4 posts tagged “chabad”

It's funny how music can jog your memory.  I was just talking with a friend of mine whom I haven't seen in a while.  She told me she was on a bus Saturday night, and her iPod played a song I had recommended her, after which she couldn't stop thinking of me.  It was very flattering, but it got me thinking about how certain songs bring me back to specific periods of my life, especially if a certain girl figured prominently into what was going on with me at that time.

I first noticed it in sixth grade, when I had a big crush on a girl, and Magnificent Bastards' "Mockingbird Girl" made me think of her every time it came on the radio (I was listening to WAAF a lot at the time).  I've since gone back and listened to that song, and it kind of sucks.  In college, when I started to get involved in my first serious relationship, which coincided with my introduction to My Bloody Valentine, I listened to Isn't Anything and Loveless as much as possible so I would have a frame of reference for the memories.

This is just my interpretation, but it seems to me that Chassidus explains why music is so universally moving.  Chassidus teaches that when one reads a book, for example, a bond develops between the reader and the author, perhaps as small as a favorable opinion.  A favorable opinion may progress to curiosity, mild interest, fanship, and so on.  Regarding music, however, the Alter Rebbe famously said, "If words are the pen of the heart, then song is the pen of the soul."  While words may be understood according to one's own ability, music connects on a level higher than understanding, cutting through directly to the soul.  Perhaps this is why my Grandma always calls nigunim Jewish Soul Music.

Tell us a true story that proves it really is a small world after all. 
Submitted by havybeaks.

This is a great hashgacha pratis that happened to me about a year ago.  You can read it for yourself.  It takes place  by a series of comments posted on two different sites.  Here and here.

"She has an extraordinarily sexy radio persona," adds Timothy Ferris, author of "The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe(s) Report," who has been a "Fresh Air" guest several times. "I've never met her, though I feel like she's a friend. But when you are in that booth and her voice is being digitally beamed into the studio -- well, it is an incredibly sensuous experience."  (source)

If you know me, you probably know I like NPR.  You also probably know I'm a big fan of Terry Gross, host of the radio program "Fresh Air."  I like "Fresh Air," but mostly I listen to it because of Terry; in fact, I probably pay more attention to her than I do to the guests.

I think part of the reason I'm frum today is because I bonded with Rabbi Simcha Levenberg, then a shliach at the Chabad of Amherst, over our shared passion for NPR and Terry Gross.  Simcha's wife, Cyril, recalled that I would show up for Shabbos dinner once or twice a month, and Simcha and I would have the same exact conversation we had last time.  We'd be laughing hysterically while everyone else was like, "Didn't you guys already have this conversation?"

I just happened upon a gallery of photos from a Rilo Kiley/Nada Surf concert I went to with Barak, Julie, and Marissa.  Nada Surf didn't impress me, but Rilo Kiley really knocked me out.  The band was tight; Blake, in particular, exhibited some solid, versatile technical facility as a guitarist.  Perhaps even more impressive was seeing him play his ass off without showboating.  He and Jenny also charmed the hell out of the audience.  They're very charismatic and have a ton of presence.

In related news, I spoke to Julie the other day, and she's recently engaged to her boyfriend.  Congratulations, Julie.

I think Mendy's wedding is this week.  When I ran into him at 770 a few weekends ago, I think he told me it's on the 28th.  I'd have written it down, but it was Shabbos day.  As I recall, that was the Shabbos when someone threw a whole bunch of trash in the cholent.