It’s been one of those on and off again things, but I am pleased to announce that the Israeli Deputy Counsel for the Pacific Northwest region will be speaking at Congregation Neveh Shalom on Tuesday night, February 27th at 7 pm. While she and I are still hammering out details of her presentation, this is an important opportunity to interact with a rising star within the diplomatic community.
Last year as Shiri rounded the corner of three-and-a-half, we realized we were in for trouble. She’s a wonderful, energetic, and fairly typical kid, which means big emotions, a strong will, and a pretty strong desire for autonomy.
In its earliest iteration, as recorded in the Talmud, this was tree tax day. Tree tax day? Yes. When most human wealth flowed out of our agricultural endeavors, our ancestors understood that they had to share the bounty quite literally. The Torah itself commands us about the need to tithe our harvested wealth, but does not always specify the mechanism for doing so.
Fun fact: When Duncan and I get called to the Torah for an aliyah, Duncan lets me start the blessing a split second before him so that he can match my key and we don’t sound terrible. That is to say, I do not think of myself as a singer.
On Thursday, I spent several hours at the Sonrise Church in Hillsboro. (Special call out to Rachel Nelson who was also in attendance!). A homelessness forum had been convened under the title “Addressing Homelessness: A Dialogue between Faith and Government.” This gathering gave stakeholders in Washington County the opportunity to converse and share the difficulties they face in confronting the very genuine crisis that homelessness poses to our communities and most of all to those of our neighbors who live on the street.
When Shiri was nine months old we made the trek via car from Dallas, Texas to Portland, Oregon. Those five days left Duncan and me with frazzled nerves, to say the least. We’d wake up every morning praying for an easy day in the car, and what usually got us through was singing the same three songs and reading the same book over and over again.
I often wonder whether my voice is somehow mysteriously muffled like the adult voices in the animated Charlie Brown movies, or if perhaps I am just not a clear speaker. It occurs to me that occasionally my voice becomes the background noise to the rest of life.
