The Buck and Mike Blog

No matter how you spell it, tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. We dutifully came home and lit the first candle of the holiday. I had neglected to buy real Chanukah foods, so I prepared the weirdest and worst meal of our married life. (At least I hope it’s the worst.) » Read the rest of this entry »

Chanukah

I’m blogging a bit backward here, reviewing a book I finished reading while in a cabin in West Virginia, before blogging about my trips to Australia (during which I also read this book — it’s long, but worth it) and West Virginia.

I picked up “The Lost” in an airport as Buckley and I flew out of Albuquerque about two months ago or so. It sounded interesting, with the subtitle “A Search for Six of Six Million.” The first few pages of the book reminded me very much of my own childhood growing up among a large Jewish family in South Florida.

But from there the book gets to be so much more. It has caused me to rethink so many things: what is family, what do our pasts and our ancestry mean, even what is a book. There was one part in particular that I read while in Australia that was so horrifying (and true) that I had to put the book down for a couple of days to catch my breath. » Read the rest of this entry »

The Lost, A Search for Six of Six Million

Mike and I were speakers at the 2007 Affirmation International Conference, held here in Washington, DC, in early October. The conference theme was “A More Perfect Union.” For three days, nearly 200 gay and lesbian Mormons met to learn and gain strength from each other and guest speakers.

Some of those speakers included:

• Bishop V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire
• Carol Lynn Pearson, celebrated LDS author, poet, and playwright
• Jonathan Rauch, author of Gay Marriage: Why it is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America
• Harry Knox, Director of the Human Rights Campaign’s Religion and Faith Program
• Dan Furmansky, Executive Director of Equality Maryland
• Matt Foreman, Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

. . . and many others. We were honored and humbled to be asked to be the concluding speakers at the Sunday Devotional Service. Here is the text of our short speeches: » Read the rest of this entry »

Affirmation, Gene Robinson, Carol Lynn Pearson, Jonathan Rauch, Harry Knox, Human Rights Campaign, Dan Furmansky, Equality Maryland, Matt Foreman, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

Passover (פֶּסַח - pronounced Pesach) begins at sundown tonight. This eight day observance celebrates liberation from “The Narrow Place” (מִצְרַיִם - pronounced Mitzrayim, the Hebrew name for Egypt) — but is also a solemn time of mourning the deaths of the Egyptians that occurred during our liberation. Passover is a difficult time for me — I wrote about that before, here. This year, I will let Pesach begin with an excerpt from a very moving post on the Radical Torah blog, and I urge you to read the full post by Alana Suskin:

We are used to thinking of scholars as rather dry people, alone in their hidey-holes, poring away at some arcane bit which can’t possibly have any relevance to one’s life. And it’s true that some are – but that’s not the Jewish tradition. The Jewish tradition of scholarship is, for one [thing], not for the elite. It’s for everyone. That’s why the Talmud requires a scholar to live only in a place where there is a teacher for the young. That’s why Jews were one of the first cultures with public education.

To study is shmirat hanefesh – guarding one’s soul. For the soul is not something which need[s] no tending. It is a gift, but a gift of a very special kind, like the pitch pines of Louisiana, which require fire to reseed itself. It must be burnt to the ground, and yet doing so, it never “goes out.” In order to grow, to see the sunshine, one must light a fresh fire, to release new seeds and begin new growth.

Passover, Radical Torah

Yeah, yeah, I know, we haven’t blogged in forever, or at least for a month and a half. And right now I’m only throwing a bone or two. Don’t give up on us! We’ll be writing a lot more, and a lot more often.

First, our friend John Dehlin pointed us to this wonderful interview on KUER in Salt Lake City about a new film called “For the Bible Tells Me So.” The film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival last week. If you get a chance, listen to the KUER interview, and hang in there to the end, because there’s a call from Alicia in Sandy, Utah, talking about her family’s love for her lesbian sister, and the sister’s love for the rest of the family. Alicia’s words were so beautiful and loving that I got all choked up, and so hopeful for the world.

Second, I was reading a blog by Rachel Barenblatt called “The Velveteen Rabbi,” one of my favorite blogs. Rachel writes about a comic called “The G@d Interviews.” I wound up buying the online version of the book. It straddles a line between reverence and irreverence, allowing it to be loving and funny and insightful. Maybe not perfect, but it’ll give you something good to think about.

Excerpt from a memorandum issued yesterday by the International President and Executive Vice President of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (the umbrella organization for the Conservative Jewish movement in the United States) to the USCJ Board Of Directors, Congregational Presidents, Rabbis, Cantors, and Executive Directors representing 760 affiliated synagogues and over one-and-a-half-million members:

No matter which path a rabbi and congregation may take, which halakha it chooses to follow, all of our rabbis and congregations share a concern for the dignity of all human beings. No matter what a rabbi and congregation chooses to do about hiring gay and lesbian rabbis or commitment ceremonies, all must show respect and sensitivity to all Jews, no matter what their sexual orientation may be. All Jews must be welcome in all our congregations.

Given the Law Committee’s decision today, Rabbi Epstein, who is United Synagogue’s mara d’atra, has told United Synagogue’s leadership that he sees no reason why we should not revise our hiring policies. Based on this conclusion, we may consider applicants for United Synagogue jobs no matter what their sexual orientation. United Synagogue’s leadership will discuss the issue at its next scheduled meeting.

Having been raised in the Conservative Jewish movement, I take great joy in finally having a strong vote of confidence from my people. The Conservative movement has now joined the more than 1,000 congregations of Reconstructionist and Reform Judaism in the U.S., both of which extended most or all of the same rights and recognition more than a decade ago. B’shalom.

USCJ

The highest legal body of the Conservative Jewish movement voted today to allow rabbis to perform commitment ceremonies for gays and lesbians, and to ordain gay and lesbian rabbis. The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards declared this to be halacha, or in accord with Jewish law. The University of Judaism has already stated that it is prepared to start ordaining gay rabbis. The action today on three conflicting measures means that seminaries and synagogues will be left to decide on their own which approach to follow.

Jewish, Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, University of Judaism, gay rabbis

This blog post is actually a d’rasha (akin to a sermon) written and delivered by the president of my synagogue, Alex Carter, on Kol Nidrei, the night of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, reprinted here with her permission. It’s quite a bit longer than a blog post normally is, but it’s well worth your time and attention. — Mike
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• Great blog post by the Velveteen Rabbi on sukkot.
• Great article on faith in Time Magazine by Andrew Sullivan.
• Letter to the editor about Angie Paccione, who is running for the U.S. Congress in Colorado.

» Read the rest of this entry »

Velveteen Rabbi, sukkot, Andrew Sullivan

Recently read book: A Man Without A Country by Kurt Vonnegut — loved it
Also reading: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion — absolutely amazing
On my nightstand: A Maimonides Reader — thought-provoking

» Read the rest of this entry »

Vonnegut, Didion, Maimonides

Ellen, Buckley and I checked into a room at the Sportsmen’s Lodge on Friday, Sept. 15. That’s our mom’s birthday, so Ellen and I called her up — and found that she and Dad were in the room three floors directly beneath ours. Buck, Ellen and I went to meet Mom and Dad at the coffee shop, where they were visiting with my mom’s brother and sister-in-law, Al and Anne. It was fun catching up with everyone, but we’d only just begun.

After a short visit, Ellen, Buck and I drove to the grocery store. We got a birthday cake for Mom, and another for our sister Marsha, who had a birthday the week before. We drove to a nearby Chinese restaurant called Bamboo where about 25 or 30 family members had gathered, and we sneaked the cakes to the hostess. The restaurant served a wonderful dinner, and we got to catch up with siblings, parents, nephews and niece, aunts and uncles and cousins. » Read the rest of this entry »

Last night, Buckley and I watched the DVD of the film “Everything Is Illuminated.” (I haven’t yet read the book by Jonathan Safran Foer, but William Goldman, author and screenwriter, wrote once that he considered a book and a movie to be completely separate creations that might just have the same name. The written word and film both have very different magical qualities that can’t be recreated in any other form, though a film may try to illustrate the visions presented in a book or vice versa.)

» Read the rest of this entry »