Tunnels and this parasha

Tunnels

In this week's parasha, wells play a key role, as they did last week. This week, in Toldot,
Gen. 26
12 And Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The LORD blessed him, 13 and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. 14 He had possessions of flocks and herds, and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. 15 (Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.) 16 And Abim'elech said to Isaac, "Go away from us; for you are much mightier than we." 17 So Isaac departed from there, and encamped in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there. 18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham; and he gave them the names which his father had given them. 19 But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of springing water, 20 the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours." So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. 21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also; so he called its name Sitnah. 22 And he moved from there and dug another well, and over that they did not quarrel; so he called its name Reho'both, saying, "For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land."

Usually, in the ancient world, tunnels are dug on an incline leading to the well.
A tunnel is an underground passage. The definition of what constitutes a tunnel is not universally agreed upon. However, in general tunnels are at least twice as long as they are wide. In addition, they should be completely enclosed on all sides, save for the openings at each end.
A tunnel may be for:...for a canal. Some are aqueducts, constructed purely for carrying water — for consumption, for hydroelectric purposes or as sewers — while others carry other services such as telecommunications cables. There are even tunnels designed as wildlife crossings for European badgers and other endangered species. Some secret tunnels have also been made as a method of entrance or escape from an area, such as the Cu Chi Tunnels or the tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt.

Not only to tunnels/wellls play a major role in the parasha, but in the news last week.

Sometimes they get filled up and need to be redug as in the parasha. Water=Torah (Iisaiah 55).
-Sometimes new wells need to be dug-modefrnized Judaism.

-Sometimes tunnels have been hidden for centuries are discovered anew, and we find they solve ancient mysteries.(in the news: Newly Discovered Tunnel May Once Have Carried Dead Sea Scrolls -Forward Newly Discovered Tunnel May Once Have Carried Dead Sea Scrolls -Forward

Norman Golb | Wed. Oct 24, 2007
Accounts released last month of a newly discovered Jerusalem tunnel state that the passage was the very one used by those fleeing Jerusalem during the siege of 70 C.E., as described by Josephus. However, Josephus identifies not one tunnel but an elaborate network of them. That said, this most recent discovery, and others like it, have served to support Josephus’s underlying version of events.


- We commemmorate Kristallnacht this night: Sometimes tunnels offer safety for those in fear of tyranny. (shepherding them through a tunnel under the backyard and into the woods whenever the Gestapo pounded on the door-
NYT-Johtje Vos, a Dutch woman who with her husband hid three dozen Jews in their home during World War II, shepherding them through a tunnel under the backyard and into the woods whenever the Gestapo pounded on the door, died on Oct. 10 in Saugerties, N.Y. She was 97, and had lived in Woodstock from 1951 until a year ago.

We honor our US Veterans this weekend. They built tunnels, trenches to protect them and help win the war.


-Sometimes tunnels are used for horrible purposes (LAST WEEK ISRAEL discovered and destroyed 7 tunnels )


-mystical meaning tunnel : deep passage ways of the pysche, only by going throigh them can you find new life and new light. Yeah though I walk through the valley of death

Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg

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divorce in Judaism and evangelicals

Big article on evangelicals and divorce. Here is my take on the jewish view from youtube

Jewish Divorce jewu 45


An Evangelical Rethink on Divorce? By DAVID VAN BIEMA
Tue Nov 6, 12:30 AM ET



On questions relating to the Bible's treatment of family and morals, one might expect assurance, if not rigidity, from Evangelical Christianity. So, it may surprise many to learn how "live" the topic of divorce remains in Evangelical circles. Last month, the cover story of the monthly Christianity Today was titled "When to Separate What God has Joined: A Closer Reading on the Bible on Divorce." The heated controversy provoked by the story showed how Biblically flexible some Evangelicals can be - especially when God's word seems at odds not just with modern American behavior, but also with simple human kindness.

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As the article's author, the British Evangelical scholar David Instone-Brewer, points out, for most of 2,000 years Christians have viewed divorce through two scriptural citations. In Matthew, the pharisees ask Christ, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?" Jesus refers to the Old Testament and then replies, "Whoever divorces a wife, except for sexual indecency, commits adultery." The apostle Paul adds in the book First Corinthians that a Christian is "not bound" to a non-Christian spouse who abandons him. Simple, right?


Instone-Brewer radically reinterprets the first passage using, of all things, quotation marks. The Greek of the New Testament didn't always contain them, and scholars agree that sometimes they must be added in to make sense of it. Instone-Brewer, an expert in Jewish thought during Jesus's era, writes that Christ's interlocutors were not asking him whether there was any cause at all for divorce, but whether he supported something called "any-cause" divorce, a term a little bit like "no-fault" that allowed husbands to divorce wives for any reason at all. Instone-Brewer claims Jesus's "no" was a response to this idea, and that his "except for sexual indecency" condition was not a statement of the sole exemption from God's blanket prohibition, but merely Christ's reiteration of one of several divorce permissions in the Old Testament - one he felt the "any-time" advocates had exaggerated. Finally, Instone-Brewer tallies four grounds for divorce he finds affirmed in both Old and New Testaments: adultery, emotional and sexual neglect, abandonment (by anyone) and abuse.


Christianity Today has written previously on divorce, often bemoaning how easy it is in today's America. However, the Instone-Brewer essay appeared to be its editors' attempt to offer Evangelicals an escape from a classic dilemma. The "plain sense" of Jesus's words without quotes seems clear enough, but also inhumane: how could a loving God forbid divorce, even by omission, in cases of wife-beating, or of abandonment by a Christian spouse?


Each branch of Christianity deals with divorce in its own way: Catholicism bans it entirely, but many divorced and remarried couples nonetheless find that their conscience permits them to take Communion. Liberal Protestantism accepted divorce some decades ago without much engagement of the scriptural issue. Evangelicals define themselves as being tightly bound by scripture. But besides the humanitarian problem, there are some uncomfortable facts on the ground: The divorce rate among Evangelicals, which first became news after polls released by the Barna Research Group in 2001, has been as high or higher than the national average.


The Evangelical movement has actually made tremendous accommodations given the strictures it lives under. Ministries for the newly divorced are common at megachurches; and on the historically less-rigid Pentecostal side of the spectrum, celebrity preachers Juanita Bynum and Paula White both recently announced their intention to divorce. Most experts interviewed for this story attested that whereas 30 years ago, a pastor might well order a battered woman home to return her husband, that is rare today.


More conservative Evangelicals remain uneasy about divorce. If a split itself is inescapable, notes Christianity Today editor Andy Crouch, "remarriage is where the rubber meets the road," and many remarried couples find themselves denied church membership. Says Russel Moore, dean of the 16.3 million-member Southern Baptist Convention's influential Southern Seminary, "We teach our future pastors that marriage is a lifelong, one-flesh union." Any woman in an abusive marriage should "leave that situation," he acknowledges, and a "majority" probably accept remarriage. Asked if he does, Moore demurred: "Let me think about that for a little bit. I could answer in a way that would be very easily misunderstood."


Evangelical conflict on the topic was obvious in reader response to the Instone Brewer essay. Initially the mail was heavily negative. The most stinging broadside sas a column by John Piper, a respected theological conservative, that called the essay not just weak but "tragic." The magazine's editor in chief, David Neff, felt the need to explain online that "Instone-Brewer's article did not... give people carte blanche on divorce." The mail eventually leveled off at 60% negative to 40% positive.


Still, the controversy suggests that even the country's most rule-bound Christians will search for a fresh understanding of scripture when it seems unjust to them. The implications? Flexibility on divorce may mean that evangelicals could also rethink their position on such things as gay marriage, as a generation of Christians far more accepting of homosexuality begins to move into power. (The ever-active Barna folks have found that 57% of "born-again" Christians age 16-29 criticize their own church for being "anti-homosexual.") It could also give heart to a certain twice-divorced former New York mayor who is running for President and seeking the conservative vote. But that may be pushing things a bit.

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November 5, 2007
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Editorial

Inspections and introspection
November 5, 2007
If you're like a lot of Americans, you think that a yearly physical is a good idea even if you dread it. You dutifully make the appointment. You show up, chat with the doctor, submit to poking, prodding and a battery of tests. You may even grudgingly climb on the scale.You feel better afterward, just knowing that someone has checked under the hood....

Here's something else to keep in mind: While your doctor is tapping here and squeezing there, he's also often pelting you with questions. That's because for many doctors -- and patients -- the routine physical is no longer focused almost entirely on testing. Instead, the doctor sets aside the stethoscope and talks to the patient, asking probing questions about lifestyle -- diet, exercise, stress -- that often can be more important than almost any blood test.

The best checkups encourage introspection along with the inspection. They're more than medicine. The physical is about you, the patient, and your evolving conversation with your doctor. It's a chance to take a moment in a hectic year -- or two or three -- to confront some questions that you may have been avoiding.

You know what they are. Do you exercise regularly? Are you gaining weight? Do you smoke? Drink a lot? Do you have a family history of high blood pressure, cholesterol problems, diabetes? Do you wear a seat belt in the car and a helmet on the bike? There's a long list, all aimed at helping the patient make wise choices.
Do yourself a favor: Listen to your own answers. That checkup could be the most important medical appointment of your life. More articles


Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

My Point: praying regularly and regular synagogue attendance have been shown to extend life. When we pray, we force ourselves to answer the most important and basic questions about life-like a doctors questions about our physical health..

Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg

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Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg