I conducted the funeral recently of a wonderful woman who died at age 96. She was extremely bright and witty.
She also came from the world of proper manners and etiquette. She raised her two children in that manner.
Her grandchildren, alas, grew up in a less formal way.
And a few of their stories illustrated their generational differences. One stands out in particular.
This grandson has a full beard. He came back to Chicago from Seattle last Thanksgiving.
When he arrived in his grandmother’s apartment, she looked up at him and said, “No man with gravitas ever had a beard.”
He looked at her and said, “Grandma, that’s not true. What about Abraham Lincoln?”
Without missing a beat, she looked back and said to him, “Just think of what he would have accomplished if he hadn’t had one.”
Well, one man with a beard who has both gravitas and great teachings is my friend Ray Edwards.
He just released a new free video for his amazing writing course, which is good for pastors, business people or anyone with a message to get out. Check it out here.
Rabbi Evan Moffic
evan@rabbi.me
Evan Moffic
Congregation Solel
1301 Clavey Road
Highland Park, Illinois 60035, United States
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A Furniture Man Tries Something New for Sunday, 5 March 2017 with Rabbi Evan Moffic of The Congregation Solel in Highland Park, Illinois, United States
About a year ago I met an extraordinary man named Ken Larson.
In the 1960s he started a store in Minneapolis called Slumberland. It sold home furniture. He opened more stores.
Then he branched into franchising. Now Slumberland operates 126 stores.
Ken was always active in his church. When he retired 6 years ago, he and his wife Barbara took their extended family on a trip to Israel.
They viewed some ancient Torah scrolls. Their guide told them the way the scroll is written—by hand, letter by letter. It takes a scribe an entire year to write one scroll.
They had never seen one before. And they never felt closer to God’s word.
When they got back to Minnesota, Don and went to their local seminary in Minneapolis. He was on the board there. He asked if the seminary had a Torah scroll.
The president said no. So they donated one. They saw the excitement it brought the faculty and students. They saw the way it brought students to life.
Then they asked themselves…Is God calling us to a new ministry?
They teamed up with a scholar named Scott Carroll. Dr. Carroll is one of the world’s foremost experts on ancient texts.
With Dr. Carroll’s help, they purchased scrolls from collectors around the world. Then they donated each scroll to a different seminary. So far they have given away 31 scrolls!
Their only stipulation—the scroll cannot be stuck in a basement closet. It must be used and taught and celebrated.
Last week I helped dedicate one of those scrolls at a local seminary, North Park University School of Theology. We carried the scroll into the school’s chapel. One of the students read from it. And I offered a blessing.
The blessing brought the assembly back to the creation of that particular scroll in a small town in Poland in the 1700s.
The scribe who wrote it, I said, would never have imagined that the words he was writing would be studied 300 years later—in Chicago, Illinois—by Christian seminary students.
Another reminder of what we all know. God works in mysterious ways.
Discover more about the words that scribe wrote here.
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Rabbi Evan Moffic
evan@rabbi.me
Evan Moffic
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A Furniture Man Tries Something New for Sunday, 5 March 2017 with Rabbi Evan Moffic of The Congregation Solel in Highland Park, Illinois, United States
About a year ago I met an extraordinary man named Ken Larson.
In the 1960s he started a store in Minneapolis called Slumberland. It sold home furniture. He opened more stores.
Then he branched into franchising. Now Slumberland operates 126 stores.
Ken was always active in his church. When he retired 6 years ago, he and his wife Barbara took their extended family on a trip to Israel.
They viewed some ancient Torah scrolls. Their guide told them the way the scroll is written—by hand, letter by letter. It takes a scribe an entire year to write one scroll.
They had never seen one before. And they never felt closer to God’s word.
When they got back to Minnesota, Don and went to their local seminary in Minneapolis. He was on the board there. He asked if the seminary had a Torah scroll.
The president said no. So they donated one. They saw the excitement it brought the faculty and students. They saw the way it brought students to life.
Then they asked themselves…Is God calling us to a new ministry?
They teamed up with a scholar named Scott Carroll. Dr. Carroll is one of the world’s foremost experts on ancient texts.
With Dr. Carroll’s help, they purchased scrolls from collectors around the world. Then they donated each scroll to a different seminary. So far they have given away 31 scrolls!
Their only stipulation—the scroll cannot be stuck in a basement closet. It must be used and taught and celebrated.
Last week I helped dedicate one of those scrolls at a local seminary, North Park University School of Theology. We carried the scroll into the school’s chapel. One of the students read from it. And I offered a blessing.
The blessing brought the assembly back to the creation of that particular scroll in a small town in Poland in the 1700s.
The scribe who wrote it, I said, would never have imagined that the words he was writing would be studied 300 years later—in Chicago, Illinois—by Christian seminary students.
Another reminder of what we all know. God works in mysterious ways.
Discover more about the words that scribe wrote here.
Rabbi Evan Moffic
evan@rabbi.me
Evan Moffic
Congregation Solel
1301 Clavey Road
Highland Park, Illinois 60035, United States
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55 Years of Marriage for Saturday, 4 March 2017 with Rabbi Evan Moffic of The Congregation Solel in Highland Park, Illinois, United States
Last night I had the opportunity to bless a couple on their 55th wedding anniversary. I am always a little nervous when older couples ask me for a blessing because I'm only 38.
It's hard to imagine being married to someone for 55 years. I often feel they are blessing me with their wisdom and example.
I connected my blessing for them with the Jewish Torah reading for this week. It is calledMishpatim, and it is a passage from the Book of Exodus describing the various laws the Israelites followed.
What is odd and wondrous about this section of the Torah is that it follows the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. Amidst lightening and thunder and the sound of the ram's horn, God gives the Israelites the Law.
Then, we go right from this climactic scene to a simple list of all the different agricultural laws the Israelites had to follow…From the sublime to the mundane.
I pointed out that a marriage—indeed, a life—is often like that. We have sublime moments. Falling in love. The wedding ceremony. If we have children, the birth of a child.
But most of life consists of the mundane. Doing the laundry. Feeding the dog. Driving the carpool.
What we do during those mundane moments makes all the difference. In other words, the little things are the big things.
It's not such a little thing that my next book is releasing this Tuesday. It's available for pre-order, and the first few reviews have already popped up! You can get it here.
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Rabbi Evan Moffic
evan@rabbi.me
Evan Moffic
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55 Years of Marriage for Saturday, 4 March 2017 with Rabbi Evan Moffic of The Congregation Solel in Highland Park, Illinois, United States
Last night I had the opportunity to bless a couple on their 55th wedding anniversary. I am always a little nervous when older couples ask me for a blessing because I'm only 38.
It's hard to imagine being married to someone for 55 years. I often feel they are blessing me with their wisdom and example.
I connected my blessing for them with the Jewish Torah reading for this week. It is calledMishpatim, and it is a passage from the Book of Exodus describing the various laws the Israelites followed.
What is odd and wondrous about this section of the Torah is that it follows the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. Amidst lightening and thunder and the sound of the ram's horn, God gives the Israelites the Law.
Then, we go right from this climactic scene to a simple list of all the different agricultural laws the Israelites had to follow…From the sublime to the mundane.
I pointed out that a marriage—indeed, a life—is often like that. We have sublime moments. Falling in love. The wedding ceremony. If we have children, the birth of a child.
But most of life consists of the mundane. Doing the laundry. Feeding the dog. Driving the carpool.
What we do during those mundane moments makes all the difference. In other words, the little things are the big things.
It's not such a little thing that my next book is releasing this Tuesday. It's available for pre-order, and the first few reviews have already popped up! You can get it here.
Rabbi Evan Moffic
evan@rabbi.me
Evan Moffic
Congregation Solel
1301 Clavey Road
Highland Park, Illinois 60035, United States
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