Tag Archives: shabbat

Have you looked to the sky today? הסתכלת לשמים היום? Tractate Shabbat 98-99

The Talmud as a painter; or photographer; seeing images and speaking in pictures… so often the discussion is legalistic and detailed, hard to follow and tedious, then suddenly, an a gentle portrait. We’re talking about carrying between one domain and … Continue reading

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Counting as a Sign of Love: Emor, Behar & the 39 melcahot

Counting is an act of love. Initially this statement might not sound so good. It stands in contradiction with what we have been taught and therefore think of love: Love should be free, flowing, feely, not measured… Brrr… I think … Continue reading

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Joseph, Olive Oil & Chag Habanot – 3 shorts for Shabbat Hanukkah-Rosh Hodesh Tevet

Exactly XX year ago, Miketz was the Torah reading on my Bat Mitzvah, and some years later, and many miles away, my son’s too. The bat mitzvah was at the reform synagogue, Ohr Chadash (a new light) in Haifa, Israel. … Continue reading

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No Hollywood in Jacob’s journey – 3 shorts on Parashat Vayishlach

It’s a glorious sunny day in NYC, bright and beautiful. And 30 degrees. Fahrenheit. Need to layered up some, and remember that things are not always as they seem. In the Torah portion of Vayishlach, Jacob is traveling back after … Continue reading

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Sukkot: The Holiday of Temporary Housing and More

Sukkot: Vignettes On chol hamo’ed – the intermediary days of – Sukkot, I do what all Israelis do: go out to nature. Bear Mountain is less than an hour away with trees in unbelievable fall colors, beautiful lakes and stunning … Continue reading

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And the journey continues…

Hand in hand we are walking up the smooth brownish limestone stairs; a canopy of dusty pines and bright bougainvillea above us, tasty honeysuckles leaning over the fences and red geraniums in the windows above. I bend down to pet … Continue reading

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To Remember & Forget

I step out of my neighbor’s house and something about the evening air, angle of dim streetlights, and the general silence around, reminds me of the last time I was on the same stone steps. Back then, this past fall, … Continue reading

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Building a Mishkan- in time and space

95% of couples get together due to a simple musical chairs game. You’re out there playing, dancing around and suddenly, the music stops, and this is it. You could have been fishing in Alaska, hiking in Nepal, diving near Bali, … Continue reading

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The Song of the Trees: Shabbat Shira & Tu Bishvat

Shabbat, although repeated next week in the Ten Commandments, is already mentioned in this week’s reading. Contrary to life the way we know it, when we get rain from the heavens and bread from the ground, the miraculous journey the … Continue reading

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On Seeing, Flow and More

We open our eyes each morning, and see. But then, if it was so simple, there would be no need to actually command us to do so. Re’e, see, says the Torah in its first word of this week’s section … Continue reading

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