Va'etchanan

                July 31, 2020

            Va'etchanan

            Today’s the 10th of Av, 5780, or July 31 2020, and I am starting a weekly newsletter.
This week’s parsha is vaetchanan, meaning “and I pleaded”. It contains the Shema and v’ahavta, as well as the ten commandments (again). Pic found in this tweet from the British Library’s hebrew manuscript collection.

Yesterday was also Tisha b’Av, the saddest holiday. We commemorate a lot of bad things that happened to us Jews on or around it, historically, including the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem and (added later) the crusades and getting kicked out of half a dozen countries and some holocaust stuff. I didn’t observe it this year, because i am dealing with calamities present not past, but I did think about it a far amount and collected some related links and media in this thread, including R’ Benay Lappe’s CRASH talk, an essay on Tisha b’Av anti-Vietnam War protests, and a thread from a friend of mine on trauma resilience and feeling the failures.  

machine age knife magician 🖤 @sweetpavement
So much of resilience to living through trauma, for me, has been about learning how to hit the wall so it knocks me on my ass instead of breaking my neck.July 30th 2020
1 Retweet12 Likes
Tisha b’Av is for sitting with our feelings and learning how to live through trauma.  
Recommendations/links 
Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America has been doing an amazing online educational endeavor and posting all the videos on their Facebook after they happen. The only series I’ve watched (so far!) is Devin Naar’s three-part series (1, 2, 3) on race and ottoman sephardi jews in the US. Content warning: does not pull punches about racial hierarchy in America, past or present, both among Jewish populations and in general.  
Apparently Seth Rogen said some stuff about Jewish approaches to Israel being fucked up or Palestinians being human too or something. I too am excited for the pickle movie. I am glad this one said a good thing but also do not rely on celebrities for political advice, even when I agree with them. 
abolicious @telushk
Well now I gotta go see the pickle movie. This kicks ass @Sethrogen, shkoyach! Israel is ridiculous, antiquated and based on lies about other people’s land, Seth Rogen says, but he’s afraid to tell other Jews – Mondowe…Israel “makes no sense” as a means of preserving Jewish life, Seth Rogen says, but he is “100 percent afraid of Jews” in expressing his criticisms.mondoweiss.netJuly 28th 2020
166 Retweets1,700 Likes
Jewish Pet(s) of the Week: my parents adopted two beagles recently and named them Jake and Elwood after the blues brothers, and they are adorable. They’re cuddlers.  If you want your pet to be featured, send me a photo! 

Speaking of family, I showed this to the goyishe partner I live with and he just looked at me and said “I’ve met your family.” 

bnai ba'ath youth organization @mbsocol
for the sake of my wife's family, Zoom needs to incorporate an "ashkenazi jewish" checkbox where people aren't muted by the sound of someone else speaking louder. just let them all talk at once at maximum volume it's what they know. folks are trying to have conversationJuly 23rd 2020
692 Retweets7,836 Likes
bnai ba'ath youth organization @mbsocol
baruch hashem  Daniel Goldschmidt @danielnnz
@mbsocol There is that button! But it isn’t about Judaism, it’s called “turn on original sound”
July 23rd 2020
21 Retweets365 Likes
That’s all for newsletter 1! I hope it’s a good start. I’d apologize for there being this many tweet embeds but honestly that’s probably not going to change. See you next week!
With love, 
Meli

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