This Week In Wisdom, Turning The Mundane Into The Sacred, Uncategorized / 20 Sep 2022
Why do we need Moses to keep talking?
According to the commentator, Nachmanides, Moses finishes reviewing the commandments and stipulations of the Torah by Deuteronomy 26:16. This already comes most of the way through a book of the Torah that some commentators view as a recapitulation of the other four books – and which some contemporary scholars view as a later addition altogether. So why are we here, three chapters after the most generous reading of the Book of Deuteronomy indicates Moses has fully conveyed the content of the Torah? Why is Moses relating a review of a review within a book of reiteration? It feels like the moment in a conversation when you might remind your interlocutor that they had already said something or that you remember what they had told you. Perhaps that is exactly what Moses is waiting for. For any number of reasons, he needs affirmation that the Israelites have heard him. From a careful reading, I intuit three possible motivations: fear that he (and, by extension, God’s message) is not adequately understood; fear that the Israelites won’t listen to him (and, by extension, God); or fear that entering the promised land will so significantly test the Israelites that there is no adequate amount to repeat, drill, practice, and internalize his message. All three are plausible, but I read Moses as giving of himself a bit more vulnerably and openly in Parshat Nitzavim (Deuteronomy 29:9 – 30:20) than in other passages from the Torah He is at once preparing to shed the mantle of leadership and reaching toward the capstone of his work, which he will achieve posthumously when the Israelites enter the Promised Land with the laws they need to live in it well. He knows that his end is near and fears losing his voice (or the impact thereof), so he implores…
Spirituality & Faith / 20 Sep 2022
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Building New Identities, Historic Profiles, Inspiring Story, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
April 13, 2022
Pesach 2022
This week, we welcome the holiday of Passover, the holiday of freedom. During the Passover seder, we act out the story of our ancestors being redeemed from Egypt. In the Talmud, there’s also the idea that we are supposed to understand ourselves to have been redeemed from slavery, too. And there are those who take it one step further. Our ancestors were redeemed in ancient Egypt, we too were redeemed, and not only that: The 19th-century Chassidic Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (commonly known by the name of his influential book, The Sefat......
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These four research-based strategies can be applied to help children ranging from toddlers to teenagers.
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Hold Dualities Together |
April 09, 2022
Holocaust Remembrance Day And The Sacred Task Of Remembering Life
Tell me the stories of life....
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Compassion and Empathy, Longform, Spirituality & Faith, This Week In Wisdom, Turning The Mundane Into The Sacred, Uncategorized |
April 07, 2022
Hospitality After Pandemic
Holding space to acknowledge that this time is like no other....
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Compassion and Empathy, Grief & Coping, Inspiring Story, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized, Weekly Parsha |
April 01, 2022
Contagion is Universal
Looking at how we all need help sometimes...
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The first year of grief is time spent in a different country, a time of wild disjunctions and unfamiliar rhythms, of weeping and guilt and emotional tailspins. Loss fills the air you breathe, exerts itself all day, and then fills your dreams: even when you forget yourself long enough to think for a moment you’ve briefly stepped away, it doubles back on you. Loss is everywhere. And then, somehow, at some unpredictable point, things start to shift. There comes a moment when the utter irreversibility of death–which you knew all along–nonetheless sinks......
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Bring The Sacred Down To Earth, Compassion and Empathy, Longform, Longform, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
March 24, 2022
Silence Might Be Golden, But Shouting Goes Platinum
Birds Of Paradise, Strange Fire, And Separating The Signal From The Noise...
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Latest Video
Listen To The Names Of The Victims First
A video where Brad Hirschfield lists the victims names in the recent Orlando shooting. Because first we need to internalize a tragedy before we jump to speak.
