There are too many trite Hanukah messages out there these days. Watching the smug, kitschy and simplistic children’s story of Jews kicking ass in The Maccabeats’ otherwise well-produced and catchy “Candlelight” redux of “Dynamite” makes me want to snap their aluminum foil swords in half. Of both song and storyline, the undertones are irritatingly nationalist [...]
Archive for the 'Judaism' Category
Jewish prayer = Jihad?
The local Chabad newsletter sent me this gem today: Our Sages point out that the Hebrew verb vayigash (“and he approached “) is employed by the Torah to describe a person entering into battle as well as one engaging in prayer. Indeed, use of this word often implies a combination of the two — an [...]
Dec 9th, 2010 Judaism and War 4 Comments
Definitions of social justice
Gleaned from comments I left on a Jewschool post explaining my terms and rationale for service. “Social justice” is a state of right relationships between all — right relationships between employer/employee, landlord/tenant, mother/father, rich/poor, queer/straight, religious/secular, between races. A Catholic minister taught me this definition, and it fits best. It is the same state as [...]
May 26th, 2010 Judaism and Nomenclature 0 Comments
Disinterest, followed by newed hope
Just in case you were all wondering why I’ve not wieghed in on the Peter Beinart peice, I’ve not because he performed my song and dance bigger and better than I ever did myself. Nothing in there is new or that I’ve not said time and again before. But because he’s a war booster and [...]
May 26th, 2010 Judaism and Musings 0 Comments
R2-D2 + Divinity = Win
This cute blasphemy courtesy of the awesome web comic of math, nerdom and romance xkcd.com. Hat tip to the Google Buzz feeds of David A.M. Wilensky and Drew Cohen.
Mar 3rd, 2010 Humor and Judaism 1 Comment
Tefillah punctuation experiments: the Shma
The Torah scroll contains no punctuation marks, not even periods. There are no lower case letters. Or are there no capital letters? Ostensibly, the entire Five Books of Moses is one single sentence. A single period or comma alters the flow and intent. What are we actually saying when when we speak Judaism’s most central [...]
Mar 2nd, 2010 Judaism 0 Comments
Mercaz Harav’s rules of just war: you can kill anyone
I’m a student of just war theories. They fascinate me. World War II and the Holocaust altered international law and consciousness on huge scales. The foundation of what is acceptable and what it not in warfare today is an attempt to prevent a World War III that would again kill countless civilians or fail to [...]
Dec 13th, 2009 Judaism and War 1 Comment
A Blogger’s “Al Chet”
(The Al Chet prayer is a litany of offenses read during the Yom Kippur services. It has become common for people to customize the prayer to express their own sins and repentance. This is mine.) Through writing I have committed many a wrong, but unlike those whose faces I see, I will likely never know [...]
Sep 29th, 2009 Judaism and X-posted to Jewschool 0 Comments
Jew Jitsu Swag, Tradition & Jewish Fighting
The folks at ShalomShirts.com offer a shirt that I bought on the spot for very obvious and slightly narcicistic reasons: Jew Jitsu! But there’s another reason this shirt should be worn by yours truly than my moniker: What I’m not sure ShalomShirts is even aware of is that the original image of this design is [...]
Aug 10th, 2009 Judaism and Kung Fu 2 Comments
Rise to kill them first
Oft is the anecdote that every Israeli child can recite the Talmudic instruction “If a man comes to kill you, rise to kill him first.” Of course it’s also remarked that too few know the second part of that edict, saying that if you must kill a third person to prevent a second person from [...]
Jun 17th, 2009 Judaism and War 0 Comments