From my Times of Israel/Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle blog – remember when “privilege” wasn’t a bad word? Here’s how to think about it in a positive light again. It is a privilege to be able to share these words with you: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-privilege-of-a-treasured-possession/
Moving Day
The Healers Who Listen blog is getting a new home! Effective a couple hours ago, my regular posts will now be housed in the Blogs section of Times of Israel. Thanks to Toby Tabachnik of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle for making this happen. Check out installment one at https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/birthday-gematria/!
Open Your Mouth and Say…
A dozen years ago I stood on the bowling green in Frick Park with a group of Jewish teachers from my community to listen to Gabe Goldman, an educator with a strong passion for the environment who had recently arrived in town. He pointed out some poison ivy to us, and then reminded us that often, in nature, the antidote to a poisonous or noxious plant is found in the immediate vicinity of the offending species. The solution is embedded in the same environment that produced the problem.
A well-known Mishna in Pirke Avot (5:6) asserts that God works the same way. At dusk on the sixth day of creation, just before the twilight that would usher in the first Shabbat, God created 10 things that would seem later to be miracles. The Mishna, however, asserts that these were no miracles in the sense of violating the order of the universe, but rather things that were built into the fabric of that universe from the beginning, to serve a single purpose.
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