“It is important to understand that the opposite of slavery is not a lack of limits, but the guidelines freely adopted by responsible people. The opposite of slavery is self-determination, the freedom to choose and create our own destiny.”
I absolutely LOVE this paragraph! So insightful and beautifully written. It transcends to ALL people…
“It is important to understand that the opposite of slavery is not a lack of limits, but the guidelines freely adopted by responsible people. The opposite of slavery is self-determination, the freedom to choose and create our own destiny.”
Absolutely correct. But we don't have to just go to Oct 7. We can go to books by Holocaust survivors written now or recently and learn from them how to recognize the signs. Yes remembering who we are is important but it is not everything. Showing strength is crucial as well.
Thank you Thomas for the like. i feel that M'Geyn Mir Shoin is filled in latter half with a precious child Holocaust survivor Alice Muller's thoughts on prevention of further Holocaust attempts. Some people loved this book on its own, but it is written as a sequel to My Name is Alice, her first book, which is a large print monument that yet reads as the child she was at the time. Really amazing work, and the later one specifically deals with Oct &. Hope you get to read them. Alice has been pretty sharp and they teach us so much. Tzipporah
I find it very interesting that Christians have the same problem with Shavuot. It's rarely celebrated. For us it's when we received the promised new covenant spoken by Jeremiah. We get the Torah engraved on our heart in our rebirth. It was the same type of dramatic event for the world. But it is not celebrated. I assume that it's because you must love Adonai to get excited about the Torah. Be that as it may be: I'm grateful that the promised end will be here soon and the King will take His seat on the throne in Jerusalem. I can hardly wait.
Within the Catholic tradition we certainly make a big deal of it. It is called by the Greek name Pentecost, which means 50, much like Shavuot just means Weeks
For us it is a big thing, with special readings and hymns, and brings an end to Eastertide, and leads into the three special celebrations of Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi, and the feast of Saints Peter and Paul
So for Catholics Pentecost is the celebration of receiving the Holy Spirit, just as Shavuot is about receiving Torah
I agree. I began with the Lord as an Anglo-Catholic. For me and my wife, it was always the Big Three: Advent/Christmas, Passover/Easter, and Pentecost. However, because my denomination went off the rails, leaving me without a church, I have found that what some liturgical churches celebrate is very rare. Even in the Episcopal churches, a solid teaching on the Holy Spirit was almost never heard. It was reduced to a recollection of a historical event.
I’m not sure I have ever heard a sermon about how Pentecost brought in the new covenant by fulfilling Jeremiah’s prophecy that the Torah would be written on our heart. I’ve been walking all of this intently since 1974.
>all nations that embraced the Ten Commandments as the definitive guideline for a moral and decent society, and a stark contrast to other societies who did not make that same choice.
What an odd statement. I’m assuming this refers to Christian and Muslim nations and yet later on the author complains about dhimmi, an Islamic term with clear parallels in Christian history. Seems like the 10 Commandments aren’t the be all and end all of morality. Standing with the ‘Western civilisation’ that spent 2000 years putting Jews in yellow hats and ghettos and finished it off with the biggest massacre of Jews in hairy, while slandering the religions and cultures with no such history of persecution is certainly a take.
Islam did not adopt the 10 Commandments. They took some of the same ideas but that's not the equivalent to adopting the identical ideas.
And yes, the Christian world was often cruel to Jews, it's still an interpretation of our ideas which led to the creation of the free west - an option I far prefer to any other offered in the world.
That’s a baffling statement, considering Islamic Monotheism and Christian Tritheism, not to mention Saturday being as-Sabt in Arabic. Whatever specific religious claims are made by both sides, facts still ought to trump them and Islam has a far better claim to be following the 10 Commandments than Christians.
>it's still an interpretation of our ideas which led to the creation of the free west
No, in no way has this any basis in historical fact. Religious and political freedom has never existed in any society that puts the Abrahamic tradition foremost. The Revolutions in America and France than birthed the rise of secularism came directly from the Greek and Roman democratic tradition.
If you read the Bible and understand basic math, Sinai did not occur on Shavuot. Count 3 new moons after the Shabbat of Pesach. That is roughly 75 days, not 50. Shavuot is a harvest festival to be kept IN The LAND. Not that the commandments are to be ignored, but not celebrated on Shavuot.
“It is important to understand that the opposite of slavery is not a lack of limits, but the guidelines freely adopted by responsible people. The opposite of slavery is self-determination, the freedom to choose and create our own destiny.”
Well said, Forrest - and well done!
G-d bless, Mike
I absolutely LOVE this paragraph! So insightful and beautifully written. It transcends to ALL people…
“It is important to understand that the opposite of slavery is not a lack of limits, but the guidelines freely adopted by responsible people. The opposite of slavery is self-determination, the freedom to choose and create our own destiny.”
Ending the conflict between religious and non-religious Jew is the most important goal for survival and success of our nation.
Absolutely correct. But we don't have to just go to Oct 7. We can go to books by Holocaust survivors written now or recently and learn from them how to recognize the signs. Yes remembering who we are is important but it is not everything. Showing strength is crucial as well.
Thank you Thomas for the like. i feel that M'Geyn Mir Shoin is filled in latter half with a precious child Holocaust survivor Alice Muller's thoughts on prevention of further Holocaust attempts. Some people loved this book on its own, but it is written as a sequel to My Name is Alice, her first book, which is a large print monument that yet reads as the child she was at the time. Really amazing work, and the later one specifically deals with Oct &. Hope you get to read them. Alice has been pretty sharp and they teach us so much. Tzipporah
How do you like that? Right after I posted my substack on shavuot notice of yours came to my email. So instead of commenting on your piece may I share a link to mine as an approving comment? https://open.substack.com/pub/schecter/p/on-shavuot-the-land-and-the-book?r=1wpgf7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
I find it very interesting that Christians have the same problem with Shavuot. It's rarely celebrated. For us it's when we received the promised new covenant spoken by Jeremiah. We get the Torah engraved on our heart in our rebirth. It was the same type of dramatic event for the world. But it is not celebrated. I assume that it's because you must love Adonai to get excited about the Torah. Be that as it may be: I'm grateful that the promised end will be here soon and the King will take His seat on the throne in Jerusalem. I can hardly wait.
Within the Catholic tradition we certainly make a big deal of it. It is called by the Greek name Pentecost, which means 50, much like Shavuot just means Weeks
For us it is a big thing, with special readings and hymns, and brings an end to Eastertide, and leads into the three special celebrations of Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi, and the feast of Saints Peter and Paul
So for Catholics Pentecost is the celebration of receiving the Holy Spirit, just as Shavuot is about receiving Torah
Shalom to all
I agree. I began with the Lord as an Anglo-Catholic. For me and my wife, it was always the Big Three: Advent/Christmas, Passover/Easter, and Pentecost. However, because my denomination went off the rails, leaving me without a church, I have found that what some liturgical churches celebrate is very rare. Even in the Episcopal churches, a solid teaching on the Holy Spirit was almost never heard. It was reduced to a recollection of a historical event.
I’m not sure I have ever heard a sermon about how Pentecost brought in the new covenant by fulfilling Jeremiah’s prophecy that the Torah would be written on our heart. I’ve been walking all of this intently since 1974.
>all nations that embraced the Ten Commandments as the definitive guideline for a moral and decent society, and a stark contrast to other societies who did not make that same choice.
What an odd statement. I’m assuming this refers to Christian and Muslim nations and yet later on the author complains about dhimmi, an Islamic term with clear parallels in Christian history. Seems like the 10 Commandments aren’t the be all and end all of morality. Standing with the ‘Western civilisation’ that spent 2000 years putting Jews in yellow hats and ghettos and finished it off with the biggest massacre of Jews in hairy, while slandering the religions and cultures with no such history of persecution is certainly a take.
Islam did not adopt the 10 Commandments. They took some of the same ideas but that's not the equivalent to adopting the identical ideas.
And yes, the Christian world was often cruel to Jews, it's still an interpretation of our ideas which led to the creation of the free west - an option I far prefer to any other offered in the world.
>Islam did not adopt the 10 Commandments
That’s a baffling statement, considering Islamic Monotheism and Christian Tritheism, not to mention Saturday being as-Sabt in Arabic. Whatever specific religious claims are made by both sides, facts still ought to trump them and Islam has a far better claim to be following the 10 Commandments than Christians.
>it's still an interpretation of our ideas which led to the creation of the free west
No, in no way has this any basis in historical fact. Religious and political freedom has never existed in any society that puts the Abrahamic tradition foremost. The Revolutions in America and France than birthed the rise of secularism came directly from the Greek and Roman democratic tradition.
Thanks. Food for thought.
If you read the Bible and understand basic math, Sinai did not occur on Shavuot. Count 3 new moons after the Shabbat of Pesach. That is roughly 75 days, not 50. Shavuot is a harvest festival to be kept IN The LAND. Not that the commandments are to be ignored, but not celebrated on Shavuot.
I noticed this years ago. Strange