The Dixie Yid Blog's New Focus

This blog is going through an inner change. The new template and layout are meant to be an outer expression of that change. If you have visited the blog off of an RSS reader recently, you will have also noticed the new byline, "Avodas Ha'avodah." I use that phrase to refer to the particular form of avodas Hashem through one's hishtadlus for his livelihood.

As readers know, I have been posting much much less in the last year or so. My final semester of law school, the Bar Exam, a sefer I have been working on translating, and the job that I started in September, as well as my obligations to my family, have made me very busy.

Many of the very few substantive posts that I have put up recently related to my struggle to grow spiritually in an intense work environment. This is a big challenge, but the attempt to balance the requirements of olam hazeh with those of olam haboh is nothing new. It tracks the general war and balancing act we all face while living in this world (which struggle is the very purpose of the world). Because this is such a universal subject, there is a lot of Torah out there on, or relating to, this topic. (Check out this story, if you started reading Dixie Yid after 2007; a very yesodosdik story.)

My friend Marc Rossen, who shared this article with me, is also wrestling with this inyan, and in talking with him, we decided that it would benefit us and the rest of the Jewish people to focus this blog's attention on Torah and stories which would help us and others learn how to navigate this difficult balance.

I therefore asked Marc to join me as an author on this blog, so welcome Marc! Hopefully he and y'all can get the chance to know each other over the coming months. :-)

The truth is that this topic is needed for many people, even those in klei kodesh. Unless one can truthfully say about himself that "Toraso umanuso," he needs to work on this area as well.

Therefore, please stay tuned to the new focus. We will still have other interesting, funning, or share-worthy things to put up, but the main focus will be "Avodas Ha'Avodah."

IY"H, may we be zoche to connect to Hashem through whatever our chelek in life is! Stay tuned for an introductory post by Marc. Kol tuv!

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