Having a study summer obviously this year….

Studying the Rabbi’s today, came across this…

Nice rabbinical condensations of necessary basic ongoing practices:

Out of the 613 Mitzvot mentioned in the Torah, there are six mitzvot which the Sefer Hachinuch calls “constant mitzvot”: “We have six mitzvot which are perpetual and constant, applicable at all times, all the days of our lives”.

To know God, and that he created all things.

Not to have any god(s) beside God (lit. in his face).

To know God’s Oneness.

To fear or reverence God.

To love God.

Not to pursue the passions of your heart and stray after your eyes.

That last one, certainly would bother our current cultural directives. It implies discerning between spiritual passions and “fleshly” ones. The prioritizing of the pursuit of personal happiness is critiqued here, and also getting at the true nature of desire and passion. What do we really want and need. Good study anyways, having fun mulling over and chewing on the thoughts of the rabbis today! Truth comes in many packages as one saint said.

 Not quite as condensed as Jesus’ list, but pretty compressed basics in life.

My other favorite quote this week: “My heart is broken in two, but God is One. The Shema implies not just God’s integration, but potentially and eventually our own, as we offer our hearts into His. We become one or integrated by staring and encountering His Oneness. We find ourselves, by losing our self definitions into His naming of us.” Nice