Torah

Torah, as the foundation of Judaism, offers a vision of a liberated, meaningful life and the tools by which to achieve it. It lays down the revolutionary idea that true freedom is a state that you reach, not by pursuing your heart's desire, but by channelling your passions towards the service of God and other people.

Although Torah narrowly refers to the Five Books of Moses, traditional Jews use the word Torah to describe the entire body of scriptural and rabbinic literature. In this sense Torah is a very dynamic concept, describing what is essentially an epic conversation that spans thousands of years and the entire globe.

Covering literally every subject under the sun, this oral tradition of Judaism gives us an exhilarating way of looking at everything we do in life, how everything we do has knock-on effects way beyond the immediate visible results. It can and should bring us to a fine tuned sensitivity to everything and everyone around us.

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Latest blogosphere posts tagged “Torah”

• Playing with Avraham Avenu and Sarah Imenu

  
  Tripletly Blessed — Authority: 118
  The parshiyot for the past two weeks really flow together and we used the same art project for both. We made paper dolls of Avraham Avenu, Sarah Imenu and the malachim. (Abraham, Sarah and the angels.)Week before last we sat at the table with an assortment of felt, glue, pencils and paper doll shapes and a chumash. As ...
  8 hours ago

• Toward Evening

  
  Shirat Devorah — Authority: 478
  "Yitzchak went out toward evening to pray in the field" [Chayei Sarah 24:63]It was at that time, Chazal teach us, that Yitzchak instituted the Minchah (afternoon) prayer. Chazal state: "The prayers were instituted by the Forefathers [Berachos 26a]: Avraham instituted Shacharis; Yitzchak Minchah; and Yaakov Maariv.The ...
  11 hours ago

• Spiritual wisdom of a Gifted Mystic Poet

  
  Godssecret's Weblog — Authority: 127
  Rav Abraham Isaac Kook     From a distant world And from a distant world, full of illuminations, The suns there are as broad as the ocean, And the stars, like the light of our sun, On the face of the sapphire stone, …there. The ...
  20 hours ago

• Chassidic Parashot: Vayera

  
  Shearim — Authority: 439
  B"H The latest chassidic Parashot on VAYERA: http://ladaat.net/gilionot.php Among others: Toldot Avraham Yitzchak  , Boyan , Yeshivat Ohr Sameach (litvish) in English , Dei Chochmah Lnafshechah in English , Parasha Partner in English , The Edah HaCharedit ...
  21 hours ago

• Art: A Torah Scribe Pushes the Parchment Ceiling

  
  NYT > Theater — Authority: 915
  In Hebrew the word for Julie Seltzer’s arcane profession is soferet; she’s a scribe, a Hebrew calligrapher who writes sacred texts on parchment.
  1 day ago

• To The Matterhorn [Snap Judgment]

  
  Jezebel — Authority: 824
  [Saas-Fee, Switzerland; November 5. Image via Getty ] Australias Torah Jane Bright competes to win the womens half-pipe Snowboarding FIS World Cup final event on November 5, 2009 in Saas-Fee, southern Switzerland. Bright won the event ahead of Chinas Xuetong Cai, second and Frances Sophie Rodriguez, third. AFP ...
  2 days ago

• The Last Word

  
  Fantastical flights of fancy & fabled fiction — Authority: 103
  INTER ALIA  ‘TROJAN HORSE’  JEDBURGH LEANED BACK from the console, put his feet up on the edge of the desk, and sighed heavily. He was irritated for all the wrong reasons and couldn’t quite put his finger on why. There were still a number of little niggling doubts that raised questions, which, quite frankly, ...
  2 days ago

• Keeping Torah: Examples of Faith

  
  Fr. Ted's Blog — Authority: 127
  This is the 3 rd blog in a series in which I am reflecting on St. Paul’s comment, “For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God”  (Galatians 2:19).   The first blog was entitled, “ Through the Law, I died to the Law: St. Paul and Torah .”  For St. Paul the failure of the Torah was that ...
  2 days ago

• World Cup Half Pipe winners in Saas Fee

  
  xtremesport4u — Authority: 128
  After the big air event last week in London the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup moved to Saas Fee in Switzerland where the usual suspects were evident on the podium. Torah Bright from Australia demonstrated impressively why she definitely belongs to the world’s best freestyle ladies. She amazed the spectators and ...
  2 days ago

• Akeda The binding of Issac illustration by Phillip Ratner

  
  IsraelSeen.com — Authority: 119
  This illustration is courtesy of International Artist Phillip Ratner. This is one of a series that Israel Seen has been fortunate to receive from the artist for exclusive internet use.  This is one of the major moments in this weeks Torah, Bible reading.Enjoy.Tags: Art, Blogs, Photo Gallery
  2 days ago

• Shabbat Shalom

  
  Shearim — Authority: 439
  B"H The weather has "recovered" and the sun has been out again for the past few days. As usual, I am going to Jerusalem this afternoon in order to spend Shabbat there. What amazes me most about this weeks Parasha Vayera are the opinons of the Rambam (Maimonides) and the Ramban (Nachmanides) that the entire ...
  2 days ago

• The Story of Torah is the Story of A Journey

  
  Most Recent Posts — Authority: 607
  By Rabbi David Kalb Genesis 12:1 begins the story of the birth of the Jewish nation, and it is a rather unusual birth. God commands Avram: "Go for yourself (Lech Lecha)from your land, from your relatives, and from your fathers house tothe land that I will show you." We read no theology, see no miraclesand receive no ...
  3 days ago

• The Vort - Parashat Vayera - Where Does Prayer Begin?

  
  Jewschool — Authority: 480
  The Talmud (Brachot 26b) says - “ Tefillot avot tiknum - Prayer was established by the Avot (patriarchs),” and then uses the following verse (Genesis 19:27) from this week’s parasha to prove how Abraham established tefillah: • “ Vayashkem Avraham ba’boker el hamakom asher amad sham et pnei Hashem - and ...
  3 days ago

• The Last Word

  
  Fantastical flights of fancy & fabled fiction — Authority: 103
  CHAPTER TWO  SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI  IT WAS COLD. So cold ice crystals began to form round Deborah Levy’s fragile heart, freezing it, till at last she thought she’d never feel anything ever again. Little did she realize it had stopped beating in that moment somewhere between the light of day and the dark of ...
  3 days ago

• Vayera

  
  Ilana-Davita — Authority: 127
  לְמַעַן אֲשֶׁר יְצַוֶּה אֶת-בָּנָיו וְאֶת-בֵּיתוֹ אַחֲרָיו, וְשָׁמְרוּ דֶּרֶךְ יְהוָה, לַעֲשׂוֹת צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט … that he may instruct his children and those after them to keep the way of the Lord by doing ...
  3 days ago

• Real Talk Parsha: Vayera

  
  Most Recent Posts — Authority: 607
  By Shais "MaNishtana" Rison Now this weeks portion is full of all kinds of juicy bits.Aftercircumcising himself and having tea with his three visitors, Abrahamsfirst official act as a Jew is to haggle with Gd. No seriously. Abraham tries to jew Gd out of destroying Sodom, eventually trying toweasel some redemption ...
  3 days ago

• UNIVERSAL TORAH: VAYERA

  
  Rick's Caf American — Authority: 162
  UNIVERSAL TORAH: VAYERA By Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum Torah Reading: Gen. 18.1-22.24. Haftara II Kings 4.1-37 (Sephardi ritual: II Kings 4.1-23). G-ds Covenant with Abraham, marked by the sign of circumcision, brought Abraham to an entirely new level, making him worthy of fathering Isaac, the descendants of whose ...
  4 days ago

• This weeks portion: aftermath

  
  Velveteen Rabbi — Authority: 592
  AFTERMATH (VAYERA) The oaks touch branches like a gaggle of old women taking comfort in fingers brushing as they stand and sway. A man sits in the entrance of his tent. Heat shimmers though beneath the trees if he holds still, its not so bad. Hours later, the rug is littered with tufts of flatbread ...
  4 days ago

• Keeping Torah: The Means to the End

  
  Fr. Ted's Blog — Authority: 127
  This is the 2 nd blog in a series in which I am reflecting on St. Paul’s comment, “For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God”  (Galatians 2:19).   The first blog was entitled, “ Through the Law, I died to the Law: St. Paul and Torah .”  For St. Paul the failure of the Torah was that ...
  4 days ago

• Real Hospitality

  
  Shirat Devorah — Authority: 478
  "Abrahams Tent" by Michoel Muchnik"He planted an eishel in Beer Sheva" [Vayeira 21:33]Said R Azaryah: "What is an eishel? אשׁל From the Midrash Tehillim: It is an acronym for the words Achilah (eating); Shetiyah (drinking) and Levayah (accompaniment). R Chaim of Volozhin related the following story: In a certain ...
  5 days ago

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