We are victorious!!!
Go Black Stars!!!
I can't stop the exclamation points!!!
Somebody stop me!!!111!!!
Quote of the day (imagine thick accent): "After beating America, Ghana is now a superpower. Now we should get into nuclear enrichment!"
Time to pass you to the test.
Hanging on my lover's breath.
Always coming second best.
Get through this night, there are no second chances.
This time I might.
To ask the sea for answers.
These bonds are shackle free
These bonds are shackle free
These bonds are shackle free
These bonds are shackle free
Get through this, there are no second chances.
rinse and repeat
so you pray
so you believe
so you convert
then you're elated
then you're stimulated
then you're exhausted
falling out of love
falling off the road
falling momentum
then you get up
then you reconnect
then you're you again
so you pray
so you believe
so you live
I am rishon man
hear me roar with alternate explanations
sfaras that you've never thought of
and a concrete grasp on pshat
oh wait... that's someone else
Sadly
being a Jew
cheering for your fellow man
from only religious/ethnic pride
but sometimes (for me)
it's what being ghanaian is too
A test, some whisky and shluf gazzunt; so the zman ends... but I only have a day long break in-between... what I wouldn't give for a real break
Labels: zman
happiness is like a guillotine
blunted only by my sadness
but even as a muse dies
I cheer along with the crowd
In this moment
I'd lose it all
for that face
laid upon a hand
what a surprise it was
for he who lay in the gutter
to awaken
as a strange addition to the parade
anyone have ideas of fun things to do in jerusalem that don't involve much money (or any), and aren't the typical tourist things?
and lastly: pray for ghana, for they are a small country with only mounds of cocoa and luck.
should one have his/her thoughts broadcast out for the world to see?
I used to think of this as a cathartic and fun record of my life,
but might I just continue writing in my little journal in "real-space"
and leave the narcissistic "look at me" writing...
what happens if a date discovers this?
or an employer?
I've kept my comments as parve as possible,
but maybe they're best left in my head.
I was told to give a short dvar torah last shabbos... and since I noticed other people put up things they thought or wrote I decided to join them. I know it's simple, but they said it had to be fast...
In our parsha, we learn about the Sotah, or a wife suspected of adultery. The torah says,” Any man, if his wife shall go astray and commit a treachery against him etc., The man shall bring his wife to the kohein, etc.”. The Torah is not referring to a case of proven adultery, rather this is a case where a woman has been discovered alone with a man who her husband has previously told her not to be. To quell or confirm the suspicion of adultery they go to the Beis HaMikdash enter a process of investigation. There are many interesting aspects of the sotah process but I’d like to talk about a specific step in the process. The torah commands us:
That man shall bring his wife to the kohen and he shall bring her
offering for her, a tenth of unsifted barley flour; he shall not pour
oil over it and shall not put frankincense upon it, for it is a
meal-offering of “jealousies”, a meal offering of remembrance,
a reminder of iniquity.
I had two questions about the parsha, why is a barley offering brought, all other meal offerings are brought with wheat; and why does the Torah describe the offering as an “offering of jealousies”. The last two of the three descriptions of the meal offering are more easily understood; the meal offering is being made only because of the suspected iniquity… But the first description is more difficult, what jealousy is being described, why is it plural? Is it the husband, the wife, the kohein? So I looked in the commentaries of Rashi, Ramban and I found a lot, but as our Rav. Lerner often says, “I don’t want to upset you guys, but on this subject there’s a Machloches!”
Rashi sees the jealousy as that of the husband because he suspects his wife has committed adultery; and that of Hashem in response to the aveira. He comments, “It arouses against her two jealousies: The jealousy of the omnipresent, and the jealousies of the husband.” This is in much the same vein as the second of the Ten Commandments, “You shall not prostrate yourself to them (other Gds or idols) not worship them, for I am Hashem, your G-d, a jealous G-d.” The Chofetz Chiam also comments that:
“Whoever is driven to forbidden sexual relationships will ultimately destroy his soul and forfeit his Heavenly portion as it says, “He who commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; he who does that destroys the soul.” (Nidchei Yisrael, ch 20)
In Chassidus we learn that the essence of the “Jewish soul is a portion of Hashem mamish”. By violating her relationship she not only severs the connection of souls that is affected by marriage but also her connection to Hashem. By committing adultery she places personal lust over the commands of the torah and transgresses against Hashem in much the same way as she transgressed against her husband.
Ramban’s take on the pasuk is that it is speaking of the jealousy of the wife. He says, “… in my opinion the expression… refers to the beginning of the verse, stating that the husband shall bring the offering for his wife”; Ramban understands that the Torah is excluding her from the ability to bring the offering. He connects this concept with the last two descriptions of the offering, “(the offering) brings her iniquity to remembrance. Thus it is not fitting that she should bring it of her own property, but it is he who is to bring the meal offering to G-d so that he should take note of his suspicions.”
I think Ramban sees a different purpose in the sotah procedure than Rashi; for Ramban this portion of the sotah procedure is done in order to shame the potential adulterer; whereas Rashi seems to see the bringing of the offering as an expression of anger on the part of the husband. But final result of the offering is essentially the same. Ramban continues saying, “the reason (that the meal offering comes from) barley or se’orim is that, “sa’arath (a storm of) the Eternal is gone forth in fury, a whirling storm that shall whirl upon the head of wickedness.” By bringing barley specifically, the husband arouses Hashem’s anger at injustice, just as the prophet warned it would be aroused in Yermiyahu (23:19) at false prophets. By bringing the connection of similar spellings Ramban is not only answering why barley is brought as an offering, but also describing the depth of the issur of adultery. Blaspheming against Hashem is one of the seven Noachide commandments; it precedes the Torah! That’s the depth of the transgression that one makes when committing adultery.
We have a custom here of offering a blessing at the end of a dvar Torah; the easiest one for me now is to say, “I hope you all never have a significant other that does something so horrible.” But that’s not the best bracha. Rather, in this time after we have stood under a “chuppah” with Hashem and become married to him through our acceptance of the Torah and its mitzvos the story of the sotah helps us to better understand the our obligations to hashem. Our marriage to Hashem with the ketubah of Torah and mitzvos is a conceptual thing that can be hard for us to completely understand but we can more easily conceptualize blemishes on a relationship. So my bracha is that we all can actualize a pure connection with Hashem, free of suspicion supported by righteousness.
while I'm usually a bit of a comment whore, this time... be nice *don't hurt me*
Labels: dvar torah
Modeh ani lefaneicha melech chai v'kayam shehechezarta bi nishmati bechemlah - rabbah emunatecha
Today I'm going to climb mountains
slay dragons
and save princesses.
Today I'm going to win races
tame lions
and cross forbidding seas
Today you'll be proud of me
even though
all I do is dream
When she 'frums-out' I'm gonna marry her and curl up beneath her piano and read her Chauser and 'The Levi'.
Labels: modeh ani, music, regina spektor
