Exodus 18:18 You will surely wear yourself out

Here's some thoughts from TODAY's parsha. That's right folks, I'm all caught up. And in the week that I did my Hebrew EVERY day and read the current Torah Portion, these are what I am thinking.

Coming soon: some stuff about how we shouldn't be like G-d. Not this week though, this week, we should be like G-d.

Burn Out

Also known as whatever-you-are-doing-too-much-of Fatigue. I've always liked Jethro (read Yitro) in the bible (and on NCIS). He's just a nice guy. Good dad, kind father in law. Schleps the family back to Moses after the whole Egypt thing. And sits Moses aside to take care of him in a way that no one else really does. G-d give Moses Aaron, but more as a prod that to actually aid him. Often I feel Aaron does less than help. But Jethro—he's all help. Gives Moses a job and a house and a wife. Babysits while Moses is doing G-d business, brings the family to Moses, drops some good advice and peaces out.

Delegation Station.

Previously, G-d had said that Moses would be like G-d unto everyone else. G-d delegated, you might say. Actually, between the Angels, the Prophets, and the donkey, G-unit delegates a lot. WHY? Because nothing can be on all the time. It starts in Genesis....but doesn't everything?

By the way world, you know how you're always trying to kill us? WHY? We gave you bagels and it wasn't good enough, so we gave you donuts, and still with the constant genocide. You know what else the Jewish Tradition has given you? THE WEEKEND. G-d has a busy week of Creation then takes a day to chill. And G-d would like us to share in this brilliance as well. Commanding us to take a day off once a week.

Many of us would like to do everything all the time, but we just don't have the time or the energy or we DO do it but it uses us up. Like working doubles, you can do it, but probably not all the time. Even the people that seem to do everything, have things that they wish that they had done more or had more in them to do more.

There are those who are completely satisfied with their amount of action and skill...some of them are just content with their lot and some are mayhaps not being honest with their work ethics. But even the Bezalels and the Moshes and The G-d need time, so don't feel bad if after some heated verbing you need a break to make yourself better. Because that's what the break is for, renewing that passion, or sleeping, or energy or learning, so that you can continue, or verb again. In the end it's about being more not necessarily doing more. And the continued creative effort toward better.

Two State Beard

So I never posted this, probably because I later realized it was half-formed crap, but I'm really tired now, so it looks great.

This is going to be a little scattered and half-formed but the self medicating with coffee is not actually fixing all of my problems.

ARTICLE: http://www.forward.com/articles/148983/?p=all

Look at that: the article that I'm referencing actually in my reference! I'm like a grown up.

I would first like to state that my biggest problem with fundamentalism is that it is detrimental to beards and beardom. We cannot have all of these crazies (Jewish and other) running around perverting everything and in general being schmucks while sporting real good beards. The Amish fundamentalist were trying to fix this, but I think only made it worse.

I really like how stringently this article points out that fundamentalism is reactionary to modernity. I don't know whose streimle was on so tight as to think Judaism should never change: That's dumb. When we started putting printed words in codex [books] instead of scrolls did we say OH HELLZ NO? Nah, now we have sweet books that carry well and share knowledge with all the people. And as a throwback to tradition and things that are inconvenient but still pretty awesome, we have scrollz in our synagogues.

The ancient Israelites did not have boats or planes or cars: all of these things help us visit and help Israel today, but maybe we should get rid of them since they are new. Not in the Bible? We wouldn't know from Bible if it weren't for writing and paper and shit...stolen, new technologies in their time. Aren't we here to seek out the divine in everything? Isn't farming easier with tools?

Fundamentalists are chumps. I understand. And agree fully with the points of the article that address letting them be but not letting them rule us. G-d they breed like rabbits.

Two state solution. Instead of making a Jewish state and a Palestinian state, let's make a moderate and a fundamentalist state. They can knife fight and pray a lot and the rest of us can be awesome.

Okay, that wasn't a real suggestion [I think], but I like the one in the article about reverse, reverse proselytizing. I will Reform Lubavitch the hell out of them. However, the Reform and ALL of the moderates need to get our shit together before that can be effective. We are just not as organized as the fundamentalists. I recommend cookies. People listen better when you give them cookies.