Admit it - it's fun to gossip. As entertainment, gossip is still the choice of millions, because it's free, because it's easy, and because it's accessible. Besides, everyone does it, so a little harmless fun can't hurt anybody, can it?
We are born, so the Mishnah says, into the world against our will. No one consulted with us before our arrival. And we were born into a world that had already benefited and suffered because of the choices that other people had already made for us. Where our parents lived, their income and compatibility, whether we had a roof over our heads, beds to sleep in at night, and a full stomach every evening were all-important questions that we never chose for ourselves.
Put yourself in Jacob's place. Laying on his death bed, he is filled with apprehensions about the special way of understanding God and the world that his grandfather, Abraham, established. It wasn't so long ago, he must have mused, that everyone worshipped a multiplicity of deities, that people sacrificed children to their gods, that they gashed themselves with knives as part of a religious fervor, that cultic prostitution was an integral part of worship.
This is the 4th podcast in the shiur series. Rabbi Artson discusses the satisfaction in living in mitzvot.
This is the third podcast in the shiur series from Rabbi Artson. In this podcast, Rabbi Artson discusses both old and new theology and how it relates to wholeness.
Rabbi Artson releases his second shiur in the series. In this podcast, he discusses how to move past the everyday notion of Judaism.
Rabbi Artson discusses various ideas on the necessities of life in this week's shiur.
Rabbi Artson discusses the ideology behind bearing sin and passing on transgression in this shiur.
Rabbi Arton discusses love, justice, and equality in shiur #7.