The purpose of this email is to foster some foresight at the Shabbat table... Please share...
Okay, maybe just one joke:
I hate it when people ask me what are my goals this year.
It's not like I have 2020 vision.
Okay, maybe just one more
What did the Australian optometrist say to the client with 20/20 vision?
Good eye, Mate!
I just wanted to draw everyone's attention to Australia since the American media seem to have other priorities....
1. Click here.
2. Check all four hotspot boxes on the upper left.
3. Shudder.
In case you want to email or social-mediaize anyone in Australia, you might want to orient it ʇᴉ pɐǝɹ uɐɔ ʎǝɥʇ os.
(Australians reportedly love it when people do this.)
The other breaking news of 2020 is a major Jewish event this week in Jewish communities around the world, which one reporter called the "world's largest book club."
That's cute but it isn't the right metaphor.
In some venues, such as Meadlowlands in New Jersey, it occurred two days ago. Elsewhere, it will occur tomorrow afternoon or evening.
I refer, of course, to the 13th Siyum HaShas, celebrated by hundreds of thousands of Jewish people around the world.
That means that people who learn Talmud with the page-a-day method ("Daf Yomi") complete the entire Talmud in about seven-and-a-half years, celebrated with a big party.
The Talmud is a big intellectual challenge, even in translation. It requires doing the hardest of hard things to do - that is, to think.
Most people will go to any manner of trouble to avoid the effort of thinking. – T. Jefferson
In that sense, calling it a book club is to cheapen it. It's more akin to a Mensa club or a fellowship.
Except that there are no entrance exams, no intelligence tests. The only requirement is effort.
Most people would rather die than think — and most do. – B. Russell
First question for your table: Is thinking really the hardest thing for a person to do?
That said, modern translations and technologies have made it accessible to almost anyone. You can listen to Daf Yomi classes on the phone or Internet, in numerous languages. There's the 60-minute version, the 45-minute version, the 30 minute version. There's even an excellent 5-minute summary.
The cycle restarts this Sunday, a great time to begin for anyone with at least five minutes a day to spare.
(Anyone looking for suggestions on how to get started should just shoot me a reply.)
The great beauty of Daf Yomi is that it unifies across space and time. It's uplifting to learn the Daf and know that hundreds of thousands of others are learning the same page that day.
The Talmud has been one of the four keys to our survival through so many exiles and holocausts. The more of us learning it, the more adversity we can withstand.
Second question for your table: what are the other three keys?
Shabbat Shalom
PS - For a taste of Talmud, try clicking on that image above.
PPS. Did you know that when you shop on Amazon, you can ask them to donate a % of your purchase? Simply use Amazon Smile, and designate Jewish Spiritual Literacy as your charity — for the same cost to you.
Enjoyed this Table Talk? Vote with your fingers! Like it, tweet it, forward it....
I hate it when people ask me what are my goals this year.
It's not like I have 2020 vision.
Okay, maybe just one more
What did the Australian optometrist say to the client with 20/20 vision?
Good eye, Mate!
I just wanted to draw everyone's attention to Australia since the American media seem to have other priorities....
1. Click here.
2. Check all four hotspot boxes on the upper left.
3. Shudder.
In case you want to email or social-mediaize anyone in Australia, you might want to orient it ʇᴉ pɐǝɹ uɐɔ ʎǝɥʇ os.
(Australians reportedly love it when people do this.)
The other breaking news of 2020 is a major Jewish event this week in Jewish communities around the world, which one reporter called the "world's largest book club."
That's cute but it isn't the right metaphor.
In some venues, such as Meadlowlands in New Jersey, it occurred two days ago. Elsewhere, it will occur tomorrow afternoon or evening.
I refer, of course, to the 13th Siyum HaShas, celebrated by hundreds of thousands of Jewish people around the world.
That means that people who learn Talmud with the page-a-day method ("Daf Yomi") complete the entire Talmud in about seven-and-a-half years, celebrated with a big party.
The Talmud is a big intellectual challenge, even in translation. It requires doing the hardest of hard things to do - that is, to think.
Most people will go to any manner of trouble to avoid the effort of thinking. – T. Jefferson
In that sense, calling it a book club is to cheapen it. It's more akin to a Mensa club or a fellowship.
Except that there are no entrance exams, no intelligence tests. The only requirement is effort.
Most people would rather die than think — and most do. – B. Russell
First question for your table: Is thinking really the hardest thing for a person to do?
That said, modern translations and technologies have made it accessible to almost anyone. You can listen to Daf Yomi classes on the phone or Internet, in numerous languages. There's the 60-minute version, the 45-minute version, the 30 minute version. There's even an excellent 5-minute summary.
The cycle restarts this Sunday, a great time to begin for anyone with at least five minutes a day to spare.
(Anyone looking for suggestions on how to get started should just shoot me a reply.)
The great beauty of Daf Yomi is that it unifies across space and time. It's uplifting to learn the Daf and know that hundreds of thousands of others are learning the same page that day.
The Talmud has been one of the four keys to our survival through so many exiles and holocausts. The more of us learning it, the more adversity we can withstand.
Second question for your table: what are the other three keys?
Shabbat Shalom
PS - For a taste of Talmud, try clicking on that image above.
PPS. Did you know that when you shop on Amazon, you can ask them to donate a % of your purchase? Simply use Amazon Smile, and designate Jewish Spiritual Literacy as your charity — for the same cost to you.
Enjoyed this Table Talk? Vote with your fingers! Like it, tweet it, forward it....
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