
✡
Nathan wrote this entry on Sunday, 18th of November 2007 at 09:59:30 PM
It is very good to have a special room set aside for Torah study and prayer. Such a room is especially beneficial for secluded meditation and conversation with G-d.
The Rebbe said that it is very good even just to sit in such a special room. The atmosphere itself is beneficial, even if you sit there [...]

✡
Nathan wrote this entry on Friday, 24th of August 2007 at 04:35:35 PM
An interesting thing happened to me on my way home from work today. Eric, my coworker dropped me off, and across the street was Rabbi Schapiro, my local Chabad Rabbi and neighbor. In all the years we have lived across from one another, this is the first time we have run into each other on [...]

✡
Nathan wrote this entry on Friday, 24th of August 2007 at 08:32:57 AM
I am going to try to describe this. A very secular friend of my father and I were once talking about Wilhelm Reich and his Orgone experiments. The conversation tipped towards how this managed to cure cancer and the like. I asked him if he thought orgone energy was a metaphor for the ability of [...]

✡
Nathan wrote this entry on Wednesday, 22nd of August 2007 at 09:00:53 AM
Kares is defined in the back of one of my books as excision; early death imposed for certain classes of transgressions. It occurred to me in the shower this morning (I often do my best thinking there!) that one of the reasons for a lack of a hell like concept in Judaism is that in [...]

✡
Nathan wrote this entry on Wednesday, 1st of August 2007 at 06:04:13 PM
Looks like I am not the only one thinking about Christians as polytheistic idol worshipers. Check out the lectures of Rabbi Tovia Signer.
Try to imagine the astonished reaction of a Jew (who has his monotheism intact) as he discovers from your question that missionaries use his cherished national creed, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is [...]

✡
Nathan wrote this entry on Thursday, 12th of April 2007 at 01:31:16 PM
There once was a man from Belarus who decided to reinvent a language. This man, Eliezer Ben Yehuda, invented Modern Hebrew. Yeah that is pretty much it. He invented it. Some might say resurrect.
But see, while this is FREAKING amazing, it seems to be a not-too-uncommon practice amongst Jews. There are some 20+ recognized synergistic [...]

✡
Nathan wrote this entry on Wednesday, 24th of January 2007 at 07:07:42 PM
It would seem there is an interesting nexus in Islamic tradition and in what our very own Moses was up to.
From a web page about participating the the Hajj: It is Haram (prohibited) for men to wear sewn or stitched clothes in Ihraam (state of participating in the Hajj).
What did Moses wear while consecrating the [...]

✡
Nathan wrote this entry on Wednesday, 10th of January 2007 at 11:01:59 PM
3325
I am an expert at just about nothing. I know something about how to maintain a Ducati, run a saltwater fish tank, a bit about philosophy. I even was once pretty well versed in the state of the art in neurological research. There are also the computer systems I have built. But I always have [...]

✡
Nathan wrote this entry on Thursday, 2nd of November 2006 at 02:34:06 PM
From a note in Beitzah 4b:
There non-Jewish residents of Cutha were brought by the Assyrian king, Shalmanesser, to settle the parts of the Eretz Yisrael left desolate by the exile of the 10 Tribes. Although they converted to Judaism, the validity of their conversion was the subject of considerable dispute. They reminded a sect onto [...]

✡
Nathan wrote this entry on Sunday, 20th of August 2006 at 09:10:04 PM
I want to share another fun tidbit from my reading yesterday. It has to do with consulting the Urim VeTumim. There are rules, this is Judaism, after all, there are always rules, about the proper method of consultation. However, the gist is there is a piece of parchment, given to Moses by G-d, with the [...]