Count Omer tonight, plus study sheet packets you can use for Shavuot

[David Seidenberg]

Hi Chevra,

I'll be counting Omer online tonight with people connected to neohasid advisers of the Omer app. All are welcome. 11:30 PM ET on zoom -
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4243992104 password=Kabb

If you're on the East Coast, it's good practice for staying up late tomorrow night to study Torah.

Also, there are source sheets for a number of themes that make good study sessions for Shavuot on neohasid.org. Go to:

http://www.neohasid.org/zman/shavuot/

Available:

"Jester of the King" is a close reading of Leonard Cohen's Halleluyah alongside midrash and Kabbalistic texts about King David that was probably referring to in his song.

"Hefker l'Kulam" explores the idea that the wilderness was the place of revelation because it was unowned and open to everyone, and it places that midrash in relation to laws and teachings about the hefker of land and produce in the Shmitah year.

"Tikkun Olam -- 15+ centuries of texts" brings together 44 texts about Tikkun Olam and covers the whole panorama of our intellectual history. These texts also show decisively that the roots of the social justice interpretation go back further than the roots of the Kabbalistic interpretation. (Both of course are equally valid, alongside other less well-known interpretations.)

"Genesis-Shmitah Covenant" lifts up the thread of humanity's relationship to the land, focusing on the degeneration of that relationship up until Abraham, and the interpretation that the purpose of Sinai and the Shmitah year is to repair that relationship -- not just for the Israelites but for all humanity. The longer version of the text study sheets includes detailed commentary and new translations of all Torah texts.

"Loving the Neighbor/Loving the Stranger" brings together resources on both commandments, along with the question, why does the command to love people get divided into two separate commandments? These study sheets catalog every single verse in Tanakh about the stranger, to provide a foundation for any discussion about our responsibilities to the stranger.

That's what is there now, alongside a few other resources.

For this year, I am still working on text study sheets that examine two contrary impulses in Jewish and halakhic literature. One is the trend in rabbinic texts to limit neighbor to fellow Jew and stranger to Jewish convert, thereby turning a very broad commandment into a very narrow one. The other is the trend to expand the concept of neighbor and obligations to the stranger to include all humanity. We are in a battle between these two trends right now, with the first idea dominating current Israeli government policy. I am going to make those sheets available on the same page if I finish them quickly - no promises, but you can check tomorrow.

Chag sameach l'Kulam,

David Seidenberg