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Showing posts from November, 2011

Opening New Doors, Opening New Windows

On a recent Saturday morning, my wife, Wylene, and I had the opportunity to open a door that was new to us. It was the door to the Ark at Temple Beth El in Spring Valley. It was a privilege and honor given to us by two special young men and wonderful friends, Harrison and Charles Dranoff. The twins gave us the honor of opening the Ark at their Bar Mitzvah, which is the “coming of age” ceremony for young Jewish boys in their thirteenth year; it is their “boys to men” ritual. We are Episcopalians, not Jewish, and I am what in the “trade” is called a “cradle Episcopalian.”  While I have attended other Bar and Bat Mitzvah, I have never participated in one, so this was very special for me. At one point in the ceremony, the rabbi suggested the congregation read a selection on a particular page in the Prayer Book. My wife pointed to one passage she thought I would especially like: “We sit in community: elbow to elbow, eye to eye, so close, perhaps, we bruise against each o