Rabbi Eleanor Steinman

I read a blog that updates me on all things technological.  (Yes, I wish I was more techno savvy then I am).  This week I was informed that email is archaic.  This of course raises all sorts of questions.  What is the replacement for email?  Why do I spend so much time writing and reading email if it is not the most up-to-date mode of information sharing?

What interests me most is what will come next.  If it isn’t going to be email, how will it include social media?  It seems to me that communication is getting increasingly difficult and people are stating that the modes we are using aren’t effective.

I have a lot of questions and I don’t even know where to begin to look for the answers.  If anyone has any ideas or knows people who think about this stuff or work on it, I’m curious.  If you have a favorite blog or information source, pass that along, too since I apparently need to spend less time reading my email.

And it isn’t my fault! See!

I just returned from Boston, as I mentioned yesterday.  Possibly the coolest thing that we did was take a tour of Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox.  The bestest part of the tour was that we got to walk on center field near the green monster! I am not a serious baseball fan though I do follow a few teams, including the Red Sox (I think it is held over from my days in university in Boston).  I am not an expert and I don’t pretend to be.  One thing that I like about baseball is that there is always something new to learn and the more that I understand the game, the more there is to appreciate.

I will confess that one of the reasons that I am trying to increase my baseball proficiency is because my grandmother (aka Grandma) loved baseball.  She was a Dodgers.  I’ve been thinking a lot about Grandma lately and missing her very much.  I think that trying to learn more about baseball is a way that I can honor my grandmother in some way.  When I am watching a baseball game or reading statistics that I only sort of understand it makes me feel closer to her.  It might not make sense to anyone else except me and I’m okay with that.

Grandma, I love you and I miss you everyday.

This past weekend, as mentioned previously, I traveled with nine 8th graders to Boston.  The trip went extremely well.  It was really busy and we saw lots of cool stuff including a horribly rainy Harvard, Faniuel Hall, the New England Aquarium, the Touro Synagogue in Newport and lots more.

The highlight for me was going to Brandeis for Shabbat services.  During my four years of university I attended services in the Pearlman Lounge with BaRuCH, the Brandeis Reform Chavurah.  My friends were often leading the services and running the group, and then many would head to Sherman Function Hall where the entire Brandeis community joined for Shabbat dinner.  (This is a general summary).

On Friday night, I walked into Pearlman Lounge and it was as though nothing changed.  (Though there are more comfortable chairs, new carpet, and Brandeis clearly gone modern with IT equipment).  Though the faces were slightly different, it was as though I could re-name the characters with my friends and classmates and nothing was different.  I will say that my contemporaries were more adept with the guitar and ensured it was in tune.

Sitting in Pearlman Lounge I realize how far I have come.  I was sitting in services like I did long ago and I am a rabbi.  So long ago that was the goal and now I live it everyday.

After services we headed towards dinner.  This was where things seemed very different.  Brandeis Hillel has their own bencher (its Anim Zmirot and it has the parochet from one of the Torahs in the chapel as the cover.  Fancy!), dinner is buffet style now and includes a salad bar and soup.  (Soup!)  Apparently there are fewer students attending dinner because more housing includes kitchens so people are making their own.  The challah was delicious, there are still sodas on the table, and the minhagim are the same. Clean up also works similarly.  There’s nothing quite like finishing a meal on paper plates and gather it all up in a lined table-cloth.

But I digress.  The real highlight was seeing CINDY who is now the associate director of Hillel.  When I was a student she was the program director and we worked together a lot, especially when I was on Hillel board.

The other really trip down memory lane was that the campus is in the middle of Holocaust Remembrance Week.  I helped organize this group one year.

There was even an announcement about upcoming Hillel elections.

When I was a student this all seemed incredibly important, and for the students it is.  It’s amazing the perspective you can get from the passage of time.  Perhaps this is the greatest lesson from the trip down memory lane.

Thanks for the memories!

I confess, it is true.  Every week The New Yorker comes and every week it makes me anxious as I add it to the pile of the last several weeks’ New Yorker that I have still to read.  It might seem logical to unsubscribe to The New Yorker.  The problem is, every time that I do, I miss it too much so I’m stuck with this constant cycle adding a new one to the pile.  I find that the articles within The New Yorker are so helpful.  Not all the time, enough of the time.  Sometimes there is material for a sermon.  Other times it is something that I learn.  Then there are the times that I get information about something and for no reason, or maybe every reason, becomes the topic of a fascinating conversation.

I am open to suggestions that might alleviate some of this anxiety which I have not previously though of.  I’d also love to know how you read The New Yorker in a manageable way and still manage to read the myriad of other publications in print or online.

Thank goodness Shabbat is coming.  Anxiety is not allowed!

You know the old saying, “they tried to kills us, we survived, let’s eat?”  Well don’t forget to eat your healthy foods!  Fruits and vegetables abound!  Join Temple Sinai in our new community supported agriculture (CSA), Pri Adamah.  I’m excited to report that the registration form is now available online (and yes, you still need to print it out and mail in your check).  Here it is!

Let me know if you have questions!

Last night I didn’t get to sleep in my own bed.  I did a sleep study.  A person with sleep issues, whatever they might be, spends the night in a lab hooked up to lots of things and in a few weeks finds out why they have the issues.  Since no one adequately prepared me for the sleep test, I have decided to tell you, dear reader, o blogosphere what it is really like.

I went into a room that had no windows and a double bed.  I changed into my pajamas and put two electrode wires down each of my pant legs.  Then the technician returned and she started to hook me up.  There were four electrodes on my head including the nasty gel stuff which was so delightful to get out of my hair, one behind each ear, one on each side of my jaw to detect grinding, one under my left eye, one above my right eye, one in the center of my forehead, and two on my clavicle.  In case it wasn’t clear, the reason that I look like I was punched in the eye is from the scrubbing and surgical tape put below my left eye.  That did not feel good to take off this morning.  In case that wasn’t enough, then I had a nasal cannula taped to my cheeks to measure the output of air from my nose.

Oh, but there’s more.  Then I had a strap around underneath my armpits and one around my waist to detect breathing.  I also had a pulse reader on my ring finger on my right hand.  It took almost an hour to hook up all of these things to the right gadgets and then the technician informed me, go to sleep now.  So much for the reading before bed that was described in the brochure.

Needless to say it was not easy to fall asleep with all of this stuff strapped to me.  The room was really hot and stuffy and that made it more difficult to sleep.

The good news is that the test is over.  There wasn’t any information that the technician was readily able to share except that I didn’t snore all night.  I will know in two weeks what the verdict is.  I’ll keep you posted.  And if you ever have to have a sleep study, good luck!

So if you see me and my eye looks puffy and red, I did not get punched in the eye.

As the sunsets and the holiday of Passover begins, may we relish the freedoms that we have.  May we rest and re-energize to prepare to battle in order to ensure that all peoples have the rights and liberties they desire.  May your matza balls be floaters (or sinkers if you prefer).  May we all remember to bless our freedom and take advantage of it.  May the Holy One of Blessing grant a year of health, life, prosperity, wholeness and peace to each of us, those whose lives we touch and the entire world.  Next year may the inhabitants of Jerusalem celebrate in a true city of Shalom, of peace.  Chag sameach.

This week’s Torah portion is, in part, about taking out the trash.  Granted, it isn’t just any trash, it is the ashes that remain on the altar after a day’s worth of burnt offerings.  The priest responsible for taking out the trash was dressed in their regular holy garments to be worn only when working in the confines of the sacrificial cult.  Their garments included: breeches, tunic, sash and headdress.  Lest we think that these were not floor length garments, this week’s portion assures us that the tunic is to cover the feet.  Imagine the ashy mess!

And I haven’t even gotten to the complicated part yet.  Every morning a priest had to remove the ash from the altar.  This was usually done in some pile on the side.  However, every once in a while this pile got too big and the priest had to take it outside of the camp.  No big deal you think?  Wrong!  This involves a complete costume change.  The priestly outfit is only for the confines of the Temple and not for ordinary activities like rubbish removal  Imagine if we had to change our clothes every time we took out the garbage or walked down the hall to the garbage shoot?

Now you might be thinking, why do I care about any of this?  Well my friend, the answer is, because it is what we do all the time.  We are constantly transitioning between the sacred and mundane whether or not we realize it.  As a rabbi, I like to think that I am a little bit more clued into this happening and can help others do the same.  Take, for example, this blog.  Do you realize that by surfing the net or facebook or linking through the tweet that I posted something new you in fact performed a mitzvah?  That’s right, studying Torah is a mitzvah and you might have learned something new.  We moved from the mundane to the sacred.  (And if you changed your clothes please don’t tell me).

See, maybe there is a point to that mindless web searching!

Though I didn’t fill out any brackets or place any bets on the outcome of the NCAA basketball tournament, I am a fan.  I like college ball sometimes even better than the NBA because the game isn’t about a team’s superstars.  It is more about fundamentals and well executed team play.  That, however, is not the subject of this post.

I do not watch very much TV and what I do watch is usually pre-recorded on my PV-R (or as they say in the country to the south, DV-R).  The result of this is that I don’t watch many commercials.  This is a benefit to my life, in general.  I don’t care about beer commercials, I don’t care about the latest invention at the local fast food place, and I don’t generally need to know what toys I am not going to buy for my friends’ small children.

Today though, I am sitting on the couch happily taking part in the March Madness and all I want is to see the same commercials as the people watching in the USA.  I don’t entirely understand the reasoning, I just know that in Canada the advertisers don’t pay for the air time in the same way so the commercials here are completely repetitive.  I have been a couch potato for most of the day and I have seen the same commercials probably in every 3 commercial breaks.

Does anyone else find this annoying?  Is it just me?

Oh and because I need to prove I have been reading other things all day, this is a great op-ed.