Muse
-
May God Make You Like...
![]()
Who can forget the iconic Sabbath Blessing duet from the movie "Fiddler on the Roof"? The parents in each household in the shtetl, the Jewish village, make, in essence, (although in English) the same blessing over their children as their ancestors made, and as we say today,
" May God make you like Ephraim and Menashe", for boys, and
"May God make you like Sarah, Rivka, Rachel and Leah" (Some put Leah first, as she became Jacob's wife before her younger sister, who was promised to him, did, but that's another story), for girls.
Like many of you, I never thought to question or examine this more deeply,
-
What Sets You Apart?
![]()
https://renaissancewomankippot.org/blogs/muse/what-sets-you-apart
In the wilderness, the Children of Israel were given what is known as the Holiness Code: in addition to the Ten Commandments, these were ways in which we were instructed to dress, behave, eat and act differently from the surrounding peoples. One reason for this...
-
The Great Sabbath
![]()
One of my favorite scenes in the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz, is when Dorothy and Company, after having been scrubbed and dressed to the nines ... -
A Holy Dwelling
![]()
The Torah readings Vayakhel and Pekudey are often chanted on the same Shabbat, and the Haftarah is usually the one which echoes many of the details... -
A Grandmother Apartment for God?
![]()
What to do about Grandma? Many of us have had this discussion with our families. Should we build an addition onto the house: a “Grandma apartment”, if you will? Fill it with some, but not all, of her treasured memories? And what to do with the myriads of family pictures, some of which were taken during the early days of photography, when the camera employed to collect those memories was, itself, nearly as big as an apartment?
Now imagine what Moses must have felt like when shown the plans for God’s apartment: the Mishkan, wherein God’s presence would be concentrated when the Israelites camped in the desert! An involved commission from the One who created the entire world? NO PROBLEM!! (Not.)
-
Dinah Rising
![]()
Dinah, daughter of Leah and Jacob, has long been a source of speculation, angst, misplaced blame, and a defiant reminder of the ills of the patriar... -
Sustainer of Life
![]()
Have you ever been in a situation so dire that it made you question your sanity? Your beliefs? Have you then been fortunate enough to have come full circle, by experiences which explain and even undo the damage because they lead to, or were guided by, a higher purpose? -
We cannot foresee all ends...
![]()
We cannot foresee all ends...
https://renaissancewomankippot.org/blogs/muse/we-cannot-foresee-all-ends
When a child is born, new possibilities enter the world, new potential arises. We don't know whether this child will grow to be a good person, a so-so, average person, or a wicked one. At the time of birth,they are all perfect. Just so, when unforeseen events happen, we don't always immediately know...
-
As the Gate Closes...
![]()
Do we have any sci/fi /fantasy folk around here? Besides me, that is! Have you ever read a book so profound that you want to grab everybody you kno... -
God's Grimoire
![]()
What would we see if we looked into God's Book of Life? Would it look like an ancient grimoire, such as the one owned by Hagrid,from the Harry Potter series? -
On the Fringe
![]()
Being "on the fringe" can mean the outer periphery of a place, ideas that are quite far from the accepted norm, even land that is on the far flung ... -
Lifting up the Heads
![]()
Lifting up the Heads
https://renaissancewomankippot.org/blogs/muse/lifting-up-the-heads
Parshat Naso deals with a lot of mundane "stuff": from the census to the "sota", the trial by ordeal forced upon a suspected adulteress ( but not, we note, for the adulterer). She is forced to drink waters which will make her violently ill or kill her. As my former Rabbi, Jonathan Cohen, used to say,
"What is it about the patriarchy that you don't get?"
And yet, Manoah's WIFE is addressed in the Haftarah...
