The challenge of blogging

Welcome to my new Blog. I call it new, not just because it is new, but because this is my 3rd attempt at a blog (in some ways a 4th attempt). Blogging may seem easy, but as those of you who are fellow bloggers know, it can be hard to come up with topics that seem relevant and that the blogger thinks others may find interesting.

That later point is very important to me. I want others to find my blog posts to be interesting and compelling. While I am on facebook, I rarely post status updates. I have avoided Twitter altogether, because I personally don't care when you are doing laundry* and I don't think you care about when I am doing it either**.

* unless you are my wife
** in full disclosure the laundry is the one household chore I do not take part in on a regular basis

What inspired me to come back, well two things. One is this article I saw in this sunday's New York Times:

When the Thrill of Blogging is Gone

The article, in case you don't care to read it says that according to a particular search engine, only 5% of blogs have been updated in the past 120 days. That means there are close to 125 dormant blogs, and until I deleted them earlier today I was responsible for 2. How was this inspiring to me, well, it was really more of a challenge to me to finally follow through on a blog and be one of the 5% that kept at it.

The other reason I was inspired to blog was looking at the success of a particular blog of one of my colleagues who happens also to be a lifelong friend, Phyllis Sommer. Her blog: Ima on (and off) the Bima was recently covered in Reform Judaism Magazine and has served for her as a valauble way to communicate with both members of her congregation and others from all over.

I hope that this blog will give me some of those same opportunities. I believe that as a Rabbi, a dad, a husband, a committed Jew who is a part of a very diverse Jewish family, a lover of the finer things in life, a fan of sports, a bit of a political buff (although some might call me a political hack), and as one who believes strongly in the core values of equality, fairness and justice, I have something to share with others that hopefully you find interesting enough to comment on and compelling enough to come back for more. I thank you for reading my words and the opportunity to share my thoughts with you.