Where do you get your inspiration from, when you’re confronted with a challenge? It might be social injustice, relationship upheaval, or just getting up in the morning – and we all need inspiration from outside our own capacity sometimes. Human beings aren’t perfect, and certainly we are not perfectly whole all by ourselves. Consider MosheContinue reading “Shabbat Yitro: Listening As Best We Can”
Tag Archives: listen
Shabbat Ekev: Listen With Care
Which of us is not angry, disappointed, even resentful, of the way our lives have changed in the past few years? Aren’t we all getting very tired of the stress served up daily by the media, infusing our every interaction with each other? Of course, there is more than one response to this situation. InContinue reading “Shabbat Ekev: Listen With Care”
Shabbat Re’eh: What Happens When You Look
Parashat Re’eh is named for our ability to see and understand: רְאֵה, אָנֹכִי נֹתֵן לִפְנֵיכֶם–הַיּוֹם: בְּרָכָה, וּקְלָלָה – “see, I place before you today blessing and curse.” (Deut. 11.26). Blessing, we are told, follows the choice to comply (literally, “listen”); curse, if we do not. It seems so very simple and direct an expectation: look, and understand; hear,Continue reading “Shabbat Re’eh: What Happens When You Look”
Shabbat Ekev: What Happens When You Listen
This week our parashat hashavua (parsha, “section”, of the week) is named Ekev. The word literally means “heel”, as in Jacob/Yaakov’s name, given to him because he emerged from the womb holding on to his brother Esav’s heel. This same word ekev paired with another conjugation of shema leads the Jewishly attuned ear to an entirelyContinue reading “Shabbat Ekev: What Happens When You Listen”