Jewish Musings Wednesday, July 10

[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]

Another part of this week's Torah portion is about war. The Israelites encounter several tribes in the wilderness, and the encounters are not friendly. Sichon, king of the Amorites, attacks the Israelites, even though they had asked politely if they could travel through his territory. The Israelites fight the Amorites, and are victorious. (21:1–32)

Judaism is realistic about issues regarding war and peace. The story of the Israelites’ encounter with the Amorites is a good example of how Jews have responded to threats. In this Torah portion they made expressions of peace to the Amorites. But when their peaceful overtures were ignored and they were attacked, the Israelites fought back. Here we learn: the first “act” of war is to ask for peace. But you must often be prepared to fight if necessary. This is a sad but important lesson that the modern State of Israel has learned many times in its relatively brief (or should I say "new/newer"?) history.

In your life, have you ever been in a position of trying to deal with a situation in a "soft" way but had to abandon your initial stance (because it wasn't working)? What did you learn from such an experience? Any advice you'd like to give those of us who have found outselves in such a circumstance and didn't know what to do?

[peachymom1]

My PITA boss back in the 90s used to call me a nickname that I HATED. I asked him nicely not to call me that, and he laughed and kept right on. I ignored it for a short bit, because I thought he was more mature than that, and that he'd come off it, but no such luck. So I explained that I especially disliked that particular nickname, and I would really appreciate his not using it. Nope, no dice. So I started calling him Barbara. He got the message.

[gazelle18]

Somehow, starting out nice, and then ratcheting up the pressure, never worked well with disciplining my kids. They would often keep up the bad behavior , no matter how stern I became and the threats of punishment increased.