In
this week's Parade Magazine there was an article called, "Operation Good Citizen: How we're teaching
kids to do the right thing.” When I was in elementary school, there
was a class on citizenship. It disappeared from the curriculum for decades and
is now it’s returning in the 2015 version. A fitting definition from Webster's
is, "The quality of an individual's
response to membership in a community." A number of schools saw a drop
in violence, vandalism, weapons and substance abuse. Fights were down 84% as
well as harassment and bullying. Attendance, grades and SATs were all up. Read
Rabbi Leynor’s complete blog at -- http://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2015/08/citizenship-returns-returns-are-tov.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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