Tanakh — read closely, read against the grain, read for now.
“Love the Lord your God with your entire mind, personality, and capability” is no small thing, yet crucially, the road of this love is meant to be easy. We are to be lenient and accommodating in matters dealing with God. God gets nothing from our arduous effort, and if our arduous effort is directed towards … Read more
A thought on Kashruth: “FWIW the judges on the national court extended the basic concept of not cooking a goat in its mother’s milk, which inverts the view of the surrounding culture on what is valuable and effective, to include any (kasher) animal and any (kasher) animal’s milk. What started in a specific historically-conditioned situation, … Read more
Biblical rules for living a kosher life:– Eat obligate herbivores– Shun predators, scavengers, and bottom feeders– Make death painless– Respect that which gives life 🐄🐑🐐🐓🐟
Go to yourselfFrom what you wereTold you areFrom your father’sHopes and dreamsFrom the limitsOf those around youTo the land thatI will show youWithin your soulBeyond the horizonOf your waking worldTo the sacred soilOf your questing heartSearching for meBefore I called Go for yourselfGo for your freedom, your beloved, your truthCross over the abyssBetween what is … Read more
Zion is mentioned 196 times in Isaiah. 64 times in Jeremiah. 130 times in the Twelve Prophets. 152 times in Tehillim. 441 times in the Talmuds (374 in the Zohar!) 98 times in the Ashkenazi liturgy. 228 times in the Mizrahi liturgy. Over 1400 times in the most popular collections of responsa literature. But yes, … Read more
Whew. Said the prayers. Blew the shophar. Ate the honey. Let my wife rest through the night. I showed up, I did my part, I stood with every single being in creation and crowned my King. Despite everything, Rosh Hashana was, thank God, a success in my little corner of the cosmos. Barukh Hashem. Mammash. … Read more
If there’s anything we learn from the megilla of Esther it’s that egotistical autocrats make poor leaders/allies but good instruments of divine providence. Stay Frosty Friends 😎
Most blessings conclude in a participle – describing the Creator as the One who does things. The subsequent blessing after the Shema concludes with a perfect verb – describing the Creator as the One who liberated Yisrael. This unique praise of God expresses a fact of history: some 3700 years ago, the Creator intervened in … Read more
The birthrightThe voiceThe handsThe blessingThe escapeThe loveThe trickThe workThe feudThe saleThe famineThe slaveryThe criesThe memoryThe bushThe bloodThe frogsThe liceThe swarmsThe pestilenceThe boilsThe hailThe locustsThe darknessThe deathThe seaThe passageThe songThe complaintThe foodThe restThe countThe daysThe weeksThe purityThe thunderThe lightning The blastThe fireThe mountainThe revelationThe lawThe graceThe covenant
The return to the land of our ancestors. So much of human history is bound up in disputes over land. Your land, my land, his land, (rarely) her land. The territorial imperative indeed runs deep in mammals, especially primates; sometimes we seem no better than gangs of monkeys fighting each other over dwindling patches of … Read more