The Hebrew word for giving, natan (נתנ), is a palindrome, which reveals a deep truth about the reciprocal dynamic of giving: When one gives, they also receive in return.
In a recent study, researchers discovered that those who spent more of their income on others rather than themselves enjoyed significantly greater and longer lasting happiness. In fact, as little as a five-dollar gift was enough to produce measurable increases in one’s happiness. Overall, the self-reported happiness of those who regularly give charity is forty-three percent higher than those who don’t.
In other words, human beings are hardwired to give.
What an amazing display of global unity. The Jewish nation around the world reciting the Shema prayer in unison with the enormous gathering at the Kotel on the Fast of Esther to beseech heaven for the safe return of our captured sisters and brothers.
Never forget that your true place is a place of light. Even when you find yourself in the midst of darkness and sorrow, know that this is not your home.
Where is your home? Where does your true self live?
It lives absorbed within the very origin of light.
From there, a glimmer of itself escapes and splashes below.
All it takes is that glimmer to transform the darkness, that it too should shine.
This is a tiny silver Shema Yisroel necklace pendant, perhaps the smallest ever made. It was handcrafted by jewelry artist Ely Greenhut. #JewishArt#Shema
This week's Torah reading is the first of several that detail the construction of the Mishkan, the portable temple that the Jewish people took with us on our journeys through the desert. Even the most mundane technicalities of construction are reviewed thoroughly. This is still important for us to study although we will never build another Mishkan, because it teaches us about the nature of having a relationship with the divine, and bringing holiness and meaning into our lives. It isn't accomplished by separating from the world around us or making grand gestures. Rather, it is found in the tiny details of everyday life. "Make a sanctuary for me and I will dwell within you." (Exodus 25:8)
The Chassidic master Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev once said: I learned the meaning of love from a drunk. I once passed two drunks drinking in a gutter and overheard the conversation between them:
Drunk #1: “I love you!”
Drunk #2: “No, you don’t.”
Drunk #1: “Yes, yes, I do. I love you with all my heart.”
Drunk #2: “No, you don’t. If you love me, why don’t you know what hurts me?”
Rabbi Akiva Eiger (1761 - 1837 CE) was a distinguished Talmudic scholar, influential halachic authority, and beloved leader of European Jewry. His father’s last name was Gins but as an adult he took his mother’s name of Eiger. He wrote insightful notes in the margins of his copy of the Talmud, which were posthumously published in the margins of the now standard Vilna edition of the Talmud as the commentary Gilyon HaShas (גליון הש"ס) which means ‘margin of the Talmud’.
The Jewish Vacation Guide, first published around 1916, was a compilation of places where it was safe for Jews to eat, sleep and visit. Dozens of the listings touted kosher meals, often made with farm-fresh butter and eggs. The guide connected Jews to a network of places that did not just tolerate, but welcomed them. Many of the rented rooms were far from luxurious, but they made up for modest offerings with hospitality and affordability. A large number of these places were in the Catskills, which became a hot spot for Jews looking to escape the oppressive summer heat of New York City tenements. The guide served as inspiration for Victor Hugo Green's "Negro Motorist Green Book."
“He was, if we can use the term for a person of the 12th century, a renaissance man. The Rambam was not just a Talmudic scholar, but a philosopher, an astronomer, a mathematician, a physician, a linguist, a poet, and a critic.”