Sunday, June 15, 2008

Harry Potter ideas related to the story of the Spies (Shlach)

Here are links to three Harry Potter and Torah articles I wrote last year:

The importance of self-confidence discusses the Torah's message that self-confidence and self-image determines a lot of how others see us and how successful we are, as much as our abilities:
http://harrypottertorah.blogspot.com/2007/06/story-of-spies-and-importance-of-self.html

Magical wisdom and the magical Land discusses the magical wisdom that Jews can get from the air of the Land of Israel:
http://harrypottertorah.blogspot.com/2007/06/magical-wisdom-and-magical-land-shlach.html

Fighting the right battles discusses the importance of fighting the true enemies:
http://harrypottertorah.blogspot.com/2007/06/order-of-phoenix-and-fighting-right.html

More soon!

Friday, June 13, 2008

Harry Potter and Torah reader feedback

Anyone deciding whether to buy my book Harry Potter and Torah can read some reader comments here, including a new comment just left by a reader:
http://harrypottertorah.blogspot.com/2008/01/harry-potter-and-torah-reader-comments.html

If you've read the book and have comments of your own, feel free to click the "Post a comment" link below, and leave your own opinion!

Ever-lasting fire

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix we learn about Gubraithian Fire , ever-lasting fire that's hard to conjure, that Dumbeldore makes as a gift for the giants.

The Torah tells us that the Tabernacle and the Holy Temple also had ever-lasting fire. In this week's Torah portion (Be'ha'a'lot'cha) we see Aaron commanded to light the Menorah. The Torah elsewhere tells us that this light has to be an ever-lasting fire that Aaron and his descendants are commanded to keep lit. This is commemorated nowadays by the "ner tamid" that virtually every synagogue has, a constantly burning light that shows us that Divine light is always coming into the world.

I plan to write more about this in the future, but for now, I encourage everyone to read an interesting article on the significance of ever-lasting fire, on the TorahLab web site at:
http://www.torahlab.org/calendar/article/a_history_of_the_shechinah/