Listen Ya'll! | D'varim HaMakom: The JOFEE Fellows Blog
by Alex Voynow, Jewish Farm School Parshat Haazinu [NOTE: Applications for…
by Alex Voynow, Jewish Farm School Parshat Haazinu [NOTE: Applications for…
by Jared Kaminsky, Shoresh Parshat Shoftim The parsha of the…
by Brenden Jackson, Amir with Shalom Community Farm Houston Parshat…
by Henry Schmidt, Shalom Institute Parshat Balak I thought Balak…
by Eliezer Weinbach, Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Hazon Parshat…
by Jaclyn Kellner - Coastal Roots Farm; Encinitas, CA “I’d…
by Daniella Aboody, Wilderness Torah, Berkeley, CA Parashat Chayyei Sarah…
by Bailey Lininger, Tamarack Camps, Bloomfield Hills, MI Parashat Noach…
By Amichai Lau-Lavie A year ago I was laying in…
“With all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might”. This is my mantra. Not because I am a person who davens three times a day reciting this phrase from its original source in the Sh’ma, but simply because I think it’s beautiful. Imagine a world in which we dedicated our whole selves to every mitzvah we preform, every fleeting thought we have. In a gemara in the tractate of Brachot, the Rabbis expound upon each of these segments: “With all your heart” they explain as what Freud might call the “id”—that is the most instinctual, animalistic parts of ourselves, “with all your soul” refers to our actual life, and “with all your might” commonly refers to our physical possessions. I strive preform every action with all my heart, soul, and might whether it’s loving God as the original texts indicates, loving a friend or a stranger as some scholars interpret, doing a project at work, or even something as mundane as grocery shopping (I said strive!). (more…)