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Rabbi Funnye of Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation helps us explore Psalms 25, 51, and 145 on our journeys of return.
Selihot (part of the liturgical leadup to the High Holy Days) makes use of words—prayers, poems, please—to ask for Divine compassion as we contemplate our wrongdoing over the past year. The liturgy of the High Holy Days places tremendous emphasis on how we use our words, affirming the Biblical proverb: “The tongue (speech) has power over death and life.” What would happen if we took this proverb literally? Metaphorically? Seriously?
Explore how the ruling religions shaped Sephardic and Ashkenazi Judaism by comparing a piyyut (liturgical poem) on the binding of Isaac by the 12th-century poet Rabbi Shemuel Yehuda ibn Abbas of Fez and Baghdad, and one by his contemporary, Rabbi Ephraim of Regensburg, Germany.