Laura’s and my years in Los Angeles and Israel were formative in so many ways. One of the opportunities we were afforded was the ability to visit and pray with countless Jewish communities on Shabbat.
A while ago Duncan and I tried a farm share CSA. It became a fun little guessing game. Every week we’d wonder if we’d get vegetables we were willing to try. Would we know how to cook them? Would they all get cooked eaten before they went bad?
Success has its challenges. Managing the growing pains that accompany it is one of the most obvious of those tasks. On the regional level, Portland’s success as an urban center has put tremendous pressure on our transportation system, housing costs and therefore our homelessness crisis. Our ability to continue to grow will depend on how we alleviate those bottlenecks and better provide for those essential resources.
There is a famous classroom activity/demonstration that is used to teach decision making and prioritization of goals and resources. The teacher shows the class a glass jar full of ping-pong balls and asks the class if the jar is full. Most students answer that it is. The teacher then pours beads into the jar, which fill in the gaps around the ping-pong balls.
Synagogues around the world will be reading from chapters 16-20 in the book of Leviticus. This section of scripture is divided into two parshiot, named Acharei Mot and K’doshim. Acharei Mot contains the source material for the Yom Kippur ritual of atonement. It concludes with laws of modesty and outlines those intimate relations from which a person must refrain. Most people would accept these restrictions as being moral and proper. Indeed, many of us even feel a sense of disgust considering these cases.
As most of you know, I like walking, and to be honest it’s usually walking alone that I enjoy best. It gives me time to silently take in the sights and sounds of nature and work through issues, thoughts, and ideas in my head. Here’s the problem with walking alone: I don’t always get the best exercise in when it’s just me. I tend to go a little slower and meander.
D'var from Friday, May 4-5, 2018 - Rabbi David Kosak. Recorded and edited by Ed Kraus.
