Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #TORAH

Most recents (24)

(1/7) * Scriptural #NewYEar (#YomTeruah) falls on March 22, 2023 in the Gregorian calendar.

* #Passover (#Pesach) is on the evening of April 04, 2023

* First Day of the #FeastOfUnleavenedBread (#ChagHaMatzot) is on April 05
(2/7) * The Seventh Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Chat haMatzot) is on April 11, 2023 in the Gregorian calendar.

---

* A 24-hour “Day” is from dawn to dawn; or sunrise to sunrise; or from 06:00 to 06:00.
(3/7) * The first half of a 24-hour “Day” is daylight, from 06:00 to 18:00.
* The second half of a 24-hour “Day” is nighttime, or evening, from 18:00 to 06:00.
Read 8 tweets
109.01/ Week one-hundred and nine, August 13-19, 2022, thread begins here.

Week 108 below.
109.02/ Is there an award for putting an item in my Amazon cart, checking out "Customers who viewed this item also viewed", and seeing only things I've purchased over the past years? Some kind of "You are a singular oddball" award?
109.03/ Informative thread; this particular point is right out of halakha and the need for "hatra'ah" (warning) in order to establish mens rea.
Read 28 tweets
105.01/ Week one-hundred and five, July 16-22, 2022, thread begins here.

The #ThreeWeeks begin here as well, sorry.

Week 104 below.
105.02/ Wait, hold on, the longest hottest fast day - #ShivaAsarBiTammuz - is #NationalIceCreamDay?! This is both irritatingly annoying... and religiously satisfying. We get extra credit for the fast!

nj.com/food/2022/07/n…
105.03/ Gotta hand it to #ShivaAsarBiTammuz this year, it's getting its money's worth because I'm feeling really terrible. Excellent quality, consistent results. A well-crafted day of affliction. 5 stars on yelp and/or five yelps.
Read 24 tweets
1/ #ChochmatNashim for #Chukat

I'm making this it's own thread for now because, as is my wont, the list is expanding and it may be useful for other people to just have on its own. This is part of a larger parsha project I've been working on since the dawn of the WWW (1997 or so)
Read 7 tweets
97.01/ Week ninety-seven, May 21-27, 2022, thread begins here.

Week 96 below.
97.02/ #ShavuaTov everyone. My wife texted from Israel that she got positive PCR test when she landed in Israel - one day before they rescinded that requirement! She's asymptomatic, thank God, but I just don't know how it could've been avoided b/c the 'rona is rampant y'all.
97.03/ It was in the 90s today and my downstairs A/C broke days ago and I can't get a guy here until Tuesday. I told them they can prioritize others because my upstairs A/C works, Thank God, so it's not a safety issue for us. But I wouldn't mind it getting fixed soon.
Read 34 tweets
I've seen some folx claiming that opposing abortion bans as a #Jewish value is a lie and a leftist conspiracy, based on a reading of Genesis 9:7: Be fruitful and multiply. With thanks (as always) to @TheRaDR and @roripn and Rabbanit Leah Sarna, some reasons that is wrong. 1/
So, first-- there is the fact that while #Torah is our foundational text, it is not often the text on which we pasken (make halakhic decisions/decisions on #Jewish law). For that, we go to our interpretive texts. 2/
These are the texts like the #Mishnah, the #Talmud, and later commentators. And, here is a sampling of what they have to say. First from @ncjw: sefaria.org/sheets/234926?… 3/
Read 8 tweets
I received a treasure trove of photographs of Old Williamsburg in the 50s. I don’t know whom to credit for it but they’re too good not to share.

1. Windows
Read 13 tweets
58a/ This is part 2 of my thread of threads. Weeks 001 to 0057 is here.


Week 58, Aug. 21-27, 2021, 36 posts:
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1429448…
58a.2/ It's been so long, that I forgot my methodology. In addition to the thread, I need to post the first Tweet in the thread (especially if the threaders go kaput)

Week 58, Aug. 21-27, 2021, 36 posts:
58b/ From Aug 22, a travelogue of our family's Summer Trip to the Hudson River Valley.

32 Posts.

Starts here:

Thread:
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1429493…
Read 62 tweets
79.01/ Week seventy-nine, January 15-21, 2022, thread here.

Week 78 below.
79.02/ Every erev-Shabbas I say 'stay safe' and while that's generally about the pandemic, for my fellow Jews it's also about the onslaught of antisemitism that assaults us since the dominance of unchecked hate on social media which led to the rise of Trump (ym'sh) and others.
Read 32 tweets
In last week's #Torah portion, we were introduced to a character named Potiphar.

We run into a character this week with a simillar name that ended up creating a lot of confusion.

So here's a short thread to show how confusing it is!

#Mikeitz
#EBAMeme

1/7 Image
The #Torah calls Potiphar a chief chef. But most commentators don't like that. Some say he was a butcher (the text doesn't indicate that).

And because of the importance of a different Poti-phera, some hold that he was the chief executioner.

(Imagination)

#Mikeitz
#EBAMeme

2/7 Image
The #Torah also calls Potiphar a eunuch. Again, many commentators are uncomfortable with this. After all, he was married. And the other Poti-phera had a daughter.

So some claim it just means that he was an important official, with his genitals intact!

#Mikeitz
#EBAMeme

3/7 Image
Read 7 tweets
70.01/ Week seventy, Nov. 13-19, 2021 thread begins here.

Week 69 below.
70.02/ So many self-appointed smart guys told me that Garland was doing nothing. They were wrong & caused panic because they are impatient Dunning-Kruger cynics seized by the #Literalist fallacy that if they didn't see DOJ's work, it didn't exist.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
70.03/ I’m just one man, but if the supply chain problems are caused by not enough little packets of soy sauce/spicy mustard/duck sauce then I can help out immediately.

I’m also willing to propose they be functionally considered currency instead of bitcryptocoins.
Read 42 tweets
Isaac is the first Biblical character whose prayer is answered. He's also the first Biblical character who is said to love. In contrast to Abraham and Jacob, Isaac has only one wife. I connected these dots for my weekly #Torah commentary.

etzhasadeh.substack.com/p/private-gran…
Abraham’s prayer on behalf of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah is arguably a morally superb one, as it is maximally disinterested, concerned with principled justice. But is it born out of love?
Abraham read Rawls, as it were, and simply quoted God “the difference principle.” “Imagine, God, that you were standing behind a veil of ignorance, and that you yourself might end up in Sodom…would you want it to be destroyed if there were 50 good people there?”
Read 18 tweets
[thread]

Let's talk a little bit about the #Torah story where Isaac pretends that his wife is his sister.

It is not only directly lifted from the story of Abraham, but seems oddly inserted in the timeline.

#EBAMeme
#Toldot

1/6
Previously, we are told that Rebecca was barren for 20 yrs (25:21), then she was pregnant with twins, and it was such a painful time, she walked to visit Yahweh to get some advice.

#EBAMeme
#Toldot

2/6
Years go by, and the twins grow up. And there's this strange story, full of puns, about Esau selling his birthright.

#EBAMeme
#Toldot

3/6
Read 6 tweets
1/ Nearly every Shabbat & Yom Tov since I left the pulpit I've prepared a drasha & shiur that I know I won't be able to deliver. I've described that for many artists the need to produce the art overwhelms an actual audience. The art compels them.
2/ I define art broadly to encompass every creative faculty that arises from the multiple intelligences, talents & perceptions in human capability. We know singers or painters are artists, but so is a teacher or philosopher. IMO society doesn't define an art, humanity does.
3/ Not everyone who has artistic talent or drive or vocation needs to have a feeling of compulsion. My chiddush (intellectual innovation) is to say everyone with that need to create has the soul of an artist whether they are recognized or not.
Read 26 tweets
1/ Since the beginning of the #TrumpCrisis, I've had ever increasingly difficult #YomKippur davening because of the burden I feel to act as a 'sanegor' (defender) for my community and for the Jewish world at large.

(This is in addition to the vast ways I need to improve myself)
2/ I'm not a gadol, a posek, or anything close to a tzadik. But after seeing so many rebbeim & gedolim openly support Trump (ym'sh), erase women from Jewish life, and encourage anti-vax shtuyot, I considered the tenuous possibility that I would need to act as a communal sanegor.
3/ With the established leadership descending into avoda-zara (DJT), shefichat-damim (COVID denial) & arayot (dehumanizing women), I needed to step up - out of safek-nefashot - and use all of my halakhic, rhetorical & philosophical ability to devise kappara for the Am Kadosh.
Read 17 tweets
1/ #ReshetKeshet
Before #RoshHashanah there's a common practice to utter a blanket request for forgiveness. E.g. "To everyone I know or encountered please forgive me. OK bye!"

You're correct in thinking that this depersonalized superficial "apology" is hollow & thus ineffective.
2/ How can I forgive someone if they don't know what they did to me? Doesn't admit real guilt, express regret, detail how they will work towards restitution, or describe how they will fix their mentality/behavior to avoid hurting me in the future.
3/ However, #RoshHashanah is a dangerous time of year. Tradition understands the stakes are the highest possible. It's an annual review before the King of Kings, arbiter of justice, and we treat it like the final exam worth 100% of our grade.
Read 16 tweets
1/ I try to teach my kids leadership lessons from my observed, taught, & lived experience. E.g. (1) 90% of leadership praxis is communication (yet too often unpracticed, with disastrous results) (2) vision is as necessary as operations but without one you're either blind or lame.
2/ (3) Vision is strategy, operations are tactics, but both are neutralized without logistics, (4) ultimately, a leader needs to put the welfare of the group above themselves; it should be the reason they consent to the imagine oneself capable of making decisions for others.
3/ #4 is about self-sacrifice and without that, leadership becomes exploitative. (5) In order to determine all elements - strategy, tactics, vision, and consent of the governed - you need a system of error checking.

Read 29 tweets
55.01/ Week fifty-five, July 31-Aug 6 2021, thread begins here.

Week 54 below
55.02/ I have no idea (yet?) how to handle this case brought up by @AnaMardoll and I think I need to because I can envision needing a solution IRL.

(Note, it also illustrates why conservatives were so afraid of D&D: it allows kids to broaden their worlds)
55.03/ As I've gotten older I've come to view this mishnah from Avot as more & more central to both practical & ideal wisdom. Especially for the internet.

It's an early indictment of #DunningKruger blowhards: stop talking! Listen. Less talk, more rock.

chabad.org/library/articl…
Read 47 tweets
1/ #ReshetKeshet

I had intended to write a lot more this week, especially about #DafYomi because some of my favorite topics are being covered, so I want to at least say something quick today about Sukkah 14b & "emergency halakhah":
sefaria.org/Sukkah.14b.9?l…
2/ During the height of the pandemic, especially before Pesach, many rabbis needed to issue extreme leniencies. I've been asked why we don't allow these lenient positions all the time.

If it's permitted once, why not all the time? If it's fundamentally wrong, why allow it now?
3/ Today's daf has the rabbis saying to Rebbe Yehudah: "How can you bring proof from emergency times?" meaning that this type of ruling is automatically presumed to be contingent & conditional to specific, desperate circumstances. sefaria.org/Sukkah.14b.9?l…
Read 17 tweets
In this week's #Torah portion, we are introduced to several supernatural entities, one of which is called "Rephaim".

Keep in mind that "Rephaim" is older than the OT and is an appropriated word from the Canaanites.

So what were they in ANE literature?

#Devarim
#EBAMeme

1/5
In ANE religions lie the OT, death was dreary and undesirable. It is a lonely existence unless you were deserving in life, meaning, a great hero or leader. In such a case you could serve the Gods, interact with the living, making you one of the Rephaim.

#Devarim
#EBAMeme

2/5
We see this from the author of the Divine War story in Genesis 14 or Joshua 9-13, where the Rephaim of the Goddess Ashteroth are participants.

And in Job where the Rephaim are mentioned as being distinct from the other residents of Sheol.

#Devarim
#EBAMeme

3/5
Read 5 tweets
29/ #ReshetKeshet.

About fear as a Jewish ethic and how it applies to many contexts.

45 posts.

Unrolls: threader.app/thread/1394003…
&
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1394003…

Original:
31/ #ReshetKeshet thread about medical halakhah and the nature of tacit, subconscious, leadership.

11 Posts.

Unrolls:
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1410770…
&
threader.app/thread/1410770…

Original:
Read 14 tweets
Examples of appropriation of #Arabic toponyms
List will name #Palestinian villages, place names depopulated before or in 1948, followed by #Israeli settlements with toponyms derived from names of destroyed #Palestinian villages:

#Lubya
Depopulated July 1948 (Bean in #Arabic)
#Lavi (Kibbutz); founded 1948 (Lion in #Hebrew)

#Al-Kabri ( Western #Galilee) depopulated on May 21st 1948
#Kabri (Kibbutz); founded 1949

#Alma (#Sadad district)
Depopulated on October 30th, 1948
#Alma (#moshav ) founded in 1949

#Biriyya;
Depopulated on May 2,
-, 1948

#Amqa (#Acre are)
Depopulated october, 1948
#Amka (Moshav) founded 1949

#Sajara (Lower #Galilee);
Depopulated: July, 1948
#Tree in #Arabic
#AynZaytun (Western #Galilee)
Spring #Olives in #Arabic
#Ilaniya (Tree in #Hebrew)+ #EinZeitim (kibbutz) Spring olive
Read 21 tweets
Why not try to look upwards towards the top of the pyramid and instead mainly kick upwards, towards the root cause & not just the symptoms, & above all don't let yourself be fooled by the Freemasons within B'nai B'rith & their military sub-organization Anti-Defamation League:#ADL
FACTS: #Paideia was created in 2000 through grants from the Swedish government (i.e. us taxpayers). One of Paideia's goals is "supporting cultural diversity"

Listen: "Jews is going to be in the center of that"...(0:20)


+Threads:
As if it were not enough with the waste of tax money to Paideia, the Swedish government now also wants to make it a criminal offense to deny the Holocaust. That message was given by the @socialdemokrat Minister of Justice @johanssonmorgan

The truth does not need to be defended❗️ Image
Read 10 tweets

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