Yiddishkeit

What to do with the material left over from the house project?

Folks are somtimes surprised when they see me with a toolbelt. Another cultural preudice. Where else have I seen a Jewish Carpenter? I've spent most of my adult life building things, or teaching other folks how to build things. At 59, I still spend a good deal of my time building things and fixing things.

I got my start as an estranged teen at Bronx High School of Science, which I was admitted to after failing the entrance exam because of the fact that I was living in a poor Bronx neighboorhood. My 2 favorite classes there were gym and shop, strangly called "Science Techniques Laboratory".

I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge some of the folks I learned my trade from.

Tayere Malke

An old Yiddish Song

Dear Malke, may you be well! Fill up the goblet, the goblet with wine. From this goblet, which gleams so prettily, my grandfather would drink--my grandfather himself!

There have been bad times, as sometimes happen, but I held on to the goblet with iron and steel. It would amuse all the children, as you know. From my father the goblet passed to me.

Dear Malke, may you be well! For whom shall I drink this wine? I drink for the little spark of Jewishness that struggles and never tires. I want to drink for those who departed. I drink for my enemies, but don't reveal it. Look, tears are spurting from the goblet.

Sing louder and louder: G-d. You are great! Malke, put away the goblet. The song is ended.