It\’s been said that when it comes to raising children, the days go slow and the years go fast. As I find myself in the thick of planning my second son\’s bar mitzvah, these words ring all too true.
You think you have it bad? What about your rabbi, who has to work weeks — no, months — to prepare a High Holy Days Sermon. You think it\’s easy writing a speech that people will remember for the rest of the year? Well, then, why don\’t you and a friend write your very own with our MadLibs [R] version. First ask your partner to supply the missing words. Then read the completed sermon aloud … and enjoy.
Condescension and shame make a toxic combination. As I read \”My Holocaust, \”howling — but aching — through page after page of relentlessly acerbic comedy, I was reminded of Masada and the Grand Canyon and found myself wondering: what makes good satire?
So you\’ve trained all summer in order to show off that tight body at the beach. Well, as the High Holy Days roll around, impressing the opposite sex seems less and less important. Now it\’s time to show off your Judaism at shul so you can impress your rabbi. And if your rabbi is a member of the opposite sex, you can\’t lose.
American Israeli writer-actress Iris Bahr says she is fascinated with Russian culture and created Maksimovsrskaya (whose name grows weekly as an inside joke) over the years on stage, on screen and on air. At the invitation of KCRW general manager Ruth Seymour, Bahr has developed her into a regular radio character for \”Social Studies,\” a four-minute rapid-fire satire segment that runs locally on KCRW during NPR\’s \”All Things Considered.\”
I know now the bar mitzvah ceremony didn\’t instantly make me a man, but if I am one today, after 10 years, its because of the lessons I learned throughout the entire experience.
So I read this season\’s selection of books with perhaps a different eye and an increased curiosity. There are serious books about Jewish mothers, lighthearted books, how-to volumes and memoirs and some manage to cross categories. Some offer knowing advice, others observations and jokes. The best are those that are open, honest and wise, not preachy or sentimental.
It took eight decades, but at last I know what is meant by \”second childhood.\”
Buchwald always had a marvelous relationship with colleagues, readers and aspiring writers. Many stories tell of his availability, his phone number listed in the Washington directory and his invitations to aspiring writers to have coffee, bagels and talk.
Even though I can readily explain the concept of the World to Come (\”Did you hear the one about the rabbi in heaven posted next to the blonde in the bikini?\”), eschatology isn\’t my really my strong point, and I\’m not sure it\’s the point of Judaism.
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