shavua tov

Maybe?

if a seed is held just

in your warm grasp

it will never thrive

it needs to be thrown

into the dark earth

to truly grow alive

I wrote the above poem yesterday while virtually speaking with a friend. It's not easy for the farmer of the seed. The whole dynamic fascinates me, people creating other people. There's bound to be serious attachment between creator and progeny. And yet...

My family has a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend. I am thankful to be typing this post with one of my nephews uploading his new Mac book pro and his brother working on his old Mac book pro across the table from me. Dad's watching football in the next room. My niece and her parents are upstairs. Thank G-d for this scene.

I have an ear infection. it's always interesting to write/experience/process life when feeling sick. I'm on antibiotic, and praying for that moment when the pain passes. It's especially awkward being sick while my dear dad is recuperating from more serious stuff.

I have work to do, big time. I have a book to publish. I have social obligations. Mostly I just want to be - to live. Please G-d, help me to truly live.

A bit hungry.

A bit in pain.

A bit worried.

Baring blame.

I just received this email from a member of the Macabeats about their latest video. The song and video are not to my taste. Still, it was worth it for me to see my (former) student, the amazing, accomplished Josh Jay in action.

Yonatan Shefa to me

Hey just wanted to say your blog is great. You should check out this video and share it with your audience! They're sure to love it.

-Yonatan

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LaTorah VeLaMoadim - Vayeishev - Essay 1, Part 1

What does it mean to be at home somewhere, to belong in a place? Does it mean that it’s where you are most of the time? Rav Shlomo Yosef Zevin argues that when we identify with a place, we need not be there all that often in order to call it home. “Ashrei yoshvei veitechah” – “Happy are those who sit in Your house;” this line does not refer to people who sit exclusively in synagogue. Rather it speaks of someone for whom their place of prayer and torah study is their pivotal place. It could be that they work 8 hours a day and spend two hours in Shul, and yet Shul is their set place and their job does not define who they are. It is similar to someone who travels a lot for work, and yet their main place is home with their family.

Rav Zevin applies this idea to the fact that – as the mishnah puts it – this world is a temporary corridor leading to the main room of the world to come. He laments the fact that not everyone sees it this way and cites Yishayahu, who referred to people who “yoshvei teivel” – those who view themselves as permanent residents of this world, as opposed to “shochnei aretz,” those who feel like temporary dwellers on this earth.

The Kli Yakar says that not only was Yaakov wrong for asking to settle in peace, but he made a big mistake in that he wished to feel set in the same country that his father said made him feel like a stranger. Rav Zevin notes – via Rashi - that right after Yaakov wishes to be sit in peace where his father felt uncomfortable the problems of Yosef fell upon him.

Rav Zevin takes a close look at the trajectory of Yosef’s relationship to dreams: At first he has big dreams for himself, then he helps others with their dreams, and in the end the recipient of Yosef’s assistance with dream fulfillment forgets all about Yosef. Rav Zevin applies this to modern Jews in exile: We exchange our dreams for the dreams of others all because we started feeling comfortable in a place which made our fathers feel unsettled. The sad end is that those we assist forget we exist.