In the Potter's Hands?

The purpose of this blog is to add some shape and texture to the Shabbat table.... Please print and share.

Thanks to all those who responded to last week's challenge, "The Song Remains the Same?"

This morning we took the kids on a Sukkot stroll down "the Avenue". We were there before the opening time for many of the shops, but one that welcomed us was Wild Yam Pottery. 

Master potter Nancy Brady greeted us with muddy hands from behind her wheel.

Watching a master potter gives that same pleasure of watching a master at any craft - be it basketball, slicing meat, or playing piano. 

They just make it look so easy.

She picks up a lump of wet clay about twice the size of her fist, slaps it down on the wheel, and in what seems like a few seconds, that lump has become a perfect bowl.

Now, Nancy has been at it for over forty years.

What about you and I?

So I'd like to expand last week's challenge from music to any art form, with a couple questions for your table:

1. What display of mastery is your favorite to watch?
2. Is it possible for anyone to master something, given enough time?
3. If you had enough time, what would you want to master?


Happy Sukkot and

Shabbat Shalom
 

PS - Yes, the image is of course clickable.

 

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The Song Remains the Same?

The purpose of this blog is to add melody and harmony the Shabbat table.... Please print and share.

 

Although last week's hard-to-believe "Jewish or Just Jew-ish" email was explicit enough, a regular reader once accused me of not making this weekly Table Talk email "Jewish" enough.

But careful readers have discovered that there is always a Jewish connection, and almost always a reference to the weekly parsha.

(I admit that the parsha reference is often subtle, but let that be a puzzle for the puzzle-lovers out there to solve. Sometimes it's merely in the title...)

Here's a new year's challenge for everyone out there, including yours, truly.

We have a reliable tradition in the name of the Vilna Gaon that anyone who doesn't understand music does not fully understand Torah.

Translation: appreciating music is a key to wisdom.

Here's your challenge: make a commitment (resolution) to increase your musical wisdom this year, in one of the following ways:

• practice an instrument for 15 minutes a day for 30 days (voice counts)
• listen to a new piece of complex music every day for 30 days
• study music theory for 15 minutes a day for 30 days (there are apps for that)
• watch a Rick Beato video every day for 30 days
• learn a new Shabbat or other holy song every week for 4 weeks

If this challenge appeals to you - please forward this email to others - let's see how much we can increase  musicality and wisdom!

If you send me your musical resolution, I'll send you mine....

Question for your table: What's the connection between music and wisdom?

Shabbat Shalom
 

PS - Yes, the image is - as always - clickable.

 

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The High Holidays are a traditional time to increase tzedaka. JSLI is in need of new computer equipment to enable this weekly email as well as our many other projects - you can support this work with a couple clicks here. If you're not ready to give, you can support our work without costing you a penny — by using smile.amazon.com instead of amazon.com you can direct a % of your shopping to support JSLI's non-profit work, at no cost to you.

 

Jewish or Just Jew-ish?

The purpose of this blog is to make the Friday night dinner (or Saturday lunch) table a bit more Jew-ish.... Please print and share.

Happy new year!

Maybe you heard the news about the last Jew in Afghanistan?

It may be fake news.

Because... here's the shocker:

The Taliban may be (or have been) Jewish....?!!

Say what?

In his 1858 History of the Afghans, (Amazon link | full-text-download), Joseph Ferrier writes, 

The majority of Eastern writers consider them to be the descendants of one of the ten tribes of Israel - and this is the opinion of the Afghans themselves....

Similarly, in his 1957 The Exiled and the Redeemed, Yitzchak Ben-Zvi writes,

The Afghan tribes, among whom the Jews have lived for generations, are Moslems who retain to this day their amazing tradition about their descent from the Ten Tribes.... The evidence in our possession is, of course, insufficient for practical conclusions to be drawn therefrom. The fact that this tradition, and no other, has persisted among these tribes is itself a weighty consideration.”

Hebrew University Professor Shalva Weil has written about this hypothesis as well.

Moreover, consider this compelling story and this commentary on it.

All of this leads to a very difficult question for your table:

If some of the Pashtun Taliban are indeed descendants of Jews.... does that make them Jewish? 

Why or why not?

Wishing you a meaningful Yom Kippur and a

Shabbat Shalom

 

PS - That Jew-ish Afghan pic is of course clickable.

 

Appreciated this Table Talk? Vote with your fingers! Like it, tweet it, forward it....

 

The High Holidays are a traditional time to increase tzedaka. JSLI is in need of new computer equipment to enable this weekly email as well as our many other projects - you can support this work with a couple clicks here. If you're not ready to give, you can support our work without costing you a penny — by using smile.amazon.com instead of amazon.com you can direct a % of your shopping to support JSLI's non-profit work, at no cost to you.

 

Lashona Tova

 The purpose of this blog is to bring lashona tova to the Shabbat and Rosh Hashana tables. Please print and share.

 

No, that title is not a typo.

Like usual, it's a play on words.

Most people reading this know the phrase, "l'shana tova" - "happy new year."

What's "lashona tova"?

Try asking this question at your table - either tonight or on Rosh Hashana.

It means (sort of, with embellishment), "May you experience good speech."

What does that have to do with Rosh Hashana?

Here's a 3rd question for your table - What is speech?

If you think about it, speech is the concretization of thought. What comes out of your mouth represents what's going on in your head.

That is why it's embarrassing when someone says something dumb. 

We all make mistakes - why is a dumb mistake in speech worse than other mistakes?

Because it implies something wrong inside the person's head.

So when you wish a person a year of "good speech", you're blessing them that they and those around them should have good thoughts.

And since our thoughts are what make us human, that's the greatest blessing you can give someone.

L'Shana tova, lashona tova, to you and yours, may 5782 be a year of good thoughts, happy thoughts, healthy thoughts, wise thoughts; and good, happy, healthy and wise speech and action. 


And....

Shabbat Shalom

PS - That honey pic up there is indeed clickable.

 

Appreciated this Table Talk? Vote with your fingers! Like it, tweet it, forward it....

 

The High Holidays are a traditional time to increase tzedaka. JSLI is in need of new computer equipment to enable this weekly email as well as our many other projects - you can support this work with a couple clicks here. If you're not ready to give, you can support our work without costing you a penny — by using smile.amazon.com instead of amazon.com you can direct a % of your shopping to support JSLI's non-profit work, at no cost to you.