Another news item caught my attention in recent days. A computer recently beat the world Go champion. Go is the Asian equivalent of chess, and far more complicated than chess, where the machines already outpaced us twenty years ago. That's when IBM's Deep Blue defeated the reigning world champion, Garry Kasparov.

It has been a sad and tough week for our congregation. At least two of our own have lost their jobs. Three have lost their lives, a number of people are critically ill. I know our hearts and prayers are directed to these families. It seems that in communities, deaths tend to cluster together.

This past week, we rented Jim Carrey's 1994 odd-ball superhero movie, The Mask, for Amitai to watch. Listening to your kid belly laugh in fits of hysterics is surely one of the most joyous sounds any parent can hear. Thank you, Jim Carrey. Your sense of physical comedy was unique.

Yesterday I had the privilege of addressing the state Senate and offering some non-sectarian words of prayer before the floor session began. Let me publicly thank my friend and Neveh member, Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward for inviting me to give that invocation. It was also my first time in Salem, and I was grateful to explore our state capitol building a bit.