Mensch•Marks Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction: Mensch•Marks

Part One - Work and Worship

Mensch•Mark 1– A Young Rabbi (…breaking down barriers of age)

Mensch•Mark 2 – Gentleman’s Agreement (…loving unconditionally, preaching courageously)

Mensch•Mark 3 – The Santa Suit (…dissolving the prejudice of appearance)

Mensch•Mark 4 – Rising Above the Hate (…caring for my adversary)

Mensch•Mark 5 – Saturday Morning Fever (… touching souls in a germophobic age)

Mensch•Mark 6 – Mentioning the Unmentionable (…smashing taboos and sacred cows)

Mensch•Mark 7 – Dancing Sheva (…flowing with the rhythms of sacred time)

Mensch•Mark 8 – Superabbi: The Flawed Model (…taking myself off the pedestal)

Mensch•Mark 9 – Shedding the Baggage (…baring my soul before God)

Part Two - Loving and Letting Go

Mensch•Mark 10 – Fathers and Sons (…the power of parental presence)

Mensch•Mark 11 – The Dangling Knife (…the parent as sculptor, mentor – and shield)

Mensch•Mark 12 – Hugging, Blessing, Letting Go (…with every embrace, a release)

Mensch•Mark 13– Leaping with Angels (…helping my sick child or a dying congregant?)

Mensch•Mark 14 –My Brother’s Keeper (…living at the crossroads of disability and destiny)

Mensch•Mark 15 – The Peter Panning of America (…finding an ever-present past)

Part Three – The Nobility of Normalcy

Mensch•Mark 16 – Living on the Back Pages (…the sacred, never-boring, pulse of daily life)

Mensch•Mark 17 – The Forbidden Oreo (…the snack we eat reveals the masks we wear)

Mensch•Mark 18 – The Invisible Fence (…the importance of setting behavioral boundaries)

Mensch•Mark 19– The Power Grid (…recognizing power’s potential – and its limits)

Mensch•Mark 20 – Paradise in a Sandbox (…recovering the pure faith of a child)

Part Four - Pain and Perseverance

Mensch•Mark 21 – The Other Side of the Bed (…seeing the healer as patient)

Mensch•Mark 22– Numb and Numb-er (…a rabbi’s job is not to numb the pain)

Mensch•Mark 23 – Goodness and Mercy (…finding my voice at my first funeral)

Mensch•Mark 24 – Over and Out (… “outing” a congregant at his funeral)

Mensch•Mark 25 – The Vale of Tears (…a condolence call to a place of unspeakable suffering)

Mensch•Mark 26 – The Towers (…having the chutzpah to reach for the sky)

Part Five – Belonging and Becoming

Mensch•Mark 27 – The Yarmulke Bin (…even beanies become souvenirs from Sinai)

Mensch•Mark 28 – Bar Mitzvah Nation (…what happens when “they like us, they really like us”)

Mensch•Mark 29 – My Father’s Huppah (…a Catholic Tevye; the Brave New World of assimilation)

Mensch•Mark 30 – Jews of the Jungle (…lessons from the cruel and supremely tranquil savannah)

Mensch•Mark 31 – The Wall and the Mall (…exploring what makes a place “holy?”)

Mensch•Mark 32– Where Spring Forever Dwells (…discovering a Promised Land right here)

Mensch•Mark 33 – Kosher Pigs (…in religion, hypocrisy can be a good thing)

Part Six – Failure, Forgiveness, Justice and Kindness

Mensch•Mark 34 – Crisis (…my greatest test of faith – and most lasting life lesson)

Mensch•Mark 35 – Championing Civility (...it’s impossible to avoid gossip, but essential to try)

Mensch•Mark 36 – “Do You Think I’m Evil?” (…the stain of hatred on the human soul)

Mensch•Mark 37 – Piercing the Heavens (…the purest form of prayer)

Mensch•Mark 38 –  Marching - and Riding - for Our Lives (…fulfilling God’s will by violating it)

Mensch•Mark 39 – Going, Going Gone (… a baseball immortal and overcoming tribal loyalties)

Mensch•Mark 40 – Should Jews Turn the Other Cheek? (…looking evil in the eye)

Mensch•Mark 41 – From “I” to “Wii” (…overcoming selfishness as a key to happiness)

Mensch•Mark 42 – The God of Love (…a family legacy of unconditional love)

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