I've been writing this blog all year. Therefore, I'm fairly certain it's become clear that I had multiple deaths in my family on the same day only a few months ago, so writing this entry is very personal and very difficult.
I've been told many times, that people seem to know when they're dying. I've heard about my grandfather's death, my uncle's death, my aunt's death, and the deaths of so many relatives. They were ready to die, it was unexpected, he knew it was his time...all things I've been told about my loved ones.
Judaism tells us that we should most definitely lie to a dying person so that they should never know how truly serious their condition is. They should die in a state of calm rather than anxious and uncomfortable.
Honestly, I'm not comfortable continuing to write this entry and I feel I summed up the main message. Before I start crying, I think I'll move on.
Day 178: Is Your Work Sacred?
There seems to be a spiritual connection in everything we do, see, feel, hear--experience. I actually do believe this! I love having spirituality pointed out to me when I fail to see it myself.
Last Shabbas, I heard a wonderful d'var Torah given by an educator who works at my shul. He talked about the blessings he said during his travels and his climb up Kilimanjaro. What an inspiration! I loved the brachot he included and I found his attitude very similar to mine when I was hiking across Israel last year.
On the topic of spirituality and everything, this most definitely fits also for our work. Some connections are obvious: be definition, a rabbi's work is sacred. But others? Not so much. In the book, there was a story about a taxi driver and how his work was spiritual because he might have been taking a groom to the house of his future bride for his proposal, or taking a cured person home from the hospital for the first time.
We were challenged to find the spirituality in our own jobs, so a challenge for me it will be. I don't want to focus on my future...I don't want to look for the spirituality in being a teacher because I don't find that challenging. Instead, I'd like to focus on my job right now: an intern at an educational database.
I get to write daily. I write kid-friendly articles about people, places, fun-facts, folktales, etc. Maybe a child is reading a biography I wrote and is inspired by the person and their actions. Because they want to emulate that person, they go on to do big things and inspire others. That's super cool, I'm really happy right now just thinking about that. I hope it happens. It would be an honor to inspire a student before I even enter my own classroom.
Day 179: Is Abortion Murder? Should a Woman's Right to Abortion Be Absolute?
Due to the extremely political nature of this topic nowadays, I will NOT be including my own opinion in this entry (partially because my opinions are still being formed and partially because of its political nature). This entry will be entirely formed from quotes and paraphrases directly taken from pages 257-259 of the book:
"People on the right [...] generally believe that life starts at conception and that abortion is murder. Liberals generally maintain that life starts at birth, and that since a woman should have the right to do what she wants with her body, she should be allowed to abort her fetus [...]. Strangely, many people who embrace these positions do not necessarily live their lives according to them. [...] one rarely finds miscarriages being mourned with the same intensity that the death of a human being is mourned [...] On the other hand, many who claim to believe that woman should have the right to do what she wants with her body opposes legalizing prostitution."
These are the times when abortion is considered a viable option in Judaism:
- if it saves the physical or mental well-being (such as in cases of rape and/or incest) of the mother
- if the child would be born with Tay-Sachs or other severe illnesses or deformities
Judaism's answers to both questions in the title of this section is "no."
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