Sedher stuff

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Greetings.

Jewish date:  17 Nisan 5770.

Today’s holidays:  Ḥol hamMo‘edh Pesaḥ (AKA Passover; Judaism), Day 2 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Holy Thursday (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Tell Congress to stand up to corporate influence” and “Heart Disease and Stroke. You’re the Cure.”

Topic 1:  “Obama’s Hospitality: A Question of Character” and “How Was Yours ?”  In the former, Rav Shmuely Boteach notes that it is possible and practical to treat those with whom one disagrees respectfully. Rav Boteach notes that Binyamin Nethanyahu is not the first major leader Barack Obama has treated badly for political reasons.  The latter is a Dry Bones cartoon which notes the inconsistency between there being a sedher at the White House, considering Obama’s maltreatment of Nethanyahu over Israel exercising sovereignty over Jerusalem and the famous prayer from the sedher which demands Jewish sovereignty, “Next Year in Jerusalem!”, which carries an additional, currently politically explosive connotation of Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount and rebuilding the Temple.  (Sacrifices are supposed to be brought at the Temple on the Temple Mount.  And Obama is going to be taking flack for as long as he keeps trying to get Israel to do stupid things.)

Topic 2:  For today’s religious humor:  “happy Passover!”.

Note:  Those unfamiliar with the sedher can find more about it and Pesaḥ in general at OU.ORG.

Peace.

Aaron