Seeking Authentic Voice

Rabbi Jeffery Salkin, author of numerous books on Judaism, and rabbi of Temple Israel in Columbus, Georgia, tells this story in his book, “Being God’s Partner,”… “A few years ago, a young taxi driver drove me to John F. Kennedy Airport, on Long Island. After a few minutes of conversation, I discovered that Mike had belonged to my synagogue years before I came to the community. ‘So, rabbi,’ he asked, while we sat in heavy traffic, ‘What do you say to a Jew like me who hasn’t been to a synagogue since his bar mitzvah ceremony?’ Thinking a moment, I realized that in Hassidic lore, the baal aqalah (the wagon driver) is an honored profession. So I said, ‘We could talk about your work.’ ‘What does my work have to do with religion?’ ‘Well, we choose how we look at the world and at life. You’re a taxi driver. But you are also a piece of the tissue that connects all humanity. You’re taking me to the airport. I’ll go to a different city and give a couple of lectures that might touch or ...

Setting moon/rising sun Escalante, Utah taken by Terri C. Pilarski, May 2010 I grew up in a non-liturgical church. I never heard of the seasons of the church year as a child. I never practiced intentional waiting in Advent, nor observed Lent nor wore red on Pentecost. The church I grew up in celebrated Christmas and Easter. My first memory of celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany was with a church I served as an intern while in seminary. Which means that even my "home" parish didn't make much of Epiphany.  At that home church the kids offered a play on a Sunday after Christmas, which we called an "Epiphany Play." And, we probably had some kind of special coffee hour. I also knew that Epiphany celebrated the arrival of the wise ones, bearing gifts, for the Christ child. I knew what I had learned in my seminary liturgics class. But I didn't really understand the Feast of the Epiphany  until that night at my internship parish. Epiphany fell on a Thursday ...