"On #Seder night too, the #Torah gave us a #mitzvah – a beautiful opportunity – “to relate the story of the #Exodus”. This means generations sitting together and exploring the narrative, telling what happened to our ancestors and connecting to the freedom as #Hashem took us out of #Egypt with miracles.

It’s the themes of faith, nationhood, gratitude and mission. And the #rabbis enshrined this in fifteen Seder night steps and the #Haggadah text – albeit currently one that not all of us understand. So how do we navigate that balance?

To ditch the Haggadah altogether is to ignore key text and the rabbis’ Seder night wisdom and guidance. Yet to recite the Haggadah without knowing what it says is to forgo the educational opportunity that is Seder night! Especially since some of the stages in Seder night are aimed at piquing children’s interest – some of the steps or the encouragement of questions."

https://www.thejc.com/judaism/how-to-make-your-seder-more-child-friendly-y1219a6j

Following the courageous actions and words of Bishop Mariann Budde earlier in the week, as she addressed the man in the White House to his face, people are asking how we the American public can hold onto values that run in the opposite direction of cruelty.

I'd like to share a conversation my spouse and I had yesterday with a neighbor.

#mercy #compassion #justice #HumanRights #solidarity #mitzvah #Trump
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#CORRECTED- see comment
#Shavuot this year was a delightful season. It started a few days early with getting to lead a humanistic service that discussed the idea of the #Mitzvah of study, and then after that I got to attend most of #ShavuotLive (from the folks at #JudaismUnbound). And finally it all ended last night with a delightful outdoor Shavuot service at my local Reform temple, capped with them having an ice cream truck come by after services.

The only thing I missed was getting to eat some fancy cheese.

Speaking of Shavuot Live, I have to brag on two Fediverse cats who spoke at the event: @lexaphus and @devotaj
(who not only presented her planned presentation, but jumped in to teach another short session when another presenter was having zoom difficulties).

And if you missed it live, here's the link to watch the recordings: https://www.judaismunbound.com/shavuot2024

I may post some more thoughts on individual sessions on this thread, as I'm hoping to get re-listen to everything.

My rabbi is a good guy, and well suited to our community, but lately he's on a musar (ethics) kick, and he has this shtick about how sometimes the pendulum of Jewish life swings toward fussy doing of mitzvot with great exactitude, and then every time that happens another movement comes along and swings things back toward the ethical questions...

Well, not to complain, but I hate the way everyone nods enthusiastically about how ethics are so self-evidently more important than, you know, actually just doing mitzvot, even mitzvot that aren't literally and specifically about tikun olam or self-improvement in service of world-improvement.

As Y. Leibowitz famously said, approximately, "if HaShem commanded me to daven by reading the telephone book every day, instead of the siddur, I'd pray by reading the telephone book."

I like nothing so much as a mitzvah that has no obvious meaning. Meaning just gets in the way.

Meaning? feh

Hey, want to know what's awesome? ROBOTS!
Want to know what's even MORE awesome?! ROBOTS DOING MITZVAHS!

Jewish author Dara Horn trained her pet robot, Spot, to shake the lulav! This Boston Dynamics robot lives in their house as their only pet. I wonder if it plays Connect Four...

(Source: Tablet Magazine twitter.com/tabletmag/status/1709681825185218913)
#Robot #Robots #GFish #PetsThatPlayConnectFour #Mitzvah #Lulav #Sukkot

Good morning #Mazeldon and #Jewish folks across the fediverse. In response to the unthinkable numbers who perished in Maui who remain unrecovered, The International #Shmirah Hub is scheduling virtual shomrim to read tehillim and daven with kavannah for the safety of their bodies until they can be found. If you have a half hour for this #mitzvah you can visit https://www.shmirah.com/ to volunteer.

R. Yosef Caro says that enduring illness and suffering without complaint is like like a #mitzvah