Down-to-Earth Spirituality

Unlike the Torah narrative that begins “In the Beginning,” a blog begins at the end. This "Torah Tweets" blog displays its narrative in reverse chronological order with the most recent post appearing first. The blog http://bibleblogyourlife.blogspot.com was created to reverse the order of the blog posts in this blog to begin in the beginning.

See the blogs for the books Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media http://throughabiblelens.blogspot.co.il/ and Photograph God: Creating a Spiritual Blog of Your Life http://photographgod.com/. Both books invite you to explore creative ways to photograph all that happens in your everyday life while crafting a vibrant dialogue between your life story and the biblical narrative.

Postdigital Narrative on Spiritual Dimensons of Everyday Life ///// "For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp." (Deuteronomy 23:15) ///// "Judaism does not direct its gaze upward but downward ... does not aspire to a heavenly transcendence, nor does it seek to soar upon the wings of some abstract, mysterious spirituality. It fixes its gaze upon concrete, empirical reality permeating every nook and cranny of life. The marketplace, the factory, the street, the house, the mall, the banquet hall, all constitute the backdrop of religious life." (R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik) ///// "It is not enough for the Jew to rest content with his own spiritual ascent, the elevation of his soul in closeness to G-d, he must strive to draw spirituality down into the world and into every part of it - the world of his work and his social life - until not only do they not distract him from his pursuit of G-d, but they become a full part of it." (R. Menachem M. Schneerson) ///// "If there is a religious agency in our lives, it has to appear in the manner of our times. Not from on high, but a revelation that hides itself in our culture, it will be ground-level, on the street, it'll be coming down the avenue in the traffic, hard to tell apart from anything else." (E. L. Doctorow) ///// "The first message that Moses chose to teach the Jewish people as they were about to enter the Land of Israel was to fuse heaven to earth, to enable the mundane to rise up and touch the Divine, the spiritual to vitalize the physical, not only as individuals but as an entire nation." (R. Abraham Y. Kook)




Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Miketz/Hanukah (Passed) מקץ

From Hellenistic to Hebraic Consciousness
Then Pharoh said to Joseph, "See! I have placed you in charge of all the land of Egypt."  And Pharoh removed his ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand. (Genesis 41:41, 42)
ויאמר פרעה אל יוסף ראה נתתי אתך על כל ארץ מצרים ויסר פרעה את טבעתו מעל ידו ויתן אתה על יד יוסף


In creating a weekly blog post, we often begin with a concept and then make the photographs. 
This week, the concept was derived from photographs of our family lighting both Hanukah and birthday candles.
Two other events in our lives this week related to Miketz and Hanukah contributed to this posting.
1) Rejoicing that Mel completd his new book The Future of Art in a Postdigital Art: From Hellenistic to Hebraic Consciousness.
2) Rejoicing this Hanukah that the Greeks saved the Jews by sending fire-fighting planes and firefighters.
The photographs show our grandson Yahel lighting olive oil wicks of a hanukiah in which light from outside is reflected inside.
Mel and our son Moshe lighting Hanukah candles in which light from inside is reflected outside.
Our grandchildren Taggel, Razel and Elianne dancing to the singing of Hanukah songs.
Elianne looking in awe at the candles and sparklers in two pink sufganiot in celebration of her second birthday.
While retaining his Jewish consciousness, Joseph succeeded in the major culture of his day only to have his descendants enslaved to it.
In the Hanukah story:  Jews so enamored by Hellenistic culture that they would assimilate into it at war with those who chose to retain Jewish values.
In the networked world of our postdigital age: We are witnessing a shift from the Hellenistic static beauty of external form to a Hebraic dynamic inner beauty like flickering lights.

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