Category Archives: Parshiot

Caring for Animals – Sources – LowerPS

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What does the way we treat animals say about us?   

Proverbs 12:10 מִשְׁלֵי

יוֹדֵעַ צַדִּיק  נֶפֶשׁ בְּהֶמְתּוֹ

 A righteous man knows the soul of his animal

You should not sit down to eat until you have first fed your animals.

(Talmud,  Berachot. 40a; Gittin, 62a)

dog bowl

 

You should not buy an animal unless you can guarantee it will have an adequate food supply. (Jerusalem Talmud, Ketubot, 4:8)feeding animals

Shepherds

Moses and David are often described in our tradition as devoted shepherds who gave every animal in their flock personal attention. It was this trait of their personalities that made them worthy in God’s eyes of leading the Jewish people.( Exodus Rabbah 2.2)

Once, while Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, one young sheep ran away. Moses ran after it until the sheep reached a shady place, where he found a pool of water and began to drink. When Moses reached the sheep, he said: ‘I did not know you ran away because you were thirsty. Now, you must be exhausted [from running].’ Moses put the sheep on his shoulders and carried him [back to the herd]. God said, “Because you tend the sheep belonging to human beings with such mercy, you shall be the shepherd of My sheep, Israel.”

Exodus Rabbah 2:2

Drama Activity – אות – lowerPS- upperPS

Drama Activities

Option 1:

Divide into small groups – half the groups will work with the Exodus text (Shemot 12:13) and half the groups with the in the rainbow text – they should create a skit that shows what they think putting the sign (אות) up is about (putting it on the door, in the sky)  in light of their discussion.

 

Option 2:

Divide into small groups – create a skit that shows how you understand the rainbow text in light of some of the distinctions you explored in your community of inquiry.

Discussion Plan: How do Blessings work?

Discussion Plan: How do Blessings work?

1. Can you ask for a blessing? If so, what do you think happens when you are ‘being blessed’?

2. Can you demand or force someone to bless you?

3. Can anyone receive a blessing?

4. Can anyone give a blessing?

5 .Can you give a blessing without realising you have done so?

6. Can a blessing ever be a burden?

7. Can you believe in blessings without believing in curses?

8. Can you believe in blessings without believing in God?

9. What blessing would you wish for?

10. What blessing would you like to give to someone else?


 

Discussion Plan: How do blessings work?

  1. Can you ask for a blessing? If so, what do you think happens when you are ‘being blessed’?
  2. Can you demand or force someone to bless you?
  3. Can anyone receive a blessing?
  4. Can anyone give a blessing?
  5. Can you give a blessing without realising you have done so?
  6. Can a blessing ever be a burden?
  7. Can you believe in blessings without believing in curses?
  8. Can you believe in blessings without believing in God?
  9. What blessing would you wish for?
  10. What blessing would you like to give to someone else?

 

Discussion Plan: Being blessed and giving blessings

Being blessed and giving blessings

  1. Can you be blessed with good health? If so, what does this mean?
  2. Can a day be blessed? Explain
  3. Can a person’s life be blessed? If so, did it need someone to bless it? Explain,
  4.  Can we be a blessing to our parents? If so, what does this mean?
  5. Is there a difference between ‘being blessed’ and ‘receiving a blessing’?
  6. I bless you saying “May God grant you long life”, is that the same as wishing you a long life?
  7. If I bless you saying “May God grant you long life”, is that the same as hoping you will have a long life?
  8. Does giving a blessing guarantee that the content of the blessing will happen or come true?
  9. Can people give blessings, or only God? If people can give them, do you think there is a difference between a blessing given by God and a blessing given by a person? Explain.

Discussion Plan: Giving and Receiving Curses

Discussion Plan: Giving and Receiving Curses

  1. Can you be cursed with bad health? If so, what does this mean?
  2. Can a day be cursed? Explain
  3. Can a person’s life be cursed? If so, did it need someone to curse it? Explain,
  4. Can we be a curse to our parents? To our teachers? If so, what does this mean?
  5. If I curse you by saying “May all your friends abandon you” is that the same as wishing that all your friends would abandon you?
  6. Can people give curses or only God? If people can give them, do you think there is a difference between a curse given by God and a curse given by a person? Explain.
  7. Can having someone curse you ever be a good thing?
  8. Does giving a curse guarantee that the content of the curse will happen or come true?
  9. Can you believe in blessings without believing in curses?
  10. Can you believe in curses without believing in God?

Leading Idea: Blessings and Curses

Leading Idea:  Blessings and Curses

In this passage, God makes three kinds of claims regarding how Avram will be blessed:

  1. I will bless you
  2. You shall be a blessing
  3. All the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you

What is a blessing? What does it mean ‘ to be blessed’? What might it mean to regard yourself blessed by the presence of someone else?

We might make a distinction here between ‘being blessed’ as an activity and ‘being blessed’ as a state of being.

How is giving or receiving a blessing different from being a blessing? Whereas the activity of ‘being blessed’ suggests a kind of transaction – with something being passed on from one person  to another, the state of  ‘being a blessing’ suggests that ‘being blessed’ is some inner quality of a person. We can all think of people who we feel are blessed with certain qualities or character traits.  We might also think of ways that we are blessed because of the presence of other people in our lives.  How might these experiences shed light on the text?

In addition to blessing Avram, God says he will bless all who bless Avram and curse all those who curse him. This not only suggests that people (as well as God) are capable of blessing and cursing – but opens up further questions to think about: What are the moral implications of God acting according to how others treat Avram?  What are we doing when we bless and curse people? Is it just another way of wishing them something (for instance, good or bad luck?). Can the idea of giving or receiving a blessing or a curse have significance even if you don’t believe in ‘ a God who blesses’?

 

Ithika – The Value of Journeying

The Value of Journeying

The following text on Ithaca extends these themes with the idea that the journey, rather than the arriving, is part of the value. Can you think of times where the experience of the Journey is more important than arriving at the journey’s destination?

 

This poem by Constantine Cavafy is an imaginative interpretation of Odysseus’ return to Ithika after the Trojan war. (Odysseus is also known as Ulysses). Following the fall of Troy, it takes Odysseus ten years to complete his long journey back home to Ithaka. This journey is told in The Odyssey, one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. The poem is commonly dated around 700 BCE.

   Ithaca (in Greek, Ιθάκη, Ithaki) is an island in the Ionian Sea, in Greece

 

                                                   http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=74&cat=1

Nechama Leibowitz – Circles of Attachment

Nehama Leibowitz:   from Studies in Bereshit, pp.113

        “לֶךְ-לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ”

               “get thee out of your country, and from your birthplace, and from your father’s house…”

Commentators have remarked on the unusual order. The verse should have read, in the ordinary way:  “מבית אביך, ממולדתך ומארצך” (from your father’s house, your birthplace and from your country.”) This is the logical sequence, since a person first leaves home, then his birthplace and then his fatherland

 The commentary הכתב והקבלה (Haktav Vehakabala)* suggests that there we are referring to a spiritual rather than physical withdrawal, beginning with the periphery and ending with the inner core. The withdrawal from one’s birthplace is not such a cruel wrench as the cutting of one’s connection with one’s family. First, therefore, Abraham was bidden to sever his connection with his country, then his city and finally the most intimate bond, that of home.

*Haktav Vehakabala: Was written by Rabbi Yaakov Tzevi Mecklenburg, a German Jewish scholar of the 19th century. Rabbi Mecklenburg served as Rabbi of Koenigsburg, East Prussia for 35 years (1831-65). Haketav Vehakabbalah was first published in 1839.

Discussion Plan: Leaving Home – PS

Discussion Plan: Leavings

  1. Do you think we all have to ‘leave home’ in order to grow up? Explain.
  2. Avram took his extended family with him – so what was he really leaving behind?
  3. If you go away but you still think about people a lot, and text them/e-mail them, have you left them behind?
  4.  If you still hear them speaking to you – telling you what to do – have you left them behind?
  5. In growing up – do you think the important thing is what you are leaving, or what you are heading towards?
  6. Are you attached to places as well as people? Describe these places.
  7. Which do you think would be more difficult – to leave individual people, or to leave your language and culture?