Jewish Musings Friday/Shabbat May 3&4

[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:
Frieda (hopefully)?
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
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!

[hollygail]

One last look (for this year, anyway) at this week's Torah portion: The personal affects the public, and all of society. The ancient laws of sexuality were not only important for their own sake; they helped maintain the proper boundaries of intimacy within families. They still do. And back then these laws were another means of keeping the Israelites separate from their neighbors. Apparently the Egyptians and the Canaanites engaged in these sexual practices, and one of the most important lessons of the Torah is that the Israelites remain distinct from the surrounding peoples. Such separation is one of the most essential elements of being kadosh, (holy) and is a major theme of the book of Leviticus.

What's your take on this section about sexual okays and not okays? Do you agree that such separation is an essential element of being holy? And in what ways are Jews different from other people and from other religious cultures? Are those differences important? If so, in what ways?

And a poem to end the week...
- - - - - 
A Shabbat Meditation

On this day of rest, the holy Shabbat,
You are my shadow,
a shadow so completely enveloping me.
My body moves within Your spirit.
May it be Your will that I gather Your spirit within me
so that You be my compass
pointing my way,
as my feet again touch ground
and I move on —
 — Edward Feld

[louise]

Love the poem - usually we see poetry by his wife, Merle Feld. The image of "gathering Your spirit within me" is really loively. May it be so.
Will try to come back later if I get a chance to read about the sexual practices.
Shabbat shalom.

[peachymom1]

I think it's Holly's birthday today!

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday, dear Holly
Happy birthday to you!
AND MANY MORE!!!!

[brgmsn]

Happy birthday hollygail and many more in good health!

[lee058]

hollygail, Happy belated birthday!!