Jewish Musings Sunday, Sept. 15, day 344 since 10/7/23

[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:

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]

This week's Torah portion is Ki Tavo, Deuteronomy 26:1 – 29:8. It continues the theme of social justice which we've been seeing a lot of in Deuteronomy. It describes three rituals that Israelites, both as individuals and as an entire community, had to perform upon entering into the Land of Israel. Each of those rituals expresses gratitude at having arrived in the land, but they tie that gratitude to a sense of memory — of where the Israelites have come from, and the circumstances that have produced their history. However, the portion ends with a rather difficult passage: a list of the catastrophes that would befall the Jewish people if they failed to abide by the covenant.

One concept we can pull out of Ki Tavo leads us to the idea that to be Jewish means to locate yourself within the larger Jewish story. In many ways, wherever Jews go and whatever Jews do, the past "walks" with us. For that reason, the text of the vidui bikkurim (“the confession made over first-fruits”) forms the central part of the hagaddah. It is the story of a people who have been liberated from slavery and allowed to celebrate in Freedom. Poet A.M. Klein wrote, "generations look through our eyes."

How does either your own life's past or the past of the Jewish People "shape" your life? Can you give us any examples?

I can tell you that in the days that followed October 7, I took off the amethyst pendant I'd been wearing for years and replaced it with my paternal grandmother's Star of David necklace. It's old (she died at age 102) in the middle 1980s. It's striking. There aren't many like it. I have a friend who wears her grandmother's (whom I met a few times in the very very early 1990s before she passed) and it's from the same era (the main difference between hers and mine is hers has Mother of Pearl as the background and mine has black onyx). They (the pendants) are both heart-shaped. The star itself is smaller than the heart and is located smack in the middle of it. The outline around the stone is of marcasite. Marcasite (in case you're unfamiliar with it) is a mineral (iron sulfide) and it shimmers. It's been around for millennia (the Greeks utilized it for jewelry), but it became popular again in the Art Deco period (early 1900s). In a manner of speaking, when a person wears marcasite, the person is wearing a piece of history, almost paralleling what I wrote about above about Jews living our history.

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE! Please pray for Israel.

Re today's topics: I think the main way I "locate myself within the larger Jewish story" is by remembering my ancestors (blood and emotional) and also talking about them with DS, sometimes DH. I tell DS lots of stories about our family, he asks questions, and we have conversations about important subjects. I also talk (as much as is feasible) with my non-Jewish friends.

I have some Jewish-related jewelry, but don't wear it. I ought to.

Have a peaceful day, Lee

[gazelle18]

Hi all,
Sorry to have been MIA last week. We were traveling, plus hurricane issues.
I locate myself within the history of the Kewish people very firmly, and on a daily basis. I’m especially proud right hope of my role in the administration of our local, new community Mikvah.

[louise]

Ypu remind me of the significance of the pitom (remnant of flower) on an etrog - it is a fruit that carries its past with it.
You all know I am celebrating what would have been my mother's 100th birthday at her synagogue this coming shabbat. I knew what I was going to wear but today I picked out one of her necklaces to wear that day.
I will be chanting the haftarah and am going to steal a moment to say a few words before I start. There is a lot of imagery about "light" in the text which I will lightly (ha ha) refer back to my mother because she brought light with her in her interactions.

[peachymom1]

I don't really have an answer to the question, but I do think what you all have said is lovely.