6 results for author: Baruch Rock
Honey from the Rock: Righteous Foundation
Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah 248:1(Code of Jewish Law)
“Everyone is obligated to give Tzedakah. Even people supported by tzedakah must give from what they receive. Anyone who refuses to give tzedakah or gives less than what he should give, the court pressures him until he gives the amount he has been assessed. The court may confiscate his possessions and deduct from them the appropriate amount (for Tzedakah).”
How can a court force someone to give tzedakkah? Tzedakah is commonly translated as charity which is given in a non-coercive manner. However, charity and tzedakah are different. The root of the word tzedakah is ...
Honey from the Rock: A Question
Better Place, the brain child of Israeli born Shai Agassi, is making an impact worldwide, and that is even before one car has hit the streets. Better Place is the first company of its kind to develop an economically viable model to propagate the mass the production and purchasing of electric vehicles based on a subscription service. The subscription service, described as being similar to a cell phone subscription, means that the battery belongs to Better Place and depending on the package, the consumer will have various choices of charging and battery replacement centers throughout the country. Better Place has companies operating in Israel, ...
Honey From the Rock: Resilient Shabbat – Sustaining the Ability to Be
Thinking back to my experience at the ICLEI[1] World Congress in Capetown, South Africa in 2006, one thing in particular stands out in my mind’s eye. I was sitting in an explanatory session of the different topical themes that the congress was offering. A presenter rose to the podium and asked us to close our eyes, take in a deep breath, exhale, and do so again. In closing she informed us that we just had practiced resilience[2].
I learned an important lesson from that 15 second meditation…which is that resilience, the ability to restore, to heal, to make “Tikkun”[3], is in essence “being” in and of ...
Honey from the Rock: Avoiding History
Ten years ago I visited Cairo, Egypt with my parents. I’ll never forget the time when we went to the Egyptian Museum to see King Tut’s mask. Surprisingly, the most interesting thing about King Tut’s golden mask is not the mask itself, but watching people’s faces as they looked at it. Their eyes revealed a state of mind that can only be described as “captivated”. It was clear to me that after thousands of years, the ancient Egyptians were still masters of the external, material side of existence, but that is all that remains of their culture. Indeed Egyptian history is captivating, but it remains just ...
Honey From the Rock: The Torah’s Deep Ecology
Time is running out to avoid disaster.
This is the refrain that emerges from even a cursory glance at the media’s portrayal of such pressing issues as global climate change, world peace, and economics. In an ever rapidly changing world, in which it seems we have very little control and very little understanding of how we arrived here, disaster seems all but a foregone conclusion. It is unfortunate that the global narrative that is being woven, for the most part, lacks a comprehensive framework within which to take steps to avoid the doom and gloom scenarios. What saddens me most however, is that there seems to be a pervading sense ...
Honey from the Rock – Introduction
I first became aware of the living earth by hiking, running, and mountain biking in the forest that surrounded my childhood home in Melville, New York.
Over the years, parts of the forest and surrounding farmlands were developed into ”McMansion” housing projects and looking back on it, I think this was part of what inspired me to join my school’s environmental organization in 7th grade. Raising environmental awareness and the importance of working on behalf of environmental preservation seemed liked a logical thing to do. How could it be that so few were aware of the fact that our lives depend on the health and vitality of ...