Saturday, March 13, 2010
In online dating, first impressions are crucial: usually people focus on having a good photo or writing a clever profile. But have you ever thought about what kind of first impression you make by telephone?
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Estee and Justin
“Although we lived within a 10-minute drive of each other and had mutual friends, no one would have put us together if it wasn’t for JDate.”
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Just as Jews from different countries have different ritual customs, so too do their prayerbooks have slight but important variations. The different formats of the prayer service is known as a Nusach…
When I promised my husband that I would provide a steady supply of “Kitchen Gold” I think he was expecting something completely different than what he found in the freezer, refrigerator and sometimes balcony.
“…Be as scrupulous in performing a ‘minor’ mitzvah as a ‘major’ one, for you do not know the reward given for the respective mitzvot. Calculate the…reward of a sin against its cost” (Ethics of the Fathers 2:1). While we do not know the full reward and punishment for each mitzvah in the Torah, there are some actions that are so severe that God Himself informs us that they are punishable by the dreaded Kareit.
Kareit, often defined as excision, is extremely hard to comprehend. In fact, the sages of the Talmud even debate what this punishment is. Many sages and rabbinic leaders have also noted that kareit may have a different effect on people today than it did in the days of the Holy Temple.
Kareit is often translated as being cut-off. It is believed that, in times when our connection to the spiritual realm was more tangible, kareit was actual death. (Not instant death, but rather death at a young age–under 60–accompanied by a lack of further offspring.) But, kareit is also understood as a spiritual excommunication, in which one’s soul is cut off from God.
There are 36 crimes for which one might receive kareit, but only if one purposefully committed the transgression and did not repent for the act. Some offenses for which one is punished by kareit are: incest, eating blood, and consulting ghosts or spirits.
Almost all of the sins for which kareit is a punishment are prohibitions. However, there are two positive commandments for which kareit is the punishment when they are not fulfilled. These are (1) to have oneself circumcised (if not done when a man was a baby) and (2) to offer the Paschal lamb (when one is not in a category allowing for exemption).
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