Torah Study: “The Torah of Rabbi Schulweis" Shabbat: December 27, 2014 and January 3, 2015
01/15/2015 06:42:19 AM
Torah Study: “The Torah of Rabbi Schulweis"
Shabbat: December 27, 2014 and January 3, 2015
In Jewish tradition, the month following a death -- the Shloshim -- is devoted to gathering the wisdom and affirming the legacy of our loved one. These past weeks at...Read more...
A PRAYER BEFORE I PRAY
07/03/2011 08:45:00 AM
Before I open the prayer book, or embrace myself in a tallit prayer shawl, and give praise or thanksgiving or petition, it all begins with me.
I cannot petition God without petitioning myself. I cannot pray for health or peace or love without involving myself, my heart, my thought, my spine.
I cannot pray God for peace while my arms are folded, my mouth sealed, my feet dragging.
I cannot pray for...Read more...
NOT WHERE BUT WHEN
02/03/2011 11:45:06 AM
There are matters not subject to the senses
taste, sound, smell, sight, touch
Matters elusive to definition
yet known without doubt.
Known to make us cry and laugh
to move us to unimagined heights
to courage and self-sacrifice.
Experiences -- like love or God
Cannot be fingered, placed or poked.
Of such things
it is wiser to ask
Read more...
IN MY ARMS
02/03/2011 11:45:05 AM
In my arms a child is held
a nameless being
possessed of unknown potentialities.
In my arms an infant is held
Upon whom we confer in the presence of her people
A name to be known in Israel as
_____________________ bat ______________________________________________.
Child's Hebrew Name Parents' Hebrew Names
That name includes...Read more...
From Where Did You Come?
02/03/2011 11:45:04 AM
From where did you arrive?
out of the womb of Eve and the seed of Adam.
Angels show the unborn soul
the secrets of heaven and of earth
The soul pleads with God not to push him from
the comfort of the womb.
"I am well pleased with the world
in which I have been living since the day You called me to be.
Why do you...Read more...
CLEFT ON THE UPPER LIP
02/03/2011 11:45:03 AM
The infant comes
into this world with a former wisdom,
having been shown the mysteries of the universe.
A the moment of birth, an angel struck the baby
on the upper lip, left an unexplained indented mark.
With that blow, the child forgets all it has learned
in another world.
That forgetfulness is a blessing,
not the...Read more...
Brith Covenant on the Eighth Day
02/03/2011 11:45:01 AM
Even on the Sabbath,
Even during festival or fast,
The covenant brith takes place on the eighth day.
What is the Sabbath or Yom Tov or Yom Kippur
But a reminder of the constancy
That entwines our life with God's.
On the eighth day our child is covenanted,
Having lived through the Sabbath,
No stranger to creation,
No passive particle
Thrown into the world.
Our...Read more...
ABOVE ALL, TEACH THIS NEWBORN CHILD
02/03/2011 11:30:01 AM
Above all, teach this newborn child
To touch, to never stop. To feel how fur
Is other than leaf or cheek,
Diamond from glass, Mezzuzah from anything else
In the world. The same with Challah.
As the child grows, teach this baby to reach
The shoulder of another before sadness
Brings it inhumanly low, to stroke...Read more...
A Parent's Dream
02/03/2011 10:16:58 AM
"Protect my children from my secret wish
to make them over in my image and illusions.
Let them move to the music that they love
dissonant perhaps to me." (Nissim Ezekiel)
We have raised them, sculpted them, schooled them
Exposed them to our ways and our world.
Who can blame our parental conceit
Imposing our dreams on their...Read more...
Thu, November 21 2024
20 Cheshvan 5785
