💡 Think:
This week, in the days leading up the 19th of Kislev,the liberation of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, and the Rosh Hashanah of Chasidic study, we share a portion of a Yiddish poem by Menachem Boraisha (1888-1949), from his semi-autobiographical Der geyer ḳapiṭlen fun a leben - The Sojourner, chapters of a life.
This poem, which seems to be about his father Noach’s youth, depicts a young Lithuanian Jew struggling to find truth in the face of his own lusts and flaws. Boraisha’s poems explore the liminal space of timeless truth, between modernity and dialogue with the past. A path only the sojourner, wandering between worlds, can tread.
… A Shabbos in the Chabad Shteible, the Rebbe is here!
The Rebbe speaks. Behind veritable three story wall of humanity — piled on the ground, benches and tables — [Noach] lifts himself up by his fingertips to grasp at the crumbs of words
And not from the unheard-of - from the thirst and joy of others in those matters that leave him bewildered - he remains with … Zohar … Every deed in the Torah builds a new heaven and the “Alter [Rebbe]” kisses it and crowns it with seventy crowns. Not the words,
the letters are split apart here.
Here too does the “Alter”, cloaked in the shroud of the ineffable, wish to become subsumed by the ayin, naught. Yet he does not permit.
With every letter, with every drop of Torah, he is reminded that he can not uncouple from himself.
You wanted to be expressed in the physical, and the physical formed in a mentsch
Let the mentsch have a portion in You, let him be with You the way You wish to be with him - with him in holiness and sin, in redemption and exile….
(Original translation from Der Geyer - From poem 9. See also poem 10)
🏃 DO:
🔥 The return of Cider + S’mores this Monday!
🎟️ Grab tix for our NFT Menorah Chanukah Party at the Williamsburg Hotel on 12/1/21!
📅 Mark Your Calendars! MLK Weekend 1/17/22 join hundreds of young Jews from around the world for Re-Encounter:2022 - a Shabbaton experience!
🐦 Tweet:
🎉 Mazel:
🍰 Mazels to Joseph Cohen, #ChaiSociety Member, on his birthday!
📚 Read:
Dear friend of Tech Tribe, Sci-Fi Rabbi Simcha Weinstein, writes a very personal piece about Autism’s Growing Problem: As kids with autism become teenagers and adults, fewer and fewer services are available to help them and their families.
🤔 The Intellectual Fireworks of Talmud Study Move Outside the Yeshiva.Some of the most interesting and creative work in all of Jewish studies today is happening neither in universities nor as part of a yeshiva curriculum.
🚀 The Incredible True Story Behind TV’s Strangest Spade Jew. An eight-year investigation to explain why a religious Jew appeared in one of contemporary science fiction’s most celebrated shows.
🚗 How a Los Angeles Uber Ride Led to the Driver’s Circumcision. ‘This is just the beginning for me,’ says 38-year-old actor Jake Renner.
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