An estimated 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz, and 1.1 million died there including 960,000 Jews. When 75 years ago, the 100th and 322nd divisions of the Soviet Army’s “1st Ukrainian Front” reached the Nazi concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau they could not believe their eyes. Lots more soldiers came to see similar horror places and being disgusted by that what seemed inhuman many became convinced the whole world should know about this and should make sure this could never happen again.
The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. In these darker days many may feel depressed or become confronted with the passing away of people or beloved animals. Though we do have 8 days to remember how light is given by God and how the temple, His House, was restored.
When positively reacting to the wedding invitation, we should be willing to step in the sent one from God his footsteps and should help to spread the Good News
We should look at the Most High Elohim, how He had chosen Himself a set-apart (or holy) people. Also in the parable of the Wedding banquet, mentioned in Matthew 22, we hear how He as the king invited His people. Because many did no go into His invitation He sent out His servants to invite… Lees verder Husband to an ancient nation
From the Hebrew Scriptures, including the Talmud we can learn that the Chosen People or Israel is eternal, so the bond with them is irreversible, unbreakable and eternal, once a Jew always a Jew. As a Jew following the Jewish rebbe Jeshua should not mean that one has to give up the Jewishness, even better being a follower of the sent one of God one can become even closer to God.
God has given the world His Word and Guidance for life, but everyone is free to follow it or not. It is not by doing good or doing bad that everything in life shall run like we would like it, or would go good or bad.
We all know that “bad” things happen to “good” people, and no spiritual building can hold by pretending otherwise. It’s simply untrue that every well-lived life leads only to outwardly positive outcomes. It’s equally untrue that difficult circumstances prove that someone strayed from the path.
These days of the Passover festival are ideal to show to the world how we all together should go for a peaceful world where everybody, whatever their faith can live together and are prepared to reach out a helping hand when needed.
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To remember
burning of Notre Dame de Paris = fitting metaphor for current moment, when religious engagement is on the decline in the West, + order of the Old World continues to slip away.
living in a time in which many Jewish people feel kinship with Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, + Buddhist neighbors > our partners in faith
Religious differences historically yielded enmity + outright hatred between people of different faiths
blood libel accusations > Jews in medieval Europe falsely accused of killing Christian children to use their blood for making matzah, often emerged around this time of year.
open the door “for Elijah” during seder = attempt to show non-Jewish neighbors > are not doing anything nefarious.
open door = metaphor for seeking opportunities to collaborate with our neighbors for the common good.
special guest, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, diplomat from the Maldives, United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion > last big project documenting human rights abuses in Iran + preparing report on worldwide anti-Semitism to be delivered to the United Nations General Assembly next fall.
Mark Potok, formerly of the Southern Poverty Law Center and a well-known authority on hate groups,
Ira Forman, Oren Segal, Mark Molinari, Steven Bayme, Brian Levin, Jeff Finkelstein+ Seth Adelson seated around the table.
U.S.A.
has seen annual increases in hate crimes vastly over-represented
Hate crimes against Jews are vastly over-represented; 13% of all hate crimes = anti-Semitic.
White supremacists focus fighting the “white genocide,” “engineered by Jews” + the web to foment horrible ideas about Jews.
Anti-Semitism = evident on the left and the right of political spectrum
It was indeed tragic to watch Notre Dame de Paris on fire last week, to ache for the loss of a building so deeply connected to the history of Paris and Europe, to lament the destruction of antiquities and works of art. But the burning of Notre Dame is, I am sorry to report, a fitting metaphor for our current moment, when religious engagement is on the decline in the West, and the order of the Old World continues to slip away.
Gargoyles of Notre Dame
It is notable to me that we are living in a time in which many Jewish people feel kinship with our Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist neighbors, our partners in faith; consider the interfaith cooperation that has happened here in Pittsburgh in the wake of the 18th of Heshvan (the Hebrew date of Oct. 27th, 2018) – the local Muslim community fundraising…
When celebrating Passover we should count our blessings and be thankful that God was willing to be by His People and to guide all of those who are willing to believe in Him and praise Him. That gratitude we should share with others and we should be ready to witness about that salvation and hope which is given to us and the rest of the world.
We have to show ourselves and others that we understand the value of nuance and that we personally have come forth from Egyptian subjugation, freed by the Elohim from Egypt’s clutches
Bnei Yisroel as Am kadosh shall always be the most favoured or set-apart people of God, no matter that the Elohim provided now a means of others also to have their relationship with Him restored, by the ransom offering of the mashiach.
14-22 Nisan gives us time to read about how the HaShem took care of His People and provided also a solution for the goyim. All should come to recognise the Bore as their Father of fathers and God above all gods, making them pure and clean to come close to Him as His children.
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To remember
how Ethan Katz looks on tefillah
With so many different mitzvos for us to be cognizant of + so many aveiros available for us to do = impossible to actively keep all of Hashem’s mitzvos without stumbling a few times
view aveiros as “stumbling” > instead believing that we’ve “fallen.”
we say same two words during Shemoneh Esrei >someich noflim => someich, “He supports,” noflim, “those who are (currently) falling.”
Satisfied, I continued my davening keeping this new way of thinking in mind.
a machlokes in the gemara in Kiddushin 36a on the pshat of the beginning of the pasuk in Devarim (14:1) “Banim atem l’Hashem Elokeichem,” (you are sons to Hashem, your God).
no matter what, bein kach ubein kach, we are always Hashem’s children!
Yirmiyahu (4:22)= “foolish sons.”
Devarim (32:20) “faithless sons.”
Yeshayahu (1:4) “the seed of evildoers, destructive sons.”
Hoshea (2:1), pasuk > “instead of being told (by Hashem) “you are not My nation,” Hashem will call them b’nei Kel-Chai (sons of Living-God).”
gemara explains: granted when Jews are foolish = despite all shortcomings > still sons > not faithless > even when there is no faithfullness => faithless Jews = still called sons
pasuk > banim mashchisim =destructive sons
in our spiritual lives, in our lives striving to keep Hashem’s Torah + mitzvos, THERE IS NO BOTTOM.
Hashem never lets us hit the bottom because we are His children eternally
=> forever child of Hakadosh Boruch Hu.
Hashem brought geulah to the Jews in Mitzrayim because a parent is always there for his children
Before I start discussing my thoughts on tefillah, I want to quickly say that although I hope to consistently post, since these ideas are actual thoughts I have when davening that help me with my kavannah and not me being mamshich through tefillah as a limud, I will be posting ideas at random, with no real seder. Having said that, I hope one day I can really go through the siddur and learn it like a mentsch. Now on to my first official post.
“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
This quote, taken from a Life Alert commercial, reflects how many Jews, including myself at times, constantly feel. With so many different mitzvos for us to be cognizant of and so many aveiros available for us to do, it is impossible to actively keep all of Hashem’s mitzvos without stumbling a few times. The problem many of us face…
Bondage may come to an end, but requires action from each individual. We may count on it that the Elohim shall redeem the oppressed advancing His agenda of oneness.
Looking at ge’ulah or redemption, as an echo of yetzi’at Mitzraim. The Book of books speaking about redemption from the past but also speaking about a redemption, which can come in different forms and quantities, in the future.
**Image via Pinterest
