Alexandra Silber's Blog, page 26

[The Real] Rabbi Syme

    As many of you out there are reading After Anatevka , you might be surprised to know that one of the leading questions I get is whether or not Rabbi Syme (Perchik's teacher and advocate) is based on a real person. The answer: of course he is. Rabbi Syme was indeed so influential, that I felt he had to be memorialized in After Anatevka for he was my first spiritual advocate.

    Fictional Rabbi Syme is based very loosely upon the real-life Rabbi Syme—loosely be...

Coulda-been-ku 9

9.
While they got married,You showed me I could, still, fly. I’ll never forget.

Coulda-been-ku 8

8.
Oh, the agony of being seen. Dark chapter. I loved you. Too much.

Coulda-been-ku 7

7.
I’ll never know whyyour paint and my music can’t exist together. 
Time and space are cruel.But you wrote that already. You call, and I sing.

Coulda-been-ku 6

6.
I, available,Open. You at a crossroads. Story of my life. 

Coulda-been-ku 5

5. 
Mussels and moonlight: And poems, I remember— You, deeply, reading.

Coulda-been-ku 4

4. 
Not a Tsar. But youshowed me I could love again. Thank you. Love, Sunny.

from 'Don Quixote' by Miguel de Cervantes

"Remember that there are two kinds of beauty: one of the soul and the other of the body. That of the soul displays its radiance in intelligence, in chastity, in good conduct, in generosity, and in good breeding, and all these qualities may exist in an ugly man. And when we focus our attention upon that beauty, not upon the physical, love generally arises with great violence and intensity. I am well aware that I am not handsome, but I also know that I am not deformed, and it is enough for a ma...

Coulda-been-ku 3

3.
A grieving girl. Why?You were lost, and I, a fool.I don’t think of you. 

Coulda-been-ku 2

2.
Sweet youth. You taught me:It does not have to mean the world, to mean a lot.