Rabbi Kirshbaum Tribute
Rabbi Kirshbaum with JFNH Director Allyson Guertin
Dave and Dorothy, I thought on this occasion I might share several passages from the Talmud. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find what I was looking for there.
It was a much later Jewish sage, Nora Ephron, who gave us the famous one-liner, I’ll have what she’s having. Dorothy, I bet this line from the 1982 classic, When Harry Met Sally, speaks for most women in this room. We’d like to have your gentleness, your sultry voice, your positive and patient nature, your whip-smart intelligence.
Dave, as you probably know it was Susan Sandler, screenwriter for Crossing Delancey, who gave us the pungent three-word exchange, Poetry? No, pickles between the owner of a posh Upper East Side bookstore who questions the presence of Sam Posner, a Lower East Side pickle vendor, at one of the bookstore’s poetry readings. Dave, it might seem like you traded a life of poetry, or more generally, high culture in New York and then Northampton when you moved permanently to Bethlehem – arguably we’re in pickles territory up here. Yet you’ve added plenty of sophistication through the film festival and of course you’ve added so much beauty to North Country Jewish religious life through your prayer melodies.
Dorothy and Dave, it was Eleanor Bergstein, screenwriter for Dirty Dancing who gave its lead character, Johnny, these lines: Sorry for the interruption, folks, but I always do the last dance of the season. So I'm gonna do my kind of dancin' with a great partner who's not only a terrific dancer but somebody who's taught me that there are people willing to stand up for other people no matter what it costs them. Somebody who's taught me about the kind of person I wanna be. Johnny of course is speaking about Baby Houseman, who stands up for a struggling local working class woman impregnated by a wealthy summer resort guest. Like Baby, you two remind us by your very natures about the kind of people we aspire to be.
But the Talmud has inspired in me this brief blessing for you:
May your lives continue to be blessed with the art and beauty of this world.
May you continue to be blessed with loving community.
May you always find something to celebrate each day of your lives together.
with great affection,
Donna
Rabbi Donna Kirshbaum, 28 July 2024