I'm
responding to a question on the TOV Center Blog about why I placed the term “Higher
Power” in parenthesis in an earlier blog. I am a rabbi, counselor and police
chaplain. I work with all kinds of people from many different backgrounds,
cultures, religions with different beliefs about God, as well as some with no
concept of any "Higher Power." During my years working in hospice as
a bereavement counselor/chaplain, I came into contact with a number of people
and families with different or no spiritual/religious beliefs. I needed to find
a way of bringing them comfort, healing and peace as life was coming to an
end. Read Rabbi Leynor’s complete blog at -- http://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2014/10/my-higher-power.html
The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...
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