ב"ה
79% of Americans believe in heaven and hell, 33% believe in ghosts, and 38%
believe in reincarnation.While these polls express a certain optimism regarding continuity of our precious selfhood, they also imply that our present state of existence is doomed to obsolescence. We may live on as a basking or roasting soul, a spooky apparition, or the neighbor's cat; but at a certain point, common wisdom has it, life as we know it will come to an end.
Genesis 23:1-25:18 Week of November 19-26, 2000 
A bit about death, alot about marriage and the art of storytelling; also: 400 shekels, 10 camels, two bracelets and a ring, a third wife and six more sons--in this week's Torah reading of Chayei Sarah.
Fresh snow covers the ground, thinking I’m too young to know. On the other
side of the pit four Russians dressed like railroad or construction workers look
me up and down. I try not to look back. Gravediggers have no family or friends,
and don’t mistake them for one of us.
Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz on the current situation in the Holy Land Sophistication is the continuous activity of cutting down flowering, fruit-bearing trees, pulverizing them, turning them into paper and then replacing them with paper trees and flowers. People have become so sophisticated that they no longer believe in or understand anything anymore. Basic words, such as “friend,” “enemy,” “land" and "life” become totally incomprehensible.
Before we stick our fingers further into the something-from-nothing paradox, I'd like to present another one of those "guidelines to the study of inner Torah." We've already discussed three such guidelines: That we start by establishing that which we cannot know, that the questions are to be savored and not quickly dismissed, and that at the core lies not a resolution but a paradox. Now for another: We cheat.
I have a confession to make: My spiritual mentor is not a rabbi, or a teacher, or a scholar.Too young to grow a beard, he drinks heavily, straight from the bottle. Most of his wisdom is culled from the works of Dr. Seuss and of a certain purple dinosaur. Article.asp?ArticleID=2622Continue
Remembering Santiago Rodriguez; by Avrahom Erlenwein Although Rosh HaShannah has long passed, the Shofar still sounds in the memory of one of the Chabadonline staff. Chabadonline wishes to make a tribute to a supporter, Santiago Rodriguez, who transcended this earthly realm on November 2, 2000. |
|