Welcome to the big city, A melting pot of ideas, expressions – Thought, speech, action. Sometimes it never sleeps; Other times it never stops sleeping. Streets laden with a thousand travelers, (road scholars) Leading in a million directions: Pavement, sentiment, sacrament, firmament;

Every once in a while, when I wander into a supermarket, I find the same old comforting brands, the ones to which we are so accustomed...What’s amazing is that these same reliable brands that have been around for 30, 40, and 50 years somehow manage to carry that magic “n” word...Somewhere deeply embedded in the human psyche is a love of the new, and a boredom/antipathy for the old

Eyes why’d hopin’… Hopin’ for anything, for something: A purpose to be, a reason to believe.

These seven weeks between Tisha B’av and Rosh Hashana offer sweet sounds of consolation and comfort, reminding us that the best is yet to come.

In our time-starved world, its length strikes fear in the hearts and minds of men, and has spurned an industry of avoidance. How sad it is!

Like a quiet child in a room full of boisterous adults, easily overlooked. Like a young, sweet flower growing out a crack of seasoned city asphalt...

Pray tell- Tale signs of entrance: Even some predators pray. I’ve seen them, smelled them, In their imitation shawls and Counterfeit tears: they close their Eyes, sway back and forth, and mumble Some incoherent supplication that is more Bargain than plea But not every letter whispered is a prayer; And not every liturgy is tagged for heaven –

Nechama. The art of finding and giving comfort is one that Jews have had time to perfect the last 1939 years. It is the operative word this Shabbos. Comfort and joy is in the air. The music begins again...We are wont to translate it as comfort...but a brief tour of the Bible reveals a more primary meaning of the word...