Thursday 3 July 2014

BDh"E: Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi has passed away.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi has passed away. May his memory be a blessing for the entire world.
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Message from his family:
Dear Friends and Colleagues, It is with a very heavy heart that we must inform you that our beloved Reb Zalman R' Meshullam Zalman Hiyya ben Chaya Gittel veShlomo HaCohen took a few peaceful last breaths in his sleep, and slipped away from us this morning, July 3, 2014, at 8:40 am
at his home in Boulder, Colorado.

In accordance with his wishes there will be a simple graveside funeral tomorrow, July 4, 2014.

From the NJ Jewish Standard
New Year 5773
«But if Kol Nidrei's pleas to wipe out any unfulfilled vows and promises teach us anything, it is to mean what we say. Does language like "Our Father, our King, we have sinned before you; our Father, our King, we have no King but You" really speak for us? How do we avoid the High Holy Days trap of spending hour after hour reciting prayers we don't understand, in language we don't subscribe to, to a God we may not even believe in?

Can we find a way to enter into the experience more fully without putting our minds in the pawnshop and violating our Jewish compulsion for honesty?

One surprisingly simple and freeing solution begins with a distinction. Beliefs are the language of mind. Prayer, on the other hand, begins in the heart — not the muscle but the metaphor, the realm not of cardiologists but of poets. Real prayer — davening, as we Jews used to say back in the old country — is not a rational matter. It's a romance.»
New Year 5773 - The Jewish Standard
http://jstandard.com/index.php/content/item/new_year_57733/


Kol Tuv,
RRW

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