Torah

Right (of) Passage

ONE QUESTION THAT OFTEN COMES up during Torah study, especially the portions that concern the seemingly over-described sacrifices and Tabernacle (portable wilderness G?d-tent) and its holy furniture, is, “Does G?d really care about all these details?”

One answer: “Who knows? But we care.”

What do Jews do when it comes time to experience pivotal life-events? We talk to a rabbi (or at least someone knowledgeable). According to Jewish law and custom, there is an ancient and proper way to do anything whether birth, education, adulthood-attainment, marriage, divorce, illness, or burial and mourning. It doesn’t matter how non-observant the querent is — they always want to know what to do, and how to do it right.

Read more →

Crit

5 Thoughts: Comix with an X

1. CRUMB. GRIFFITH. SHELTON. THESE (AND other “sequential artists“) were the visual architects of my immediate post-adolescent universe; whose spare-but-dense works were strewn reverently on the couches and mattresses of my very late teens and very early 20s; whose fractured catchphrases (“Yow! Are we having fun yet?” “Hey kids, while you’re out smashing the state keep a smile on your lips and a song in your hearts!” “Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope!”) worked their way into the conversations of my fellow-freakly peers.

Read more →

Crit

Words to Bring Back: “Contretemps”

– Definition: n. a minor dispute or disagreement.

– Used in a sentence: The current Administration is one big contretemps after another.

– Why: Because “kerfuffle” could use a bit of adulting.

Torah

“For My Next Trick, I Will Unite the Universe…”

A FUN WAY TO ENTERTAIN and enlighten early adolescents is via the following exercise:

“What’s the first dimension?” you’d ask. They’d answer, “Length.”

“The second?” “Width.”

“Third?” “Height.”

“Fourth?” “Time!”

“That’s right. Now, for my next trick, I will unite the Universe…”

Read more →

To gain a yirah[awe]-inducing glimpse of the transcendent, you must sharpen your inner awareness to perceive divine Oneness wherever you look. You can practice shifting your inner vision to apprehend the scintillating divine presence in an apple, a table, a car, a baby’s eyes, anywhere in this world. When you make that choice and adjust your perception in this way, you have placed HaShem [that-which-some-people-call-G?d] before you, and yirah is sure to overtake your heart as if the floor beneath you had suddenly fallen away.”
–From the monthly YASHAR newsletter)

Living

Pithyism #2=1

TRUE LOVE IS NOT AN emotion — it’s a dedicated series of related actions.