Who is wise? S/He who learns from everyone.
These words from the Talmud (Gmara) remind us that we are never the smartest person in the room. We always can learn from another. Today, I will share words of wisdom from two great people- Rabbi Avi Weiss and President Abraham Lincoln.
Continue reading Fourscore and Seven Years Ago; Now- Seven Score and a Decade beyond
You know, we write these dates, never really considering that they are not quite as descriptive as we think. Because the date to which I refer is not five years from now, but 95 years ago.
Tomorrow is election day. For Virginia and New Jersey, as well as the City of New York, these are big days. We (in Virginia) are going to elect new governors, as well as legislators that will make laws we will have to live with for years, if not decades. And, that’s the point. Too many of you (I have only missed one election- a primary that was held in March- since the first time I have been allowed to vote) only vote in Presidential elections. Which means that you let other folks pick your Congresspersons and state officers- that pass rules with which you vehemently disagree. Or let them move district boundaries to insure that their favorites get elected time and time again, or to insure the opposite party has no chance of gaining a seat. 
The bubble has burst on the American Dream. We have lost sight of our vision, our mission. As President Clinton said, “If we become ideological, then we’re blind to evidence.” So, I guess we are totally blind, because we have become inimically ideological.
Continue reading It’s YOUR job!