As a student I took great pride in my work. I always wanted to make sure everything looked right, felt right, and was presented professionally to my teachers. And nothing made me prouder than to get a paper or project back from a teacher with the words “Well done” or “Great Job” or “Excellent” scrawled across the paper in the teacher’s grading pen.
In the book of Ecclesiastes, Kohelet famously notes that “v’ain kol hadash takhat hashemesh”--There is nothing entirely new under the sun. Yet many things require renewal, and that process of invigoration can give familiar things the shine of novelty. Such change helps us appreciate the familiar and sometimes see them in a new light.
I have a love/hate relationship with the mirrors in my house. On the one hand, they serve a helpful purpose, making sure I leave the house looking presentable. No food in my teeth? Check! On the other hand, sometimes all they do is mock me, inviting me to nitpick at my self-perceived imperfections.
This past week, our Portland MJCC (Mittleman Jewish Community Center) received a bomb threat. In the wake of an ongoing national epidemic of such calls, and after so many other minorities are experiencing their own disheartening episodes of hate, it would be too easy for us to succumb to fear, anger or despair at such moments, or worse yet, to avoid these issues entirely.
Is God easily startled? It sounds like an odd question until you examine this week’s Torah portion. In describing the clothes the priests are to wear, the Torah says, “Aaron shall wear it while officiating, so that the sound of it is heard when he comes into the sanctuary before the Lord and when he goes out, that he may not die.”
My mother was an artist in her younger days. That played out in my own life as I was dragged first reluctantly and then happily to New York City’s many world class museums. I had a thing for English portrait and landscape painters as well as many of our early 20th century masters. The cubists, the pointillists, even the surrealists exerted their influence on me.
I try to dress with versatility in mind. What I mean by this is I like to choose outfits that can go from casual to dressy and anywhere in between. Knowing that my workdays start on the floor with preschoolers and also include learning with senior citizens and teenagers at various times throughout the day, I need to have an outfit that can change and move with me.
