All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Parashat Vaetchanan (וָאֶתְחַנַּן) 5782, and Free Legal Utterances

Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better

    This week’s Torah portion, Vaetchanan (וָאֶתְחַנַּן),  is the 45th (45/54 or 52, depending on the year: this year, it’s 54…) reading in the annual cycle.  It’s the second parashah in the book of Dvarim, with the full reading in Dvarim/Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11.

   Among other things, like the second recitation of The 10 Utterances,  aka The Law, with a key word change (emphasized in L’cha Dodi…), this portion has the Shema,  which is a bit like the Shahada for Muslims, in that it is recited at death, but also in the daily prayers (with the full paragraphs, not recited as often), as well as at the taking out of the Torah scroll, in the form of a call and response.  There is a midrash that Yaakov/Israel, on his death bed, asked a worried question, to which his sons responded by reciting the Shema, and…

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The Refrain of Ukraine

Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

A poem in Vietnamese by Hoàng Xuân Sơn

Translator: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm


THE REFRAIN OF UKRAINE

I broke my glasses

Peeled off both irises

Thought life was blind

The aching truth

Those people

Don’t know from where

The rumbling sound of souls

The open graves

The rumbling of Russian tanks

Artillery

They shot at the people

Ukraine oh Ukraine

The resilient people of Ukraine

In a united front fought

In their homes are the enemy

Woman hand in hand in combat

Let’s go to shelter

Oh those older and little babes

We will stay

In the spirit of our leader, Zelensky

No one will give us

The blue colours of the sky

The yellows of wheat flowers

The blooming brilliance

Hey you, you don’t belong on our land

Go home to your waiting mothers my friend

Poutine Putin

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Geraldo Vandré — Pensamentos.me/VEM comigo!

” Caminhando e cantando E seguindo a canção Somos todos iguais Braços dados ou não Nas escolas, nas ruas Campos, construções Caminhando e cantando E seguindo a canção Vem vamos embora Que esperar não é saber Quem sabe faz a hora Não espera acontecer…” Geraldo Vandré. Pra Não Dizer Que Não Falei de Flores. https://m.letras.mus.br %5B…%5D

Geraldo Vandré — Pensamentos.me/VEM comigo!