Listen True

When the kohanim are inaugurated, the life-force of their sacrifice is placed upon their skin in three places – the ridge of the right ear, the right thumb, and the right big toe.
I have not yet formed a work of my hands I consider worthy for ordination. I have not yet made works of my feet I consider worthy for ordination. But I am deeply grateful that my ear, my listening, is something that has given itself over and over to myself and others. Hearing others deeply keeps me sane and human.

I pierced my right tragus with a red opal. May my listening always be multi-faceted, leaning towards chesed openness, glimmering even in the dark, and reflecting the blood-soul nefesh this sacrifice requires; that to listen true is to give up a part of yourself to find the Other and have that spark returned by them.

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Amalek Amalek

Bavli Sanhedrin 99b

בעיא לאיגיורי באתה אצל אברהם יצחק ויעקב ולא קבלוה הלכה והיתה פילגש לאליפז בן עשו אמרה מוטב תהא שפחה לאומה זו ולא תהא גבירה לאומה אחרת נפק מינה עמלק דצערינהו לישראל מאי טעמא דלא איבעי להו לרחקה

She (Timna) sought to convert.
She came before Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they did not accept her. She went and became a concubine of Eliphaz, son of Esau, and said, (referring to herself) “It is preferable that she will be a maidservant for this nation, and she will not be a noblewoman for another nation.” Amalek emerged from her and afflicted the Jewish people.
What is the reason (that the Jewish people were punished by suffering at the hand of Amalek)?
They should not have rejected her (when she sought to convert.)

What enemies are we making by our rejections and refusals of others who seek deep connection with us?
When we declare to remember and yet also destroy the naming of Amalek, are we trying to forget our part in Amalek’s making?
How do we as Jews balance in this world of anti-semitism without hardening our hearts?