Kabbalah: The Red String bracelet

firecatpickles

-Teacher, please, tell me what i really need to know while i stand on one leg.
(Read - in shortest possible time! :D)
The other students got enraged - like, "how can you expect to learn such wisdom in a short time, its impossible, you are rude and stupid too! "
But the wise teacher waived with his hand and said "Love your neighbor as yourself; all the rest is commentary." ;)

ETA: i have non-Jewish friends wearing tefilin, it works anyway

I love this Hillel quote!
 

Grigori

Hi folks,

I've removed a large number of posts from this thread, a couple that were needlessly personal and many others that quoted or were part of the ensuing conversation and so sensless without their origin present in the thread. I don't think there is any problem with the conversation being had, but if it is to continue could we please focus on discussion of facts and details rather than personal attack or sweeping insults. Remembering of course the topic of this thread is Red String Bracelets.

Many thanks :)
 

CornissMagorniss

As MDR ssays. lots of interesting things about Mama Rachel, and the things you cited, BodhiSeed, are valid ones. Also, of the two sisters, Rachel was the one more comfortable with the outside world, while Leah stayed inside. That's supposed to be one of the reasons Rachel was buried "on the way" in Efrata, and not in the Machpela Cave with the other Patriarchs and Matriarchs. She has a kind of singularity somehow above the others.

"A voice is heard in Ramah, Rachel weeping for her children"; Rachel wept from her tomb seeing the Children of Israel going into exile. Rachel died giving birth to her second son, motherhood was not something she was given easily, and her bond with her Children is deep.

A rabbi I know gave some women rides to Rachel's Tomb when he was on his way to Jerusalem. He asked them "Why bother going to Rachel's Tomb when you can go to the Western Wall? isn't that more of a "direct line"?

Rachel, they told him, was a Jewish mother, and some things only a mother can understand.

Theologically, this is problematic, but intuitively, it's another means of identifying with the feminine aspects of G-d, even in a tradition that is strict about the idea of monotheism. Yes, a lot of authorities would have problems with this. But what can you do? There are some things only a mother can understand.
 

BodhiSeed

So in the case of the Kabbalah Center, they use the red string from a folklore perspective (protective), while religious folks might be more likely to use is as a reminder to be selfless?
 

CornissMagorniss

Not really, BodhiSeed. Both varieties of thead wearers are probably looking for"Protection", in some sense. Someone brought up in the religious tradition would also want to identify with Mama Rachel, but it's more like wanting Mama Rachel on their home team.

When I went to the Western Wall near the end of one of my pregnancies, I was stopped by a nice little old Sefardic lady who asked me if she could give me a red string, which she tied on my (left) wrist. She then gave me a blessing for an easy birth and promised, a la Luca Brazi, that I would have a masculine child. I thanked her very much and said that we already knew we were having a little girl, and that this was exactly what we had wanted. She responded that the baby would be male.

So far, things appear to have worked out for my daughter anyway...
 

BodhiSeed

Not really, BodhiSeed. Both varieties of thead wearers are probably looking for"Protection", in some sense. Someone brought up in the religious tradition would also want to identify with Mama Rachel, but it's more like wanting Mama Rachel on their home team.
Sounds a bit like how Catholics feel about Mary... (even if they don't outwardly admit it:D).

When I went to the Western Wall near the end of one of my pregnancies, I was stopped by a nice little old Sefardic lady who asked me if she could give me a red string, which she tied on my (left) wrist. She then gave me a blessing for an easy birth and promised, a la Luca Brazi, that I would have a masculine child. I thanked her very much and said that we already knew we were having a little girl, and that this was exactly what we had wanted. She responded that the baby would be male.

So far, things appear to have worked out for my daughter anyway...
Maybe she was a fortune teller and didn't know it - are you planning to have more children?:D Funny how some people think you want a male without considering any other possibilities...