« Back to Sheet « בחזרה לדף המקורות
  1. Last week in the supermarket

    at an unlikely hour

    I saw a woman I know.

    She tried to avoid me

    pretended not to remember me

    but I had unwittingly trapped her

    blocked her escape to the tuna fish aisle.

     

    I just wanted to say hello

    my cruelty was inadvertent

    but up close I saw 

    her hair was in disarray

    and dirty, her face

    without its careful mask

    of lipstick, blusher, shadow.

    She was wearing a ratty old jacket

    the discard of her husband or teenage son.

    Nine thirty on a Tuesday morning,

    dressed like that -

    suddenly I knew she was out of work

    and ashamed.  And coming undone

    there in the tuna fish aisle.

     

    I tried as best I could 

    to help her cover her nakedness

    but all that day and the next

    she haunted me.

    How strange, I thought,

    how strange and how sad

    that she should feel threatened, judged,

    shamed by me.

     

    The rabbis say 

    when you bring color to someone's face

    it's as if you shed their blood.

    Forgive me.

    May you be restored to your full self/

    Soon, speedily, in our day

    And let us say amen.

     

    Merle Feld, Supermarket Prayer

     

  2. Questions for Discussion

     

    1.) What is the character in this prayer praying for?

     

    2.) Why do the rabbis say, "when you bring color to someone's face, it's as if you shed their blood."  Do you agree with the statement?

     

    3.) How far does our responsibility to avoid "bring(ing) color to someone's face" go?

  3. הנהו בריוני דהוו בשבבותיה דר"מ והוו קא מצערו ליה טובא הוה קא בעי ר' מאיר רחמי עלויהו כי היכי דלימותו אמרה לי' ברוריא דביתהו מאי דעתך משום דכתיב (תהלים קד, לה) יתמו חטאים מי כתיב חוטאים חטאים כתיב ועוד שפיל לסיפיה דקרא ורשעים עוד אינם כיון דיתמו חטאים ורשעים עוד אינם אלא בעי רחמי עלויהו דלהדרו בתשובה ורשעים עוד אינם בעא רחמי עלויהו והדרו בתשובה:

    Some thugs were living in Rabbi Meir's neighborhood and were causing him a lot of trouble. Rabbi Meir used to pray that they should die. Bruria, his wife, said to him, "What is your opinion? Is it because it is written, 'Sins will cease?' (Psalm 104:35).  It doesn't say, 'sinners,' it says 'sins!'  Also, follow to the end of the verse, 'And evildoers will be no longer.'  Since sinners cease, they will no longer be evildoers?  Rather, pray that they should repent, and no longer be evildoers."  He prayed for them, and they repented.  Translation: Steve Greenberg

  4. Questions for Discussion

     

    1.) Are there some things it is sinful to pray for?

     

    2.) How do you pray for repentance?  Is saying words enough?  How can you (or even can you) make someone repent (do Teshuvah)?

  5. It is a sobering message to realize that we are responsible, but an empowering one as well.

     

    There may always be French fries, and they may be engineered to be addictive and tempting, but we don't have to eat them, That does not exonerate the complicity of the food industry, but focusing on the battle that is won more handily, the one between the fries and our bellies, may be a better use of our time.

     

    Avi Weinstein on Babylonian Talmud, Avoda Zara 17a (scorchintorah.blogspot.com)

  6. Questions for Discussion

     

    1.) What is our role in doing Tesuvah?  Can we do Teshuvah for anyone who isn't ourselves?

     

    2.) What is the difference between Teshuvah and rebuking someone? 

  7. Every morning we wake up and proclaim:

    אלוהי נשמה שתתה בי טהורה היא

    (Elohai neshamah shenatata bi tehora hi)

    My Lord, the soul which you gave to me is pure.

     

    How can we brazenly lie like that to our Creator, who knows the truth?  The vast majority of us aren't at all pure.  Did we conveniently forget all the demeaning averot [sins] which we committed just the day before?

     

    [...]

     

    For Teshuvah to be possible there must be something incorruptible in the human personality.  Even the most hardened criminal must have some element within him which remains untouched by sin, which has never committed a crime - the neshamah.  While the ruach [spirit] becomes corruped and dirtied by its sins, the neshamah was never involved in those actions.  The neshamah always remained pure and unsulied, as we say each morning in Elohai neshamah.

     

    Joseph Soloveitchik, On Teshuvah

  8. Questions for Discussion

     

    1.) What is the difference between the ruach and the neshamah?

     

    2.) Can you say a prayer about having a pure soul when we have made mistakes in the past?  Why or why not?  If so, how?