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You can hear and see Josh Bell here (Ava Maria), and here (where he talks about and plays Chaconne by Bach) and here (Tzigane). (I read one article and I'm an expert!) There are many selections of his playing on Youtube; pick anything and see if you are not moved. I believe that great beauty is recognizable without prior training. (I was particularly struck by Ravel's Tzigane.)
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The answer to the question I asked in this post is... Barack Obama. He wrote that poem when he was nineteen. It's in a collection of best poetry of the year from 2008, because The New York Times published it this past year. It's from a college journal. He wrote it when he was 19. y

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2 VaEira Haiku

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~ If we can't be heard
by the ones closest to us
how will strangers hear?
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Everyone but G-d
resisted The Redemption
Paroh, Moshe, Jews
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For a parsha post from four years ago (sic) click here (it's an elaboration on the first haiku and is a piece I'm pretty pleased with).

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Rabbi A Twerski (on VaEira) addresses the meaning of sivlot Mitzrayim. The Jewish People came to tolerate the suffering of Egypt, much the way we often come to tolerate life situations - to our own detriment. He writes that we're like the worm that thinks that the horse radish is sweet. And he says the solution is only found in Torah, full Torah.

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Many commentaries say that the acronym of R Yehuda that groups the plagues into threes is not just a mnemonic. Rav Hirsch says that the first three show G-d's power over water and land, and the second three show G-d's power over the land's inhabitants, and the third group of three plagues demonstrates G-d's power over the atmosphere surrounding the land and the people on it. Then Rav Hirsch does something different . He says that the first one in each group, and the second one in each group, and the third one in each group each form their own group...

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The Oscar nominations were just announced. For best picture, these are the contenders: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, Slim Dog Millionaire. As of this writing I have not seen any of these movies. Have you? (I'm leaning toward Frost/Nixon because I'm a big fan of the backslash sign and this would be the first time that the award was won by a movie with a backslash in the title). (I've been fond of using the / in my writing for some time, lately though I've become very fond of parentheses).