Yom Hashoah Thought from Whitwell Paperclip Museum

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who Is the Stranger? Parashat Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18)

Image
Who Is the Stranger ? Parashat Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18)  Shabbat Parashat Mishpatim: 25 Shevat 5778  כ"ה בשבט תשע״ח "You shall not wrong or oppress the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." (Exodus 22:20) כ   וְגֵר לֹא-תוֹנֶה, וְלֹא תִלְחָצֶנּוּ:  כִּי-גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם, בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם.  (שמות כב:כ) Ger  (or Stranger ) is the  Hebrew term used by the  Torah in reference to what we might today term the " O ther "  living amongst us .  We often speak about celebrating diversity, pluralism and embracing people who are different from us, but how do our actions reflect our lofty ideals?  In this week's Torah portion, we are commanded not to wrong or oppress the stranger; the rationale for the commandment is quite clear -- empathy: you were strangers in the Land of Egypt and know what it feels like to be the stranger/other! How strongly does the Torah feel about...
Read more

Shabbat Parah! Good-bye Useless Guilt!

Image
Holy Cow!  It's Shabbat Parah! Ridding Ourselves of Useless Guilt Parshiot: Shemot,  Vayakhel/Pekudei Maftir: (Bamidbar/Numbers 19 (1-22) Haftarah: Ezekiel 36 (16-38) (16-36 for Sefardim) Do you suffer from pangs of guilt or shame? Do even really old memories bog you down and leave you feeling guilty or ashamed? What can you do about it? First, we all need to realize that nursing our "regrets" and being stuck in a place of guilt or shame stands in our way of serving our holy purpose in this world and that untreated guilt or shame continually works to extinguish the holy spark in our neshama (soul). You probably think that Rabbi Yonatan forgot what time of year this is, sounds like a homily for Yom Kippur! But don't forget that according to the Torah, the first month of the year (Rosh Hashanah) is only about a week away! It is what we now call the Hebrew month of Nissan, the month of Passover, the month of Spring (in Israel) and a time of new beginn...
Read more

What Do You Do When It Just Gets Old? Parshat (Behar) Behukotai

Image
ויקרא כו:י וַאֲכַלְתֶּם יָשָׁן נוֹשָׁן וְיָשָׁן... Leviticus You shall eat old grain long stored...  How do we deal with the  despair that we feel when things just "get old" and we begin to lose our passion for what we are doing? Perhaps you chose a career that at first made you jump out of bed in the morning but years later, you can barely muster the energy to put on your shoes! You loved what you were doing and had great hopes for changing the world. But years later, you lost that passion. Does this loss of passion come from the mere boredom of pure repetition or is there something else getting us down?  My father retired from his law practice after thirty years, as it happens he went back to working as a pharmacist after that. When I asked him why he was hanging up the towel, he simply responded-"I just don't have the fire in my belly for practicing law any more". Did my Dad just get tired of doing the same old thing? Heavens no! He ...
Read more