The Ansche Chesed blog is a place where you can find enriching material to read about God, Torah and the Jewish People.
Dear Friends, Those of you who are on social media probably saw this week that the 103rd Street/Broadway subway station was defaced with swastikas, SS symbols and some other vile words towards us all. Was this the work of actual white supremacists here in the heart of the Jewish ’hood of the Upper West Side?… Read more »
“For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing has come… Arise, my love!” Song of Songs, 2:11-12 In these weeks leading to Passover, the verses from Shir haShirim, the Song of Songs, perfectly capture the awakening of nature and human spirit after a… Read more »
You may remember Eats, Shoots & Leaves, the popular 2003 book on the importance of precise punctuation for deciphering texts clearly. Depending on comma placement, that book title could refer to a panda’s diet, or the scene in the Godfather where [SPOILER ALERT] Michael Corleone kills Sollozzo and McCluskey in Louie’s Restaurant in the Bronx. (“Try the veal. Best… Read more »
in anticipation of the May 6, 2018 performance at Ansche Chesed “My father, an enlightened spirit, believed in man. My grandfather, a fervent Hasid, believed in God. The one taught me to speak, the other to sing.” Elie Wiesel, Souls on Fire These striking opening words of the Nobel Laureate’s 1972 book capture the… Read more »
Inspired by the year-long theme of learning about other faith traditions at Ansche Chesed, I set out to find a partner to join me and our Community Chorus Shirei Chesed on a musical exploration of the shared texts – especially the psalms – and to ponder how our different religious traditions manage to draw on seemingly incompatible musical styles while creating a shared spiritual experience.
