Who woulda thought? The Smurfs were Reds. Funny, they always looked Blue to me.
Oh, the things that slip through Wiki's cracks....
Thursday, September 20, 2007
About Jameel's story
[The Muqata: What happened in Ichilov Hospital?]
He tells it very well, but two important pieces of information are missing from Jameel's account of the miracle at Ichilov. First, we need to know how often patients in that EXACT predicament recover when prayers are not offered. If it happens even occasionally, we aren't compelled to call this event a miracle. Second: I imagine prayers are often said for patients who find themselves in that exact predicament. How often do they work? If the answer is "not very often" it's fair to ask if it was really the prayers that made the difference this time.
In short, until we know the true circumstances, we should be reluctant to attribute the outcome to a supernatural intervention.
[Please do not interpret this short analysis as an attack on prayers. I pray. I think everyone should pray. Just"walk humbly with thy God."]
He tells it very well, but two important pieces of information are missing from Jameel's account of the miracle at Ichilov. First, we need to know how often patients in that EXACT predicament recover when prayers are not offered. If it happens even occasionally, we aren't compelled to call this event a miracle. Second: I imagine prayers are often said for patients who find themselves in that exact predicament. How often do they work? If the answer is "not very often" it's fair to ask if it was really the prayers that made the difference this time.
In short, until we know the true circumstances, we should be reluctant to attribute the outcome to a supernatural intervention.
[Please do not interpret this short analysis as an attack on prayers. I pray. I think everyone should pray. Just"walk humbly with thy God."]
Kfira here, kfira there, I see kfira everywhere
In Yidiot Aharonoth for example:
[This ad was sent to me a by a regular reader. It isn't dated. I haven't verified it]
[This ad was sent to me a by a regular reader. It isn't dated. I haven't verified it] Assuming this is real, some questions:
1 - Has Lubovitch lost its mind? Or will they cast out the Meshichsts?
2 - Where are the Gedolim? How might they have reacted if Nosson Slifkin had placed a giant ad promoting his (recycled) ideas?
3 - Were the Vilna Gaon and the original misnagdim of blessed memory right about Chasidim?
4 - It took about 150 years or so for Christianity to make a clean break from Judaism. Lubovitch is ahead of schedule. How long do you think it will be before we have a final parting of the ways?
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
LF WINS BY DEFAULT
Little Foxling is the by-default winner of the first DovBear Dialogue due to Chaim G.'s cowardly and unfortunate retirement. Congratulations.
The next one is between Naphtuli and SM.
Gentlemen?
The next one is between Naphtuli and SM.
Gentlemen?
Is Gematria Torah True?
Well, our word is borrowed from the Greek suggesting that no one bothered with it much, if at all, before the cultures collided. And, the ancient Greeks played similar numerology games, and Muslims do to it, too. So draw your own conclusions, I guess.
So fix it, dear Henry.
Spotted on Edgeware (A UK-Charedi bulliten board)
Are you travelling to Israel for Succos? Do you have spare luggage capacity? Due to the amount of chickens used for 'kaporos' before Yom Kippur, there is an acute shortage of eggs in Yerusholayim, Bnei Brak and Kiryat Sefer over Succos. Many large families may have to do without this basic necessity without our help. Special casing and customs clearance will be provided. Please contact us if you are able to help.
Call me a wide-eyed romantic, but I have another idea. How's about you in Israel follow the old, and original custom of your place, (not to mention the ruling of Israel's greatest halachist) AND SKIP THE CHICKEN SHLUGGING ALTOGETHER?
Then, nobody needs to go without eggs.
Are you travelling to Israel for Succos? Do you have spare luggage capacity? Due to the amount of chickens used for 'kaporos' before Yom Kippur, there is an acute shortage of eggs in Yerusholayim, Bnei Brak and Kiryat Sefer over Succos. Many large families may have to do without this basic necessity without our help. Special casing and customs clearance will be provided. Please contact us if you are able to help.
Call me a wide-eyed romantic, but I have another idea. How's about you in Israel follow the old, and original custom of your place, (not to mention the ruling of Israel's greatest halachist) AND SKIP THE CHICKEN SHLUGGING ALTOGETHER?
Then, nobody needs to go without eggs.
Ordinary people
The Jew-hating, anti-Semitic, Zionism- disparaging, puppy-kicking, NY Times has an article today about a new trove of Auschwitz photos [A slide show is attached to the article] recently donated to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. The photos are significant for two reasons:
(1) They include the very first pictures of Mengle at Aushwitz. (I'm sorry to say he's far less foreboding then I imagined. Thinner. Younger. Not an unpleasant face. Just a guy.)
(2) The photos are entirely of SS men and women hanging out and enjoying downtime together. There's one of a Christmas tree lighting (At Auschwitz!). Another shows a group of men singing together on a bridge. A third has, like, 15 SS girls sitting on a fence eating blueberries. Not one of them looks over 30. And as the Times helpfully informs us, at that moment, just down the lane, Jews were being burned.
You can't help but ask yourself: How in the hell? Was it bifurcation? A form of mental illness? Or did these smiling men and women simply come of age in a foreign time and place, a time and place where people mattered less (Jews especially) and such things were unremarkable?
(Some other time we'll talk again about the various forces that contributed to the creation of that foreign time and place.)
(1) They include the very first pictures of Mengle at Aushwitz. (I'm sorry to say he's far less foreboding then I imagined. Thinner. Younger. Not an unpleasant face. Just a guy.)
(2) The photos are entirely of SS men and women hanging out and enjoying downtime together. There's one of a Christmas tree lighting (At Auschwitz!). Another shows a group of men singing together on a bridge. A third has, like, 15 SS girls sitting on a fence eating blueberries. Not one of them looks over 30. And as the Times helpfully informs us, at that moment, just down the lane, Jews were being burned.
You can't help but ask yourself: How in the hell? Was it bifurcation? A form of mental illness? Or did these smiling men and women simply come of age in a foreign time and place, a time and place where people mattered less (Jews especially) and such things were unremarkable?
(Some other time we'll talk again about the various forces that contributed to the creation of that foreign time and place.)
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Friends of the Court, Foes of Human Rights
An interesting custody battle is going to be decided by the Oregon Supreme Court later this fall. The case involves a divorced father who recently converted to Judaism, and wants his 12-year-old son to undergo circumcision. The mother, a non-Jew, is against it.
I've been following this story since I have an affinity for foreskins, and because this case touches upon basic constitutional rights. The father's argument makes little sense to me. How can one's freedom of religion overrule a child's right to his own body? I hope reason and sensibility will prevail, and the Supreme Court will decide this case based on this young boy's wishes, when he's old enough to decide this for himself, and not based on anybody else's agenda.
But of course, not everyone sees things as I do. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America has joined with other Jewish organizations in filing a "friend of the court" brief with the Oregon State Supreme Court urging the court to allow the father, James Boldt, to complete the conversion of his son Mikhail to Judaism by having him circumcised.
To these organizations I say, "Phooey! Shame on you for pushing your agenda when it clearly infringes on a minor's basic rights."
Would the OU or the Anti-Defamation League defend Muslim parents wishing to circumcise their daughters? Is maiming a minor child against his mother's wishes the Torah-true way? The hypocrisy of these special-interest groups cuts like a knife.
P.S. Mazel Tov to my good friend, M., who will shortly be bringing his son into the covenant of Abraham and Ismail ;-)
I've been following this story since I have an affinity for foreskins, and because this case touches upon basic constitutional rights. The father's argument makes little sense to me. How can one's freedom of religion overrule a child's right to his own body? I hope reason and sensibility will prevail, and the Supreme Court will decide this case based on this young boy's wishes, when he's old enough to decide this for himself, and not based on anybody else's agenda.
But of course, not everyone sees things as I do. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America has joined with other Jewish organizations in filing a "friend of the court" brief with the Oregon State Supreme Court urging the court to allow the father, James Boldt, to complete the conversion of his son Mikhail to Judaism by having him circumcised.
To these organizations I say, "Phooey! Shame on you for pushing your agenda when it clearly infringes on a minor's basic rights."
Would the OU or the Anti-Defamation League defend Muslim parents wishing to circumcise their daughters? Is maiming a minor child against his mother's wishes the Torah-true way? The hypocrisy of these special-interest groups cuts like a knife.
P.S. Mazel Tov to my good friend, M., who will shortly be bringing his son into the covenant of Abraham and Ismail ;-)
Yanky Horowitz to Israeli Charedim:Choose Your Fights
Click
Summary: Israeli Charedim set back their own cause and undermine their own agenda by turning every small triviality into a battle for the ages. Like spoiled children, they want their own way all the time, and see compromise as capitulation.
Summary: Israeli Charedim set back their own cause and undermine their own agenda by turning every small triviality into a battle for the ages. Like spoiled children, they want their own way all the time, and see compromise as capitulation.
How does XGH feel about Kugel?
James L Kugel, that is, author of a new book about the Bible.
My friend, XHG: how do you feel about someone like Kugel, someone who has both eyes open, who knows the scholarship cold, yet refuses to give an inch on the intangibles and the unknowables? If he another of your famous, and forever denounced fakers? Or can you find it in your heart to extend a compassionate hand to an elder brother who wishes to have his kugel and eat it, too?
My friend, XHG: how do you feel about someone like Kugel, someone who has both eyes open, who knows the scholarship cold, yet refuses to give an inch on the intangibles and the unknowables? If he another of your famous, and forever denounced fakers? Or can you find it in your heart to extend a compassionate hand to an elder brother who wishes to have his kugel and eat it, too?
A kugel I might like
Here's something to cheer: A kippa-wearing Orthodox Jew (James L. Kugel, Emeritus Professor of Hebrew Literature at Harvard) has written a non-cringe-inducing book on the origins of the Torah. Like you, I feel a shehecheyanu is in order.
The book has been bought, but not yet delivered or read, so for now let us suffice with a delicious quote from David Plotz's review in Sunday's Times.
The book has been bought, but not yet delivered or read, so for now let us suffice with a delicious quote from David Plotz's review in Sunday's Times.
At bottom, Kugel seems to conclude that, scholarship be damned,there is some seed of divine inspiration in the Bible, even if he can’t say exactly where it is. The fact that we can’t prove any particular passage isn’t important, and the fact that it’s a pastiche of myths and plagiarized law codes doesn’t extinguish the holiness that’s in it, and doesn’t diminish how it still inspires us to love and serve God. That’s a humane and humble conclusion...."Right on brother.
Josh Waxman to the rescue
Josh Waxman has a very excellent post about yesterday's nutty gematriah, one that tells us all the things we wish ArtScroll had bothered to mention. For example:
1 - The word chet/sin infrequently appears in the Jerusalem Talmud without the letter aleph. Using this old and little used spelling, the math works. If ArtScroll had mentioned this, instead of ignoring the difficulty, much mockery might have been averted.
2 - Josh also suggests that it at one time it might have been the practice to distribute nuts to children in shul, especially on yom tov. This activity would have disturbed the davening (Think candy men and rustling wrappers.) Josh hints that the original ban on nuts may have been related to this.
3 - Josh additionally suggests that the gematriah was supplied after the fact as a way of making the prohibition go down more smoothly. Though Josh doesn't go any further then that, I wonder if the business about the phlegm was also a way of making the ban more palatable. (I can't find anything that connects mucus with nuts) If I tell the candy men to knock it off because their jolly largess is creating a ruckus someone gets insulted. Its far gentler to say, "We greatly appreciate all of you've done to make the shul-going experience so enjoyable for our younger members, however, because of allergies or tooth decay or numerology we regrettably must discontinue it.")
See how much more sensible the reasons behind the minhag are when this extra and necessary historical information is provided? Nuts aren't banned because of how the word is spelled in Hebrew, but because they were once a cause of poor shul decorum! Fie on ArtScroll for leading me down the path of scorn and disrespect with their dimwitted, no-context commentary.
1 - The word chet/sin infrequently appears in the Jerusalem Talmud without the letter aleph. Using this old and little used spelling, the math works. If ArtScroll had mentioned this, instead of ignoring the difficulty, much mockery might have been averted.
2 - Josh also suggests that it at one time it might have been the practice to distribute nuts to children in shul, especially on yom tov. This activity would have disturbed the davening (Think candy men and rustling wrappers.) Josh hints that the original ban on nuts may have been related to this.
3 - Josh additionally suggests that the gematriah was supplied after the fact as a way of making the prohibition go down more smoothly. Though Josh doesn't go any further then that, I wonder if the business about the phlegm was also a way of making the ban more palatable. (I can't find anything that connects mucus with nuts) If I tell the candy men to knock it off because their jolly largess is creating a ruckus someone gets insulted. Its far gentler to say, "We greatly appreciate all of you've done to make the shul-going experience so enjoyable for our younger members, however, because of allergies or tooth decay or numerology we regrettably must discontinue it.")
See how much more sensible the reasons behind the minhag are when this extra and necessary historical information is provided? Nuts aren't banned because of how the word is spelled in Hebrew, but because they were once a cause of poor shul decorum! Fie on ArtScroll for leading me down the path of scorn and disrespect with their dimwitted, no-context commentary.
Something To Do
by CousinOliver
I find it interesting that the worlds three oldest religions appeared in history at around the same time. Hinduism, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism. I've also found many similarities in practice of the religions. I am also too lazy to comprise a post that highlights these similarities and postulate any conclusion. But I will provide links for more information on each so that you, the dovbear reader, can learn more about religious history and ponder your own ponderings...
Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Judaism
I find it interesting that the worlds three oldest religions appeared in history at around the same time. Hinduism, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism. I've also found many similarities in practice of the religions. I am also too lazy to comprise a post that highlights these similarities and postulate any conclusion. But I will provide links for more information on each so that you, the dovbear reader, can learn more about religious history and ponder your own ponderings...
Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Judaism
Monday, September 17, 2007
A very serious question for the learned members of the DovBear community
My ArtScroll machzir says that many, (or was it most?) medieval authorities opposed the inclusion of prayer poems or piyutim in the Chazan's repition of the shmona esray. According to ArtScroll, we say them because the counter opinion of the Rama, one of the giants of Judaism, carried the day. I don't know if this is true or not. I have not made a study of the subject. But let's presume for the moment that ArtScroll (for once) has provided accurate facts about Jewish history.
Before the piyutim begin, the chazan announces that we are allowed to include them "Misod Chachamin uNevonin" So which is it? One man, albeit a very great man, as ArtScroll says, or "Chachamin uNevonim"?
[Question sent by Anonymous]
Before the piyutim begin, the chazan announces that we are allowed to include them "Misod Chachamin uNevonin" So which is it? One man, albeit a very great man, as ArtScroll says, or "Chachamin uNevonim"?
[Question sent by Anonymous]
Nuts!
According to my handy-dandy ArtScroll Machzor, some Jews refrain from eating nuts during the first ten days of Tishrei. Art Scroll says this is because (a) nuts create excess mucus and saliva which may make it harder to pray correctly; and (b) the gematriah of egoz/nut is chet/sin.
As the brighter bulbs in the audience have already realized, both reasons are false. Nuts do not make us drool and the gematriah of chet and egoz are NOT the same. Anyway, even if the numbers added up (which they don't!) what do we suppose God would do if he saw us eating nuts? Penalize us for sins not commited? Can the ArtScroll authors really worship a God that is so petty, and so unreasonable?
As the brighter bulbs in the audience have already realized, both reasons are false. Nuts do not make us drool and the gematriah of chet and egoz are NOT the same. Anyway, even if the numbers added up (which they don't!) what do we suppose God would do if he saw us eating nuts? Penalize us for sins not commited? Can the ArtScroll authors really worship a God that is so petty, and so unreasonable?
Nu? What time did you finish?
Day 1 - 1:30 p.m. No break. Short speech
Day 2 - 1:15 p.m. Ditto
Fun fact to know and tell: According to Life is With People, a cultural study of Eastern European Jews, our shtetle-dwelling ancestors also spent the day after Rosh Hashana discussing the length of the service the quality of the chazan, and so on.
Annual Lament The Rosh Hashana kiddush-break is an abomination. In previous years, I've prayed at places that finished at 2 p.m and later, but only because the congregation indulged in 30 or 45 minutes of snacking and gossiping. Why is that necessary? How is that in keeping with the spirit of the day? Without the break we'd have been home for lunch shortly after 1!! This practice, like so many other pimples on the face of contemporary Judaism, was adapted from the Hasidim by pick-and-choose Jews who want to take it easy. Authentic Hasidim have a legitimate reason to break on Rosh Hashana after Torah reading. They finish after 3 p.m because they daven more slowly and because the pre-prayer preparation they make results in a later start time. Going until 3 p.m without refreshment is a hardship. If my shul went until 3 I'd also want a fast snack along the way. But those of us who begin at 8 or 8:30, daven at an ordinary pace and would otherwise finish at lunch-time have no need for it. We've adapted it, I bet, because that's what the Hasidim do, and "every one knows how holy they are."
[Note: I don't mean to suggest there's anything wrong with picking-and choosing. We all do it. The problem isn't picking-and-choosing. The problem is the failure to acknowledge it. I have no objection to the hybrid Judaism all of us practice today. What I object to is the idea that this hybrid is in any way "authentic" or superior to other expressions.]
Day 2 - 1:15 p.m. Ditto
Fun fact to know and tell: According to Life is With People, a cultural study of Eastern European Jews, our shtetle-dwelling ancestors also spent the day after Rosh Hashana discussing the length of the service the quality of the chazan, and so on.
Annual Lament The Rosh Hashana kiddush-break is an abomination. In previous years, I've prayed at places that finished at 2 p.m and later, but only because the congregation indulged in 30 or 45 minutes of snacking and gossiping. Why is that necessary? How is that in keeping with the spirit of the day? Without the break we'd have been home for lunch shortly after 1!! This practice, like so many other pimples on the face of contemporary Judaism, was adapted from the Hasidim by pick-and-choose Jews who want to take it easy. Authentic Hasidim have a legitimate reason to break on Rosh Hashana after Torah reading. They finish after 3 p.m because they daven more slowly and because the pre-prayer preparation they make results in a later start time. Going until 3 p.m without refreshment is a hardship. If my shul went until 3 I'd also want a fast snack along the way. But those of us who begin at 8 or 8:30, daven at an ordinary pace and would otherwise finish at lunch-time have no need for it. We've adapted it, I bet, because that's what the Hasidim do, and "every one knows how holy they are."
[Note: I don't mean to suggest there's anything wrong with picking-and choosing. We all do it. The problem isn't picking-and-choosing. The problem is the failure to acknowledge it. I have no objection to the hybrid Judaism all of us practice today. What I object to is the idea that this hybrid is in any way "authentic" or superior to other expressions.]
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