let us consider how we shall read it

"Therefore, to the Torah! But, before we open it, let us consider how we shall read it. Not for the purpose of making philological or antiquarian investigations, nor to find support and corroboration for antediluvian or geological hypotheses, nor either in the expectation of unveiling supramundane mysteries, but we must read it as Jews - that is to say, looking upon it as a book given to us by God that we may learn from it to know ourselves - what we are, and what we should be in this earthly existence."

R' Samson Raphael Hirsch 19 Letters.

Judaism from within - Simi Lerner Mitzvah #52

 Mitzvah #52 Abuse - The Physical, Intellectual & Emotional

Thursday Nov 09, 2023

Mitzvah #52 Abuse - The Physical, Intellectual & Emotional

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-h5ep9-14f3d70

Gertrude Hirschler

For 30 years I have been talking to the Creator of the universe via a translation of the Siddur and commentary on the Siddur by Rav Hirsch as translated to English by Gertrude Hirschler.

For 30 years I have been studying the Chumash largely through the translation and commentary of Rav Hirsch as translated to English by Gertrude Hirschler.

For 30 years I have absorbed the hashkafa of Rav Hirsch as expressed in his articles in the Collected Writings many of which were translated by Gertrude Hirschler. 

For many years, not quite 30, I have been studying Psalms via the commentary of Rav Hirsch via a translation by Gertrude Hirschler.

So that's a pretty important person in my life this Ms. Hirschler. And yet all these years I did not know what she looked like. Search her name on the web. You won't find a picture.

That is until now. For thanks a relative of hers I now have a photo of the incredible Gertrude Hirschler and will share it with you.

But first a few details on her life as collected from Gertrude Hirschler by Susan J. Lief Rotenberg, Jewish Women's Archive:

Gertrude Hirschler was born on August 11, 1929 in Vienna, Austria to Bernard Hirschler and Alice Dukes. She was the elder of daughters.

Her father was a successful businessman and the family lived comfortably until forced to flee the Nazis in 1939. They landed in Baltimore, Maryland.

Hirschler attended Baltimore Hebrew College, the Teachers Training School, and Johns Hopkins University night school from which she graduated with with a B.S. in 1952.

In addition to her translations of Hirsch, Hirschler translated numerous other works such as Rabbi Alexander Z. Friedman’s Wellsprings of Torah. She also penned numerous articles for encyclopedias and edited Ashkenaz: The German Jewish Heritage. 

Hirschler, who was Torah observant, passed away in 1994 and is buried in Baltimore.

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Photo copyright 2017 Stengler

all human beings

 "The Mishnah says openly that all human beings have b'tzelm Elokim. The truth is if you take an Australian bushman, a wild fellow, Aborigine, and if you train him he can become a mentch. He can become a great man. He can become a big tzadick. As long as he's a human being, there's no limit to the greatness that he possesses within him. Hashem breathed into him a neshama and he's capable of becoming one of the greatest man who ever lived. Of course he doesn't know it and that's why he doesn't do it." 

Rabbi Avigdor Miller, #947, Skill of Silence.1:27:40

George Bernard Shaw

 George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright and a renowned satirist.

Here are some quotes from him

1.Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can't sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can't sleep with the window open."

2."You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'"

3."A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."

4."There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it."

6. "Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man. And socialism, it's the opposite."

7. "Marriage is an alliance between two people, one who never knows why, and the other who never knows how."

8. "Marriage is an institution that allows two people to endure together the troubles they wouldn't have had if they had remained single."

9. "Never trust a government that is afraid of its citizens."

10. "Common sense is the most widely shared thing in the world: everyone thinks they are well supplied with it."

11. "Capitalism has its drawbacks, but socialism has many more."

12. "Democracy is a system where the people are free to choose who will govern them as long as it's always the same ones."

13. "The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence."

Rachid Najib