Morning Minute Musing Series: #21-#30

Having previously shared the first ten and the second ten in my Morning Minute Musings series, here are episodes 21-30:

21: Two words that Gary Vaynerchuk misuses 22: Hat Days at Work are a Great Opportunity for Building Brand Awareness

23: An opportunity for developing chaplaincy skills

24: Just say yes or no 25: Death isn't always sudden or melodramatic 26: Still a "new" employee after 3 months...or not? 27: Finally created a real estate website

28: Policing mask-wearing as a chaplain 29:Posting Comments on LinkedIn Has Great Upside 30: Emailing following vacation

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Returning to Shul After a Year Due to the Global Pandemic

Finally, after a year of not going to shul, I have been back for each of the past two Shabbat mornings. Although I had received my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19 in January, my wife received her second dose the other week, causing her to feel comfortable allowing me to return to shul.

At the outset of the pandemic, when we were staying at home for the first month or so, it seemed that everything would go back to normal fairly quickly. However, spring ran into summer; summer into fall; and it was strange not attending shul at all for any of the fall holidays. Fall then led into winter and winter now transitioning into spring. It has been a whole year (the last Shabbat I had attended shul was March 7th (although I also attended shul for Purim on March 10th)). 

One of the things that I greatly enjoyed from this past year has been all of the reading time. It was delightful to get so much reading in on Shabbat mornings (and afternoons), which became a pleasant activity on Shabbat mornings during the pandemic.

However, now it's time for me to give up that year-long break from going to shul and getting to spend time reading and with my family. One of the strange things about going to shul now is that I did not bring kids. Pre-pandemic, I would bring all four children to shul and then have them go to groups or they would play with their friends. Now, they just remain at home. So that is something that is strange, although we shall see how things play out.

Whereas there would be a lot of schmoozing in shul pre-pandemic, in my return to shul, with us physically distanced, it is a lot more difficult to easily schmooze with others. Of course, a huge difference is that the men's section has taken up a lot more space than the women's side and there are very few women who attend on a Saturday morning. Another difference is that they have moved the rabbi's speech to after services to permit the services to take place fairly quickly. Also, it is strange to attend shul and not have kiddush.

However, one member has been doing, for some time now, a kiddush out on his front lawn outdoors. While I was very tempted in the past year to attend, it did not make sense that I would go to where people would be unmasking to eat and drink, while not attending shul where people would be masked-up. However, with my return to shul, it made sense to celebrate my return to shul each of these past two Shabbats, especially now that I am vaccinated. 

 

Having attended this kiddush these past two Shabbats, it has been a wonderful way to begin to transition back into public Shabbat life, with a handful of tasty spirits, which were great, and some delicious foods. This has been a really wonderful opportunity in this transition time. It is something new for me, as I have refrained from drinking on Saturdays for the past year and it is definitely different now that I have attended this kiddush for the last couple of weeks.

That was certainly a wonderful way to sort of reintegrate back into somewhat of a normal life as we transition out of this pandemic. Certainly for me, beyond simply returning to shul, which was nice in and of itself, it was also wonderful to schmooze,eat, and drink with fellow Jews on Shabbat.

Of course, we have Passover coming up, which will be interesting, but I am looking forward to this new beginning to the transitioning out of pandemic life, and returning to shul (and more kiddushes).

Tentative Table of Contents for Forthcoming Collection of Essays on Tannaitic Texts, שלשים לכח

I have had an idea for about a decade to produce a book entitled "שלשים לכח: Power at 30", collecting together 30 essays of mine on Rabbinic Literature, yet with my 40th birthday looming in a little over a half-year, I am feeling the pressure to finish editing it and packaging it together.

While I am still very much in the editing process, I am excited to announce the lineup of the 30 essays that will comprise this volume. 27 of the 30 essays have previously appeared in blog posts of mine from 2011-2020, with the other 3 appearing for the first time.

If you are interested in perusing to potentially offer suggestions - editing or otherwise - please reach out to me (feel free to tweet me @DrewKaplan).

Here is the tentative table of contents for this project:

Table of Contents

Introduction

Studies in Pirkei Avot

        שלשים לכח: Power at 30

Wine in Pirkei Avot

The Paradoxical Scriptural Readings of Simon, son of Zoma in Avot

Studies in The Babylonian Talmud

        White Days vs. Niddah Days

Rabbi Tarfon’s Parallel Statements in the Babylonian Talmud with Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount

Things Not to Say to Converts

The Talmudic Prohibition Against Manual and Pedal Adultery

Intense Sex? The Case of Rabbi Eliezer and Imma Shalom

The Sorcerer Rabbi? Rabbi Eliezer and His Sorcery

An Initial Look at מפני מה אמרה תורה in Tannaitic Use

Considering Rabbi Meir’s Famous Statement Concerning Why the Torah Stated that Niddah is for Seven Days

Abba Shaul’s Bone Forensics Concerning Wine

Studies in The Mishnah

Rabbinic Frequency in the Mishnah

“But Sages Say…” To Whom Did Unnamed Sages Respond in the Mishnah?

Wine in Mishnah Berakhot: An Introduction

Lulav-Waving in the Mishnah

"תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם": What is Equivalent to the Study of Torah?

Sleep in the Mishnah I: Seder Moed

Sleep in the Mishnah II: Seder Taharot

Sleep in the Mishnah III: Seder Kodashim

Sleep in the Mishnah IV: Seder Nashim

Sleep in the Mishnah V: Seder Nezikin

Studies in The Tosefta

“But Sages Say…” To Whom Did Unnamed Sages Respond in the Tosefta?

Sleep in the Tosefta I: Kodashim

Sleep in the Tosefta II: Nezikin

Sleep in the Tosefta III: Seder Moed

Sleep in the Tosefta IV: Seder Nashim

Sleep in Tosefta V: Taharot

The Travels of Rabban Gamaliel’s Sons in the Tosefta

Initial Considerations on the מסובין Incidents in the Tosefta

Studies in Tannaitic Interpretation

Tannaitic Interpretations of Deuteronomy 22:5

Tannaitic Approaches to Molekh in the Book of Leviticus

Morning Minute Musing Series: #11-#20

Having posted yesterday on the first ten videos in my Morning Minute Musings Series, here are the next ten:

#11 - Learning a lot about dementia

#12 - Zoom Funerals

#12 (#2?) - One's own brand at work and social media policies

#13 - Excited to See Hospice Chaplains at the Senior Living Facility Where I work


#14 - Put Content Online


#15 - Social Media and Work


#16 - Work & work/life experience with different age groups

#17 - Working while fasting

#18 - Crossing streams on LinkedIn

#19 - Developing relationships with different demographics

#20 - CPE? Would love to! 

Morning Minute Musing Series: Introduction & #1-#10

 Having provided a background context to my Morning Minute Musings series, here are the first 10, along with the introduction:

Introduction:

  

 

#1 - I Have Not Utilized Sefaria As Much As I Could Be: 

 

 

 

 #2 - Meeting Masked Faces When Starting a New Job: 

 

 

 

#3 - Wearing Masks: 

 

 

 

#4 - Sympathy for The Silent Generation's Lack of Technological Ability to Stay in Touch with the World:

  

 

#5 - ? 

 

#6 - It can be tough to see the lack of movement for seniors during the pandemic: 

 

 

 

#7 - Using Sefaria Source Sheets as Scaffolding for Writing: 

 

 

 

#8 - "Everyone Should Learn Real Estate" clip from Coffee & Commerce: 

 

 

 

#9 - An insight as to how to respond to "I'm sorry to have taken up your time": 

 

 

 

#10 - Moving into unexpected content territory for podcast: 

 

Morning Minute Musings: The Origin

How and why did I create my "Morning Minute Musing" series?

Having done my "Few with Drew" series in the spring of 2020 after the outset of the "Coronatine", which allowed me to share a few things of what was going on on a daily basis during those early months of the global pandemic when we were just at home, I then began a new job, which took me out of the house.

As such, I didn't think it would be fitting to continue with my "Few with Drew" series, as I had now taken a new job, especially when so many people were losing their jobs. Moreover, the premise of "Few with Drew" was sharing what was going on while staying at home. Now that I would be heading outside of our house to work, it would not make sense to continue with the series.

However, I had enjoyed the process and sharing, so I came up with "Morning Minute Musing", which would be one-minute videos about work, working, and other professional activities.

Of course, due to my background as a rabbi, some of would relate to that; as a real estate agent, some would relate to that; and as someone working during a pandemic, some of it would relate to that.

I then began creating the videos, which I distributed to YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, followed by also eventually including TikTok.

While I haven't necessarily experienced high engagement with the videos online, sometime they yield some interesting engagement. For instance, my discussions of branding and rabbinic branding have led to some conversations about each of those topics with others, which I'm very excited to continue developing.

I hope to showcase these videos on this platform in the near future.

Song of the Day as Second Temple Practice but Not Talmudic Practice

I recently came across this interesting excerpt dealing with the song of the day as practiced in the Second Temple:

...the daily Levitical songs (Pss 24, 48, 82, 94, 81, 93, 92) as recorded in a baraita appended to the end of m. Tam. as evidence.³¹ According to this baraita, the Levites would sing these psalms during the burning of the daily sacrifice. This passage provides proof for a rabbinic memory of a Second Temple practice, nothing more. There is no evidence that these psalms were part of daily rabbinic liturgy until well after the talmudic period (ca. 650). No talmudic discussion regards the recitation of these psalms as anything other than temple practice.³² Contrast this with other prayers that are initially imagined as part of temple ritual and are discussed elsewhere in terms of contemporary rabbinic liturgy, such as “True and Firm” (emet veyatziv) (m. Tam. 5:1; t. Ber. 3:6). The most compelling evidence for their absence in early rabbinic liturgy is the fact that even in the Geonic period these psalms appear to be non-liturgical.³³ Seder Rav Amram Gaon strangely claims that one recites the baraita about these psalms and not the psalms themselves,³⁴ and the prayer book of R. Saʿadyah contains no mention of them. The earliest positive evidence comes from Maimonides’s prayer book, found at the end of his Book of Love, which claims: “And a small part of the nation has a custom to read after all of these supplications the psalm that the Levites would sing in the temple on that day” (section 34).³⁵ Even in the time of Maimonides, the daily recitation of these psalms was nothing more than a practice of the few.³⁶ The early rabbis clearly did not adopt the Song of the Levites into daily liturgy.³⁷

-Abraham Jacob Berkovitz, "The Life of Psalms in Late Antiquity" (PhD diss., Princeton University, 2018), 165-166. 

And for those interested in the relevant footnotes, enjoy: 

31. On this appended baraita, see Epstein, Introduction to the Text of the Mishnah, 2:979.

32. Rabbinic sources lavish much attention on the use of these psalms in temple ritual. In what is no doubt an innovation, the rabbis argue that the daily psalm is an integral part of temple liturgy and that anything which can jeopardize its proper recitation must be fixed. M. Rosh Hash. 4:4 begins with: “Originally, they would accept testimony regarding the New Moon all day, but once the witnesses delayed in coming and the Levites said the wrong psalm.” The Levites had accidentally sung the song of the day instead of that of the New Moon. On proper psalmody as an essential aspect of sacrifice, see also y. Ta'an 2:2 67d, “Priests, Levites, Israelites and psalms can invalidate a sacrifice.” I plan on exploring this and other passages in a future study about Psalms in rabbinic memory. 

33. Robert Brody, “Liturgical Use of the Book of Psalms in the Geonic Period,” in Prayers That Cite Scripture, ed. James L. Kugel (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006), 75; Israel Ta Shma, “Sources and Place of the Prayer ‘It Is Upon Us to Praise’ in the Prayer Book,” in Book of Remembrance for Ephraim Talmadge, ed. Dov Lipschits (Haifa: Haifa University Press, 1993), 93–94. 

34. Daniel Goldschmidt, ed., Seder Rav Amram Gaon (Jerusalem: Mossad HaRav Kook, 1971), 40. 

35. On this, I follow Brody, “Liturgical Use,” 57, n. 59 that the mention of this custom in Sof. is a later addition. 

36. Who are these “few”? Is this a way Maimonides signals a common Palestinian custom? 

37. Fleischer, Prayer and Prayer Customs, 163 claims to find no mention or use of these daily Levitical psalms in any of the Genizah fragments he works with.

Great Videos on Setting-up for Zoom Meetings by Julie Schiro

With the pandemic, there have been a whole lot more meetings on various teleconferencing software, including Zoom. Providing very helpful tips with regard to Zooming has been Prof. Julie Schiro. On her YouTube channel, she is providing really helpful videos on Zooming, with four videos thus far (I have also embedded these videos at the end of the post): 

• Microphones
• Lighting
• Building a Home Studio
• Webcams

While I have found these videos to be greatly insightful, I had been wondering why they appear so utterly infrequently? 

On Thursday, a Zoom discussion ("Online Fireside Chat") was held, featuring Prof. Schiro, entitled "How to WoW on Zoom & Be More Viral" (and recorded then published to YouTube), in which Prof. Schiro provides the background to her helpful videos.

In the online fireside chat, Prof. Schiro speaks on why she so infrequently publishes these incredibly helpful and insightful videos, which is some really fascinating background (props to the National Recruitment Federation for hosting this chat).  

 

One of the nifty tips she dropped in this discussion was about a really neat software called OBS, which allows one to adjust one's video output to Zoom, including adding in videos, pictures, and text. I began using it on Thursday and have found it to be really neat thus far. Prof. Schiro also mentioned in the talk that a forthcoming video on her channel will be on OBS, to which I am greatly looking forward.

I highly recommend these videos, since you may be doing a lot of Zooming these days, as well. Here are the four videos thus far:

Microphones:

 

 

Lighting:

 

Building a Home Studio:

 

Webcams:

Discussing WandaVision Episode 5 (New Falcon & Winter Soldier Trailer) on MCU Podcast

Podcast Episode
I'm very excited to share that I was the guest on the fourth episode of the Fandom Podcast Network's True Believers Marvel MCU Podcast, which is available here: While we focussed on the fifth episode of WandaVision, we also discussed the recently released trailer for Falcon & Winter Soldier, about which I am excited.  

Episode Clips

Here are a couple of clips from the episode:

1. Is Vision Dead?
2. Key Themes of WandaVision Ep. #5

And, yes, this is the first time that I have discussed the MCU on a podcast. Hopefully, it won't be the last....

Excited for Falcon & Winter Soldier

With the trailer released last night for Falcon & Winter Soldier, I am excited for the new show: While I have previously done previous trailer videos for Star Wars, this is my first MCU trailer video.