Waiting For The Next Day
The eighth day, with its solemnity and final prayers for rain and repentance, lead into the joy of Simchat Torah.
The eighth day, with its solemnity and final prayers for rain and repentance, lead into the joy of Simchat Torah.
It is important to note that there is a distinction between grieving a person and grieving a reality.
The rabbinic sage Elisha ben Abuya witnessed an obedient and pious boy fulfill the mitzvah of sending away the mother bird, as per the Torah’s instructions. He ascended the tree, shooed away the bird, collected the eggs and then fell to his death.
Moses and the Israelites have been wandering through the wilderness and have arrived at the edge of the Promised Land.
Few things are as instructive as seeing Judaism through another’s eyes.
Our grief is raw and real and is scattered across disorienting winds of pain.
In Europe, we have a political term that I always paid attention to in the news: ‘cordon sanitaire’
The cool, distant glare of history does not always reveal the granular, immediate heat of our anguish.