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Missing Conversations Part Two

There is another type of Missing Conversation; the secret conversations, the coded conversations overheard by the Sages when they read a verse, conversation, we usually miss: Missing Words: Code Word: Pakod ‘Go, and gather the elders of Yisra᾽el together, and say to them, “The Lord God of your...

Tags: Afikoman, Bo, James Joyce, Moshe, Pesach Seder, Shemos, Shemot, Vaeira

Missing Conversations

I have long believed that long and open conversations of the Pesach Seder to be some sort of making up for the Missing Conversations. Moshe and Aharon got off to a great start: “And Moshe and Aharon went and gathered together all the elders of the children...

Tags: Aharon, Moshe, Pesach Seder, Pesach Sheini, Pharaoh, Shemos, Shemot

Here Live Monsters

There are spaces still to be filled before the map is completed- though these days it’s only in the explored territories that men write, sadly, Here lives monsters (Norman McCraig, Old Maps and New The Isles of the Blessed, Kibu, Hawaiki, Hufaidh, Thule, Fusang, Bermeja, Onaseuse, imaginary lands all, existed on maps,...

Tags: Bo, Moshe, Pharaoh, Vaeira

Dura lex, sed lex

“The Law is harsh, but it is the Law!” Not our law. Not Halacha. “Her ways are pleasant ways, And all her paths, peaceful (Proverbs 3:17 - sefaria.org).” ‘Abaye objected: Aren’t the halakhot of the entire Torah also given on account of the ways of peace, as it is...

Wanderings

Please Note: I try to add a link to every reference. I have yet to figure out how to make it obvious, but until I do (meaning until Debbie shows me how), just click on a title mentioned and you will find the link. Thank you for...

Tags: Burning Bush, Goethe, Golden Calf, John Armstrong, Ki Tisa, Moses, Shemos, Shemot, William Atkins

The Plan: The Lightning Bush

In the Aeneid, the Roman poet Virgil describes the vast cave inhabited by the god Vulcan and his worker-drones, the Cyclopes. It is here, Virgil defines the lightning bolt of Jupiter as informatum – forged or given shape beneath their hammers. To in-form meant to give a...

Tags: Burning Bush, Moses, Moshe, Shemos, Shemot, Vaeira

The Plan: Introduction to Exodus

The director Fred Schepisi tells a story about the time he invited an oral surgeon to his film class. Dimming the lights, the man tacked to the wall a group of backlit X-rays, different shots of the same mouth, which anyone could see, even in these...

Tags: Moses, Moshe, Pharaoh, Shemos, Shemot, Vaeira

Images Of Moses

There is a custom to cover the mirrors in a Shiva house. The only internal images I had of me were formed by many childhood pictures kept by Aviva that my sisters sitting Shiva in Baltimore were texting. By the second day of Shiva, my internal image...

Tags: Exodus, Helen Keller, Humility, Moses, Pharaoh, Shemot, Vision, Yitro

Prayer Tools: From Nefesh to Neshama

The ability to transcend the desire of the Nefesh into the reality of the Neshama by way of the Ruach (clear articulation) is in fact the process that allows us to glimpse through God's "mirror". But more than that...

Tags: God, Neshama, Prayer, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Soul, The Foundation Stone

My Moving Mountain

“Now Moses, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, drove the flock after the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God (Shemot 3:1).” Why Is It ‘The Mountain of God’? Rashi comments, “in order to keep them away from private property,...

Tags: Burning Bush, Colin Thubron, David Zeller, Horeb, Kate Harris, King David, Malachy Tallack, Moses, Moshe, Neal Ascherson, Robert Macfarlane, Shemot, Sinai

Each Small Act

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do as follows: load up your beasts and go at once to the land of Canaan. Take your father and your households and come to me; I will give you the best of the land of Egypt...

Tags: Jacob, Pharaoh, Vayigash

Siege of Pains

As I was reflecting on “Repairs Required,” wondering whether, and how much a role, the brothers’ inability to take Joseph at face value played in the insecurities that led the extended family to be vulnerable to Egyptian social pressure, I had to reflect on forgiveness: It...

Tags: Asarah BiTevet, Chronic Pain, Forgiveness, Joseph and his Brothers, Ten Martyrs, Trust

Repairs Required

“Busy remaking the world, man forgot to remake himself (Andrei Platonov, Nursery of the New Man).” My limited understanding of Platanov, based on “Soul and Other Stories,” is that he understood that the Soviet communists were convinced they could successfully remake the world. Their failure to remake...

Tags: Andrei Platonov, Joseph, Joseph and his Brothers, Vayechi

GPS To Egypt

How did Jacob get from Canaan to Egypt without GPS? I consider Debbie one of the smartest people I have ever met in my life. Yet, a mysterious obnoxious woman hiding somewhere in our car’s radio treats her like an idiot. We often wonder if this woman...

Tags: Jacob, Ladder, Vayeitzei, Vayigash

FedHeads

Our obsession with celebrities is not new. Long ago, Pharaoh understood the need to have the newly freed young man transformed into something bigger than life, before, he placed Joseph over Egypt: ‘And removing his signet ring from his hand, Pharaoh put it on Joseph’s hand;...

Tags: Abraham, Adam, David, Jacob, Joseph, Lech Lecha, Miketz, Moshe, Nimrod, Vayechi

Botched Message

Inevitably, when I read the Haggadah, I am aggravated by Joseph’s brothers. Not because they sold him. That worked out well, plus, I once sold Naomi for, I recall twenty-five cents, she claims ten. Obviously, the woman who shared a car ride from Toronto to Baltimore decided to...

Tags: Brian Dillon, Elizabeth Hardwick, Haggadah, Joseph and his Brothers, Pharaoh, Seder, Vayigash, Walter Benjamin

In Mutual Respect – In Mutual Blessing

There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign. ― Robert Louis Stevenson When I am a stranger to myself I will always be a stranger to everyone else. I will be a foreigner in my own life. ****** Jacob Meets Pharaoh The Text The Context: ‘As soon as Jacob...

Tags: Blessing, Jacob, Joseph, Paul Kalinithi, Pharaoh, Vayeishev, Vayigash, When Breath Becomes Air, Yaakov

Looking For Babel VII – In Mutual Respect

‘Then Judah went up to him and said, “Please, my lord, let your servant appeal to my lord, and do not be impatient with your servant, you who are the equal of Pharaoh.” (44:18 - sefaria.org)’ I read this confrontation between Judah and Joseph, and although...

Tags: 9/11, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Judah, Solomon, Tower of Babel, Vayigash, Vayishlach

Looking For Babel VI – Gargantua & My Memory Palace

Naomi believes my hesitation to speak of my confrontation with Rabelais’ Gargantua through the hands of Matteo Ricci (“Looking For Babel V - Reverberations”) is overly dramatic. It definitely is not! Upon admittance to the Stroke Center I was sent for the longest MRI of my life....

Tags: Gargantua, Matteo Ricci, Noah, Rabelais, Simanim, Simonides, Tower of Babel

Looking For Babel V – Reverberations

There are times when Eric Kaplan is the “fun” guide through a maze of thoughtful challenges, such as in, “Does Santa Exist?” Some of his blogs remind me of the more stern professor, such as in yesterday’s, “America, The Land of the Dead.” Then, there are the...

Tags: Dispersion, Eric Kaplan, Flood, Halacha, Jonathan Spence, Mabul, Matteo Ricci, Noach, Noah, Sefer Hayashar

The Secret Language of Silence

“Listing is a fundamental literary strategy. It occurs constantly, and only occasionally draws attention to itself (William Gass, “I’ve Got A Little List).” One must meet the Lord High Executioner of the Mikado for the Original List. Not to be outdone by Gilbert and Sullivan we have...

Tags: Communication, Israel, Jacob, Joseph and his Brothers, Miketz, Silence, Vayigash, Yisrael

A Dangerous Silence

"I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still." Arthur Rimbaud I’ve been receiving unhappy comments about “A Painful Silence,” all day, even from the person who gave the idea to me: “This is not the silence to...

Tags: Francis Bacon, Jacob, Joseph and his Brothers, Questions, Rimbaud, Silence, Vayigash

A Painful Silence

“Joseph ordered his chariot and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel; he presented himself to him and, embracing him around the neck, he wept on his neck a good while (46:29).” ‘Here, also, he wept greatly and continuously — more than is usual. Jacob,...

Tags: Jacob, Joseph, Missing People Choir, Shema, Vayigash

The Path Ignites The Soul

When the path ignites a soul, there's no remaining in place. The foot touches ground, but not for long. Hakim Sanai “He had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph, to point the way before him to...

Tags: Halacha, Jacob, Joseph, Judah, Vayigash

Dreamers Ambitious & Autocratic

I’m back in Rocinante (My Time Machine) and my first stop is 19th century, Concord to pick up Henry David Thoreau. I assumed he was along to interview Joseph. After all, it was he who said, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live...

Tags: Civil Disobedience, Dreams, Goethe, Henry David Thoreau, Josef, Miketz, Pharaoh, Sorrows of Young Werrther

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