1. IT IS EXTREMELY LAME TO apologize to people electronically en masse. But I’m going to do it anyway.
Category: Torah
The Text(s), the tribe, the learning, the being. (With a bit of random spirituality mixed in.)
L’Shana Tovah!
THE JEWISH LUNAR/SOLAR CALENDAR begins the New Year 5782 tonight at sundown. The classic understanding of that number reflects the years since the world’s creation, but many of us find that explanation somewhat problematic. On the other hand, humanity’s recorded…
365 Names: “Ain Sof”
AIN SOF is the Name given by Jewish mystics to G?d’s most transcendent (read: non-immediate) aspect. Meaning, literally, “without end,” it falls short of describing the Indescribable by admitting with honesty that it can’t be done. “There is no way…
Keep It Under Your Hat
IT PAINS ME ON SEVERAL levels to do this, but I am currently wearing a tweed cabbie cap over my kippah. The reason is simple — a dear friend sincerely and greatly fears for my safety in an era where…
Our relationship to Torah is not based on asserting its factual historicity — whether based on “proofs” or “assertion despite reason.” Instead, each individual’s connection to scripture is based on the premise that the biblical narrative reflects an authentic religious experience that envelops some sort of reality and expresses it in a narrative and poetic fashion.”
— Rabbi David Bigman, “Refracting History Through the Spiritual Experience of the Present”
EACH PERSON’S PERCEPTION OF TRUTH is different. This one has a broader outlook, this one a narrow outlook. But the sincerity of each one’s devotions is all that counts.”
— Reb Nosson: Plato to Rebbe Nachman’s Socrates
When faced with [a piece or opinion of Torah] that is on its face absurd or contradictory, the rabbis do not dismiss it, but actively work to understand it. What would it look like for us, when someone says something apparently illogical and absurd, to assume that they are making some kind of internal sense and actually thoughtfully work to understand their reasoning?”
— Sara Ronis, “A Daily Dose of Talmud (Pesachim 78),” @myjewishlearning.com
Truly, you are where your mind is.”
–Baal Shem Tov
If my audience will feel that these interpretations are also relevant to their perceptions and emotions, I shall feel amply rewarded. However, I shall not feel hurt if my thoughts will find no response in the hearts of my listeners.”
— Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, The Lonely Man of Faith
Fixing a Hole
RECENTLY, I RECEIVED SOME SPAM from Chosen People Ministries (one flavor of the Jews-for-Jesus-ers). When their website’s response-form asked why I wanted to unsubscribe from future mailings, I wrote, “Exodus 20:3; 1 Kings 18:21. Go play with someone else.” They…
The Torah Guides’ Torah Guides
THE TORAH CAN BE A great read — inspiring, comforting, uplifting, provocative — but without the explanatory input of generations of commentators, it can also be a bit daunting. Fortunately, Jewish tradition has portioned this essential text into weekly bites…
On Writerly Spirituality: Yom Kippur Edition
THIS DAY IS STEEPED IN regret — and resolve. Yom Kippur is not as joyful as Pesach or Shavuot, which respectively mark the exodus from Egypt and embrace of the Torah[1], but it’s a day which carries its own spiritual…