Vaera 5772 — Hardening of the Heart
For this week, I tried my hand at doing a video version of my d’var Torah.
The text version is available at the Americans for Peace Now web site, click here to read it.
Please leave comments if you like the video format. I’m sure production values would improve with more practice.
Reb Barry
Rabbi Barry – I am a member of Congregation Bet Shalom in Tucson. Lynn Saul suggested I look you up. This site is now on my favorites bar.
I coordinate a d’var Torah series at Daily Kos, the political blog. I wrote the d’var Torah this week. I hope you don’t mind, but I included your video.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/18/1055999/-Dvar-Torah:-Vaera?via=siderecent
I hope you don’t mind. Let me know if there is a problem with this.
No problem at all, thanks!
Rav Barry
Prefer the video, reminds me of the Saturday mornings
at Beth Tikvah where your sermons always provoked me to
question some of my beliefs. Sometimes they changed my
opinions, sometimes they were reinforced. Your speeches
were always captivating whether I ended up agreeing with
you or not.
Please continue using the video format–wonderful! Brought me back to your “Introduction to Judaism” class, 2006-07, at B’nai Israel in Toledo, Ohio, USA. I greatly miss your teachings. One quibble: the slightly hollow sounding audio might be improved–fuller sounding with more volume–by repositioning your microphone.
Hi Brian and Tom, thanks for the kind words! I’ll work on the “production values,” including the sound quality.
I enjoyed seeing the words delivered versus just blitzing through them by reading. I few simple pictures spiced in would kind of stimulate the mind like a sea of frogs when you are mentioning frogs. I like how the hardening of the heart is explained but I think on a personal level, people harden their hearts to their dysfunctional children, their cheating spouses, their parents who are uncaring. At the personal level when you harden your heart to those people it builds a wall of barb wire where emotions can only get out selectively. Eventually, life is dark, life like the Pharoh is void of tranquility of spirit.