Pro Piyutim

I think it's amusing that the frum thing to do nowadays is to complain about the High Holiday piyutim Some say they are boring, others argue they should be dropped from the service. None of this makes any sense to me. Also confusing is the claim, often repeated, that davening is not a show.

Oh, really?

Of course it's a show (some of it is anyway) and this is what the composers of the tefillah intended. Aside from the silent Amidah, which was set aside for silent reflections and meditations, and the Torah reading, the tefillah has been designed to sweep you up in the mood, a mood that is set by the liturgical readings (piyutim) and the sacred music (chazanut.) Every so often, you are even called to participate in the pageant - during modim at oleinu, for example, or during the avoda when everyone becomes an actor in the events the Reader is describing.

The strange, new idea that you're supposed to sit with your forehead scrunched in rapt concentration for the full service would be foreign to those who composed the tefillah, imho. They designed tefillah to be enjoyed. From where I sit, the philistine complaining about music and poetry sounds a lot like the griping you get when you accompany a small child to the symphony or the opera.

And that analogy about the opera is meant to work on many levels because, as I have said before, the piyutim need to be appreciated as art. What else did those who elected to include them in the davening expect us to do with them? There's not magic spells, or kabbalistic formulas. They're poems that are meant to be appreciated as poems, and that are meant to have the affect on you that is realized by all good poetry.

If a poem doesn't mean anything to you - especially a poem that chazal thought appropriate for Yom Kippur davening - don't you owe it to yourself to find out what you are missing?

Full circle

October 24, 2004 (my first post!)

October 7, 2005 (Aidel's last post? If so, the j-blogosphere's lost a giant.)

Why he nominated Miers

The Internets are full of explanations of the President's odd choice, some more convincing than other.

1 - Quid pro Quo Miers knows a secret. She was appointed to the court to prevent her from telling the world that W's still drinking, or that Karen Hughes actually does change the president's diapers. Or somethng like that.

2 - Fear The president's men are worried about some of the cases (Plame, torture, etc) now winding there way up to the Court. Miers was nominated because the President trusts her to carry his water.

3 - Arrogance The media says I appoint too many cronies, so goddamit I'm appointing cronies! Ha! Take that!

4 - Stupidity It's possible, some posit, that the president just doesn't realize his personal lawyer, a woman who has never been a judge, might not be qualified to sit on the highest court in the land.

5 - Cynicism Many have noted that it would be bad for business (the business of GOP politics that is) if Roe vs. Wade were to be overturned. All those hillbilly state senators and Assemblypeople would have to actually do something about abortion instead of just fulminating about it impotently as they do now. The polls say that in many places a state law against abortion would put many of those loudmouths out of a job.

6 - Ignorance Perhaps the president really does believe that his old friend is the most qualified person for the job. That's not impossible -- expecially when you recall that this president brags about ignoring newspapers, thinks that Jesus was the bestest philosphicalwhoozit of all time, and needed the cliff notes to get through My Favorite Goat.

What did I miss?

DovBear's Stupid List

Sigh

I should have known better than to quickly cobble together a list of some of my favorite blogs. I should have known that I'd inadvertently leave out some of the worthies. And of course I did.

Chief among the slighted were Shana, DM, and Jack, of the shack. Also omitted was the civil war enthusiast Ben Chorin, Barefoot, kaspit, kesher, Baraita, Elf, Eliyahu, Dilbert, the Hedyot, Z of JewView Aidel, IsraellyCool, Wolf 1 and Wolf 2 , GoldaLeah, Biur, the Mysticals Path and Politics, and Soccer Dad, who absolved himself of right-wing sins by inventing Havel Havalim.

Naftuli, Chana, Chaim, Ezzie, AbbaGav, and CWY deserve a mention, too, if only for their support of DovBear (their own blogs are still too young to stand on their own.) And let's spare a word for still wonderin', AirTime, and just passing through, a trio of bloggers who we wish would post more often.

And finally -acharon, acharon chaviv- there's Cara, of her eponymous world.

Have I left out others? No doubt. Only the pope is infalliable. But unlike the pope, DovBear will cheerfully correct his oversights if you'll kindly bring them to his attention.

ARGH! I left out Steg. I left out Allan. I left out Mar Gavriel. (who else?)

Resolved: DovBear will never again attempt to list all the blogs he likes. There are too damn many of you.

Jason Maoz's Stupid List

Over at the Jewish Press Jason Maoz has helpfully provided a list of blogs that nobody reads.

Though he calls his list a "Web Honor Roll" how can that be true if it doesn't list Godol Hador, Hirhurim, ChayyeiSarah, Krusty, Pinky, Treppenwitz, Mirty, RenReb, Bloghd, TTC, OM, Lioness, Velveteen, PsychoToddler, Krum, Shifra, LForD, Yudel, Yuter, YitzhakEyezik , Mississippi Fred MacDowell, the Bronsteins, Ari, or Amshinover?

And look at some of the blogs he does read. SultanKnish? All that tells us is that he and the Sultan are buddies becuase per The Truth Laid Bear hardly anyone else has ever heard of the KnishKing. Also, who in their right mind (is Maoz in his right mind?) would choose to honor a blog which insists that God send eclipses whenver he wants to let us know that he really really really hates gay people? (Don't miss RebelJew's awsome takedown of the Sultan in the comments.) If you're going to honor Sultan, why not go all out and include Heshy of the haunted House? Why not list Charedi World, too? Either of those blogs have as much to offer as Sultan. (Incidently, RebelJew does a very good job of demolishing Heshy, too)

When you break it down, Moaz's "honor roll" is just a bunch of conservatives news blogs (InstaPundit, Captain Quarters) and those Jewish blogs which most often offend thinking people (Cross Currents, for example, and Sultan Knish again) plus a couple of good blogs like Canonist and James Walcott thrown in, apparently to mislead us.

Miriam puts it best: "Why would anyone want to be considered a favorite by that rag?" To which I can only add: And why would anyone want to be listed among the noxious blogs that are included?

A great day in modern American history

The day Harriet Miers was nominated to the Supreme Court will be remembered as a great day, because it was on this day principled conservatives finally realized what principled liberals have known all along: President Bush's character is deeply flawed.

Because instead of keeping his campaign pledge to appoint only strict constructionists to the court, he rewarded a crony. Instead of standing up for a principle he's often said he values, he gave the plum job to a political hack. Instead of finding someone in the mold of Thomas and Scalia -as he promised he would- he went to an old friend.

It's bizarre behavior- but only if you were ever foolish enough to believe that Bush really is a man of principle.

All we are saaaaaaying is give fear mongering a chance.

Last throes for the Bush Admninistration? Consider this:

1) The President's approval rating is in the toilet, and spiraling ever downward.

2) Even Conservatives were apalled to learn the president had placed an unqualified lackey at the head of FEMA; and even Conservatives were horrified to discover that -4 years after 9/11 - FEMA lacks the ability to respond competantly not just to a disaster, but a disaster they knew about in advance.

3) The Republican leader of the House has been indicted.

4) The Republican leader of the Senate is under investigation

5) Karl Rove, the President's chief aid, is under investigation

6) Scooter Libby, the Vice President's chief aid, is under investigation.

7) 90 Senators, including 43 Republicans, delivered a stinging rebuke to the President by passing a resolution against torture

8) And now, Conservatives are outraged about the nomination of Harriet Miers, a longtime Bush crony, to the Supreme Court.

So how does the president respond? By going back to what he does best: Fear mongering

VIRTUAL TASHLICH

Why put your shoes on and walk to the river, when you can throw your sins at your monitor instead?

Oh, and, one more pet peeve: people who throw bread at Tashlich. It's a stupid custom, that is also forbidden (you can't feed animals that don't depend on you during Yom Tov) and it makes a big mess.


(hat-tip EnigmafourYou)

Big famous writer comments on DovBear

It's true! Dr. Allan Nadler, author of the The Faith of the Mithnagdim and quite a few scholarly articles about Judaism, stopped by after Yom Tov to call me a "barely literate blogger," and all I had to do to get his attention (apparently) was to call him a raging lunatic.

So apropos nothing....

Allison Kapler Sommer: Raging Lunatic
Norman Mailer: Raging Lunatic
Miriam Shaviv: Raging Lunatic
David Foster Wallace: Raging Lunatic
Gil Student: Raging Lunatic
David McCullough: Raging Lunatic
David Weiss Halivny: Raging Lunatic
Cynthia Ozik: Raging Lunatic
Gabriel García Márquez: Raging Lunatic
Ian McEwen: Raging Lunatic
VS Naipaul: Raging Lunatic
Francis Fukuyama: Raging Lunatic

Seasonal pet peeves

in no particular order

1 - Kids who carry overstuffed loot bags through the sanctuary. In the history of the human race no child has ever starved to death while waiting for lunch on Rosh Hashana.

2 - People who don't stand when the Ark is open. They'll excuse themsleves saying that standing for an open Ark (technically) isn't demanded by the law, but it looks lazy if you're sitting while the rest of the room is on its feet.

3 - The Rosh Hashana Recess. Taking a refreshment break before musaf on Rosh Hashana is absurd. Those in favor of it argue that it's needed "because we're finishing at 3:30." Yes, but if it weren't for the one-hour break, you'd be done at 2:30! Also, refreshments (other than something very, very light) are not allowed before shofar blowing.

4 - The naughty old men who think it is so hysterical to joke about "blowing the chauffer." The next one who does that in my presence gets crucified without nails.

5 - People who study Talmud during davening. The Mishna Brurah doesn't like it, and neither do I. If you're learning, while we're singing I judge you a show-off and a spoil-sport.

6 - The auction. For the love of God, it's one of the holiest days of the year. Must we conduct business from the pulpit right in the middle of the sancturary? Are a few hundred dollars really more important that the dignity of the day and the sanctity of the place?

9 Republican Senators Vote for Torture

Like you, I am surprised it wasn't more.

These are the nine Senators who are cool with torture:

Allard (R-CO)
Bond (R-MO)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Stevens (R-AK)

I wonder how many of them are born-again Christians?

Update: All of them?

Time for everybody's favorite post-holiday game!

What time did you finish?

No red meat for the wingnuts

President Bush nominates White House counsel Harriet E. Miers

I do have some sympathy for the right-wing Christians. This was supposed to be their moment, their chance to make it clear that they were calling the shots, and that the president was indebted to them. Instead, Bush appoints a cronie, demonstrating that he learned absolutely nothing from the FEMA humiliations.

Now, I suppose it is possible that the nomination means the bushies are scared about the upcoming indictments and legal challanges: Plame, Abu Graib, sending captives out of country to be tortured, holding prisoners without counsel, and so on. But it's more likely that the president is once again putting loyalty to his fixers and appratchiks ahead of all other considerations.

The three stages of teshuva

Denial, resentment and bargaining

Spooked

No evidence backs up reports of rescue helicopters being fired upon

Money quote

Among the rumors that spread as quickly as floodwaters after Hurricane Katrina, reports that gunmen were taking potshots at rescue helicopters stood out for their senselessness.

On Sept. 1, as patients sweltered in hospitals without power and thousands of people remained stranded on rooftops and in attics, crucial rescue efforts were delayed as word of such attacks spread.

But more than a month later, representatives from the Air Force, Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security and Louisiana Air National Guard say they have yet to confirm a single incident of gunfire at helicopters.

Let me break this down for you: Our military -the same military that George W. Bush promised to rebuild- was prevented from rescuing people out of NOLA by a RUMOR that turned out to be FALSE.

More proof that the Feds managing the resuce were not just inept, but dumb.

Birthday Guest Post

The following is a guest post that's been in the hopper for several weeks. It raises some interesting thoughts.

---
Although it’s been almost 30 years since then, I remember clearly the day of my classmate’s birthday party. 23 little girls, dressed in their shabbos best, munching on potato chips and playing musical chairs. I was having a ball.

Until that dreaded announcement came: “everybody gather ‘round – we’re opening the gifts!”. I sat slumped in my chair as each gaily wrapped box was opened to the “oohs”and “aahs” of my friends, and of the birthday girl’s mother. As the pile of unopened gifts grew smaller and smaller, I prayed that my father would arrive to pick me up early. I knew what lay ahead.

Mine was one of the last. The birthday girl read my name off the tag, ripped off the wrapping and stared at the cheap toy I had given her. Silence. There were no “oohs” or “aahs”. I knew it was a crummy gift, but my parents struggled just to pay the rent. I hung my head in shame.

This memory has never faded. I would never allow this tradition at my own childrens’ celebrations, but I have seen it over and over again at other childrens’ parties. Parents of the birthday child – please realize that there are people out there who just can’t afford to buy expensive gifts every time they are invited somewhere. Sometimes, an invitation will be declined for this reason. Someone else may spend money they can ill afford to in order to avoid public humiliation. And sometimes, a child will feel shame because he or she has come empty-handed, or knows that his or her gift is not up to par with the rest. Parents, when your child is fortunate enough to receive 20, 30 or 50 gifts at a celebration, is it necessary to show them off as well?

One more for our side (I think)

Add Pinky Schmeckelstein to the list of luminaries who think Lazer Brody and Sultan Knish should get out of the business of reading God's mind.