Larchmont Temple Chevra Torah
Questioning faith in the parsha
Jane Brandes
One Response to Jane Brandes
Leave a Reply
Recent Comments
- Comment on Mishpatim by Robert SaengerYou shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt. The statements seem to presume a context in which Jews are the dominant group, as were Egyptians when the Jews lived in Egypt. It sugges […]
- Comment on Exodus 27:20-28:1-5 by Resources for Exodus 27:20 - 28:1[...] 1Exodus 27:20-28:1-5 « Larchmont Temple Chevra Torah SUBMIT [...]
- Comment on Chayei Sarah by Cheap Beats by Dre SoloI came across this site mistakenly, surprisingly, this is the great website. The positioning owner has achieved an exceptional job of putting it together, the info suggestions really and helpful as soon as i research. I am just preparing to bookmark this internet site to make sure that It's possible to revisit when you need it.
- Comment on B’reishit 5772 by egrottaEarlier this week, as I was going through my books to see which I felt needed a place on our new winter home’s bookshelves, I came to the shelf with Greek and Roman classics. Plato…Aristotle… Sophocles..and of course the playwrights. These books have moved with me from place to place in the more than 40 years since my Great Books class at the University of M […]
Last chevra of summer–Sept. 24th, 2011, Parshah Nitzavim, Deut. 29, led by Harley Frank.
Some thoughts I had after talking with Harley following the chevra discussion—
When God moves over the Garden of Eden and calls to Adam—“Where are you?”, God is not asking Adam for a physical location, Harley says—God is asking him to take stock, to answer where he stands, on his path of life. “Hineni,” replies Adam—‘This is where I now stand and I am open to God from this place.’
For me, the shofar blasts we will hear—stirring and urgent–could be God’s voice, asking all of us, and each of us, as He did Adam, where we are. At chevra, members
shared the many ways that the familiar melodies, prayers, our community, small and large, family and memories of family envelop us as we pray together, and experiencing all this, I always feel a return to who I am, a sense of my own identity.
And yet each year we say “Hineni” from a different place. The Torah parshot yield new meanings to us each year, because we need them to, because of our changing experiences, our passages.
When we hear the shofar punctuate the somnolence of summer, feel the goose bumps on our arms, we hear the call to get to the business of our finite lives. May we all have the resolve of “Hineni” on our lips, and in our hearts.