Each week in at Friendship Circle we acknowledge a passage from the Torah. This passage is referred to as a parsha. The first parsha, for example, is Parshat Bereishit, which covers from the beginning of Genesis to the story of Noah. Every week of the year has a Parsha. It gives us all a life lesson and offers meaning to our complicated lives.
Here is an example:
This week’s Torah portion – Sh’mini – tells of the consecration of the Tabernacle and laws regarding kosher animals. One law in particular stands out and teaches us an important lesson. Kosher fish must have two characteristics: fins and scales. Interestingly, all fish that have scales certainly have fins, but not all that have fins have scales (and would thus not be kosher). So basically, all they really need is scales. Why must we say fins and scales?
To truly understand this, we need to see what they both represent. Scales represent integrity. A foundation of honesty that protects a person and allows them to build their personality in an ethical and moral way. Fins represent ambition. The idea of an aid to allow the person to get where they need to go. In educating children, in influencing others, there are these two factors. The foundation of integrity and the concept of ambition that we must try to instill in others. But which comes first?
The Talmud tells us if we instill integrity in others, if this is their foundation, then drive and ambition will follow. However, if only the drive is there but not integrity, that is not kosher. Yes, the person can be successful and a hard worker, but he or she is fundamentally flawed if they don’t maintain integrity. That is the hallmark of a kosher personality.
February 7, 2022
What’s so important about the history of fan fiction, you may ask? Aside from possibly helping you on Jeopardy, it makes the concept seem less trivial. If fan fiction as we know it had first come to be in, say, the late 1990s instead of the 1960s, would you really look at it the same? No, and that’s just in… Read More
February 7, 2022
In my last post, I talked about how fan fiction is something you may hear about without actively searching for it—although frankly speaking, it’s more likely to be discussed on the Internet than in, say, a college cafeteria)—including a mention of creators’ opinions. While some creators are supportive of derivative works based on their stories and/or characters, there are some… Read More
February 7, 2022
It’s far from uncommon to see pop culture being referenced in everyday life, and especially common to see it referenced in other works (for instance, Marty McFly refers to Darth Vader at one point in Back to the Future). As such, it shouldn’t be surprising that the concept of fan fiction has been mentioned in ‘official’ fiction. Perhaps the most… Read More