Shabbat Sermon: How Do We Keep Clean and Pristine Things, Clean and Pristine? with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz
Description
I have a question for you this morning. How do we keep clean and pristine things clean and pristine?
Imagine that in your home, in your living room, you have a sofa. The sofa is clean and pristine. The sofa is white. How do you keep your white sofa white? How do you think about inviting a family for dinner that has, say, a four-child old child? Let’s further stipulate that that four-year old child loves chocolate and has chocolaty fingers. How do you think about the prospect of those chocolaty fingers encountering your formerly clean and pristine white sofa?
This is not only a practical question. It is also very much a philosophical question. How we think about keeping the white sofa white is prismatic of how we live our lives, and how we think about mess in our lives. There are basically two schools of thought.
Last week, I came across a fascinating article in the New York Times Magazine. Kim Tingley, in her article “‘Nature’s Swiss Army Knife’: What can we Learn from Venom ?” writes about the incredible potential of highly toxic reptile and insect venom to provide pharmaceutical miracles. It turns out...
Published 11/23/24
Dear friends,
There is a fascinating paradox in our Torah reading this week.
On the one hand, we've spent these last weeks reading about the trials and tribulations of our ancestors. In our Talmud class, we've discussed how loss, trauma, and pain shape their lives. We've seen how they suffer...
Published 11/23/24
What does Naftali Herstik, a pre-eminent cantor at the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem for 30 years, have in common with Bobby Allison, who was one of the greatest race car drivers in American history, who won 85 NASCAR races over 30 years? One is an all-time great cantor. The other is an all-time...
Published 11/16/24