Get to know me 🧠📚💭 ✡️ 🌱📖🧘🏻♀️
User: just-beinghuman
Pronouns: she/her
Education: 1st year master’s student in mental health counseling
Come vibe with me for Jewish and studying content

No title available
Keni
Claire Keane
RMH

祝日 / Permanent Vacation
Sade Olutola

#extradirty
will byers stan first human second
No title available
Three Goblin Art

pixel skylines
Cosmic Funnies
sheepfilms
dirt enthusiast
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
NASA
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
Game of Thrones Daily
Mike Driver
YOU ARE THE REASON
seen from Pakistan
seen from Romania
seen from France
seen from France
seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from Colombia

seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from France
seen from United States

seen from T1
seen from United States

seen from Türkiye
seen from United States

seen from Malaysia

seen from United States
seen from Türkiye

seen from United States
seen from Finland
@just-beinghuman
Get to know me 🧠📚💭 ✡️ 🌱📖🧘🏻♀️
User: just-beinghuman
Pronouns: she/her
Education: 1st year master’s student in mental health counseling
Come vibe with me for Jewish and studying content
Actually I'm not done. Jewish cooking to me is a warm embrace from those who came before me. I don't have biological Jewish family to inherit recipes from, but I have the Jewish community at large and I feel their love and spirit in every dish I learn to cook.
a man who would go back into the closet for 15 years for you without even blinking, without even thinking there’s anything to forgive you for, fully believing all that patience and time and space and agony was completely worth it because he loves you that much and is that devoted to you. a horrible liar who spends 15 years lying because you aren’t ready to tell the truth yet. you might think that this man doesn’t exist but he does. and his name is phil lester
it’s okay if you can’t go from 0 to 100 on chasing your dreams or just a healthier life overnight. it rarely ever happens that way. it’s okay if you need a few days or even weeks to mentally prepare yourself for this change you’re about to make. get up in the morning, do your best, and give yourself room to breathe.
a lot of jewish tradition is just good life advice tbh. like praying daily or multiple times a day is a genuinely good way of remembering to stop and think for a little bit on a regular basis. going to shul regularly means you're getting out of the house and seeing people. keeping kosher in some way means, at the very least, you're being mindful of what and how you eat, not to mention that in a time before modern food safety, properly prepared kosher food would prevent cross-contamination and thus limit the spread of disease. shabbat is the foundation of the modern concept of the weekend, culturally instituting regular rest. there's a very balanced and regular rhythm to an observant jewish life that our ancestors took great pains to pass down to us so that when we, their descendants, are faced with times when we don't know what to do, we could turn to them. the entirety of jewish history rests on parents teaching children how to live and i am never more grateful for that than when i have absolutely no idea how to live.
A poem by Hanna Yerushalmi.
חג כשר ושמח, ג׳אמבלר!
thinking about keeping kosher (or any religious dietary restrictions, but im kosher so thats whats relevant) in the modern world and how it being "outdated" is kindof, in fact, the point. its the preservation of how people have lived for thousands of years. its an unbroken chain back through time of recipes and ingredients and ritual. the fact that we "know" that pork isnt "unclean" or that cooking no longer requires gathering firewood (for most people) doesnt actually change the fact that abstaining from pork and not cooking on the sabbath are both integral parts of Living for literally millions of people worldwide.
im proud to keep kosher BECAUSE it isnt intuitive, its not easy and its not always the most convenient or pleasant option, but i dont engage with religion for conveniences sake. i dont avoid pork because pigs are Categorically unclean, but rather because they are unclean for Me. religion carries the stories and art of peoples, it carries their ideals and histories and yes, foods. these foods add context and deeper connection to the experiences of people long dead. in order to grasp those experiences, the entire puzzle must be taken into account, including the 'annoying' restrictions.
Do you think it’s disrespectful to say that rabbi yochanan and Reish Lakish are kind of tumblr coded?
There's something that really gets me about how the Torah is alive. A Torah scroll is buried when it's destroyed and can't be salvaged. People are as careful holding a Torah scroll as they are holding a baby. We dress our Torah scrolls in adorned cases or decorated robes. We celebrate it every year like it's its birthday. And the words of the Torah themselves are also alive. We constantly reread and recontextualize and reinterpret the Torah. The Torah is as alive as the Jewish people are.
With yet another semester starting for students, remember to remain proudly Jewish, no matter what this semester brings for you!
Whether your campus is more peaceful or more stressful, find your Jewish community and stay true to who you are.
There’s also no shame in staying safe. Preserve life first, friends.
minimizing shabbat screen time
here's a few tips for those just getting into observing shabbat/shabbos and wanting to step away from their screens. this is just what worked for me, so it's not universal and very much a personal process that might help others. also, while these tips are helpful, they will not work if you don't want to do this. self-discipline will always be what ultimately gets you there.
it's okay to fail when trying to meet your goals. this is a necessary part of any process. screens and algorithms have been built to be addicting, so you have to wean yourself off of them. time, failure, and repetition are all steps towards your end goal.
so, as we've established, going "cold turkey" is not happening! start it slowly by shaving just an hour or a half of screen time off every couple shabbats (or in whatever frequency works best for you, but keep it gradual). tracking your screen time on your device can help you monitor this.
if you see yourself using your phone more than what you've allowed yourself, remember progress is not linear. expecting zero deviation from a perfect negative decline will only set yourself up for failure. i suggest pausing wherever you are and sitting with that allowed screen time until it becomes easy before subtracting any more allotted time.
social media is very much the heart of addiction to electronics, so your use of it is what you'll probably want to tackle first. taking it in steps is always easy, so start with stepping away from the specific apps that you're spending most of your time on. try stepping away from the app you use the most and only allow yourself to use the others (that you presumedly don't like as much). progress to the second most used app, then third, etc.
the way i ripped myself away from specific apps, which is the hardest part, is creating distance between myself and it. i know phones have the option to set limits on certain apps each day, but all you have to do is type in the passcode you set to bypass it. first, i turned off notifications. i have adhd, so the notifications are what reminded me that the app exists and that i can use it. it helped to curb the times i checked the app purely because of the notification and not because of an internal thought. then, i removed it from my home screen. searching for and opening the app is often muscle memory, so it not being in the same place you always scroll to for it will take you out of "autopilot." you have to physically look for it in your app library, which gives you a few seconds to think about why you removed it in the first place. you can also later delete the app for the day, which adds more to your "journey" in re-accessing the content it provides.
once you've been able to get away from the apps you use the most, it's time to transition to putting the whole device away. the process of getting away from social media for shabbat is the hardest and will take the most time (imo). so let it become routine and congratulate yourself for getting so far before the next step!
as an extension of adding "distance," put your phone away. power it off, of course. put it into a room you're barely in or a corner you never look at. not just out in the open, inside of a drawer. wrap it in something (paper, a shawl, a sock). put it in a box that's in a box that's in a box. stack a bunch of books on it. the longer it takes for you to get it back out, the more time there is to consider why you want it to stay away and for your self-control to kick in. the appeal of the phone is all about instant gratification, but it's not so instant when you're spending five minutes taking off the twenty pairs of socks you've layered it in.
that's about it for my tips, other than the (obvious) fact that you'll want to be doing something that replaces whatever you're getting from the screen. i can't tell you what will work for you, only you know yourself and what will suffice, but i'll share my thoughts. watch a lot of content about crocheting/cooking/whatever? do those things instead of watching someone else do them. go to your local library for anything that'll need instructions or print them out beforehand, there's nothing you absolutely need the internet for to learn. go outside while your phone stays inside (more distance!). do all the stuff you've been wanting to do but have no time for, i promise the phone is taking more of that than you'd think. everyone tells you to read, and that's what i do, so the suggestion isn't revolutionary. but why not read about judaism or shabbat in particular? you'll be reminding yourself even more as to why you're not picking up your phone.
that's all i can think of for now, i hope these help. i know it's not a lot but this is exactly what i did, and it worked. please share your own tips or ideas for fun shabbat activities if you have any.
rabbi akiva's story is so strangely inspiring to me honestly. went from illiterate to having spent over two decades studying torah and becoming an extremely influential and well-known scholar and sage, especially after being relatively late to the rabbinical studies comparatively speaking, considering he was 40.
moral of the story is it ain't over 'till you're dead i guess.
Rest is essential. If you don’t schedule rest, your body will schedule it for you. Take time to rest and allow yourself to enjoy it.
Rabbi Yochanan: I’m at a loss for words.
Resh Lakish, narrating: Despite being at a loss for words, Yochanan continued yelling for ten minutes.
as a reform jew i do not believe we are jews by choice. i believe a jew is a jew is a jew. whether that means you’re matrilineal or patrilineal or a convert of any denomination. you’ve always had a jewish soul. you’ve always been jewish. everything you’ve done has always been jewish. nothing you do can make you NOT jewish. because that’s what makes me feel best in my religion. HOWEVER. i LOVE recon jews who stand by “jews by choice” because i find the sentiment of “i decided to keep this up because i love it” and “i decided to convert for (whichever reason) and i love it” to be SO powerful as a movement. during a time like this where SO many people hate us and SO many of our OWN kind hate us we still CHOOSE to love our jewish people and CHOOSE to be jewish and participate in it. i have such HIGH respect for recon jews who hold being jewish by choice to their chest. i love our people so much