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Post by louise on Aug 31, 2016 23:30:48 GMT -5
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
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Post by louise on Aug 31, 2016 23:31:55 GMT -5
I would like to share a teaching from my rabbi (in turn from a Hasidic master?) when we read Ekev recently. It’s about some verses that are part of the Shema (Deuteronomy 11:18-19):
Therefore impress these My words upon your very heart: bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead, and teach them to your children – reciting them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up.
So that means like all the time but I’ll come back to that later. The thing that he found striking was the word “upon”, as in “upon your heart”. I also commonly see this translated as “on your heart”. So why “on” your heart, rather than “in” your heart? The teaching is that we can’t always understand whatever it is at the time, so keep these things “on” your heart and one day when you are ready for them your heart will open and let them in. This is right there with a theme that has been weaving through the week. He gave examples like how though he had counseled people about parenting, when he became a father his understanding went to another level. I know for me that our traditions of kaddish and shiva – even putting a shovelful of dirt over a coffin – took on a new meaning when my father died. They became “real” for me in a different way. Things that had been “on” my heart went “in” Nice, huh?
Back to the part about ‘all the time’ - home and away, awake and at rest – this is said more than once in the Shema. Similarly, at the beginning of the Shema we are enjoined to “love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might”, and a few verses later we are again enjoined to “love Adonai your God and to serve God with all your heart and all your soul”. That’s a lot of all-encompassing devotion in a relatively short prayer (and one that is at the heart of our liturgy). I’ll segue here to a poem (surprise) that to me nails this all-encompassing aspect asked of us in the Shema. I found that the power of its simple, repeated lines is cumulative, so I suggest just reading it through without dwelling too much and letting it happen.
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Post by louise on Aug 31, 2016 23:51:04 GMT -5
Final Notations
it will not be simple, it will not be long
it will take little time, it will take all your thought
it will take all your heart, it will take all your breath
it will be short, it will not be simple
it will touch through your ribs, it will take all your heart
it will not be long, it will occupy your thought
as a city is occupied. as a bed is occupied
it will take all your flesh, it will not be simple
You are coming into us who cannot withstand you
you are coming into us who never wanted to withstand you
you are taking parts of us into places never planned
you are going far away with pieces of our lives
it will be short, it will take all your breath
it will not be simple, it will become your will
--Adrienne Rich
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Post by hollygail on Sept 1, 2016 0:40:29 GMT -5
I miss Adrienne Rich. She died only in 2012 (as did Michelle, her partner). She used to phone me from Santa Cruz when she was coming to Tucson for a poetry reading or to be a scholar in residence for a weekend at the University of Arizona to find out if I wanted her for an event for the Jewish progressive political organization we both worked with. She has a beautiful poem in the new Reform siddur, Mishkan Tefilah, about whether to go through a door or not. Moves me every time I read it...
I wasn't familiar with the poem of hers you quoted above, Louise. It's gonna take me a while to digest. I'll be back tomorrow (it's bedtime for me Wednesday night).
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lee058
This space for rent
Posts: 23,258 
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Post by lee058 on Sept 1, 2016 8:21:01 GMT -5
Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well today. I was supposed to call my mom no later than 6AM so that she could take some medicine, but I ended up sleeping until 7, so she took it a bit later. She has a medical procedure coming up next week but has to start the meds today. I'm glad my calling late didn't make a problem.
It's raining here in VA so it will be a lot cooler. It's also supposed to rain for most of Labor Day weekend. Tomorrow should be nice, however, which is good. DS and I are going on a big shopping trip, including picking up the box of peppers. I wonder how big it will be?
Today's poem was an interesting view on how important ideas can become part of a person, I thought. As for things being on your heart and then in it, I'll have to think about that. I'm used to the idea of things being on your mind, but it's true, important ones are also felt in the heart.
I appreciate the poetry this week! Louise, you've been making great selections.
I'll be back later. Have a peaceful day, Lee
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Post by savtele on Sept 1, 2016 9:30:14 GMT -5
Boker Tov All! Louise - I will allow this poem to sink in gradually. Onto and into my heart.... Mom has an appointment today, so I'm heading out the door. I was pretty wiped out yesterday after all my running around. More today. Have a good day ladies!  |
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Post by peachymom1 on Sept 1, 2016 10:52:16 GMT -5
Good morning everyone. I am really annoyed this morning because I have to take over a project from someone who left the company abruptly and apparently didn't do squat while he was here. I am not familiar with this project at all and will be piecing it together painstakingly as I go along, because my boss is traveling and can't do it herself. Ugh!
The only positive thing about this is that my boss is relying on me to figure it out and help her, since, Mr. Do-Nothing left her in the lurch. So I'm trying to feel good that she trusts me and my resourcefulness, but what I really want to do is go smack him. Luckily, I don't know where he lives. Grrr!
It's September already, and my little girl is going to turn 28 at the end of the month. How the heck did that happen?
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