New on #Hitzonim, a take on the #Parshah that calls for radical inclusion and porous boundaries.
#Torah #Leviticus #Vayikrah #Jewish #JewishLife #Tazria
http://hitzonim.com/2024/04/13/porous-boundaries-and-belonging-a-secular-humanist-dvar-torah/
#Parshah
Parsha Chayei Sara:
This is more on the frivolous side, but...
I wish I was half the storyteller that Abraham's senior servant is.
I don't mean in terms of loquaciousness, I mean cold hard facts. Not only does the man recite every key detail to Laban, exactly as it happened, but he does it before he eats a bite!
My approach to telling stories is dwelling for far too long on trivial parts whilst glossing over the salient facts. The worst part is, I don't even know what the salient facts are.
Well, who's to say you know what your recipient's ears need more than HaShem? If you're recounting a tale, give them the facts. Don't overstate *or* understate. There's time to wax lyrical after that, but we all need the facts.
Be more like Abraham? Of course.
Be more like Abraham's senior servant? You better, you bet!
#mazeldon #parsha #parshah #parshahthoughts #torah #torahstudy
Avram is no gung-ho superhero, no conquerer, no Superman, no Rambo. He is stricken with anxiety, with self-doubt, with conflict, with blame. The crushing weight of responsibility sits on his shoulders - After an exhausting night of defending the carcasses of sacrifice, "a great dark dread descended upon him." Rashi says this is representative of the woes and gloom of the Jews in exile. But for Avraham, he is as a nation, a people within himself - with all the internal struggle that that entails. More on that come Parsha Vayera!
After all that, he'd be forgiven for being an overly-serious grinch. But this founding patriarch is no self-aggrandising pompous stoic! His very first action under the name Avraham is to laugh in the face of God and doubt the efficacy of his loins!
I don't have a blog, but I'm starting to see the appeal.
4/4
#mazeldon #jewdiverse #parsha #parshah #ParshahThoughts #torah #torahstudy #lechlecha
The plagues that afflict the Pharoah and his household - the very ones Avram feared would kill him - are on account of Sarai. And that which Avram acquires thanks to her is from the Egyptians: The Jewish nation will be strangers among them for many years to come, and yet it is their riches that helped sustain the creation of Am Yisrael.
And so what is his response to the King of Sodom's offer of possessions for persons? "You shall not say, ‘It is I who made Avram rich.’" Because that would be a falsehood - Avram was made rich by many before him!
3/
#mazeldon #jewdiverse #parsha #parshah #ParshahThoughts #torah #torahstudy #lechlecha
In turn, they are sustained by the tents he pitches, the altars he builds, the lives he saves, the nation he will birth. It is worth mentioning that the first time Avram is told of the land being assigned (Bereshit 12:7), it is assigned only to his offspring, not directly to him. His name will be made great, but the great name in question is the one he will be given. The goal he is pursuing is one he will never personally witness.
And so it goes on, with Sarai's support - "Please say that you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may remain alive thanks to you."
"And because of her, it went well with Avram; he acquired sheep, oxen, donkeys, male and female slaves, jennies, and camels." (it is worth mentioning that according to Midrash, this bounty includes Hagar!)
2/
#mazeldon #jewdiverse #parsha #parshah #ParshahThoughts #torah #torahstudy #lechlecha
After a very satisfying hour of Torah study...
A Layman's Thoughts on Parsha Lech-Lecha:
I begin with an aside: Gematria and that sort of number-coincidence thing aren't really for me, but it feels worthwhile to at least mention that in the year that Israel turned 75, this is the parsha where Avram is mentioned as being 75 at the start of his journey. Now, on with the show.
Selfless In Every Sense, or; The Model Of The Torahic Hero
Everything Avram achieved was supported by someone else.
Everything Avram achieved was in support of someone else.
He is selfless in both senses of the word - without others, he is nothing, but they too are sustained by his actions.
"Go forth from your native land, your father's house." His upbringing, and indeed his entire adulthood, shaped him. This is a 75 year old man with 75 years of life lessons and personal influences. The self-made man is a myth!
1/
#mazeldon #jewdiverse #parsha #parshah #ParshahThoughts #torah #torahstudy #lechlecha
The Generation of the Wilderness
The Rabbis argued in Bet Hamidrash
About the generation of the wilderness
Do they have a share in the World to Come?
"במדבר הזה יתמו ושם ימותו"
Hashem said in His Holy Torah:
In this wilderness they will perish
And there they shall die!
"They shall perish" refers to our own world
"And there they shall die" refers to the world to come
This is what Rabbi Akiva said;
Said Rabbi Eliezer
They enter the world to come!
It is thus stated:
Gather unto me
My pious ones
Who had made a covenant with me over a sacrifice.
The generation who suffered for Hashem
In Egypt and in all travails
Through heat and cold, hunger and thirst
Is not that the greatest sacrifice?
Said Rabbah, the grandson of Channa, in the name of Rabbi Yochanan:
שבקיה רבי עקיבא לחסידותיה?!
Oh, Rabbi Akiva!
How could you
Abandon your piety!
This is what Hashem said to His prophet, Jeremiah:
Go and call out
In the ears of Jerusalem
And say: "I remember for thee
The piety of your youth
The love of your nuptials
Your following after me
Through a wilderness that cannot be sown."
Now, argued Rabbi Yochanan:
If others enter through their merit –
They, themselves, all the more so!
(TB Sanh. 110b)
#Parsha #Parshah
Shavua tov! It's time for another thread of #ParshahThoughts on this past week's #parshah, Ki Tisa. This will be somewhat of a sequel to my thread on parshat Yitro (https://babka.social/@bosheshabayis/109890671485452182), though reading that thread is not a prerequisite for reading this one. 🧵1/
Shavua tov! Here are some slightly belated thoughts on last week's #parshah, Mishpatim. I'm going to try something a little different this week and instead of just listing a few random thoughts, I will be going through the chronology of Matan Torah. 🧵 1/
Shavua tov! Here is a thread of some random thoughts on last week's #parshah, Vaeira 🧵 1/
The only reason I'm not deleting my Birdsite account is because of the inspirational and thought-provoking questions at the #Parshah Chat there.
עברית 😉
עורית is more like "blindness" 😂
BUT NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT #Avraham was called #Hebrew - the Ivri because he was "over" the line. The whole world was on one side and he was on the other: the only person on earth who recognized his single, everloving Creator. #Torah #Parshah #LechLecha
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