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Post by gazelle18 on Apr 17, 2024 20:43:23 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:
Frieda (hopefully)?
Holly
Lee
Louise
Peachy
And for those of you that 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 gazelle18 on Apr 17, 2024 20:59:22 GMT -5
From the Hartman Institute (thanks again, Louise), there is this:
ENTERING ITHE BROKEN WORLD
The Passover story begins in a broken world, amidst slavery and oppression. The sound of the breaking of the matzoh sends us into that fractured existence, only to become whole again when we find the broken half, the afikomen, at the end of the seder.
This brokenness is neither just a physical nor a political situation. It reminds us of all those hard, damaged places within ourselves. All those narrow places from which we want to break free. In Hebrew, Egypt is called “Mitzrayim,” reminding us of the word “tzar,” narrow. Thus, in Hasidic thought, Mitzrayim symbolizes the inner straits that trap our souls. Yet even here, we can find a unique value, as the Hasidic saying teaches us: “There is nothing more whole than a broken heart.”
What does this last statement mean to you?
Have you ever thought of the idea that breaking the matzoh is supposed to have a special meaning? (I never did.)
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Post by hollygail on Apr 18, 2024 7:34:39 GMT -5
1. I've heard the statement before and always took it at face value. I'll give it some more consideration.
2. Other than that finding it ends the seder, no, I never thought of the idea that breaking the matzah is supposed to have a special meaning.
I'm looking forward to reading what the rest of you think!
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lee058
This space for rent
Posts: 22,049 
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Post by lee058 on Apr 18, 2024 8:35:18 GMT -5
Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE! Please pray for Israel.
Re today's topic: What came to my mind was a fragment of a song/poem that said that light comes in at the broken places of things. Sorry I can't remember more, but it's been quoted here before.
Have a peaceful day, Lee
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Post by peachymom1 on Apr 18, 2024 9:27:08 GMT -5
Good morning everyone, I overslept and I'm tired and achy, but I'm in the home stretch in Passover prep and will make it on time.
I have heard that teaching about the afikoman symbolizing making the world whole again. Rabbi Harold Schulweis (z"l) used to talk about it, and I pretty sure I've seen it in the haggadah that our bffs use. I'll look for it Monday night.
It occurs to me that broken things have their own character -- some things stay broken, some can be made into something else, and some things can be put back together and be even stronger than before. Hardship can challenge us, defeat us, and/or make us stronger. We don't always have to stay broken. That's what I glean from the teaching.
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Post by louise on Apr 18, 2024 19:04:59 GMT -5
i love that about the hard damaged places in ourselves from which we need to break free. I think I will use that at the seder I am attending the first night. Thank you!
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