I really like wearing tefillin. There s something about the act of removing them from their velvet pouch, unwinding them,
rewinding them around my arm and head. There s something about how I think about the act, and what it means to me. There s something about
how tactile it all is, the way the leather feels, its faint scent.
And there s something about the way the
process feels,
independent of its intellectual associations. I just.like it.
A lot. Trouble is, I don t get to do it very often. Tefillin are only
worn for weekday morning davvening, and
my schedule doesn t always permit me to pause for
A chronicle of faith, hope, survival, and blessings against all odds: letters of hope and faith from Rav Zalman Sorotzkin s children
Photos: Family archives
The central train station in Vilna was eerily quiet on that chilly day toward the end of 1940, in the early days of World War II. The city, along with the rest of eastern Poland, was occupied by Soviet forces, and for the time being, the 55,000 Jews living in the city, in addition to another 15,000 Jewish refugees from German-occupied Poland, were safe. In a few months, Germany would attack Soviet forces in Eastern Europe and occupy Vilna, creating a ghetto and sealing the fate of its Jews. But, then, there was still a possibility of escape.
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What Shall We Plant Now?
עֹד כָּל-יְמֵי הָאָרֶץ זֶרַע וְקָצִיר … לֹ֥א יִשְׁבֹּֽתוּ׃
So long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest will never cease. – Genesis 8:22
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi described elderhood as a time of sacred harvesting.
Throughout youth and middle age, we plant ideas, tend to worthy endeavors, and prune our priorities. If we then fail to bring in the harvest, it is almost as if all our earlier efforts were wasted.
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At the heart of the Sage-ing® work is this deep immersion into all that Reb Zalman gifted us. This class offers contemplative tools for gathering, empowering, and giving expression to the wisdom of our own ripening lives.
Rabbi Ori Har
Rosemary Lohndorf
Six Tuesdays, at 2:00 – 4:00 pm, Mountain Time beginning January 26 and ending March 2.