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
The Jewish Month Of Elul Reminds Us That Nothing Ever Stays The Same
Elul reminds us that change is the only guarantee in the physical world.
Soul Writings / 31 Aug 2022
Accounting For Your Gifts
The Jewish month of Elul brings a period of reflection…
Compassion for difficulties / 25 Aug 2022
Celebrating A Different Kind Of Coming Of Age
I’m not packing my son off for college–some families have other transition stories
Art & Culture / 17 Aug 2022
Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah Is At The Nexus Of Faith And Doubt
The song reminds us that, despite life’s challenges and brokenness, we can still choose to send praise into the universe.
Years ago, there was a small bookshop on Thayer Street in Providence, Rhode Island, near Brown University’s campus, called College Hill Bookstore. It had late hours – I recall the shop being open until eleven p.m. on weekdays and until midnight on the weekend – and its motto was: Dedicated to the fine art of browsing. The owner of the bookshop also owned (and still operates) a small movie theater a couple of doors down. Neither business could have been especially financially profitable for him. I spent many hours there in my......
Continue Reading
Another Way Of Looking At Things, Daily Life, Longform, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
March 16, 2022
To Forget And To Remember
There are some dark times that we commemorate in a ceremony with the reading of names. And there are some that result in celebrating with oily foods and candles. And there are some where we were so terrified, and now we are so out of our minds to have averted the decree, that we drink. We drink to forget. We don’t ever want to remember it was so awful. Blot out the memory. Forget the darkness. This is Purim. We tell our story of what we went through, and we are commanded......
Continue Reading
Breaking False Dichotomies, Compassion and Empathy, Longform, Mundane Into Sacred, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
March 10, 2022
Don’t Try To Be the Hero of Your Story
With two elementary-school-aged kids, we hear a fair amount of sibling fighting, with only some of it unprovoked. When one of them is getting a little too wild, and, say, someone’s limbs smack into someone else’s body, their first reaction is to say, “I didn’t mean to do it!” And while my wife and I do draw a distinction between purposeful versus accidental actions, we try to focus more on the consequences and how to make it right afterward. That’s what’s so striking about this week’s Torah portion, Vayikra. It outlines the......
Continue Reading
In this week’s Torah portion, Vayakheil, the master artisan Bezalel is putting together all the items for Mishkan, the dwelling-place for God. There are a whole host of materials listed – poles and pails, gratings and basins, fire pans, and fleshhooks, and most of them are presented simply as a list. But only one item has a backstory: “He made the laver of copper and its stand of copper, from the mirrors of the women who performed tasks at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.” (Ex. 38:8) Unlike everything else that......
Continue Reading
News & Politics |
February 18, 2022
Why Did My School District Cancel A Trip To The Holocaust Museum?
Forgetting the atrocities of the past is the first step towards allowing more persecution in the future....
Continue Reading
Interviews With Wise People Of Today |
February 15, 2022
Author Lyn Barrett On Her Dissociative Identity Disorder Diagnosis
An Interview with Lyn Barrett, author of Crazy: Reclaiming Life From the Shadow of Traumatic Memory.
...
Continue Reading
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.
