Want Torah? Touch Grass
Dispatch #353
💡 Think:
The Holiday of Shavuot begins tonight. While it is a mitzvah to eat a festive meal on every holiday (outside of Yom Kippur, when we eat the meal before the holiday) on Shavuot it’s an obligation to eat one.
Seemingly, the holiday commemorating the Torah’s giving should be focused on spiritual matters - not the corporal pleasure of a physical meal.
The reason for this unique obligation is connected to the very nature of the Torah itself. The giving of the Torah empowered us to make G-dliness manifest in the very base physicality of the world. We are able to take physical leather and craft a Torah scroll, imbuing it with transcendent sanctity, give charity and elevate the money we earn through our daily toil, and eat a festive meal and make it a Divine experience.
On Shavuot, when the Torah is given, we must eat a meal, so that our physical flesh can take part in the joy and elevation of the day.
🏃 DO:
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🎉 Mazel:
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🤝 Work:
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📚 Read:
🗣️ Human Language, Intelligence, and Torah. The Rebbe’s Classic Treatment of the “Five Voices at Sinai”
🔎 A Mohave County Rabbi’s Search for a Murdered Jewish Woman’s Identity. DNA testing revealed Jane Doe, murdered in remote Arizona in 1989, was Jewish
🚨 A Meta employee gets real about the horror of working there right now. Crying in the shower. Taking mental health leave. This is what it’s like to work at the tech giant during the AI job apocalypse.
🔥 Lit:
This week, light Shabbat candles in NYC at 7:54 PM.
For Shabbat candle-lighting time in your area click here.
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