I have a very intense relationship with the book, For Times Such As These: A Radical’s Guide to the Jewish Year by Rabbi Ariana Katz and Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg. (Excerpt here: Tammuz in Times Such as These).
Having been told that it was in the works and pre-ordering it quite early, I felt involved with it before I ever held it in my hands. I’m a big fan of its authors and of Wayne State University Press, with its Jewish studies and midwest-focused titles. Then, as it happened, that fall 2023 pre-order proved a tremendous blessing in ways none of us could have imagined: In those post-Sukkot months, genocidal attacks on the West Bank, as well as Gaza, were launched with justifications based on Jewish survival and Jewish teaching; so many Jews and Jewish institutions seemed ready to turn their backs on Jewish values, so just knowing that there was a book on the way testifying to possibilities of living and organizing in Jewish integrity was a lifeline.
I participated in an on-line book event for Tu B’shvat on January 18 (2024), apparently received one of the first copies Wayne State mailed out (in late January), had my copy signed at the first book reading of the national tour (at Red Emma’s in Baltimore, March 3), and joined a second tour event in Washington, DC (May 22; more on the book and its authors’ tour).
For a book that some would still consider brand new [just over five months together, when I wrote this in July 2024] , me and my copy have been through a lot together. And, today, while deep in conversation, the book’s binding split and some pages began sliding free.
…Now, maybe I was too rough. Maybe the perfect-binding did not quite live up to its name. Or, possibly, the break was some kind of organic result of considering the calamities of the month of Tammuz and questions like: “How are the hurts of your communities’ histories manifesting in the collective body?”…
However the binding break happened, I found myself thinking it was a little soon for this particular volume to join the “well-loved/much-used” stage of our relationship: Do we even know one another well enough for that!? Those thoughts led, as these things do with me, to new lyrics for “Something to Talk About.”
So, here, in honor of this whirlwind start to what I expect will be a long, loving, and fruitful relationship, is “Something to Talk About: Me and For Times Such As These” — with love and respect to Shirley Eikhard and Bonnie Raitt.
“Something to Talk About: Me and For Times Such As These“
Ooh, Ooh…. People are talking, talking about reading
I hear them whisper, you won’t believe it
They think we’re lovers kept under covers
I just ignore it, but they keep saying
We meet just a little too much
Lean just a little too close
We stay just a little too long
Maybe they’re seein’ something we don’t, darling
Let’s give ’em something to talk about
Let’s give ’em something to talk about
How ’bout little something to talk about
How about words?
I feel so clumsy, did not expect it
you split your binding, could we be rushing, baby ?
It took the rumor to start things rumbling
Now it seems we’re already tumbling
Travelin’ through Jewish days
Cyclin’ through the whole year long
I’m hoping that you’re up for this trip
If we both know it, let’s really show it, baby
Let’s give ’em something to talk about, babe
A little mystery to figure out
Let’s give ’em something to talk about
I want your love!
— Original lyrics by Shirley Eikhard (1955-2022), famously performed by Bonnie Raitt, beginning with 1991 “Luck of the Draw” album
Shirley Eikhard and Bonnie Raitt versions —
A little background on Eikhard [Archive link might be slow to open] and “six songs you should know“
Split Binding (Re-)Union
Sometimes, when I wear a book out, I find a new copy. In some cases (Finnegans Wake is one), I keep the old one for sentimental reasons but use the newer copy for practical reasons. With a few books, however, the split-binding copy is the one I continue to use.
Here are the Jewish studies volumes that remain with me, for regular reference, despite binding mishaps:
- Max Kadushin. Worship and Ethics: A Study in Rabbinic Judaism. Bloch Publishing, 1963. (Scotch-tape inside)
- Arthur I. Waskow. God-Wrestling. Schocken Books, 1978. (Binder clip on open side)
- Rabbi Ariana Katz and Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg. For Times Such and These: A Radical’s Guide to the Jewish Year. Wayne State University Press, 2024. (String somehow seemed appropriate for this one, but it will depend on shelf situation.)
Statistically speaking, this house has many books on subjects similar to these three. And surely it must be accidental that these particular three comprise the “broken binding/still used” category. Nevertheless, the three books do seem to belong together, both in terms of theme and in terms of how essential I have found each to be, at different points in my life. So, I cannot shake the urge to anthropomorphize my new-ish book by insisting that it prematurely, purposely joined the broken-binding-brigade.
Looking at these three books, I recall that Max Ticktin (June 30, 1920 – July 3, 2016) , z”l, found Kadushin very dry as a JTS professor and was puzzled by my enthusiasm for this work, while he loved Arthur Waskow’s writing and was proud of his connections to Fabrangen Havurah. I cannot help wondering what Max would have made of For Times Such and These. I am quite sure he would have applauded this line: “We read Korah and ask, how do we organize in ways where all of us get to bring our unique and varied skills and power?” (p.326). And maybe that’s the through-line for the books in my broken-binding-brigade.
Image descriptions: 1) stack of three paper-back books — God-Wrestling, Worship and Ethics, and For Times Such as These — showing loose pages and wear. 2) Three books — For Times Such as These, God-Wrestling, and Worship and Ethics — shown cover out: first, held together by string; second, with a large binder-clip; third shows ragged pages (bound with tape).
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"A Song Every Day" 