Month: October 2022

RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #177 (10/6/2022): Dave’s Gone By 20th Anniversary

aired Oct. 6, 2022 on Dave’s Gone By.  

Shalom Dammit, this is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for October 6, 2022 — 20 years to the day that Dave Lefkowitz, the producer of this program, started to produce this program. 

I was there that fateful night when we got off the train in the most romantic, exciting town in the world, Merrick, Long Island, to begin the two-decade odyssey that would become Dave’s Gone By. Reading mostly from notes and holding onto his wife for support — or possibly grabbing her tuchas, I couldn’t see that well — Dave took to the microphone like I take to a brisket. And for 57 glorious minutes, Dave gave us comedy, a little social commentary, a bissel music, and something truly different on the radio. Like static but a good static. 

Most importantly, Dave brought me onto the program as his very first guest. He didn’t interview me or anything — no, that he saves for big hoo-hahs like Carol Channing and Charlotte Rae and Charles Grodin and other people who are dead — but he did give me a chance to talk aboutthe holiday of Simchas Torah, the first chapter of the Old Testament, Genesis,and women’s boobs. Yes, this was an informational segment tied to breast-cancer awareness month, but honestly, I just like to talk about women’s boobs. 

But from that very first episode — October 6th, 2002 — I have been proud to be a part of the Daverhood. In my interviews, I have chatted with the high and the mighty and the low and the lowly. I’m working on the mid and the middly. Also, I have now recorded 177 of these Rabbinical Reflections, my mini-sermons on life, current events, Judaism, ethics, and women’s boobs — or, as I like to call them, “tits.”

Dave has seen me through many life events these twenty years. He directed my TV show, Shalom Dammit! Rabbi Sol Solomon Peace, Love, and Acid-Reflux Hour, episodes of which are completely unknown to the Paley Center. Dave co-wrote and directed my one-man off-off-Broadway show, Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Me, which was received rapturously on two coasts. Well, Colorado isn’t a coast, but what, you’re gonna quibble with me over semantics? Go to hell! 

But Dave will always be heavenly in my book for being my friend, my editor, my collaborator, my poison-tester (because, you know, I get hate mail). If anybody deserves to be broadcasting twenty more years, it’s Dave. 

Be nice if he was paid. Be even nicer if he paid me. But I’m not one to complain. I am here merely to say Mazel Tov, Dave Lefkowitz, on your longevity, your comedy, your show. This is your holiday: Simchas Duvid. 

This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches, in Great Neck, New York. And gone by.

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