Purim and reflection

For my Jewish Thought and Culture class, we are assigned (almost) every week to read the portion of the torah that most of rabbinic judaism is reading that week, along with the commentary on the passage in the Jerusalem Post (by a Rabbi Shlomo Riskin) and one of 4 different other commentaries. This week's passage was Tzav, Leviticus 6:8-all of Chapter 8. It's all about the different sacrifices that the children of Israel were to make, and the procedures for them to follow. After we do the reading we have to do a 300 word write-up, containing our thoughts on what we read. Mine today ended up being kind of a summary of some things I've been thinking about lately, and i thought I'd share it with all you lovely people out there in la-la land who have nothing better to do than listen to the ramblings of a young college student off in Israel.

The Torah portion this week was all about the sacrifices that God commands from His people. As I pondered the reasons why I should be made to read this passage that holds little interest for me--frankly the whole thing about the fat on the long lobe of the liver somewhat disgusts me--I read the commentary on the Midrash, and in the third section that I read, the commentator was referring to the verse in psalms that talks about the sacrifices God wants being “a broken and contrite heart.” And I thought about this in relation to some things that I’ve been going through this week, and God, even as I write it, is showing me how He wants me to sacrifice for Him. God wants me, and all His children to fully surrender control of our lives to Him. Of course He is sovereign and in full control anyway, but I fight so often for supremacy of my heart with my selfishness and self love. God desires me to live in love for others through the commands that He has given me, and I must start this path to love by getting on my knees and showing my love for Him by allowing him to break down all my hardness of heart and sinful selfishness, and fill the space they occupy with pure love. A broken spirit and a contrite heart are the sacrifice He wants, and practically, I must obtain them by dying to self every day, and learning how to love in being patient, kind, not jealous, not boastful, not arrogant, not acting unbecomingly, loving truth, bearing all, hoping and enduring. God’s way is the best way, and we are called to follow by sacrificing—offering to Him—our lives and attitudes, every day that He gives us breath.

Last Friday, if you didn't know, was Purim (the feast celebrating God's salvation of His people as recounted in the book of Esther) and we had a party and, as is traditional in Israel now, we all came up with Purim costumes. :) it was great fun to figure out a costume with extremely limited time and resources. But we all pulled something together with the help of the "Canada," which is the place here on the Moshav where people bring rejected clothing and the rest of us are free to take as we will. We picked pieces that looked helpful, and then proceeded to rip them to shreds as needed. Great fun. I was a newsie with a black eye and abrasion above my eyebrow, all thanks for my friend Ashley's wonderful makeup abilities. She pretty much put my costume together too. :)