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Rosh Hashanah: Happy Birthday, Universe!

Updated: Sep 16, 2023

READERS: Greetings! This began as a Rosh Hashanah "Hello!" to my brother-in-law's wife DEBBIE. As I learned more about the significance of this holiday, I decided to share it..


There's much we can learn from one another's traditions...one another's ways of seeing...


DEBBIE,


Hi! Sending greetings on this celebratory festival. A time to look back over the past year and ask ourselves,


"What have we got to ‘shofar’ it?”


(Sorry, I could have resisted the temptation…but DIDN’T 🤭. I'll add this to my other atonements on THAT holiday...).


And in keeping with spirit of the holiday, it's also a time to set our intentions for the new year ahead.



The above image is from the 2nd of the 5 reflections in this piece on Rosh Hashanah. Click the "Previous" and "Next" blue link/arrows to navigate. Lots of nourishing wisdom here.


1st Day: On Rosh Hashanah we each determine the destiny of our past

2nd Day: The Autograph

3rd Day: Mission Impossible

4th Day: Life Is Impossible

5th Day: Laughter, Bliss, Inner Joy


Deb:


I’m in CT at my alternative medicine provider and as I left the building (ahead of Elvis 😁)…I spotted this Little Tykes Cozy Coupe - a symbol of going up the country to your Massachusetts home and hearing our son John, as he burst from our car to your backyard,


"This is what I came here for!”



Happy Birthday to our Universe





David - An early Shepherd/Astronomer


Isaiah: Prophet/Astronomer



Edwin Hubble: 20th Century Star Gazer/Inventor


Here’s a story of a guy who first went to university to study what his father wanted him to learn…and, after Dad passed on, went back to school and took up Space…



Meanwhile...back on Planet Earth in Connecticut

Yesterday, I was with my alternative medicine husband and wife team in Redding, CT. As is my custom, afterwards, I cross the Metro North tracks and head for my gelato cafe: Tusk & Cup.


To begin my Rosh Hashanah celebration of our Mother Earth, I selected green and brown flavors: Pistachio & Caramel Toffee.



After savoring this delight, I got one for the road - a latte. Check out the barista's artistry.



The local communities around this area have a love of all things cultural. See link at the end for one of these venues. Here's a sampling of the current offerings posted on Tusk & Cup's bulletin board:



This next ad invited me to see if I could find a Jethro Tull piece about our universe...



Bach to the Future...Jethro Tull in Space


I’ve had this song in my head ever since Sunday when I first saw this video, so finally decided I had to post it. Astronaut (and flautist) Cady Coleman on board the International Space Station hooked up with Ian Anderson, founder of the rock band Jethro Tull, to collaborate for the first space-Earth duet. The song, “Bourree in E Minor,” was written by Johann Sebastian Bach, but Jethro Tull made the song famous (again) with their own arrangement of the tune back in 1969, the same year Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped on the moon. Coleman and Anderson played the song in recognition of 50 years of human spaceflight and the anniversary of the first launch of a human to space by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961.

Coleman played her part from 220 miles above Earth late last week. Anderson played his part while on tour in Perm, Russia, during the weekend. The two parts were then joined. Just see if you can keep this song out of your head for the rest of the day!




Check out the locale...





"There's a Grateful Dead song for every occasion"


Steve B., my friend, fellow surfer...Deadhead..and VW mentor said this to me years ago...and I've never proven him wrong...


...and how fitting it is that the final section showcases the only band member who was also from the Tribe of Abraham: Michael Steven Hartman, a.k.a., Mickey Hart who originally hailed from Flatbush, Brooklyn and then "emigrated: to the Five Towns community of Lawrence on Long Island.



First, let's all wish Mickey a belated (9/11/43) 80th birthday!!!





[from the site] This soothing, 70-minute soundscape, originally created for the birth of Mickey Hart’s son Taro in1983, was intended to transform the coldness of a hospital birthing room into a warm, rhythmic environment for the process of labor and birthing. However, after requests by several friends to use the album for their own birthing processes, Hart decided to release the recording for the general public. The music consists of Taro's heartbeat (recorded in utero) overdubbed with bass harmonics (provided by Bobby Vega), drums, and wooden shakuhachi flute (played by Steve Douglas). Music to be Born By was issued in1988 as part of “THE WORLD” series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).




[from the intro] Mickey Hart, a well-known drummer for the Grateful Dead, has collaborated with astrophysicists on music that reflects the origins of the universe, and with neuroscientists to figure out how music stimulates different parts of damaged brains. Special correspondent Mike Cerre follows Hart’s exploration of music and the universe, and our human response to rhythm.


Major Tom (me)...I was there...



One more...I promise...




[from the opening paragraphs] Berkeley, CA — He hangs out with rock stars, cruises the city on a three-wheeled “Mitzvah Bike” and blows the shofar to rally crowds at major league ball games. It’s all a far cry from Crown Heights, where this spiritual leader earned his rabbinic ordination. A married father of five grown children, Rabbi Yosef Langer looks every bit the Chabad Chasid. Like many Chabad shluchim or emissaries, he spends his days involved in Chabad outreach. He also organizes community events, leads educational programs, fund raises and aims to spiritually nourish local Jews and visitors to the Bay Area. But that’s where the similarities end. Rabbi Langer is not, by any means, your typical Chabad rabbi.

“The image of me is that I am an ex-hippie and my forte is dealing with fringe,” says Rabbi Langer, who gave up his freewheeling ways in the 1970s for Orthodox Judaism. “Because I’m a loving, out-of-the-box thinking and soulful individual, I hook up with all kinds of different people in the world.


"It’s all about touching every Jew, and every human being, in a real way that moves them closer to themselves, and myself and the Almighty, the Infinite Source of Life.”


Related...Relativity


--explore this repurposed dead church that's being born again as a performance venue...


These next 3 are from June 28, 2023:









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