Apples and honey yesterday. Tonight, candles. This Jew’s dance card’s full.
Tag: Torah: Output
Things said.
Torah Word: Kedoshim
Torah Portion: Acharei Mot-Kedoshim Leviticus 16:1-20:27 Haftorah: Amos 9:7-15 “Kedoshim t’hyu, ki kadosh ani Adonai Eloheicha — Be holy, for I am holy, Adonai your God.” (Leviticus 19:2) The second half of this week’s double portion takes a breather from…
This Week In Torah: Vayak’hel/Pekudei
VAYAK’HEL/PEKUDEI (Exodus 35:1-40:38; haftarot I Kings 7:51-8:21 and, because Nisan starts on Tuesday making this a special Rosh Chodesh Shabbat, Ezekiel 45:16-46:18) WRAPS UP THE BOOK of Exodus by building the Tabernacle: the traveling God-tent whose structure and contents are…
R. Crumb, Darshan
MOST REVIEWS OF R. CRUMB’S “The Book of Genesis Illustrated” seem astonished that the man who kept us truckin’ through the ’60s could possibly give the Goode Booke such a serious rendering. But what astonishes me is that Crumb has…
Leaving room for silence
Of all the apparent opposites which Judaism wrestles to reconcile — free will v. predestination, universalism v. particularism, applesauce v. sour cream — one of the most paradoxically fertile is words v. the Wordless. Maimonides, the great 12th century rabbi…
Hiding the Hidden
Last week, we read in Parsha Beshallach about the departure from Egypt (Heb. “Mitzrayim”, or “narrows,” which the mystical tradition identifies with the forces of constraint and bad-habitry). Among the other nifty details is this one, from Exodus 13:21: “And…
Torah Nerds, Unite!
Some people say that the Torah can only be meaningful if the events depicted therein are true. In other words, if 600,000 people didn’t march through the Sinai Peninsula; if the plagues were just a mythologization of natural disasters; if…
Working Definition
God 1 v. the Omnipresent Center SEE Copenhagen interpretation, quantum consciousness 2 conj. adv. The Connector of Space and Sustainer of Time; One, Alive, and Intent 3 n domesticated primates’ ultimate attribution of excuse, tragedy, success or inspiration
Contradicting the Paradox
“Most people don’t worship God. What they do is make an image of what they think God is, and worship that.”— James “Sputnik” Gjerde The biggest problem with Aristotelianism is that it posits false dichotomies (good/evil, up/down, is/ain’t, tastes great/less…
Peace Through Superior Prayerpower
Well, the “shalom service” was either very wonderful or very weird, depending on whether you want to think about it quantitatively or qualitatively. From the former perspective, it was weird because — either despite or because of or having nothing…
Fringey Blue
from a pre-Blogger blog Tzitzit under blue jeans feel like nothing, and yet feel like everything. They feel like nothing because the four-cornered cotton garment to which they’re attached is extremely light. I forwent the type which snap or stitch…