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Contributor(s): |
Azriel
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Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah
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weekdays, avodah, parnasah, workdays, workers, תחינות teḥinot, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., working, work-life balance
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Based on a traditional form, this is just a personal petition I drew up to remind myself of a few important things. Anyone is free to use it, alter it for their own circumstances, change the translation, etc. No attribution required. . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady
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Art & Craft
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meditation, technique, יחוד yiḥud, xerography, טבע Teva, שמע shema
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When works are printed bearing shemot, any one of the ten divine names sacred to Judaism, they are cared for with love. If a page or bound work bearing shemot falls to the ground it’s a Jewish custom to draw up the page or book and kiss it. Just as loved ones are cared for after they’ve fallen and passed away, when the binding fails and leaves fall from siddurim and other seforim they are collected in boxes and bins and brought for burial, where their holy words can decompose back into the earth from which their constituent elements once grew, and were once harvested to become paper and books, and ink, string, glue. While teaching at the Teva Learning Center last Fall 2010, I collected all our shemot that we had intentionally or unintentionally made on our copy machine, or which we had collected from the itinerant teachers who pass through the Isabella Freedman Retreat Center on so many beautiful weekend shabbatonim. While leafing through the pages, I found one and kept it from the darkness of the genizah. . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
David Zvi Kalman
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Categories: |
Davvening, Solitude
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North America, Solo, Without a Minyan, 21st century C.E., Openers, 58th century A.M., Philadeelphia, Needing Vocalization
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God and God of my forefathers and foremothers, as I stand here in an innermost room and pray, so too should you in an innermost room heed my questions, my praises and my requests, both from the utterances of my mouth and the utterances of my heart. Even if I am silent, you will know that my tefilla is directed towards you, who is One and whose name is One, alone in all the worlds. My heart is awake and my voice knocks. Open for me, my Lord, my Perfect One, the gates of Tefilla. . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady and Rebbe Naḥman
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Tehilim (Psalms), Arrangements of Tehillim, Repenting, Resetting, and Forgiveness
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Breslov, תקונים tiqqunim, Psalms 16, Psalms 32, Psalms 41, Psalms 42, Psalms 59, Psalms 77, Psalms 90, Psalms 105, Psalms 137, Psalms 150, Collections of Psalms, Psalms as remedy, חסידי ברצלב Ḥasidei Bratslav (Breslov)
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Before our hands can fix, we need to care. Before we can care, we need our eyes open. But how can we remind ourselves to see, and sustain our sensitivity and capability for compassion? We can shy from the pain that comes with empathy, and we can shy from the pain that comes with taking responsibility for the suffering we cause. But there are consequences to shying away, to disaffection and callous disassociation. If there is any hope, it is as Rebbe Naḥman explained so succinctly: “If you believe that you can damage, then believe that you can fix.” In 1806, Rebbe Naḥman of Bratslav taught that the recitation of ten psalms could act as a powerful Tiqun (remedy) in a process of t’shuvah leading to an awareness of the divine presence that permeates and enlivens this world but is alas, hidden though an accretion of transgressive thoughts and actions. Five years later, Rebbe Naḥman revealed the specific ten psalms of this tiqun to two of his closest disciples, Rabbi Aharon of Bratslav and Rabbi Naftali of Nemyriv. . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Shai Held
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Dangerous Storms & Floods, Earthquakes & Tsunamis
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tsunami, disaster, ocean, catastrophe, Mechon Hadar, Floods, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., 2004 Asian Tsunami, Needing Vocalization
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A prayer composed by Rabbi Shai Held in the aftermath of the devastating 2004 Asian Tsunami. . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Efraim Feinstein
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Categories: |
Advocacy
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copyleft, open-source, free culture, licensing, nc, creative commons, non-commercial, sharealike, what is free
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This post continues the series of advocacy posts directed at Jewish content creators and aggregators. Other parts of the series discussed the global communal benefit of free primary data resources and issues of copyright license compatibility and the connection between copyright licensing and remixability. While my previous post briefly mentioned the non-free Creative Commons licenses, this post details why you should choose a free culture license. In particular, it urges you to avoid the licenses with the non-commercial-use only (NC) terms. . . . |
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