The commandment to find happiness in difference

[Fruit of thy loins]

Are you thinking what I'm thinking as you read this?

Forth Light - Parashat Bereishit (by Rabbi Rose)

An difficult aspect of the first portion of the Torah is the apparent contradictions between the account of creation in the first chapter of Genesis and that in the second. One of those discrepancies concerns the creation of Woman. While it originally appears that Man and Woman were created together, Woman is later described as being formed from Man’s rib. The traditional explanation for this difference is that originally Man and Woman were created as a composite hermaphrodite being, connected back to back; and later divided into two separate beings, becoming whole again in the face to face encounter of sexual union. This is the meaning of the verse that follows: ‘therefore Man should leave his mother and father and cleave to his Woman and become one flesh’.  While some see the ‘one flesh’ as signifying the child born from their union, the literal meaning expounded by many of the commentators is that it refers to the  sexual union itself. It is thus G-d’s will that rather than being joined at the hip with a similar being, we must achieve oneness with a face to face encounter with a different being. We become whole only by intimate connection with the ‘Other’. This can also be seen in the list of forbidden sexual relationships enumerated in the Torah. The vast majority concern incest, or intimacy with members of our own family. In our intimate relationships we are forbidden to seek the comfort of the familiar, safe home environment. Rather we are enjoined to seek fulfilment in what is different from us. Therefore the verse, traditionally seen as prohibiting incest for all humanity, stresses the need to leave our parents: the familiar, and cleave to our partner: the different. This idea, of course, has a resonance far beyond our sexual relations. If in the most important and intimate area of our lives G-d enjoins us to leave the safe and familiar and seek out the exotic and different, how much more so in other spheres. At the very beginning of the Torah we are warned not to cocoon ourselves in a comfortable environment, eschewing the challenges of confronting the new and  the divergent. Only by facing difference are we enabled to emotionally and spiritually grow. Only in the mirror of the face of the other can we truly see ourselves.


http://www.ehcong.com/ForthLight/1Bereishit66.htm

[Zionist Revolutionary]

Is Rose a first name or last name in this case? If it is a first name, it is not a real rabbi. If it is the last name, is it an Orthodox rabbi?

http://www.ehcong.com/RabbiRose.htm

Why would a Rabbi be called by his first name?  I know there are some exceptions, but Rabbi's are usually called by their last.

He seems to be Orthodox.

[Fruit of thy loins]

Rabbi Rose is an Orthodox rabbi in Edinburgh (capital of Scotland and, before multiculturalism, a very beautiful city) and he has a passion for inter-faith activities, apparently. 

[Fruit of thy loins]

'The world grows darker for him wh has to depend on others; his life is not really life'

'When a man partakes of his own his mind is at rest; even if he partake of what belongs to his father or mother or his children his mind is not at rest, and it is unnecessary to add if he partake of what belongs to strangers'


These are Talmudic statements.  I agree; being dependent on others is no life at all.  This is why children have a biological imperative to rebel against their parents at some point. 

[androbot2084]

So where in the Torah does it prohibit a woman from becomming a Rabbi?  It would seem to me that Judaism would be far more progressive in regards to womans rights then would be the religion of Islam.  And if woman Rabbis are not mentioned in Torah where does it say that Torah is opposed to establishing precedents ?  Wouldn't a precedent be okay as long as it does not violate Torah?