As we begin the Nine Days here are a list of divrei torah and other articles which recently caught my eye:

• The Benefits of Being Stupid When You’re Old
• Outwitting History
• Holy Water?
• some responses to the New York magazine article. (you know the one I mean)

Next week we begin Devarim, then it’s Tisha b’Av.

שׁבּת שׁלום

There’s a lot in here from handling vows to war to land granting.

Some divrei which caught my eye:
Responsible Words
The $499 Dilemma
Miss Manners at the Shabbat Table
Anger Management

שׁבּת שׁלום

We are flying through the summer and year and will very very soon (as in Sunday) enter the three weeks which culminates in Tisha b’Av (ou, chabad, jofa).

שׁבּת שׁלום (Shabbat Shalom)

I know I have a large contingent of non-jewish and not-as-traditionally-observant-as-i-am readers, I’m curious. Is there something you’d like to know about judaism and never knew who to ask? I’m finding that writing up about the parshah each week is incredibly taxing for me and I’ve started resisting working on it. Which is not something that makes me happy.

However, I love teaching others. I’m definitely not an authority on Jewish matters, but believe that could help find some clarification and insight for questions.

Any takers?

In other news, last night we finally went to the photographer to finalize photos for our wedding albums. It only took us 3½ years to make the appointment. It wasn’t as painful as we thought and I was completely non-traditional in some of the choices (such as my kallah (bride) album for my mum is not white or ivory but navy blue). We’ll see the results in 3-6 months.

שׁבּת שׁלום

I just want to send out a friendly reminder to make sure that your mezuzot are checked twice in every seven years.

שׁבּת שׁלום (Shabbat Shalom)

Last year I wrote this post.

This year? I read through the parshah 1.5 times yesterday. I don’t have anything new. Once again it’s fascinating if I try to look at this from a human behaviour or leadership perspective, but I won’t do more than this sentence.

שׁבּת שׁלום (Shabbat Shalom)

Quite simply, this parsha (portion) is the sin of the spies. Slightly more complex it is the whining of Israel and the spies were the straw…

I’ve half a mind to tie in my current term coursework in writing up this parshah and how wonderful I think it would be, but I’ll spare you. Think human behaviour. Think communication. Think teams and leadership and motivation.

What else do I have for you? Nothing beyond an intense longing for shabbat. It’s a very intense semester completely different from everything I’ve done before. There is little time for adjustment because in twelve days it’s over.

שׁבּת שׁלום

I’ve barely had time to breath this week with yontif, Work, and this amazingly brilliant but intense summer course. My learning right now consists of checking what the nutshell says and waiting until shabbat for more. On Tuesdays and Thursday nights it seems that I will arrive home after 11, which makes it after our normal bedtime which means I don’t get unwind time which means here it is at 12:30am on Friday and I’m writing this hoping that my brain soon shuts down so I can get some much needed rest.

A quote on this week’s d’var torah by Dr Erica Brown for this week really caught my eye as I have been struggling lately with Life that doesn’t need discussion here ..

If you have acquired knowledge, what do you lack?
If you lack knowledge, what have you acquired?
~Leviticus Rabba 1:6

omein v’omein.

Additional dvrei torah on beha’alotcha may be found
- jofa
- chabad
- ou.org
- young israel

שׁבּת שׁלום

It’s amazing what a change in leaving campus 15 minutes later can do to you. Last night it caused my commute home to be almost two hours in length. It was great for my knitting and podcast listening, but not great for my sleep or this post.

It pains me as while I’ve accomplished a considerable amount of learning and my to-do list this week, I’ve not had the liberty to take time to draft this post. Shavout is a holiday I enjoy and one day I’d like to write a proper post/essay about it. One day.

Here are three posts from prior years on either Nasso or Shavout:

• Parshah Naso, mostly about what’s bothering Rashi

• Bamidbar & Shavous
• last week’s post on Bamidbar & Shavout.

The next post will be on Wednesday.

שׁבּת שׁלום