This weeks Shabbos thread

Hi All,

As usual this is the thread where people can share their thoughts of the week, leave prayers or discuss whatever they want, including the week's Torah portion. 

I guess this weeks special prayers need to be particularly for the current situation in Gaza; to pray for the safety of our brothers and sisters in  Israel, be they in the IDF or the families of the IDF or the population generally, who are  hold up in bunkers to protect themselves from terrorist rocket attacks. May we pray for peace and no more loss of lives on both sides and may our prayers be received in mercy by Hakodosh Boroch Hu, and help usher in days of peace and security; may we look forward to the coming of the Messiah & the time in which war and suffering will be things of the past. 

Here in the UK,  we need to pray over the current debate in the House of Lords over the assisted dying bill; may their Lordships be guided by G-d to vote against this horrendous piece of legislation and may we continue to worship the G-d of life. 

Some Tehillim (Psalms)  which I hope will help people:

• Chapter 6
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 83
• Chapter 91 
• Chapter 130
• Chapter 142

I'll leave you with this thought :

Edited Humash?

I'm a blogging roll today !

It's come to my attention that a brand of Haredi Hasidic Judaism[1] has released a new Humash [2] for their girl's school. Which is great, except that it has come to light that this version has edited out various parts of the Torah [3], including the Genesis creation account and the 'sexual' parts of the Hebrew Bible. Which is great if that is what they want to do; personally I am not sure how you can study the Torah properly with bits missing and to be honest Haredi are very sniffy when it comes to adherence to one's religion and one's religion is based around the Torah. Orthodox Jews believe that "This, The Torah of Moses, shall not be abrogated, nor shall there be any other Torah from G-d save it". 

I and others of my family have often been criticised by Haredi  and those outside of our faith who seem to like their brand of Judaism, for seemingly saying 'to hell with Halakhah'. Except we never do, what we do is to work with The Torah, Tradition, Reason, a dipping into mysticism & Zohar and the Hebrew Bible, to understand it and apply it, not to work against it. We certainly do not edit parts we don't like out. We grapple, struggle, debate & learn to understand these passages. Precisely because we are not Reform Jews we simply can't dismiss them as being irrelevant or out of date, which to my mind at least is never a very satisfactory answer to a curious and intelligent mind. 

Not that I'm suggesting that this movement is now doing what Reform Jews do and not that I'm saying  what Reform Jews do is wrong, but that Haredi Orthodox always like to tell everyone else what the rest of us are doing wrong . Heaven forbid that I would do so. Just don't go around calling me a heretic when a Haredi sect goes around taking bits out of the Bible that they don't want to teach, deal with or cope with. At least I am my family try and deal with the text as it is without heavy edits. You know, the way it should be .

NOTES : 

[1] the Skverer dynasty (or school or sect), who reject material in favour of spiritual, a bit like monk in Christianity, see their history here

[2] Humash is the word for The Torah in printed form, rather than the scrolls we use in Shuls. It is where the word Pentateuch comes from.

[3] See here, here and here 

Thought for the day : True Friendship

Someone once approached the Rebbe and asked simply: “What exactly do you do? And why are you admired by so many?” 

The Rebbe replied: “I try to be a good friend.” 

Incredulous, the man blurted out: “A friend? That’s all you do?!”

Unfazed, the Rebbe responded with a question of his own: “How many friends do you have?”

“I have many.” 

“Let me define a friend for you, and then tell me how many friends you have. A friend is someone in whose presence you can think aloud without worrying about being taken advantage of.A friend is someone who suffers with you when you are in pain and rejoices in your joy. A friend is someone who looks out for you, and always has your best interests in mind. In fact, a true friend is like an extension of yourself.” 

The Rebbe then asked with a smile: “Now tell me, how many friends like that do you have?”

Not everyone can become a Rebbe or Rabbi...But we can all strive to be better friends & this is the attitude and mindset we need to adopt to each other in our lives, in both the ordinary and spiritual, practical and day to day.