We sometimes get so used to the things around us that we stop seeing them. That is, we don’t consciously remember what the things mean or what they stand for. Consider the two framed documents on the sides of the bimah here. On my right is the document from the Memorial Scrolls Trust in London […]
Rabbi Norman Patz Temple Sholom of West Essex Shabbat Toledot November 9-10, 2018 / 2 Kislev, 5779 “Don’t send your boys to school in the morning.” That’s what a neighbor told the mother of John and Ernie Oettinger on November 9th 1938. The neighbor was a fireman who knew the SS plans for attacking Jews […]
On Thursday, September 20th, Rabbi Patz was one of the clergy invited to speak at the Ecumenical ceremony convened by the Puerto Rican Secretary of State to memorialize the one year anniversary of Hurricane Maria. The event included addresses by Governor Ricardo Rossello and Jeniffer Gonzáles -Colón, PR’s Resident Commissioner in Washington, D.C. The Secretary […]
El gran abogado romano y figura política Cicerón describió la memoria como “el tesoro y guardián de todas las cosas” (siglo I aC) Ningún otro animal lleva en su cerebro tantos recuerdos de tal complejidad. Ninguna otra criatura viva en la tierra puede revisar regularmente esos recuerdos para la felicidad, para la seguridad y para […]
The great Roman lawyer and political figure Cicero described memory as “the treasury and guardian of all things”(1st century BCE). No other animal carries in its brain so many memories of such complexity. No other living creature on earth can regularly revisit those memories for happiness, for safety and for the accomplishment of complex tasks. […]
Cuando tenía nueve años, fui contratado para cantar la voz de varón alto en un coro que acompañaba al cantor en los servicios de High Holy Days en las sinagogas ortodoxas. Hasta el día de hoy, todavía recuerdo mucho de la música que cantamos: los pasajes de unísono, las armonías, mis pequeños solos y sobre […]
When I was nine years old, I was hired to be the boy alto in a choir that accompanied the cantor at High Holy Day services in Orthodox synagogues. To this day, I still remember a lot of the music we sang: the unison passages, the harmonies, my little solos and especially the rousing music […]
Feliz año nuevo dulce y tranquilo. Como hice en el servicio de anoche, los saludo nuevamente esta mañana con mi deseo para el nuevo año: Que éste sea un año bueno para todos nosotros, un año de salud y felicidad, de crecimiento espiritual y moral, un año de satisfacción , del cumplimiento y de la […]
Feliz nuevo año dulce y tranquilo. As I did at the evening service, I greet you again this morning with my wish for the new year: May this be a good year for all of us, a year of health and happiness, of spiritual and moral growth, a year of satisfaction, of fulfillment and peace […]