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Azamra for Everyone Part 4
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Why are we asked to make a judgment at all, positive or negative? Why does HS arrange for us to “stand in judgment” of each other?
Uh, oh. I now realize that I pretty much condemn others all the...
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A young man named Rabbi Meir, who would later become one of the defining figures in the Talmud, went to visit the senior Sage, Rabbi Yishmael. The elder rabbi asked him "My son, what is your profession?" "I am a scribe" his young colleague...
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In the Song of the Sea, Moses says "This is my G-d and I will beautify Him..." The rabbis ask "How can we beautify G-d? Beautify Him with Mitzvot! Anything you make for the Divine Service should be beautiful." This is understood in two ways. One...
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We are required to write the Torah and other Holy Writings in "dyo" (ink). The ink must be black, the most changeless color, much like G-d and His Torah are changeless. In ancient times, scribes would prepare their own ink out of soot (usually...
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The scribe is about to write. He has purchased fine parchment. It may be pre-ruled, or he may prefer to rule it himself. Each letter will "hang" from lines scratched into the parchment, except for the letter "lamed", the top of which goes over the...
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We have seen how the Ashkenazi script became very pervasive through the careful documentation of the Beit Yosef. The descendants of German Jewry, as they moved Eastward into Poland, Russia, and other East European countries, took this scrip with...
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When I lived in Israel, one Shabbat I was standing on the steps of the synagogue after morning services, with two friends/students. I told them a teaching of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov: "A person must either fool the whole world, or fool himself. If...
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Besides the Sephardic and Ashkenazic scripts, several others are used.I have mentioned on several occasions the customs of the Yemenites. The Jews of Yemen are the oldest continuous group in Jewish history. They were in one geographic area since...
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I have described in an earlier series my unbounded admiration for Rabbi Issac Luria (1534-1572), generally known as the ARI (Holy Lion). He was a great Kabbalist, as well as an accomplished scholar in other areas. He would go into the deeper...
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"If your wife is short, lean over and whisper" (Talmud, Bava Metzi'a 59). Rashi explains: "seek her advice". Although there can be many ways of understanding this, i wold like to offer the following:Rabbi Nachman has a teaching in which he...
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