#chasidic

"Everything that the Holy One, Blessed be He, created in His world, He did not create anything for naught. He created a snail as a remedy for a sore; He created a fly to be crushed and spread as a remedy on a wasp sting; He created a mosquito as a remedy for a snake bite; and He created the snake itself as a remedy for a skin rash; and He created a gecko as a remedy for a scorpion bite.

The Gemara explains: How does one implement the remedy?

He brings two geckos, one black and one white, cooks them, and spreads the resulting ointment on the affected area.

With regard to these creatures, the Gemara cites that which our Sages taught: There are five dreads:

Dread that the weak cast over the mighty: The dread of the mafgia, a small creature, over the lion; the dread of the mosquito over the elephant; the dread of the gecko over the scorpion; the dread of the swallow over the eagle; the dread of the kilbit, a small fish, over a whale. Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: What is the verse that alludes to these matters? As it is written: “He that causes destruction [shod] to flash upon the mighty, so that destruction comes upon the fortress” (Amos 5:9), which is interpreted as: He who lifts the downtrodden [shadud] over the mighty."

-15

-5’5”

-March 8th

-trans guy

-gay

-he/him

-Ashkenazi

-Chassidic

-father’s side of family is Russian, mother’s side of family is Polish

-was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and moved to Krakow, Poland when he was 4, moved to NYC?, America when he was 8

-fluent in Yiddish, ASL, Polish, Russian, and English

- learned ASL for Eliyahu

- learning Hebrew

-he thinks understanding Biblical Hebrew doesn’t count

-linguistics lover, wants to be a polyglot

-rarely speaks English at home, mostly speaks his mother tongues

-heavy Brooklyn accent, although he used to sound more Slavic

-most people think he’s cis

-loves acting

-cheerful

-friendly

-can and will befriend pretty much anybody

-father is a rabbi

-his father helps teach at the yeshiva he goes to

-came out at a young age

-all-around geek

Judaism

Sefaria - literally the greatest online resource for Jewish texts. Tanakh, Talmud, Zohar, Mishnah. You name it, they have it!

Holy Books - one of my favorite sites because they have the basics on every religious & philosophical topic you can think of! Under the Jewish section, they have the entirety of the Talmud available for download.

Chabad - this page specifically has all their Jewish texts, including a massive amount of Chasidic literature.

Yiddishistke - an excellent source for anyone interested in learning Yiddish! There's so much to explore!

Islam

The Noble Quran - exactly what it says on the tin, the entire Quran for free with the option to listen to each verse recited.

The Qur'an Project - this website is amazing (and based in the UK)! There are free articles about every topic related to Islam you could probably think of & under the books section (which is the section I've looked at most), they have tons and tons of free PDFs ranging from the abridged 10 volumes of the Tafsir Ibn Kathir to the Quran itself to biographies about the Prophet (pbuh) and Malcolm X!

Holy Books - again, an amazing resource for free PDFs, including a version of the Quran with full commentary, as well as Sufi and Shia sections.

QTafsir - In the creator's own words, "This site presents the work of scholarly experts of Arabic, English, Hadith and Tafsir, together with the Guidance of Almighty God - the Explanation of God's Words in simple English."