He was preaching and dressed in black but without wearing a pure holy white tallit katan under his shirt: he supported Jesus, I thought of Balaam, a god who was worshipped instead of Adonai during the time of Moses. The preacher and his chorus sang so loudly that the house shook, it almost loosened the hinges of the roof with a collapse committing a mass killing to all the people inside. What was their message? That they were unhappy and wanted to "change."
I then came inside to my room and "changed" clothes and put on a warmer sweater. I "changed" and felt instantly happy, Keeping The Faith! I read in The Proverbs last year: "A woman of valor prepares for the winter months by sewing crimson woolen garments for her family to keep them warm." Therefore I bought a goose-down blanket in the scorching hot month of August reduced to half price because it was an off-season purchase and prepared myself--but this blanket is not crimson, it is the holy purity of white like my tallit katan.
In December this year we welcome the lunar months of Kislev and Tevet, with Rosh Hodesh Tevet falling on the 6th day of Chanukah, also beginning at sunset on the First Day of Winter. 10 Tevet is a fast day on the lunar calendar, the day that Babylonia started the siege of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.E. which corresponds this year to January 1st, New Year's Day on the solar calendar.
We can greet this new solar year with an opportunity to "change" as we fast to mourn the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem, and do it wearing a tallit katan under our shirts, quietly, not needing to sing so loudly as to cause a roof to cave in endangering lives and escalating blood pressure. Instead of making solar calendar New Year's resolutions I will be fasting and in oath to Adonai while the preacher is feasting. Different strokes for different folks.
I then came inside to my room and "changed" clothes and put on a warmer sweater. I "changed" and felt instantly happy, Keeping The Faith! I read in The Proverbs last year: "A woman of valor prepares for the winter months by sewing crimson woolen garments for her family to keep them warm." Therefore I bought a goose-down blanket in the scorching hot month of August reduced to half price because it was an off-season purchase and prepared myself--but this blanket is not crimson, it is the holy purity of white like my tallit katan.
In December this year we welcome the lunar months of Kislev and Tevet, with Rosh Hodesh Tevet falling on the 6th day of Chanukah, also beginning at sunset on the First Day of Winter. 10 Tevet is a fast day on the lunar calendar, the day that Babylonia started the siege of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.E. which corresponds this year to January 1st, New Year's Day on the solar calendar.
We can greet this new solar year with an opportunity to "change" as we fast to mourn the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem, and do it wearing a tallit katan under our shirts, quietly, not needing to sing so loudly as to cause a roof to cave in endangering lives and escalating blood pressure. Instead of making solar calendar New Year's resolutions I will be fasting and in oath to Adonai while the preacher is feasting. Different strokes for different folks.
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