Blog/January 2008/Jan 25th

January 25th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

This shabbat I was speaking to one of my fellow congregants after morning prayers. He asked me if I was "ashkenazi", to which I replied, "there is no such thing!". As he looked at me quizzically, I continued and said, "you are a Jew, I am a Jew, there is no such thing as 'ashkenazi' or 'sepharadi'". His question made me think about how Israelis in general categorize a person by the types of clothes or kippa worn. It seems there is a strong need to pidgeonhole people - it makes it easy for us to determine that person's relative worth. But listen up, people: there is no such thing as an "ashkenazi" or a "sepharadi" or a "temani" -- there is only "Jew". Whether you converted according to halachah, or you were born into the club; whether your ancestors spent time in Morocco or Poland; whether you keep all of the 613 mitsvot you can, or haven't got there yet: you are a Jew, period. Get over the pigeonholing. You can even be a royal African Jew.

• allies in the iriya
• talmud makes you a better sharpshooter
• scary pizza (time for teshuva)
• closer to a mortgage
• sarah's play
• gas woes
• mehadrin bus

Shabbat shalom!

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