Jan. 26th, 2006

cellio: (menorah)
The rabbis are troubled by God hardening Paro's heart after each plague. How, Rabbi Yochanan asks, did Paro have free will and thus warrant punishment? Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish (Resh Lakish) answers that after the first five plagues Paro hardened his heart and then after the next five God did so. The plagues were warnings and Paro was given five chances to relent. When he didn't, God sent five more as punishment. (Exodus Rabbah 13:3)
cellio: (shira)
When praying (which usually means when at services), I've noticed that there's a background thread that runs in my brain. While the foreground task is reciting the words in the siddur, the background thread is analyzing the words (ok, only some of the words) based on what I've learned so far of grammar. Sometimes I notice something new (oh, that's how that verb is put together!). This is good; direct application aids learning.

But... is there a way to prevent that thread from grabbing focus? Its job, most of the time, is to note things to come back to later, but sometimes it distracts me when I ought not be distracted. Like, say, when I'm leading services. I don't want to surpress it; I just want it to behave.

(Please tell me that other people's brains work this way too? Pretty much any time I'm doing something vaguely "intellectual", there are at least two things going on in my brain, the main activity and the "meta" level that's noticing how I'm processing that main activity.)

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