Your Attention Please The four noble truths – Abraham Heschel wrote: “Only intense self-reflection—at least as powerful as the conditions and falsehood it sought to transcend—could alleviate corruption. As such, this cure arrived at Truth by way of authenticity; it required unrestrained introspection, reflection. This search for increasing, progressive intensity is usually distasteful to man,…
Get truth, and do not sell it, wisdom, reproof, and discernment. Proverbs 23:23 Robert Alter Get truth – Perhaps you’re more familiar with a different translation: “Buy truth, and do not sell it.” The verb is qānâ, “to get, acquire, create,” but since the complementary is “sell,” translators adopt the idea of “buy,” particularly when a commercial translation is…
Now concerning virgins, I have no command of the Lord, but I am offering direction as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy. 1 Corinthians 7:25 NASB Offering direction – The English translation misguides. It ignores the Jewish context of Paul’s statement. How does it do this? By translating gnṓmē as “direction” rather than…
You have put joy in my heart, more than when their grain and new wine are abundant. Psalm 4:7 NASB Joy – You might have thought the end of the phrase should be “the pursuit of happiness,” but you will find that happiness is a rather ephemeral objective. Why? Happiness is that state of feeling contentment…
In the beginning God created heaven and earth Genesis 1:1 (Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, The Living Torah) God created – The Bible starts with creation. It does not start with the divine essence before creation. In fact, it says nothing about God’s essence before God created. Everything in the Bible is conditioned on the interaction between…
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NIV Teach us – “Theotropism, man’s turning toward God, is a structure of experience that may be attained through the performance of ritual acts, prayer,…
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NIV Teach us – Heschel provides an amazing collection of thoughts about prayer. Here’s the one we will deal with today: “Prayer cannot live in…
Well, two things for you to contemplate. First, this photo from Cittadella. The time of Fall colors. Time makes it all happen. And second, this link CLICK HERE to perhaps the most important thing I’ve ever heard from Heschel.
Just some basic reminders that are particularly important to me today. “Prayer is an ontological necessity.”[1] “Prayer is disclosing or at least preventing irreversible concealing.”[2] “Prayer is pleading with God to come out of the depths.”[3] “A soul without prayer is a soul without a home.”[4] “As my prayers, so is my understanding.”[5] “The world…
Exalted be the living God* and praised,. He exists—unbounded by time is His existence.* He is One—and there is no unity like His Oneness. Morning Blessings, ArtScroll Siddur, p. 15 Unbounded by time – The line above is from the morning service in the Jewish Prayer Book. The asterisks in the sentence indicate that there…
