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Post by hollygail on Aug 31, 2023 7:25:29 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:
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy
And for those of you who stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!
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Post by hollygail on Aug 31, 2023 7:48:15 GMT -5
Near the end of this week's Torah portion comes one of the worst (if not the worst) passages in the entire Torah. Moses tells the Israelites exactly what will happen to them if they fail to live by the covenant with God. The punishments include exile, pestilence, illness, starvation, blight, mildew, a lack of rain, defeat by Israel’s enemies, total despair, and madness. It only gets worse. It is not pretty.
One way to look at this section (and there are numerous ways) is this: Societies that ignore ethics will inevitably fall apart (the Emperor Nero comes to mind, fiddling away as Rome burns...). It's a recurring (one might say constant) theme in the Torah. Noah’s generation did evil; it was punished with the Flood. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah did evil; they were punished by destruction. And so it would be for the People of Israel as well — failure to observe the rules of the Torah would result in the destruction of their nation. In fact, the catastrophic things that are described in this Torah portion actually did happen to the Jewish people during the Assyrian exile (721 BCE) and the Babylonian exile (586 BCE). Many scholars, therefore, believe that these passages might have been written in the wake of that latter disaster, and represent an attempt on the part of the Jewish people to give reasons for the tragedy. Perhaps they wanted to tell us that if such a terrible thing happened, it must have been our fault; therefore, we really need to clean up our act.
My personal take is not quite so narrow. I don't hold that when terrible things happen, it's necessarily the fault of those who suffer those terrible things. Hitler's rise to power was not the fault of Jews who may or may not have done whatever "it" may have been that has been mentioned as "our" fault. However, I do hold that a society that ignores ethics is on a path to destruction. Yesterday, several of us addressed staying away from bad influences. And a friend of mine not on this board texted me a story (late last night, after I went to bed, so I didn't see it until this morning) about the Pope who, while addressing some Portuguese Catholics, railed against conservative Catholics in the US who (he said) had replaced their faith with political ideology. Aside from the fact that I wish he'd say it to the US Catholics he was talking about (instead of to Portuguese Catholics), I think he has a point. When political rhetoric overcomes ethics, all hell breaks loose.
How do you live with the "curses" called out on one mountain by six of the twelve tribes to which the other six tribes on the facing mountain had to reply "amein" ("may it be so")?
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Post by gazelle18 on Aug 31, 2023 8:10:23 GMT -5
I agree with Holly. When bad things happen, it is not necessarily the fault of the immodest victims who suffer. Sometimes bad things just happen, and innocent people get in the way. However, when a society loses its way, it is hard to NOT be afraid that large catastrophes are ahead. As an example, the world in general has denied climate change, and has done so much to exacerbate the issue. So, humankind is now suffering the consequences of this willful avoidance.
The terrible recent weather events (a tropical storm in So Cal, the Maui wildfire, the rapid intensification of the storm that hit Fl yesterday), are a result of global warming, and mankind’s refusal to make hard choices to combat it or plan for it.
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lee058
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Posts: 23,289 
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Post by lee058 on Aug 31, 2023 8:45:45 GMT -5
Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE!
Re today's topic: There are many reasons why I start off my comments everyday by wishing that we are all well and SAFE! There are too many horrible things going on in the world to be oblivious to them.
Ugh, I am feeling grumpy today, and do not want to discuss the bad things in the world. I just hope that humanity (as well as the Jewish people) can get our collective act together to fix whatever problems we can.
Have a peaceful day, Lee
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Post by happysavta on Aug 31, 2023 17:58:10 GMT -5
Good grief, chaverot! I was supposed to get an MRI of the abdomen yesterday, and I didn't fit into the MRI machine! What's up with that? OK, yes, I've gained a few pounds recently, but that shouldn't make a difference. Not that I really wanted to take this MRI anyway. That machine was so tight, it felt like I was being swallowed by an alligator! I usually just shut my eyes in an MRI so I don't see how close the ceiling is, but this one was squishing me as they were trying to get me in! Horrid sensation!
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Post by happysavta on Aug 31, 2023 17:58:28 GMT -5
Good grief, chaverot! I was supposed to get an MRI of the abdomen yesterday, and I didn't fit into the MRI machine! What's up with that? OK, yes, I've gained a few pounds recently, but that shouldn't make a difference. Not that I really wanted to take this MRI anyway. That machine was so tight, it felt like I was being swallowed by an alligator! I usually just shut my eyes in an MRI so I don't see how close the ceiling is, but this one was squishing me as they were trying to get me in! Horrid sensation!
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Post by peachymom1 on Aug 31, 2023 18:20:34 GMT -5
I agree that we need to look at the bigger picture and not just our own lives or needs. I want to be optimistic, but some days it's tough.
I've been crazy busy at work this week, and my eyes are crossing and I have a headache. Off for a glass of iced tea and a cat nap! (which means the cat will come take over my lap as soon as I sit in the recliner!)
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Post by louise on Aug 31, 2023 18:30:54 GMT -5
Having a bit of a cranky day - kind of annoyed with my rabbi but we're working it out. Upset of course about my boss. And I don't feel we have ever had so many outspoken, self-centered people in our country determined to get their way. It makes me beyond crazy that anyone is proud to be governor of someplace where "woke goes to die."
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