See also: Devarim
From American Jewish World Service: Parshat 5768 Devarim/Additional Commentary
Tzedakah: Heifer International
One of the themes in this week’s lesson focuses on the perspective of history. As a social scientist and a teacher, I’ll avoid a long dissertation on the academic nature of the subject. My own experience tells me that a person’s or family’s history is as variable as we make it. I could not have predicted that, at 35 years of age, I would be at this station in my life. My relationship with my wife, children, friends, my career, and (most surprisingly to me) my faith, are far better than I would have ever planned for even a few years ago. As Moses suggests in the parsha, “history is what we do with what happens to us.’ I feel enlightened every day to continue to make a new and more meaningful history for myself, my family, and even others who I will never know around the world (through tzedakah). It is the meanings and lessons found in the Torah that help to inspire this enlightenment.
This week, I’ll be heading to Temple Beth El on the evening of Tisha B’av for Rabbi Pam Mandel’s presentation on The Rise and Fall of the Jews of Spain. This is one of the things that I truly love about being a Jew; the study of history. On a personal note, I head off to have surgery on my sinuses & my deviated septum tomorrow afternoon. The down time should allow me to brush up on my Sephardic history, mostly from Johnson’s History of the Jews.
Shabbat Shalom!
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Parshat Devarim
In Parshat on 24/07/2009 by Charles Gleek Tagged: Commentary, Parshat, tzedakah
See also: Devarim
From American Jewish World Service: Parshat 5768 Devarim/Additional Commentary
Tzedakah: Heifer International
One of the themes in this week’s lesson focuses on the perspective of history. As a social scientist and a teacher, I’ll avoid a long dissertation on the academic nature of the subject. My own experience tells me that a person’s or family’s history is as variable as we make it. I could not have predicted that, at 35 years of age, I would be at this station in my life. My relationship with my wife, children, friends, my career, and (most surprisingly to me) my faith, are far better than I would have ever planned for even a few years ago. As Moses suggests in the parsha, “history is what we do with what happens to us.’ I feel enlightened every day to continue to make a new and more meaningful history for myself, my family, and even others who I will never know around the world (through tzedakah). It is the meanings and lessons found in the Torah that help to inspire this enlightenment.
This week, I’ll be heading to Temple Beth El on the evening of Tisha B’av for Rabbi Pam Mandel’s presentation on The Rise and Fall of the Jews of Spain. This is one of the things that I truly love about being a Jew; the study of history. On a personal note, I head off to have surgery on my sinuses & my deviated septum tomorrow afternoon. The down time should allow me to brush up on my Sephardic history, mostly from Johnson’s History of the Jews.
Shabbat Shalom!
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