💡 Think:
The Chasidic master Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev once said: I learned the meaning of love from a drunk. I once passed two drunks drinking in a gutter and overheard the following conversation between them:
Drunk #1: “I love you!”
Drunk #2: “No, you don’t.”
Drunk #1: “Yes, yes, I do. I love you with all my heart.”
Drunk #2: “No, you don’t. If you love me, why don’t you know what hurts me?”1
One way to parse this story, is the question of what true love is from a Jewish perspective… Often we describe what we love about others about the positive aspects of their personality: She’s so beautiful, he’s so kind, she’s so mart… But ultimately there is a slightly self-serving aspect to this dynamic. Our love becomes relegated to how the other person positively impacts us.
True love is a dynamic where each party is not looking to exploit what the others does for them, but knowing the pain, the void, in others.
So too in our dynamic with our Creator, we look for Jewish expression that provides personal meaning. But the true dynamic between us and our Creator is one to fill the void, to provide light and dynamic action where it is needed most.
🏃 DO:
🦸 Friday, March 1st join us for our latest First Friday Shabbat Meal & Conversation: Chasidic Vigilante Superheroes of Czarist Russia!
👻 Friends at Snap, join us in the NYC office on Wednesday, February 14th, for Social Media, Censorship & Sinai. Does the Torah guarantee a right to free speech?
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⛵ Join our Acts of Random Kindness Meetup at SXSW, on Wednesday, March 13!
🎧 Listen:
The Mashinke, a heart-stirring melody. Composed by the famed Chasidic composer R’ Sholom Charitonov, this particular melody was born after a personal loss:
Deprived by the Soviet authorities of his job as a shochet, a ritual slaughterer, he purchased a mechanical loom, so that he could work at home without being forced by the Soviets to desecrate the Shabbat. Another chasid purchased a similar machine. When only one machine arrived, the two chasidim sought arbitration to see who could own the machine. The judgement ruled in favor of the other chasid…
At loss with this physical loss, R’ Sholom channeled his pain and anguish at his lot into a song intense spiritual introspection and yearning.
Here it is composed by the great chasidic musician and singer, and Tech Tribe friend, Eli Marcus.
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🎬 Watch:
🕯️ Comfort:
Blessings of healing and comfort to Tech Tribe Member Mark Abramson on the passing of his grandfather.
📚 Read:
🎤 Michal Oshman’s Jewish Journey to a Life of Purpose and Joy. The tech executive and author addressed the annual Shluchot conference in New York
🐺 The Real Wolf Menacing the News Business: AI
🔥 Lit:
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The Meaning of Love, Chabad.org, other versions of this story are told with Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov.