YirAhava

I found this image here when I searched

yirah ahavah in google images

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Here's a public service announcement. The YU/SOY Seforim Sale Starts Sunday (tomorrow). You can find the schedule here. I've been there many times over many years. For a long time I was looking for the sefer, LaTorah VeLamoadim, a book of essays on the parsha. Several Seforim Sales back I asked an acquaintance (who is now a major Rosh Yeshiva) if he knew where I could find that book. He'd never heard of it and when I described it he announced, "You've got the wrong hombre' (sic).
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Over Shabbos I read a new idea in Rav Zevin's sefer. He says that everyone has their own characteristics and that these traits are intrinsically neither good or bad. When G-d says that he hardened Paroh's heart, he means that Paroh was born with the trait of being stubborn. What he did with it was up to him. Thus, the oft asked question, "Why was Paroh punished if G-d hardened his heart?" falls away. I shared this at dinner last night and the two other guys at the table felt compelled to share the answers they knew to this question (such a guy thing to do). Rav Zevin (Wikipedia entry) was a smart man (edited Encyclopedia Talmudit) and I find his explanations to be worth taking in.
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I am tempted to write a bit about my interests in pop culture. I hesitate because the last time I referenced a TV show I got this comment (pasted as posted): "A rabbi who watches t.v.? Interesting... Are you a real Rabbi? Or a rabbi in training? Or are you considered a Rabbi just because your grandfather was a rabbi? Orrr are you just a want to be "rabbi" also know as a FAbbi (fake Rabbi)"
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That post got a lot of comments and I look back at it fondly. I am blessed and grateful to G-d that I get mostly kind and with it comments from my loyal, kind and with it readers. You can read that post, which I kinda like, here. Sigh.
h hl
Here's a site that tells you about the background of famous songs. It gives you a taste, but you need to delve elsewhere for deeper looks into the writing, etc. I looked at it earlier tonight, thinking about Come Dancing.
u ki
I had not watched a movie in a theater or seen one on video for a while. Over my break I watched the first one I've seen in some time, Vera Drake. it is a truly unique and impressive film. It's one of several that I bought at a discount price over the years. Next on the stack is Hotel Rwanda, possibly to be followed by Coming Home, which I hope is not dated.

I've started reading Special Topics In Calamity Physics. It's pulling me in.
y6

Closeness and distance

The extremes of love and fear

Challenge at all turns