Sh'mot, Exodus 1:1-6:1

Shabbat:  December 29, 2007/20 Tevet 5768

This is a great passage.  It covers the slavery in Egypt, the midwives' rebellion against Pharoh, and Moses' call to service.

I'm especially interested in it, because this was the Torah portion for my birthday.

I had originally planned to spend more time studying the portion, and then writing a hopefully decent essay about it.  I had also planned to continue doing this each week.  

So far, I feel I have fallen short, but...that's not unlike how Moses felt when he was chosen to lead the Hebrews.

He believed that he wasn't good enough; he thought that HaShem should have chosen someone who was a better speaker, who was more charismatic, who was, well, not Moses.  But, as we know, he was convinced otherwise by certain miracles.  This is where we're very different; I don't have a staff, much less one that was turned into a snake before my eyes. 

Even so, there are some important things that I need to learn as I begin my 28th year:

• Speak up for myself, when the situation calls for it
• Correct injustices happening around me
• Believe that I am capable of more than I know now

Vayeitzei, Genesis 28:10−32:3

Shabbat: November 17, 2007/7 Kislev 5768

From Reform Voices of Torah:

"These words of Torah arrive in poetic symmetry with Thanksgiving.  And so we ask, as we do every year, 'For what do we give thanks?'  Perhaps the answers come less easily these days.  It's easy to give thanks when jobs abound, when our children know only peace.  Today the housing market alone drives many to despondency...The horizon looms with the hazy uncertainty of climate change and our dependency on diminishing oil reserves.  Who can blame a person for feeling discouraged and depleted?
"Amid this wilderness, can we, with Jacob, yet find cause to say, 'Truly, the Eternal is in this place, and I did not know it'
"In the wilderness, a place devoid of life, Jacob found reason to celebrate his life, to give thanks for his journey, and to look to the future with hope.  So we must try."

"Where a wilderness had loomed, Jacob found a place where earth and heaven met: a ladder rooted in that place (it could have been any place) that reached to a place of radiance".

"Take a few minutes to make your list [of reasons that made life worth living].  As you write it down, you may see a ladder that connects the terrestrial to the celestial.  We pass them by every day, as we walk in awe-inspiring places, yet do not know it.  Cast your eyes to the simple things that give you joy and peace and you may glimpse a sacred stairway.  They are everywhere, inviting us to ascend."

My list:

• learning something new
  
• seeing my crush, either in pictures or in person
  
• singing in my car
  
• salsa dancing
  
• winning
  
• laughing