Occasional Pieces
Speaking of Dreams…
(adapted from the Babylonian Talmud) --Some of them claim a dream’s a prophecy, a kind of unread letter from God, but they’re just dreaming! Interpretation’s the only thing that matters. There’s a proverb: “The dream takes meaning from the mouth,” meaning that...
Memoir 2: Hebrew School Memoir
Hebrew School Raymond P. Scheindlin I My maternal grandfather taught me my first Hebrew letters, the six that made up the masthead of the Yiddish daily Der Tog, as I sat on his knee. Although all four of my grandparents were most comfortable speaking...
Memoir 1: High Holiday Memoir
High Holiday Memoir Raymond P. Scheindlin I “You’ll be in the choir.” I was only about seven years old and didn’t really understand what the old man was talking about; but with those words he sent me down the path that led, five-and-a-half decades...
A Hebraist in Cairo (1997)
There were two cups of tea on the tiny table at which I sat with my friend Mohamed Al-Hawary in a white-tiled coffee shop in Cairo. Mohamed’s hookah was bubbling and his eyes were twinkling; through a cloud of apple-scented smoke, he asked me how I liked smoking the...