Jewish Musings Wed. Feb. 2

[hollygail]

What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.

Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:

Angelika
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy

And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to do that but you are also welcome to chime in!

[hollygail]

First: it's Feb. 1, not Feb. 2... I have no idea how I hit the "2" for a "1"

This is a powerful d’var Torah… I’m going to quote only the beginning today and ask for your responses. Tomorrow I may choose more of it. I found it at myjewishlearning.com but it comes from The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, the chumash published by the Reform movement almost 10 years ago. Here's a little additional information about it, in case you're not familiar with it:

The product of fourteen years of work and the contributions of more than 100 scholars, theologians, poets, and rabbis—all of them women—The Torah: A Women’s Commentary is a landmark achievement in biblical scholarship and an essential resource for the study of the Bible.

- - -

www.myjewishlearning.com/article/does-one-crime-justify-another/#

Does One Crime Justify Another?

Understanding why God hardens Pharaoh's heart.

By Rabbi Suzanne Singer

Reprinted with permission from The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, edited by Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea L. Weiss (New York: URJ Press and Women of Reform Judaism, 2008).

God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus 10:1 presents a theological problem on two levels. First, if God is the agent of Pharaoh’s behavior, what does that imply about Pharaoh’s free will? Second, if God hardens Pharaoh’s heart in order to demonstrate God’s power, we must ask: At what price the Israelites’ liberation? Indeed, the ultimate result of Pharaoh’s stubbornness is the murder of every first-born Egyptian male. Even if we consider this to be retributive justice, payback for Pharaoh’s earlier order to kill all newborn Hebrew males, we still must ponder: Does one heinous crime justify another? And how do we come to terms with killing innocent children?

- - -

(I did warn you it was powerful, didn't I?)

So: in your weight loss journey (or maintenance journey, or on your program, or whatever it is you call it), let’s say you screw up, maybe for breakfast you have one Mimosa more than you meant to. Does that mean you purposely drink alcohol all day long? Or maybe you had real cream in your coffee (where you usually use, say, skim milk), does that mean you figure, well, that’s shot to hell, I may as well eat whatever I want to today (or this week, or this month… etc.)? How do you get back “on plan”? What must you do? Whom do you turn to for support? Or does one slip justify the rest of the day / week / month [etc.] of leaving the “plan” behind?

[peachymom1]

Wow, Holly!

I wish I could say that when I slip up, I remember the argument that just because I got one flat tire, it doesn't mean I go out and slash the other three. But dang it, I do. Almost every time. If it's just something small, like I had a little more than I meant to, I'm OK because I know I can negate it if I work out a little longer. But when it's a big screw-up, nope, I've lost control and I just can't get it back that day no matter how hard I try. There have been times when I let it rule the whole remainder of my week and just said to heck with it, I'll take my lumps at my weigh-in and start over. But I don't feel good about doing that.

I have improved somewhat over time with this. It doesn't happen as often. I'm better at recognizing triggers, and I've learned that sometimes I have to relinquish control temporarily because it's only an illusion that I have it anyway. So I do take heart that I can still learn and improve. And I do try to find a lesson every time I do screw up, because it helps me forgive myself and plow on ahead. If I thought I were doomed to keep running on the hamster wheel, I would lose all hope and give up. And I absolutely REFUSE to give up!

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well. I'm feeling somewhat better today, and am taking my endocrinologist's advice about lowering my Metformin dose from 3X day to 2X a day. Hopefully that will help.

Re today's reading: The last plague has always puzzled and bothered me. I can sort of understand it by trying to look at it via the values of the times, but it is still horrible. Re retribution: I think that the nation of Israel has to be very, very careful about this. As for doing it on my personal level, I try not to.

Re my making mistakes: I do make mistakes, but I try to correct them as best I can. As they pertain to food, I am still learning to connect the dots between what I eat and how I feel.

I'll be back later. Have a peaceful day, Lee

[savtele]

Boker Tov All! I remember as a small child, maybe 9 or 10, asking my mom why G-d would harden Pharaoh's heart - didn't he have the right to make his own decision? Mom explained to me that Pharaoh thought he was a god, that the "hardening" was a process that everything he had been taught since he was a child had brought about. G-d didn't step in suddenly and go against his will - He allowed the process & the lifestyle that brought it about.

Which brings me to me. There are processes in my life that have nothing to do with what is going on at the moment - but they have brought me to the decisions I make today. My reactions to my mistakes today - my hanging on & excusing what is going on now - that is usually a process I am not even aware of. And at this point, awareness of the end result is my best option!

Frieda - you asked if we had been aware of my brother's heart disease - we are certainly aware of the family tendency! My maternal grandfather died of a massive heart attack while chopping wood in midwinter, mom's brothers have all died of heart-related problems, my paternal grandmother died in her sleep of a heart attack - and then, my younger sister has had a heart attack - it's not like there aren't sign=posts all along our road! Somehow, it's like it's a brand new story, till you get to the "Burma Shave" sign at the end! Time to figure out that, Oh, This is part of THAT family history that we all participate in!

I'm heading off to the pool, then to work.
Have a good day, ladies!

[louise]

I see the hardening of Pharoah's heart as a solidifying of long practiced behaviors. I would equate in myself the knee jerk reactions I have. When I have weaned myself off sugar and don't have any craving for it I will still go there in a time of stress (or extreme temptation). I don't really want the thing but I still associate it with comfort or reward. It's a well worn groove. An example is at the break fast after YK- I'm usually high and not especially hungry but will eat the goodies so abundantly displayed before me.