Categories
- Musical Midrash
- antitelevision
- dev
- journal
- judaism
- links
- music
- poems
- projects
- songs
- tla
- travelogue
- wtc
Archives
- November 2005
- October 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- March 2005
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- April 2003
- March 2003
- February 2003
- January 2003
- December 2002
- November 2002
- October 2002
- September 2002
- August 2002
- July 2002
- June 2002
- May 2002
- April 2002
- March 2002
- February 2002
- January 2002
- December 2001
- November 2001
- October 2001
- September 2001
- August 2001
- November 2000
- October 2000
- September 2000
- July 2000
- March 2000
- February 2000
- December 1999
- November 1999
- August 1999
- July 1999
- June 1999
- March 1999
- February 1999
- January 1999
- December 1998
- November 1998
- September 1998
- August 1998
- July 1998
- June 1998
- March 1998
- December 1997
- August 1997
- July 1997
- June 1997
- February 1997
- January 1997
- December 1996
- February 1996
- January 1996
- December 1995
- November 1995
- January 1995
- November 1994
- June 1994
- May 1994
- December 1993
- November 1993
- October 1993
- September 1993
- February 1993
- June 1992
- April 1992
- March 1992
- March 1991
- November 1990
- June 1990
- September 1988
- June 1983
- May 1982
- February 1978
Recent Posts
- First Time (back on) the Mic
- Where I'm holding
- New Lease
- Five Fifteen
- Altitude Sickness
- Shabbat in Ein Kerem
- Simchat Torah
- After 9/11
- Free-falling Pendulum
- Night-blooming
RSS
The content of this site is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
israel
First Time (back on) the Mic
March 04, 2005
There's a picture in the newspaper Ha'aretz of me beatboxing in Jerusalem: Rap riffs to heal the rifts...
Where I'm holding
October 22, 2004
A tremendous week — hard to believe I only moved into my new place so recently. I don't even know where to begin, or how to synopsize.... I just got back from a "mishmar" at the yeshiva — I don't...
New Lease
October 13, 2004
I moved into an apartment, where I plan to stay for at least the next two months. I have incredible house blessing when it comes to Jerusalem, a key factor in feeling like I'm meant to be here. I'm one...
Five Fifteen
October 12, 2004
I went to the Kotel for the second time since my arrival last night, and sat in my favored place inside the hall on the men's side. I didn't pick up a book, or position a shtender in front of...
Altitude Sickness
October 11, 2004
I'm sort of blindly trolling the internet from an internet cafe, waiting for 7:15pm, when I'm planning to see a Japanese film called "The Taste of Tea." I spent too many hours in front of my laptop over the past...
Shabbat in Ein Kerem
October 10, 2004
I don't have to to write, but I can't resist: I was driven home by Arab policemen on Friday night. (I'll explain later.... :)...
Simchat Torah
October 07, 2004
I had a very un-traditional S"T celebration, with my new dear friend AZ. We ate fresh pita and hummos from Har Zetim (the Mount of Olives) in the Sukkah (without a blessing) and discussed our plans to start a process...
After 9/11
October 05, 2004
I woke up unmotivated to davven and feeling disconnected from traditional Jewish prayer. I wonder if I should serve my obligation, simply dive into the book, read the words, be done with my charge. Even writing about it gives me...
Free-falling Pendulum
October 03, 2004
I've been having wild swings of energetic experience, ranging from sad, dismal confusion, to electric, full-body, cellular joy. I've been trying to Witness all this with equanimity and lovingkindness, but I must admit, it's gotten me rather confused. Anger is...
Night-blooming
October 01, 2004
My second night in Tel Aviv, NS and I walked down to the beach for a dusk swim in the Mediterranean. Warm water, fine sand, soft sky, city skyline — blissful to float in the gently rocking waves. Blessed to...
Kalideoscopic and Broad
September 27, 2004
A kalideoscopic and broad Jerusalem day. I woke up at 4am — thank you jetlag — and meditated with Holosync for an hour. I went back to bed until 7am, woke up to DJB telling me it was too early...
Return Again
September 25, 2004
bs"d Both of my parents drove me to the Newark Airport, where we met my uncle and cousin for a quick goodbye. At check-in, the oversized duffle I borrowed from DI weighed too much and I was forced to check...
New audio, old audio
July 23, 2004
bs"d I've done a lot of maintenance, but, as per usual, I've left it until hours before Shabbat to write about it. Hope to return, but here are four new songs: HaHar HaZeh (Devarim), making my beatboxing debut!Vehu Rachum, intro...
Perfected Song
July 15, 2004
bs"d it's stupid and exhausting frustrating and weakening to feel compelled to explain and expel my complaints the world's either to dumb for me or I'm worn by the new language I must create to simply be understood and what...
Yachad=18+4
July 11, 2004
bs"d As this new week begins, I'm reflecting on the density of last week: Shabbat Seudah Shlishit, my roommate and I hosted 30+ people for the Third Meal/Havdallah. JS and I then went to an engagement party in the neighborhood.I...
Stone, Sand, Palms, Play
July 08, 2004
bs"d I haven't written consistently recently, and if I don't write now, even though "unprepared", I feel like I'll loose some of what I want to capture in words. The day I woke at 4am and ended up as physically...
A return to the Formation
July 07, 2004
bs"d We drove off the lowest paved road on earth, down a rocky dry path at the end of the day. The sun mercifully escaped our sight behind the brittle red mountains, and the angular brambles scraped the sides of...
Inside the inside
July 05, 2004
bs"d I woke up at 4am very thirsty and very awake. I recited a few tehillim (85, 33, 17, 26, 150) on the mirpeset (porch) right outside my room. Venus/nogah was incredibly bright. When I went back inside, JS was...
Kum Balak U'shma
July 02, 2004
bs"d Recorded in tremendous haste, Kum Balak U'shma (Balak)...
Kotel hours
June 23, 2004
bs"d It's four a.m. I've just walked from the Old City to Katamon, and I'm perched on a guest bed. I've been taken in (for the three days in between my sublets) by new friends who are like family; the...
Trickledown Effect of 22 Sivan 5764
June 13, 2004
bs"d The breakthrough on Thursday night (kaf bet b'Sivan) has continued moving through me like water on a sugar cube; energy is entering me that is opening and opening and opening. universal solventeverything dissolves into Youall absorbing, all receiving I...
Theft
June 11, 2004
bs"d I left the sauna and mikveh totally rejuvenated. "Gevalt" was the only word to describe the experience. Then I noticed my wallet was stolen. Gam zu letovah. My first thought was of the person who took it and what...
Breaking through walls
June 11, 2004
bs"d Someone just arrived yesterday in Jerusalem who is a friend-by-association in at least six different ways. We corresponded via email a few times before his arrival, and met for the first time at Jaffa Gate tonight. Approaching the Old...
Behaalotkha Musical Midrash
June 04, 2004
bs"d I'm camping on Har Hertzl (inside Jerusalem) for Shabbos, and have yet to borrow a sleeping bag, so this is brief. I've done a lot of work on this site this week. I also just posted Kuma/Shuva, this week's...
Integration
June 04, 2004
bs"d I just prayed with my entire body. Jerusalem's version of NYC's Barefoot Boogie is simply Boogie and clubier, larger, and higher energy. I had been in neutral gear for the previous 48 hours, but when I started to get...
still higher
June 01, 2004
bs"d this new light, this new life, has shifted the awareness of the place from which to communicate. no longer familiar, every day, every phrase, every breath is a newness that must be honored. the past two days have opposed...
Shavuah Tov
May 29, 2004
bs"d Shavuah Tov. I've been decimated by some sort of insect -- my arms and hands, legs and feet have been thoroughly punctured for nourshment. I'm trying not to itch every instant. I made my first Shabbos in Jerusalem, and...
New Midrash
May 28, 2004
bs"d I thought I was going to have a chance before Shabbos to remix this, alas.... Here's a rough version: Birkhat Kohanim (Naso). Shabbat Shalom....
receiving the Torah
May 27, 2004
bs"d I can begin to describe Shavuot in Jerusalem primarily because I'm exhausted, having only eight hours of the past 48, in odd spurts, and with wild awake-like dreams. If I learned anything it's this: "When it says 'happy are...
49/making it count
May 24, 2004
the first sound I was conscious of this morning was shofarot. i suppose to announce the Holy Day tomorrow.... i dreamt i was catching pecan-sized espresso beans with one outstretched hand. i was trying to catch as many beans as...
Online at home!
May 24, 2004
Baruch hashem, I now have internet access where I'm living. When my subletter called to see about getting my Mac online they said it was possible but that they wouldn't be able to switch it back to get a PC...
rebuilding
May 23, 2004
sixthirteen.org and a new face. difficult to build offline then post with intermitted access. please send bugs, comments, suggestions, love....
Motzei Shabbat in Jerusalem
May 22, 2004
This country is difficult to leave. Strangely, my thoughts have often drifted to the end of my stay, moving me out of the present and spiraling into calculations of an unpredictable future. I'm feeling so absolutely in my element. I...
Moved in, and access
May 20, 2004
So, on Yom Yershalayim, I began paying rent! Yea! Alas, there's no internet access (as I thought there would be) but I've found somewhere to plug in down the street. I'm off for the evening, but I fixed the photos...
Without alarm
May 19, 2004
bs"d One of the first thoughts I woke up with this morning contained the awareness that I've woken up every day I've been in Israel without the aid of an alarm clock, naturally rising, with joy, sometime after dawn. One...
Publishing
May 18, 2004
bs"d I wrote and recorded this week's musical midrash and posted last week's (belatedly). You'll win a special prize if you can tell me the meter of Beged Tekhelet -- I have no idea myself, and I'm intrigued. I also...
Book crazy
May 17, 2004
There is a book sale this week, and I went a little overboard buying sefarim, even ones that weren't included in the sale. My justification is that they're significantly cheaper here than in the States, and I'm certainly going to...
Integrally Linked
May 16, 2004
bs"d [Excerpt from an email....] Your reflections on my experience redoubles my experiencing them as miraculous! I certainly feel like I'm in "the right place." One friend wrote that it seems that I'm "where God wants me." Though I'm quite...
Descent for the sake of ascent
May 16, 2004
bs"d Frustratingly, I'm still blessed with a cold. I have a rough, dry taste in my mouth that doesn't dissipate no matter how much I drink. I had seder today (which was great even when my energy faded). After I...
Rashbi Panoramas
May 13, 2004
bs"d I have a sinus infection and thuuss a hheadache (and I'm typing from a wacky computer which doubless sosme of the leltters), but I thought you might like to look at these photos taken during Lag B'Omer by Andy...
Getting Grounded (Malchut she'be'Hod)
May 12, 2004
bs"d When I woke, I felt the compulsion to get out of the house quickly, without davening. I walked down to Ben Yehuda street and had coffee and a croissant. I wrote for a while with a borrowed pen (that's...
Lag B'Omer and the North
May 10, 2004
bs"d Friday I went to Ben Yehuda Street to buy a SIM chip for my cellphone (called "pelephones" in Israel, "pela" meaning wonder, thus "wonder-phones"). I now have to get it "unlocked" for international use, which can only be done...
Up North
May 10, 2004
I'm still traveling -- in bliss -- but wanted to share one photo from Lag B'Omer in Tzfat (it's a large file). Should be back in Jerusalem later tonight. L'shalom....
Light
May 07, 2004
bs"d I've had one of the best days of my life, so I don't even know where or how to begin. I arrived to seder thinking I was fifteen minutes late when in fact I was five minutes early. A...
Black Hats
May 06, 2004
A full crowd at the wall, many black hats chanting call-and-response tehillim. The guess, is for the health of an ailing rabbi. Again, great energy and davening tonight....
Birthday arrival
May 06, 2004
I'm sated and stuffed from a delicious full meal at Darna with Jay (for his birthday) and Ari and Marie and David (Berger). The first three landed just tonight -- I met them and let them into their flat in...
Quick
May 04, 2004
bs"d Learning today was great; God-willing am checking out the same place, different teacher, tomorrow (no, actually in 7.5 hours). Spent several high hours at the Kotel celebrating Pesach Sheni (see Bamidbar 9:1-14), under the full lunar eclipse (see Sky)....
Confluence
May 03, 2004
bs"d I woke late, was sort of waiting in bed for DJB to wake up so I could shower (the shower is through her bedroom), when the phone rang, for me. NS "had more clarity" and though of a shtepl...
First Shabbat
May 01, 2004
I never made it to the Negev on Friday. The tour was overbooked, and DJB assured me there would be another opportunity to visit the villages. Instead, I gladly caught up on much needed sleep. International air travel is very...
Ascent, Descent
April 29, 2004
My return to Israel
Going Up
April 23, 2004
I feel like I've been preparing to return to Eretz Yisrael for ten years. 1993 was the last time I was there, as a high school student, as a non-observant Jew, as an American-Israel Friendship League Youth Ambassador. When I...
Just because everything is different...
December 12, 1993
...doesn’t mean anything has changed.
Group photo infront of the Dome of the Rock
November 01, 1993
Find me and click on my head to enlarge...