magid

I tried an experiment, changing when my bedroom light turned off to before 10p, and it worked: I woke up around 6a, had time to laze in bed, and still be a bit early to 7a davening (no, autocorrect, I do not mean “deveining”….), making it to Shabbat davening in shul for the first time in too long. I was the second person there, and ended setting up the mechitzah. People arrived steadily enough that there wasn’t a wait at shacharit, which was great, especially since some regulars weren’t available (it’s not a large minyan).

We read parshat Mishpatim today, and two pesukim stood out from the rest of the laws being discussed, ones that perhaps the people who still support some of the actions of the current regime yet claim to revere their holy texts should remember.

Shmot/Exodus 22:21
וְגֵ֥ר לֹא־תוֹנֶ֖ה וְלֹ֣א תִלְחָצֶ֑נּוּ כִּֽי־גֵרִ֥ים הֱיִיתֶ֖ם בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃
You shall not wrong or oppress a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Shmot/Exodus 23:2
לֹֽא־תִהְיֶ֥ה אַחֲרֵֽי־רַבִּ֖ים לְרָעֹ֑ת וְלֹא־תַעֲנֶ֣ה עַל־רִ֗ב לִנְטֹ֛ת אַחֲרֵ֥י רַבִּ֖ים לְהַטֹּֽת׃
You shall neither side with the mighty to do wrong—you shall not give perverse testimony in a dispute so as to pervert it in favor of the mighty—

(and the next pasuk is about not favoring the poor either; I think that is currently not our issue)
( Read more... )

Tonight I went to the first session of the new community beit midrash program at Hebrew College. The topic was about Jews celebrating Thanksgiving, and the discussion was led by R. Micha'el Rosenberg, who is an awesome teacher.

We started out talking about the possible reasons one might consider Thanksgiving, Halloween, and Xmas trees (ie, not the overtly religious practices such as mass or nativity scenes) to be not acceptable for Jews to do/participate in. Possible reasons included them being not acceptable for not being part of Jewish tradition, or for being a slippery slope towards non-Jewish practices or religion, non-Jewish practice being cooler (which he grouped in with insecurity about one's own religion, feeling like one has to follow the dominant norms to fit in), and having a basis in another religion's practice. (::sigh::) There was some discussion on this, about how Xmas trees may or may not be seen as secular, whether Thanksgiving has religious roots or not (apparently there are Wikipedia battles being waged on this), and so on.

Then we looked at the source materials he provided, going over them in chevruta. Once we'd had a chance to talk them through, we came back together, and he took us through some of the highlights of the readings.

( The sources within. )

Tangential architecture note: I hadn't realized just how large the one Hebrew College building is, partly because of how it faces the street, and partly because it's got another level underground. There are lots of windows, and it fascinated me how there were I-don't-know-what-to-call-them features angling around the ceiling that swooped in a way that both reminded me of an awning and gave the feeling of much more motion than I usually feel from static spaces.

( transit notes here )