parsha bit: Rosh Hashana

On the second day of Rosh Hashana we read the Akeidah, the binding of Yitzchak. Many (myself included) ask how Avraham, who pressed God for justice for S'dom and 'Amorah, could obey a command to sacrifice his son without any objection. There is a midrash that Avraham was not silent. God told him to take his son; Avraham asked "which son?". God said "your favored one", and Avraham replied "I have two sons; Yishmael is favored by his mother, and Yitzchak is favored by his mother". So God said "take the one whom you love", and Avraham said "I love both of my sons". Finally, God told him "Take Yitzchak!". (Pirke d'Rabbi Eliezer 31)

There are a few different styles of midrash. One, like this example, seeks to fill in bits between the torah narrative. So the torah has God saying "take your son, your favored one, the one that you love...", and the rabbis (I presume) explored the repetition to see what might be going on there. All midrash is speculation (not necessarily true), but that's ok.

sermon: theists and atheists

dmnsqrl linked to this sermon from a UU minister about what theists and atheists can learn from each other. I found it an interesting read.

Excerpt:

Last year I heard this riddle: Why do so many UU’s go to divinity school? Because they can’t talk about God in church.

I think this is unfortunate, because theists and atheists experience life differently, and learn some very different lessons from their experiences. Probably any particular bit of wisdom can be learned on either path, but some bits are easier to learn on one path than the other. Which is why I think that theists and atheists could teach each other a lot if they could only sit and talk calmly. Today I hope to give that conversation a nudge by pointing out how much there is to gain and how to avoid some common dead ends.

Rosh Hashana food

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