Shalom. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving holiday, and wish you a happy Hanukkah in advance.
We now have about 150 members in our University Network, with students
from throughout the US as well as several other countries. Our group
continues to grow, and we hope you'll invite your fellow students to
sign up for the University Network by going to our website jewishideas.org
Shalom and best wishes for the New Year. Happy Succoth.
I hope you've received the new issue of Conversations, the journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals. Its theme is: Orthodoxy: Family and Gender Issues. Please let me know if you have/have not received it. It's an important issue and I think you'll find it of great interest.
"This is the book of the generations of man (Bereishith 5:1)"
Our last University Network Newsletter offered you a free copy of Rabbi Marc Angel's new book, "Maimonides, Spinoza and Us: Toward an Intellectually Vibrant Judaism." The book is due out early in November. In order to receive your copy, you need to send an email to mdangel@jewishideas.org, and give your current mailing address with your request for a copy of the book. Many of you have already done this, so you need not do so again. However, if you haven't yet requested your copy, please do so asap. THIS OFFER IS GOOD ONLY UNTIL NOVEMBER 1.
The first section of this Shabbat's Torah reading expresses God's concern lest the Israelites revert to idolatry. As in so many other sections of the Torah, we are warned not to worship false gods. This is a grievous sin with terrible consequences.
Suppose that two people were walking by a synagogue on Rosh Hashana just at the time when the shofar was being sounded. The synagogue windows were open, so that both people outside heard the shofar. The first one thought: I wish to be included among those who are fulfilling the mitzvah of hearing the shofar. The second one simply kept walking, having heard the shofar but without paying any particular attention to the sounds. Did either, or both, or neither of them fulfill the mitzvah of shofar?
Best wishes for a happy, healthy and fulfilling New Year. May you go from strength to strength.
Dr. Bruno Bettelheim wrote that "today's popular conviction is that life is a rat race." People have become so engrossed in the battles to get ahead materially in this world, that they tend to put aside the claims of the soul.
As we compete in the rat race, we may not even realize how thoroughly we have abandoned our inner freedom, our quest for ultimate meaning. We want to win the rat race even if it means compromising or abandoning the values that imbue life with genuine meaning.
Most of our religious observances are indoors--in our homes, in our synagogues.We generally do not like to create a public spectacle of our religious experiences, but we behave modestly and try not to call attention to ourselves as we perform mitzvoth.
