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“I’m Eighty-Five Years Old, Bubba’leh”

JL;DR SUMMARY In a reflective narrative, Mordechai Yavin-Jesselson—a respected academic, rabbi, and writer—contemplates his life after the death of his wife, Paulina, and his son, Josh. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

AgingIdentityFamilyBereavementJewish ThoughtAutobiographyFaithMemoryMordechai Yavin JesselsonIntellectual Journey

Places mentioned

Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv District, Israel
"We bought it at the Tel Aviv Museum, I cant remember when."
New York, United States
"the 2007 Jewish Book Award, which we went to New York to receive."
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
"some came over with me from Cincinnati"
Brooklyn, New York, United States
"my childhood in Brooklyn through my university studies"
Jerusalem, Israel
"overlooking the Judean Desert, with the stunning, indulgent breeze"
Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
"And so, I drink a glass of cognac in front of the setting sun and rejoice in the fact that another day has ended and Im still here. There it is, the famous photograph from Aachen, Germany."
Haifa, Haifa District, Israel
"On a Saturday night in summer 1986, he and his friends returned from Haifa after spending Shabbat at the home of their rav from yeshiva."
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
"when I got the PhD from Harvard"
Kiryat Shmuel, Haifa District, Israel
"We arrived in Israel just before the chagim and unpacked in our little apartment in Kiryat Shmuel."
Jerusalem, Israel
"a launch event for my book on theology and the Holocaust at the Vanderbilt Institute in Jerusalem."
Talpiot, Jerusalem, Israel
"just as the rest of Talpiot had transformed since Id arrived here in the early 1970s."
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Retrieved 2025-01-15 05:31:03 UTC
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