Here is a quick post since my fingers have been dormant since Sukkoth. 

First, we need to comment on the peculiarities of this year’s calendar: 

1) Mikeitz will NOT be Shabbos Chanukah. A rarity, indeed. 

2) Asarah B’teves will be on a Friday. Very rare to fast on Friday, and this is the only possibility- methinks. 

3) Tal Umotor (Sheiloh!) will be on the eve of the 5^th of December, not the usual fourth. 

Now a word on Henry Kissinger. A bunch of years ago I made a video for the YouTube channel about his German-Jewish Orthodox roots. I thought it a novelty at the time. After all, the Secretary of State is perhaps the most powerful position in the U.S. government, and to think that someone who was raised in the same tradition as many of our parents- singing the same songs, and adhering to the same laws, would occupy that seat is truly interesting. 

Today I am a bit more mature and not bedazzled by the fact that he was “once” Orthodox. Or he “once” occupied a place in Breuer’s Shul. The irony is still worth mentioning, but the connection is meaningless.  (I mention this because I received several inquiries this week – and have seen much social media chatter- asking about the extent to which he walked among our local Orthodox circle.)

We keep our Torah – and I include the Minhogim, Nigunim, and Hashkafah – because we are Hashem’s nation. His servants, students, children, representatives, and advocates. We seek Hashem and hope to make the world a better, holier place. There are so few of us, and such a long history of triumph and survival that got us to where we are today. If someone has left that life, whether out of ignorance or disillusion, it is a loss to us, to the world, and to the person alone.  

I have no doubt that – for better or worse- this man was part of Hashem’s plans in moving history forward. But his shared history with our family is just that. History. It died a long time ago.  

That said, the video showcased my father’s pictures of Henry at his father’s Levaya. See below.