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Aug 31, 2020

A Blessing for all our Children

A Blessing for all our Children

Rabbi Menachem Creditor

Dear, Precious Ones, Our Children,

May you be blessed in your goings and comings, in your ongoing journeys through an uncertain world.
May God protect you from evil and from carelessness.

May your hearts grow in awareness and sensitivity.
May your minds deepen in appreciation and curiosity.

May you learn life's lessons and be strengthened.
May whatever successes you achieve find you humble and ready to share, graciously and generously.
May whatever challenges you face find you brave and ready to ask for help.

May you be blessed with good neighbors, good teachers, and good friends.
May this world invite your hearts' gifts and the gift of your hearts.
May your soul be resilient and heal fully and quickly whenever it needs to.

May we, your teachers and families, be blessed to witness your amazing paths forward, inward, and upward.
May you never doubt the overflowing love and gratitude we feel for you.
May the Source of Life pour through you and surround you as you choose your next steps.
May you know and share kindness, deep and true.

Thank you for being ours, and for being your own, glorious selves.
We love you more than we can say.

Aug 25, 2020

Thoughts on Psalm 23: "Who Walks in the Valley of the Shadow of Death?"

Who Walks in the Valley
of the Shadow of Death?
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
published on myjewishlearning.com

Among the best-known of any biblical chapter, the six verses of Psalm 23 are commonly recited at funerals and chanted as a meditation. Its mystical words echo in our ears:

"Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 
I will fear no evil, for You are with me..."

But what do they mean?

The classic King James translation of 1611, quoted above, capitalizes the “Y” in You, meaning that the one doing the walking is human and God is the companion. Robert Alter’s magisterial 2007 translation agrees. Human beings do not walk alone through life’s travails — through the “vale of death’s shadow” as Alter renders it — because God is always present.

Yet other interpreters suggest that the verse might not be pointing to the Divine Presence at all. Consider this teaching from the Talmud.... [click here to continue reading]