Do You See in Black and White?

The purpose of this email is to refract some color at the Shabbat table... Please share...
Mazal tov to our daughter Goldy and family on the birth of our first grandson!

This little guy came into the world on Sunday afternoon (Israel time). The Seinfeld rainbow just gained another color.

This miracle, and last week's splash of colors, got me thinking about spectra, sunsets, rainbows, and the deep blue sky.

Not many people know this, but sunsets, rainbows and the blue sky are all related phenomena.

Their common denominator is the strange fact that white light is actually a mixture of all colors. 

It's a fact and can be easily demonstrated with a prism. But personally it's very hard for me to wrap my mind around it. How is it possible that mixing red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet makes white?

But this great phenomenon suggests a question for your table: what can we learn from this?

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan suggests the following interpretation:

White light symbolizes the Infinite or Divine light that permeates the world. We don't perceive this light because by the time we open our eyes it has already been refracted into millions of colors - that's the stuff of this world, including you and me. 

When you look around you and see colors, know that you are really seeing "parts" of white light that has been refracted.

When you look around you and see stuff, or people, or anything, know that you are really seeing "parts" of the Divine light that has been refracted.

Final question for your table:

Per the analogy, if white light is refracted via a prism, what's the "prism" that refracts the Infinite light?


Shabbat Shalom


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Staying Awake...?

The purpose of this blog is to awaken internal cameras at the Shabbat table... Please share...

Cute kid! Amazing sunset! Kodak Moment!

You've got to get a picture of that!

Here is a sunset I snapped on Wednesday evening this week from the I-5, just south of Seatac.

There is something about the colors and the patterns that made me want to capture it forever.

(By the way, to the chagrin of anyone from the City of Destiny, the folks at the airport no longer say, "Welcome to Seatac Airport;" the new woke language is "Welcome to S-E-A". I'm not sure what someone found offensive about the old name, but hopefully whoever was offended is happier now.)


Next, here is a famous mountain that you see every time you land at Seatac . . . can you guess which one?







Next, a 1965 (?) Camaro parked in a neighbor's driveway. Zoom in to see the original bumper sticker!









Finally, here's Mom and me at Lake Washington. 









And all this show-and-tell leads to an urgent question for your table:

Did you ever reach for your phone (or in the old days, your camera) only to change your mind, deciding to "just enjoy the moment"? Did you ever manage not even to reach for the phone? Why is it so hard?


Shabbat Shalom


PS - Shopping on Amazon? Please use https://smile.amazon.com and Amazon will donate a % of the sale to the non-profit of your choice (such as Jewish Spiritual Literacy), at no extra cost to you. Why not? 
 
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Dire Strait?

 The purpose of this blog is to break down some barriers at the Shabbat table... Please share... 

They say that during the sentencing hearings at the Nuremberg Trials, the wife of one of the convicted German monsters made the following plea for leniency:

"My husband was so kind, he wouldn't hurt a flea!"

Question for your table: Was she lying? Insane? Merely distraught?

It seems to me that she was one hundred percent honest. I have no doubt that he would not have hurt a flea.

The problem is that he made up his mind that Jews and others were lower life forms than fleas.

The Talmud says that the Jewish People at the time of the Destruction in 70 CE - the 9th of Av, which is tonight - were full of Torah and mitzvot. So what went wrong?

The answer is that our chesed - our lovingkindness - was limited to our own group. It's hard enough to love people who are in your camp / party / denomination / etc. 

Someone in a different group? Almost impossible.

Question for your table: What's the hurdle? And how can you overcome it?


Shabbat Shalom


PS - Go ahead, try clicking that pic.

PPS - Shopping on Amazon? Please use https://smile.amazon.com and Amazon will donate a % of the sale to the non-profit of your choice (such as Jewish Spiritual Literacy), at no extra cost to you. Why not? 
 
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