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'Torah' Tag
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Kedushat Levi on work, rest, action, speech, Torah
February 23, 2011Here’s a taste of Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev’s commentary on this week’s Torah portion, Vayekhel. My translation is indented; explanations and commentary are interspersed. He says some lovely things about the interplay of work and speech, weekday and Shabbat — and then says something very powerful about the study of Torah, the building of [...]
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A.J. Jacobs Year of Living Biblically
February 16, 2011When A.J. Jacobs’ The Year of Living Biblically first came out, I ignored it. Pretty resolutely. It sounded gimmicky to me: seriously, this guy was going to spend a whole year trying to live according to what’s in the Bible? Did he not know, or not care, that his chosen enterprise was not actually how [...]
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70 Faces Book Tour, part 1: March in Massachusetts
January 21, 2011The 70 Faces book tour kicks off in mid-March! I know March is a ways away, but I’m excited and wanted to share the news. Put these events on your calendar if you’re in or near any of these spots! Here are the confirmed dates for March, all in my home state. (I’m exploring the [...]
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Announcing 70 Faces
January 10, 2011I have awesome news! As of yesterday, I became a rabbi — and Seventy Faces, my collection of Torah poems, has been published by Phoenicia Publishing, an independent press based in Montreal. Here’s what the back of the book has to say: Each of the poems in 70 Faces arose in conversation with the Five [...]
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Three Torah poems offered at my smicha
January 9, 2011At the heart of today’s smicha (ordination) ceremony are the divrei Torah offered by the musmachim. Our divrei Torah this afternoon will be a collaborative effort. We’ve chosen ten verses from Torah, spanning last week’s Torah portion and this week’s Torah portion, parashat Bo and parashat Beshalach. Over the course of these ten moments in [...]
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Israeli Settler Peace Rabbi Froman Ill With Cancer
January 5, 2011Rabbi Menachem Froman, a settler rabbi who is also a confidant of Hamas and thorn in the side of the Shabak, has received a cancer diagnosis. His doctors decided the illness was so advanced they would not operate. As a result, his family arranged for a massive celebration in song and Torah study at his [...]
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Happy book news
December 17, 2010Some of you may remember that in the years before I wrote and posted a mother poem each week, I used to write and post a Torah poem each week. It was a wonderful discipline for me. It kept me engaged with Torah, reading and pondering and then responding to the assigned weekly reading with [...]
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Rabbis' 'racist ruling' slammed
December 8, 2010 -
Stolen Torah recovered thanks to cragislist
October 31, 2010This is straight from CNN: Stolen Torah returned to Arizona synagogue after Craigslist ad From CNN’s Dan Gilgoff: A Torah that was stolen from an Arizona synagogue on Monday has been returned after a Craigslist ad offered a $500 reward for the scrolls, the synagogue’s rabbi said Saturday.“The hardest thing to figure out is what [...]
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The entrance to the tent
October 22, 2010A tiny word of Torah, which I give over in the name of my friend and colleague Mark Novak, who taught this Elimelech of Lizhensk text in our Torah as a mirror for spiritual development class yesterday. This week’s Torah portion, Vayera, begins: וירא אליו יי, באלני ממרא; והוא ישב פתח’
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Sifrei Torah, captive and mutilated
October 4, 2010This eBay item makes me want to cry. It’s advertising a “Torah Scroll 400 Years Old Approx 10.8 Feet Long” and you can see from the picture that something’s seriously, seriously wrong. People have been selling pieces of sifrei Torah on eBay for years. They get old sifrei Torah, hack them into pieces, and sell [...]
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It's 5771 Already?
September 18, 2010Like Jake Tapper, I’m still writing 5770 on my checks. Just a bit of home news here, before Kol Nidre. One of the many reasons I love my synagogue, Adas Israel, is that the clergy (including our blogging rabbi) believes in incorporating our children into the services. The senior-most of the junior Goldblogs read Torah [...]
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Now I almost feel like a Chicagoian
August 31, 2010Ok, after almost 4.5 years I think I’ve begun to feel like a Chicagoian.
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1st haredi pre-military prep course underway
August 24, 2010 -
Women of the Wall ring in Elul
August 11, 2010Crossposted to New Voices Despite Women of the Wall leader Anat Hoffman being banned from the Kotel plaza for 30 days, Rosh Chodesh services proceeded today in the plaza and concluded, as usual, with a Torah service at Robinson’s Arch. And they live-tweeted the whole thing! Among other things, they tweeted: Proof that police + [...]