Happy New Year!
Again! Well, this is the other New Year, and I hope 2011 is off to a good start for all of you. I’ve been getting lots of great reactions to the book, some of which you can see in the Press section above. And I’ve got some more upcoming dates for you:
* Thursday, February 17, 2011 — Congregation Beth Israel (North Adams)
* Sunday, March 13, 2011 – Congregational Breakfast at Temple Am David (Warwick).
Furthermore, I have been informed that through the wonders of modern technology, I can present to a temple, church, classroom, or other room of people without actually being there. So if you have been wondering how to get a presentation on From God To Verse without footing a travel bill, contact me and we can discuss a tele-cast presentation using Skype.
Also, lest you be under the misapprehension that I am alone in combining Torah and Poetry, allow me to inform you that the inimitable Velveteen Rabbi has recently released her book of Torah poems:
And while putting out a book is a great accomplishment, it is dwarfed by the other news from the Velveteen Rabbi, which is that she is velvet no longer, having finally been ordained as a real rabbi. Mazel Tov!
When the Second Temple in Jerusalem was looted and services stopped, Judaism was outlawed. In 167 BCE Antiochus ordered an altar to Zeus erected in the Temple. He banned brit milah (circumcision) and ordered pigs to be sacrificed at the altar of the temple (the sacrifice of pigs to the Greek gods was standard ritual practice in the Ancient Greek religion ).