Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld
March 15-16, 2024 • 6 Adar 2 5784 • Pekudei (Ex 38-40).
The goal of this blog is to sprout delicious conversation at the Friday night dinner table.
Last week, I stirred up controversy.
This week, something I hope completely uncontroversial.
We went from snow flurries on Sunday to 70°+ the rest of the week.
Is anyone not OK with that?
Seems like time to get those tomatoes going.
Did you ever do the germinate-a-seed thing when they were a child?
Did you ever try it as an adult?
If you stop to think about it, it's the most incredible thing, that this tiny little piece of almost nothingness can sit dry in a packet for years and do nothing. But put it in some soil with a few drops of water and a lot of warmth and it's like booting a computer with a built-in ROM.
First, the seed begins to disintegrate, and if you were watching it you'd think it's becoming compost. But then its code causes it to shoot out a root in one direction and a green stem in the other, then leaves, then more leaves, and eventually an entire plant or even an entire tree with fruit etc.
Reading about is like reading about a Mozart minuet:
Now try experiencing it.
For years I was a failed seed sprouter, but finally an elderly neighbor learned me how to do it. "Ignore the planting-depth info on the packet," she said. "Most seeds don't sprout because they're too deep. Just a tiny bit of soil on the top is all you need."
That's life-changing knowledge.
The Talmud uses this process as a metaphor:
Tzedakah (giving charity) is planting, Torah is watering, Chesed is harvesting.
Question for your table: In that metaphor, are we the farmer or the soil?
It seems to me we're obviously the soil.
Which means that - per my elderly neighbor:
Like the seed, the Tzedakah need not be so deep - in fact, it should be near the surface - meaning, don't get caught (like I was yesterday) without cash in your pocket to give someone who asks.
Like watering a plant - the Torah does need to go deep - it needs to get to the roots, and as the plant grows taller the water needs to go deeper.
And the measure of a successful harvest is the amount and quality of Chesed that flows from a person.
Question for your table - does this imply that Torah is necessary in order to do Chesed?
What do you think?
Shabbat Shalom,
Alexander Seinfeld
This week, something I hope completely uncontroversial.
We went from snow flurries on Sunday to 70°+ the rest of the week.
Is anyone not OK with that?
Seems like time to get those tomatoes going.
Did you ever do the germinate-a-seed thing when they were a child?
Did you ever try it as an adult?
If you stop to think about it, it's the most incredible thing, that this tiny little piece of almost nothingness can sit dry in a packet for years and do nothing. But put it in some soil with a few drops of water and a lot of warmth and it's like booting a computer with a built-in ROM.
First, the seed begins to disintegrate, and if you were watching it you'd think it's becoming compost. But then its code causes it to shoot out a root in one direction and a green stem in the other, then leaves, then more leaves, and eventually an entire plant or even an entire tree with fruit etc.
Reading about is like reading about a Mozart minuet:
It starts on a major 3rd to G so you instantly know what key you are in. Then there are the two a and b 5 note patterns that are just stepwise sequences in the scale.
Then there are some 3 note falling patterns (noted 1 and 2) that make it feel like it is 2/4 time. The fall is mirrored in the bass (3). Also there is a C# added. This should instantly tell you that it is changing key for three reasons. a) C# is not in the key of G. b) It is not being used just as a passing note. c) It occurs twice more in the next bar in more than one voice.
When a note like this occurs, it is usually a 'leading note' to the key it is modulating to. In this case D. this is confirmed by a V-I cadence in bar 6 of A D repeated again across bar 7 and 8 (noted at points 5 and 6 in my notes)
Then onto the second section. It starts of strange with a G# and E in the bass followed by an F natural. So it's definitely not G or D anymore. The G# makes me think A (because it is the leading note of A) but the following scale pattern has all natural notes which might make it A minor. Not sure, might need some help on that.
From there, it goes back into standard G with the return of F# and D natural. Actually the next falling scale pattern across bar 11 and 12 finished on a G major.
The C in the bass at bar 13 is a IV into another double cadence (noted 7 and 8) which this time is a V-I. It repeats the pattern of the previous double cadence at the end of the first section. The first cadence is contained within a bar and the second happens across two. The appearance of the leading note of G (f#) in the cadence solidifies the end and resolves itself nicely. (source)
Now try experiencing it.
For years I was a failed seed sprouter, but finally an elderly neighbor learned me how to do it. "Ignore the planting-depth info on the packet," she said. "Most seeds don't sprout because they're too deep. Just a tiny bit of soil on the top is all you need."
That's life-changing knowledge.
The Talmud uses this process as a metaphor:
Tzedakah (giving charity) is planting, Torah is watering, Chesed is harvesting.
Question for your table: In that metaphor, are we the farmer or the soil?
It seems to me we're obviously the soil.
Which means that - per my elderly neighbor:
Like the seed, the Tzedakah need not be so deep - in fact, it should be near the surface - meaning, don't get caught (like I was yesterday) without cash in your pocket to give someone who asks.
Like watering a plant - the Torah does need to go deep - it needs to get to the roots, and as the plant grows taller the water needs to go deeper.
And the measure of a successful harvest is the amount and quality of Chesed that flows from a person.
Question for your table - does this imply that Torah is necessary in order to do Chesed?
What do you think?
Shabbat Shalom,
Alexander Seinfeld
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