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…15 May Book of Ruth Discussion (Zoom) May 15, 2024 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm Events More Info…
…d by the Good Book: “While the flesh was still between their teeth,” etc. (Numbers 11:33). Partly for that reason we are enjoined to wait a period of time after eating meat before eating dairy. But after some time, the “food” in your mouth (and stuck on or between your teeth) ceases to be “food.” Who would eat it? If your toothbrush is used at that point, it is not really in contact with “meat” or “dairy” and thus, strictly speaking, you would not…
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…the Jews chose God.” Listen to what Mark Twain wrote at the very end of the 19th century, in 1899, in his essay “Concerning the Jews”: If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and…
…in dating, the J document is usually considered the oldest, written in the 10th century B.C.E.; and the E strand probably written between 900 and 800 B.C.E.. The redaction or the compiling of the whole Torah is usually seen as occurring in Babylonia between 600 and 400 B.C.E. For our three passages only J and E are relevant — the first and third passages are usually attributed to J and the second to E. The first account, of Abraham and Sarah in E…
…tangible meaning. And not VaYiqra alone, of course, but most of Bamidbar (Numbers), from which our additional reading comes; a large portion of Shemot (Exodus), and Devarim (Deuteronomy), as well. Our world was rent asunder, smashed into a thousand pieces. The parallel of Temple worship with the synagogue and prayer is more than just an analogy, it is an exact spiritual equivalent. That is because, as all of you know, the practice of synagogue-ba…
…el invisible anymore. One day I was speaking with my brother-in-law on the phone. I was talking about BEKI (which by this time I had joined) and the feeling that I have here. And I confided in him that one day I’d like to get up on the bima and read from the Torah. And as I said these words I began to tremble. The very thought was overpowering to me. To even think of myself as playing such an honored role among Jews seemed so bold. Who was I to ge…
…a rapid decline in symptoms over time with less than 2% at four months and 1% at six months. People who study resilience point out that there are a number of factors that can predict how well someone will handle severe trauma. These come from studies of hospitalized survivors of motor vehicle accidents, combat veterans, people who lived through the Los Angeles riots, the Oklahoma City bombings and many other tragedies. While degree of exposure is…
…d of Torah about a word of Torah. The Aliya and the Word If we turn to page 166 in Etz Hayim, our new Humash, let’s look at the first aliya, which starts at [Genesis] chapter 28, verse 10. In last week’s parasha, upon the instigation of Rivqa, Yitshaq instructs Ya`aqov to head to Paddan-aram to take a wife from among the daughters of Lavan. Now, in compliance, Ya`aqov leaves home. Night falls along the way. Finding himself in barren terrain, Ya`aq…
…ie’s characters. Time permitting, I would also have included the remarkable 1970s Israeli movie, I Love You Rosa, rich in allusions to the Book of Ruth and the Song of Songs. Here, in reading Abraham Joshua Heschel’s luminous book, The Sabbath, in preparation for the course, I gleaned that: To Israel the unique events of historic time were spiritually more significant than the repetitive processes in the cycle of nature…. The God of Israel [is] th…