Jewish Musings Tuesday, Sept. 17, 346 days since Oct. 7

[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]

Another ritual we read about in this week's Torah portion tells us to mark the Israelites’ eventual entry into the Land of Israel. The Israelites divide up into their individual tribes and stand on two facing mountains — Mount G’rizim and Mount Eval. They recite a list of things that are to be prohibited and therefore curse, which is followed by the blessings that will occur if those prohibitions are observed. (27:11 – 28:14)

One thing we can learn from this section is that actions have consequences. This is one of the most important things that people learn as we grow into maturity, and this is what the ancient Israelites had to learn as well. If you do bad things, bad stuff will happen. If you do good things, good stuff will happen. It is interesting to note that the list of prohibitions in this Torah portion consists of sins (or transgressions, or fill in here the word that works for you) that are mainly committed in private, which reminds us that everything we do is part of our moral and spiritual make up. Moreover, while some laws contained in the list can be found elsewhere in the Torah (especially the laws about sexual behaviors), some are new — like moving a neighbor’s landmark, which basically meant trespassing on someone else’s property. Finally, in place of the original Ten Commandments (Exodus 20), here there are twelve — a number that reminds us of the twelve tribes of ancient Israel.

How can you relate any of this to your life?

I'll be back after morning minyan...

[lee058]

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

Re today's topic: What comes to my mind is the idea that being kind brings about more acts of kindness, in other people as well as yourself. With every action we take, there are at least a couple of choices on what we can do. I feel that it is important to make the best decisions we can, and we can do that by looking at what the end results could be (repairing the world or not). I find that the more I think about what I do, the more I want to act in a good manner (righteously, if you want to put it that way). I am far from perfect in this, but I do want to be a better person.

Have a peaceful day, Lee

[louise]

Actions have consequences - so of course I go right to food and exercise. My knee has been bothering me - if I weighed less and exercised more I could probably alleviate that problem. But di I? (not so m uch).

[peachymom1]

Hi everyone, sorry I've been MIA. Yesterday and today, one of my teams flew in for meetings at my local office. Most of them had never been to California before. I was happy to see everyone, most of whom I've never met before, but it was a lot of prep work and support work. Two people forgot to bring their badges - not a big deal, since Security can give them temporary badges. One man missed his flight yesterday morning and ended up getting here too late for any of the meetings. But he did make it for the dinner and karaoke last night, so there's that.

The restaurant who brought breakfast for us this morning forgot the fresh fruit bowl and had to shlep back in rush-hour traffic to bring it. The lunch restaurant forgot napkins, but fortunately, I found a stash of them in the breakroom. Some of the water bottles I got last week and put in the fridge were frozen. There was way more food than we could eat, despite my best efforts to order the right amount. So I gave all the extra stuff to the IT team. I live with two geeks and know very well that you have to keep the IT guys happy! They were delighted to take the food off my hands!

There's always something that goes wrong when you get this many people together, especially when travel is involved. But nothing was serious, and it's been great getting to know people a bit. I didn't go to the dinner last night - too exhausted, and the food didn't appeal to me. But I'm attending the dinner tonight. I've already looked at the menu online, and I'm going to have a tuna melt and a salad.

Actions definitely have consequences, but sometimes you don't see them right away. Sometimes you never do. But it's still important to add goodness to the world whenever we can, whether we ever find out how it landed. It's good for us and good for others.

Off to catch up on some stuff before I get ready for the dinner. I hope everyone is having a good day - it finally cooled off here temporarily, thank God.