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)




Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Beha'alotkha (Lift up) בהעלתך

Cows, DNA and Solar Menorah
When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall illuminate the face of the menorah …. This is the workmanship of the menorah, hammered from a single piece of gold from its base to its flowers.  (Numbers 8:1, 4)

When we study worldly wisdoms represented by the 7 branches of the menorah in light of torah, the lamps of the menorah shine brightly.  (Chatam Sofer)
The menorah, symbol of the Jewish people since ancient times, adorns the entrance to the Knesset and is the seal of the State of Israel. 
We participated in the annual award ceremony at the Knesset honoring the world's best scientists and artists with the coveted Wolf Prizes.
Mel was appointed to the Council of the Wolf Foundation by the President of Israel on recommendation of the Minister of Education.  
Wolf Prizes are awarded in Jerusalem in the fields of agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, physics, art, music, and architecture.
Later in the week, we participated in the International Conference on Art, Science and Technology in the Galilee city of Karmiel. 
Mel illuminated wordly wisdom with torah insights in his lecture on a kabbalistic model of creative process in art and science.
Dr. Eugene Katz, of the Institute for Desert Research lectured on bridges between mathematics, natural sciences, art and architecture.
His research on solar energy at Sde Boker created a solar panel menorah tilted up towards the sun to generate electricity to light up homes.
Translated as 'lighting,' beha'alotkha literally means 'lift up.'  Worldly knowledge is spiritually elevated seen through torah lenses.
Integral interconnectedness of all branches of knowledge is symbolized by the menorah being hammered from a single piece of gold.
The menorah's branching form joins the spiral form of the torah scroll to represent Judaism as living systems like flowering trees and DNA.
At the Knesset dinner, we sat with California Prof. Harris Lewin who was awarded the Wolf Prize for his contributions to animal genetics.
In his acceptance speech, he related how his interest in the genetics of cows was sparked by his work with them on a kibbutz when he was 17.            

1 comment:

  1. מזל טוב!
    עוד שנים רבות ומאושרות יחדיו.
    אבי רוזן

    ReplyDelete