parsha bit: Nitzavim-Vayeilech

[cellio]

Our parsha tells us "this mitzvah is not far away from you [...] it is very close to you, in your mouths and hearts to fulfill". To what mitzvah does the passage refer? Rashi says it refers to torah study. A lazy person, he says, claims that the torah is far away, beyond reach, and thus does not try to study. However, Rashi says, it is close by and thus easily available.

(I don't know where this comes from, but there is a tradition that says that an angel teaches the child in the womb all of torah, but it is forgotten at birth until later re-learned.)

Comments

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Hey... so, we may be coming to your town... minds turn to shul shopping. My mom keeps telling me about this "Rabbi Chuck" and some shtiebl on the third floor -- know anything about them? I don't know if we'd really end up in Squirrel Hill (S. really has to like it), but it's at least a possibility.

[cellio]

That would be Or L'Simcha. I haven't met Rabbi Chuck, but he's apparently popular especially with young families. He used to be an assistant? associate? rabbi at one of the big Conservative congregations here, where his focus was the school. Something happened (don't know the details; wouldn't post publicly if I did anyway) and he left that congregation to start his own, with some members following him. Or L'Simcha is unaffiliated and calls itself traditional/egalitarian. I think they have about 100 members now, though I don't know if that's people or households. I should visit someday just to satisfy my curiosity.

Squirrel Hill is nice, you know. :-)