the law custom social contract requires but deliberately breaking it if those distinctions aren t clear enough try this driving analogy 1 khet not paying attention to or not seeing the stop sign 2 ahvon seeing the stop sign but also not seeing any other drivers and proceeding to drive past it 3 pesha blowing through the stop sign with a smirking they can t tell me what to do i hope this illustration helps make clearer our annual pilgrimage to the day of atonement may this season of holy rededication bring increased awareness of what connects us all together and the strength of responsibility to act accordingly author neal ross attinson posted on 2026 08 22 2026 08 25 categories torah tags being jewishly learning jewishly there s a god in my soup torah output 1 comment on sinchronization sic eyes above the longer i spend in this hobby the more convinced i become that astronomy isn t about checking objects off a list it s about slowing down long enough to truly appreciate what s already waiting overhead mike from astronomics author neal ross attinson posted on 2026 08 06 2026 08 06 format quote categories crit tags wow committee for a bigger universe quotables leave a comment on eyes above le cri du juive when will they leave us alone author neal ross attinson posted on 2026 07 31 2026 08 01 categories torah tags being jewishly leave a comment on le cri du juive hearing aid a message in today s congregational newsletter it s a jewish thing but also universal listening it s one of the most important things people can do for each other it s so important in fact that our torah teaches us to speak of it in the shema twice daily the hebrew root of shema is shin mem ayin in this week s torah portion eikev that root surfaces in its doubled emphatic form deuteronomy 11 13 as part of the shema s second paragraph the word shema is usually translated as hear or listen and when it s doubled it means really listen however there is no single english word that perfectly captures its multiple shades of meaning which can also include understand take seriously and hear in order to act when you encounter a word in any language that is untranslatable into your own rabbi jonathan sacks says you are close to the beating pulse of that culture to understand an untranslatable word you have to move out of your comfort zone and enter a mindset that is significantly different from yours he goes on to define listening as a deeply spiritual act it can also be painful since what we hear may sometimes challenge our own worldview but it s through meeting that challenge listening to others who may not agree with us who may think and feel differently than we re used to thinking and feeling that we can open ourselves to growing and developing in ways that might never have occurred to us listening is the greatest gift we can give to another human being rabbi sacks concludes to be listened to to be heard is to know that someone else takes me seriously it changes not only the one who is heard but the listener as well may we all be strong and brave enough to really listen to each other and to willingly go wherever that listening takes us author neal ross attinson posted on 2026 07 31 2026 07 28 categories torah tags it learning jewishly people there s a god in my soup torah output leave a comment on hearing aid eternal youth can be yours staying young is not easy but here are four anti aging actions proven effective if taken in large measures the first three all but guarantee the fourth 1 stay curious 2 stay funny 3 stay musical 4 stay joyful follow these simple directives and eternal youth can be yours for as long as you want your body will eventually fall apart but until then your soul will remain supple and pure as a shiny faced child s you have nothing to lose but your grumpiness author neal ross attinson posted on 2026 07 26 2026 07 26 categories life tags wow bob it moments leave a comment on eternal youth can be yours ponderness absence of evidence is not evidence of absence some wise soul or other author neal ross attinson posted on 2026 07 24 format quote categories crit life tags wow it quotables leave a comment on ponderness i 80 days if it hadn t been for my uncle ben i would never have made it from reno to new hampshire by way of new york city but i did on a greyhound bus in the summer of 1985 i was twenty three years old with an untested cockiness to match and exceedingly hopped up on jack kerouac s on the road visions of undiscovered worlds made my soles itchy besides my friends were having similar adventures why not me so i accoutered myself with essentials from the local pleasant hill ca sporting goods store backpack sleeping bag and various important to me contents and set out the plan was to hitchhike cross country to visit my dad in plymouth nh where he ran a small and popular diner after hitchhiking to humboldt county and spending a lost month with some former roommates however i realized that the united states was bigger than it looked on a map so big in fact that it somewhat quelled my cockiness i managed to thumb my way from bridgeville to south lake tahoe and thence to reno my cash reserves were low enough to give me second thoughts about this mission but after concluding that i couldn t go back home having made such a public fuss about my proposed great eastern pilgrimage i called my rich uncle in salt lake city and threw myself on his mercy come to my house and we ll talk about it he said and wired me a bus ticket thus i left reno in a cloud of diesel smoke trundling across nevada on interstate 80 as day eased into night we arrived at the salt lake city greyhound station around 3 a m a teenaged and mohawked punk sat down beside me and asked if i wanted to buy a mouse a mouse i asked befuddled by the hour and the trip what kind of mouse you know a mouse he said producing a live white rodent from the chest pocket of his jeans jacket i politely declined just as my sleepy aunt pulled up in her family s car and whisked me homeward to a welcome meal and shower i spent a couple of days wandering about salt lake city which at that time had no public phones no public bars and many mormon missionaries my uncle was kind enough to lend me 600 for bus fare to new york and expenses and i was off again now i wryly confess that after almost exactly forty one intervening years of a sometimes checkered life only flickering and disordered impressions remain of that epic three day trek but here s some of what i recall the slowly changing landscape captivated my eyes and imagination deserts dry lakes cornfields cities small towns mountains i was particularly taken by crossing the continental divide and later the mississippi river as announced by two of our many drivers i had often heard of and read about these important pieces of american geography but seeing them in person was something quite unexpectedly else this country of ours is vast vast enough to swallow whole a suburban 23 year old who had inaccurately reckoned its size through fevered but uninformed fantasies and the further we went the better i felt about trading my thumb for a bus seat in cheyenne wyoming one of my seatmates pawned some of his belongings at least he said they were his we used the proceeds to buy a couple of bottles of booze which we then sold to the other rear of the bus passengers for 1 a shot we became so merry as our bus rolled through the black velvet night that the driver threatened to put us all off evidently burger king had some sort of agreement with the greyhound company because all the major and some of the minor i 80 bus stations between reno and new york stood cheek by jowl with the famous fast food outlets hungry but not knowing much about thrift i repeatedly stocked up on enough hamburgers and fries and cans of coke zero to fortify me through the long foodless stretches of subsequent highway believe it or not they actually tasted good cold smoke a cigarette the biker in the next seat told me offering his pack it ll stave off your hunger until we reach milwaukee in chicago i washed up in the bowels of the sears tower the bus station men s room was located in its basement for some reason i set my wallet on top of the towel dispenser where i promptly forgot about it and walked out a minute later panicked i ran back inside for some reason it still lay there untouched three days of close quarter life swapping kept us all distracted from the monotony of the seemingly endless road we shared our individual missions family histories and dreams of the future promising to keep in touch when our voyage ended we didn t grapefruit juice always my go to citrus refresher tasted wonderful washing down cold burgers at 1 a m in cleveland most poignant passenger don t end up like me warned the sad eyed older man across the aisle i haven t been home in years i just wander from place to place looking for somewhere to settle down he later asked if i thought my dad could give him a job in his new hampshire diner i don t remember what i said but i hope it was kind as we finally pulled into the new york port authority terminal our driver recited an inspirational poem rudyard kipling s if or something like whatever it was it made my eyes water in new york i visited my dad s mom who then lived in the same brooklyn apartment building my father grew up in and saw some familiar sights that my dad introduced me to when i was a younger lad including coney island and times square albeit the latter at 3 a m after passing through central park near dinnertime i encountered the dakota skyscraper where john lennon lived until he was killed only a few years previously i walked up to the incurious eyed doorman where did it happen i asked in a solemn tone he silently pointed at the sidewalk with the air of a man who was sick of being asked that particular question thank you i mumbled shuffling off the next leg of the trip new york to boston to plymouth new hampshire passed relatively quickly totaling just over three hundred miles compared to the continent spanning stretch i had just endured and was memorable only by a late night boston arrival and the plymouth bus s absence until the next morning unsure what to do at that hour i wandered into what the plaque outside claimed was the original bar which inspired the television show cheers it was a half hour until closing time and at this far remove all i remember is a drunk yuppie pulling on my beard and a kindly new hampshire bound coast guardsman who told me we were in the same boat pun intended he indicated my sleeping bag and his own well stuffed duffle best thing for you to do in this city is stick with me he said the bus terminal will be open all night and we can sleep on a couple of benches so we did the plymouth bus arrived around 6 a m and following a pleasant meander through the new england woods by noon i was embracing my father again after a period of some years i intended to visit for a week stayed for a year learned how to run an offset printing press then hitchhiked to burlington vermont and headed home to the bay area older and wiser i went by plane author neal ross attinson posted on 2026 07 08 2026 07 23 categories life tags wow bob arm s length in the shadow of the mountain moments places leave a comment on i 80 days this is dedicated to the one how can we distill something as complex as judaism into one simple straightforward sentence rabbi jonathan sacks zt l makes an interesting observation this week reminding us of a discussion in the talmud where three rabbis tried to do just that one rabbi sees it as a matter of faith and offers deuteronomy 6 4 the shema hear o israel adonai is our g d adonai is one another frames it in terms of community citing leviticus 19 18 love your fellow as yourself but the rabbi who gets the last word says judaism s essence can be found in numbers 28 4 offer one lamb as a sacrifice in the morning and the second in the afternoon rabbi sacks intimates that living a life of consistent action is our religion s most important teaching judaism is not just the fire of romantic love but the daily kindnesses of a successful marriage not just an exalted faith in the transcendent g d but the way it takes faith and translates it into everyday life may we all strive to carry this essence forward author neal ross attinson posted on 2026 07 03 2026 07 02 categories x is x leave a comment on this is dedicated to the one the way it works for jews reflection and renewal are elicited through text study our most enduring words do not simply remind us of who we once aspired to be they press us to ask how well we have lived up to them and how they might yet speak with urgency in our own time rabbi leon a morris talmud of america author neal ross attinson posted on 2026 06 22 format quote categories torah tags being jewishly learning jewishly quotables torah output leave a comment on the way it works a g d with no name it has been said many times including by me that judaism is the most misunderstood religion and jews the most misunderstood people this planet has to offer take this conversation i had with someone the other day it should first be noted that this someone is one of the most inclusive bighearted and real human beings i ve ever met i both respect him tremendously and regard him with a good deal of collegial affection the context was how to big tent the jewish attendees at a local public event where he delivered an address containing various names for the divine but we ran aground on this point what is the jewish name for g d he asked is it yahweh well that s a great question i replied enthusiastically that particular name is a transliteration of a hebrew word meaning to cause to be but most jews don t use it jews have more than one name for g d and like anything else jewish the answer depends on who you ask some would even say that g d really has no name he regarded me with a very polite and sincere version of a blank stare and i don t blame him judaism is complex in the way that any millennia old culturally adaptive self reinventing participatory art project is complex not onl...