Parashat Yitro: The Speech of Sinai

January 22, 2011 Irwin Keller

That is, there exists a particular stereotype of the tough guy, right out of the Sopranos, and either he fit it perfectly or he played it perfectly. I, of course, am undoubtedly a stereotype in other people's eyes. You know, the singing-drag-queen-slash-rabbi stereotype. But his type is a special challenge for me. I spent my childhood fleeing toughs, and my adulthood building a life in which they do not figure. And yet here he was. I looked at him and he looked at me. And I couldn't figure out how to understand him, so imprisoned was I within the image he was presenting - or that I was projecting.

Kol Haneshamah - Every Living Thing

December 11, 2010 Irwin Keller

Something new and beautiful from Ner Shalom. Lorenzo Valensi's new setting of Kol Haneshamah - the final verse of the book of Psalms.

כל הנשמה תהלל יה הללויה
Kol haneshamah tehalel Yah. Haleluyah.

Let every living thing praise Yah. Hallelujah.

A new joyous setting of the closing line of Psalm 150: Kol haneshamah tehalel Yah, Hallelujah -- let every living thing praise Yah, Hallelujah. Music by Lorenzo Valensi. Sung by Reb Irwin Keller. Music (c) 2010 Lorenzo Valensi

It's a fast recording we threw down on Garageband, and a fast video from iMovie. But rough production values aside, I think it's a thing of beauty. Enjoy.

Shlach Lecha: On Grasshoppers, Giants & Flotillas

June 5, 2010 Irwin Keller

But nothing in our tradition has taught us how to hold power. How to be giants. Instead, we’re left to be giants who think like grasshoppers, or grasshoppers who have grown to gigantic proportions. And it is that constant, deep fear of being crushed underfoot that has informed and, arguably, poisoned so much of our policy in Israel.

Parashat Vayikra: Reclaiming Jewish Guilt

March 21, 2010 Irwin Keller

If thy mother’s bulb burns out, and she sitteth in the dark, thou shalt not suffer her to climb the rickety stepladder with a flashlight, but verily thou shalt change the light bulb for her, yea, even without having to be asked.

Din, Chesed & the Harsh Decree

October 2, 2009 Irwin Keller

Ah, not the ending you expected? Certainly not a satisfying ending, wouldn’t you say? We hate endings like this, because we want our stories to be different from the lives we actually lead. We want them to be better. We want atonement and prayer and tzedokeh to save our loved ones from suffering, to save us from suffering. And in fact the opposite is our experience. Despite our soul searching and our meditation and our acts of justice, bad things happen. Sadly, this is not a magical universe. Or, at least, that is not the nature of this universe’s magic.