Alexandra Silber's Blog, page 12

from "The Four Loves"

 “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To lo...

The Impossible Dream

I came to know of and work with The Transport Group at the beginning of 2011 as a cast member of their immersive production of Michael John LaChiusa’s Hello Again—directed by Jack Cummings. It was my first job in New York.

When Jack gives me another chance to write for this newsletter, perhaps I will tell you all about rehearsing this play above the old (sadly now closed) Pearl River in SoHo, the parrot that lived there named Rudy, and the seemingly centuries-old elevator that Nikka Lanzarone (w...

A Snowy Leap...

I love this Alec Silver human person so much.
So on our 2-year-anniversary, we took a leap.
 
In this era of the Coronavirus— of collective isolation, grief, loss, adversity and hardship—I, like all of you, have been through, and learned a few things. If our shared human experience has taught me anything it is this:

There is only NOW,
 and LOVE (in all it’s forms) is
  ALL. WE. HAVE.

You know? The phrase “This too shall pass” is true of more than just adversity. Joy, TOO, shall pass if we do not sei...

Look for Kindness

This has been an excruciating week.

As we move through these final Days of Awe between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, may we embrace Quiet and pause often. Inside the loud and raging modern world, may we hold that rage but balance it with the noticing of simple joys, embracing natural beauty and the micro generosities gifted to us. May we look for opportunities for kindness and connection.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
 
And, where there is pain; where there is death and anguish and injustice and ragelet us be...

:: KOL NIDRE ::

It’s here. Yom Kippur 2020 and whoa boy do we all have a lot to atone for, personally and as a society at large.
 
The first communal prayer service of Yom Kippur actually takes place immediately prior to sunset on the evening of Yom Kippur. This service is called Kol Nidre (“All Vows”). These are the first words of a special legal document that is recited at the beginning of this service and is traditionally chanted, recited or sung, three times. (The singing of a legal vow-based legal document?...

:: The Days of Awe ::

The 10 days beginning with Rosh Hashanah and ending with Yom Kippur are known as the Days of Awe (Yamim Noraim) or sometimes translated as “the Days of Repentance.” 

 This is a time for deep, not-screwing-around introspection. A time to consider the sins of the past and own, acknowledge, and ask forgiveness from others for those wrongs, before Yom Kippur. (The, hopefully righting the wrongs you committed against them, if possible, and making a sincere commitment not to do that wrong again.)

Thus ...

:: Rosh Hashanah 5781 ::

It goes without saying at this point that Rosh Hashanah 5781 is not going to feel like Rosh Hashanah 5780.  Never has the ancient meaning of “who shall live and who shall die” felt like it has had such specific meaning as it has this year—  :: It reminds us that each of us is here for a brief time. ::  I always welcome chances to “start again—“ be it Jan 1, a birthday, or a new school year.  Personally, I don’t love “New Year Resolutions” I prefer affirmations or intentions...  SO: I am setting ...

'The Late Year' by Marge Piercy (a poem for Rosh Hashana, 5781)

The Late Year
by Marge Piercy

I like Rosh Hashanah late,
when the leaves are half burnt
umber and scarlet, when sunset
marks the horizon with slow fire
and the black silhouettes
of migrating birds perch
on the wires davening.

I like Rosh Hashanah late
when all living are counting
their days toward death
or sleep or the putting by
of what will sustain them—
when the cold whose tendrils
translucent as a jellyfish

and with a hidden sting
just brush our faces
at twilight. The threat
of frost, a premonition
a w...

Jewish 9/11 and Shabbat

There are many things in Judaism relating to #remembering: both positive and negative experiences motivate us to work towards being better versions of ourselves, and as a society. The act of remembering recurs throughout #Judaism: our calendar is full of #remembrances from our past.
 
 On Shabbat we are urged to not only REST, but to REMEMBER.
 
 And on this Shabbat, America is also landing on a remembrance of another kind altogether. This particularly fraught and confusing #September11th, 2020 we...

As you were...

 

I am currently super-obsessed with the Nun music that opens “The Sound of Music”

...As you were

— Alexandra Silber (@alsilbs) September 16, 2020