Extraordinarily proud to have been the editor on this book. The author is a wonderful soul and her deep dive into the lives of her mother and father really resonate. It was an honor and a privilege.
All for You: A World War II Family Memoir of Love, Separation, and Loss https://a.co/d/iF1GlHd
An Indiana court ruled that Jews have a religious liberty right to abortion. Here’s why that matters.
Michael A. Helfand April 11, 2024
"...Indiana’s abortion restriction, it turns out, has lots of other exceptions. For example, it has exceptions — like many other abortions restrictions across the country — for rape, incest, in vitro fertilization and even a narrow exception to protect the physical health of the mother. Where a state grants all these exceptions that weaken the objective of a law — in this case promoting fetal life — then it cannot turn around and claim that its interest is so important that it can’t grant exceptions for religion. After all, how important can the government’s interest be if it already provided all these other exceptions?"
Things I have always known about #Judaism but only now understand Part 1:
We are a tribe. And we also invented the word.
We don't have much power over society as a tribe even though many of us are very successful, we know how quickly things turn.
We may be the only people that people on all political extremes see as the source problem of everything they don't want to take responsibility for themselves.
Almost all of our holidays are about our enslavement and genocides. #jewish#jews
The #book is “#Judaism Is About Love: Recovering the Heart of #Jewish Life,” and it comes out this week.
"First, it’s probably important to say that love is not primarily an emotion. Love has an emotional manifestation. But love is an existential posture. It’s a way of comporting ourselves, a way of orienting ourselves in the world. That’s really important because you cannot build a spiritual life on a feeling. Feelings come and go. I can be a compassionate person even if at this moment what I’m feeling is frustration."
Searching Internet Archive images section for "Jewish" or "Judaism" brings up page after page after page of antisemitic memes, conspiracy theories, and Holocaust denial. Depressing.
I'm always happy to see when someone very cool like Rabbi Danya agrees with me on important points of a difficult translation & interpretation.
Several years back I got a lot of flack for writing that the Sotah ritual is a different thing from passages describing what to do if your wife is adulterous. If your wife commits adultery you can have her stoned to death or you can divorce her, or say nothing.
But what if you love your wife, don't want to kill her, but don't want another man's child to inherit your property?
The Sotah ritual is essentially a forced abortion if a man is being cuckolded. The Woman has no say at all in the matter.
The abortion is commanded here. It's not murder. There's no soul until the fetus takes a breath.
Forcing someone to stay pregnant is no different than forcing someone to have an abortion. It is a denial of a woman's right to bodily autonomy & decision making.
Touro Talks and the Jewish Law Institute are pleased to present a panel discussion featuring prominent professors at American universities across the country, in conversation with Dr. Alan Kadish, President of Touro University.
"Exploring Tomer and Tehudah: A Degendering Experiment
Two weeks ago, we built a shared vocabulary to discuss the difference between gender and sex and how they manifest in Toratah and Torato. Last week, we asked what change is acceptable in Torah, in midrash, and in aggadah. Join us as we read a grammatically degendered English translation of the story of Tomer and Tehudah, also known as Tamar and Yehudah, and here known as Date Palm and Gratitude.
We will discuss if the story works when we attempt to degender it, if neopronouns could help clarify the meaning of the story, and how our perception of the tale changes from masculine Torato to feminine Toratah to agendered Toratam (Their Torah). Degendering version written by and discussion led by Beit Toratah community volunteer Sahar Bareket.
The Shalom Center is organizing an actifest (activist festival) in the Bay Area this March for Ta'anit Esther. We will be erecting a public Tent of Mourning for all those whose hearts are open and tender enough to grieve both Gazan and Israeli lives lost since and beyond 10/7. Inspired by Queen Esther's ritualized grief in the Purim story, we are curating a full day of sessions, teachings, and ritual to support attendees in affirming, deepening, and expanding their grief. With a mix of traditional and creative mourning practices, we are opening to the possibility that, through our shared grief, new paths forward might shake loose for us as individuals and more broadly.
See all about the Actifest here and please share broadly with family and friends in the Bay Area:
DATES: Tuesdays, March 5 through April 16
TIME: 7:30pm GMT (2:30pm ET / 11:30am PT)
LOCATION: Zoom
Leading a Shiva is not just knowing what Nusach to use, it is about holding the community of mourners. Join us to explore the topic of mourning and the Shiva from a Jewish point of view, both through the lens of tradition and how that tradition plays out in the 21st century.
We will discuss numerous themes including Comforting the Mourners, Halachic Considerations, The Kaddish, Liturgical Soundscape, Mourning as a Process, Practical Methods, Religious Practices, Setting the Mood, and Social Etiquette. This course is taught by Rabbi Joel Levy and Chasan Jalda Rebling along with other guest speakers who specialize in death and mourning.
While politicians are scurrying to conceal their positions on abortion, Judaism's position is clear. A fetus is a soulless golem, an empty animal body, and an abortion is not only permitted, but sometimes required. I wrote a very brief overview back when Ky was first "debating" their women-are-just-livestock law. (They weren't really interested in any facts or discussion, of course. Their intent was to impose their religious beliefs onto people who were not members of their cult, and nothing else.)
I bring this up due to an article that appeared in the JTA briefing today. As I pointed out previously, there are no mourning rituals for a stillbirth, miscarriage, or abortion since a fetus is not an ensouled person in Judaism. Therefore, women have had to create our own rituals since rabbinic Judaism's only advice is to "hurry up & get pregnant again so you forget it." Ummm, no.
“The Heart Knows its Own Bitterness”: Authority, Self, and the Origins of Patient Autonomy in Early Jewish Law
Ayelet Libson, Am. J. Legal History (2016)
"This article examines the pre-modern conflict between these principles, revealing how the early tradition of Jewish law sustained different models of expertise, authority and personal autonomy."
"I propose that the increasing autonomy granted to individuals to govern their own bodies should be seen as part of the Late Antique emphasis on expressing the self by the choices taken under the duress of hardship. Self-knowledge became a central concern, fully attainable only by making moral choices under circumstances of suffering."
This video is probably the best summarization of the various Jewish denominations/branches, the history of Judaism, including the various geographic changes that lead to changes, belief structures, understanding of Judaism as different from Christianity, differences on observance, and more.
It's such a great explainer video, I highly recommend it!
#IDF / Tuning out a #genocide to practice some #yoga in Beit Hanoun (بيت حانون)
Ynet host asking [not sarcastically, as far as I can tell]: How does this moment of quiet feel, with the cannons rumbling around?
[…] Surrealistic completely. It's to sit inside a house in #Gaza, explosions around, noise and chaos and the radio in the background. But precisely inside this, the consciousness knows this is what it needs now and it tunes in, and this is the ability to practice yoga and meditation. It doesn't matter where you are, it's being attentive to yourself."
[…] I also come from the worlds of #Judaism and #yoga, and it is told about King David that he had exactly these two poles, that he knew both when to be in war and be a fighter and do what's needed in war as well as to be very, very gentle and sensitive and write Psalms and write poetry.
[…] I draw from this connection and from his character, within the context we are in, and also when I'll need to return to war, with God's help I will also do so.
[cont’d] #IDF / improper behavior of soldiers in Gaza cross the criminal threshold
Israel’s Military Advocate General acknowledged soldiers' improper and criminal behaviors in #Gaza including looting, unjustified force, and wanton destruction. She also said that these actions “contradict the IDF's values and damage Israel internationally.”
The Jewish community of Prague had a beautiful custom in the time of the great Maharal of Prague (Rabbi Judah Loew,1525-1609). Every year before the Shabbat of this week's Torah portion of Beshalach (Ex. 13:17) all the children would gather in the synagogue courtyard to hear the story of the Torah reading of the week: the Israelites crossing the Reed Sea. After crossing the sea safely on dry land, they sang the famous song of praise that is part of our daily morning liturgy. The birds joined Moses, Miriam, and all the men, women, and children of Israel, in singing these beautiful praises; and children picked fruits and berries and fed them to the birds singing happily overhead. The children of Prague would then take kasha (buckwheat groats) and feed the birds. This joyous event concluded with the holy rabbi blessing the children.
Why are there so many Jewish brownie recipes? I know there are always brownie bites at the oneg, but there’s nothing specifically Jewish about brownies?
These recipes frequently use eagle brand condensed milk. Is this from a particular brownie minhag?
14 Shvat is the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan (1935-1983 CE). He was a rabbi, a physicist (who worked with J. Robert Oppenheimer), a deep mystic, and one of the most influential Jewish thinkers of the 20th century. He wrote over 60 books on philosophy, meditation, scripture, Halacha, Kabbalah, and Chassidic thought. His works are known for the vast range of sources cited, the effortless blend of Jewish tradition and modern science, and the masterful way they present comprehensive, inspiring ideas in simple, accessible language. He formed a group to experiment with different meditation techniques and learned Ladino just to translate Me'am Lo'ez into English. His writings and their many translations made a wealth of Jewish wisdom readily available to countless Jews around the world, helping them rediscover their own heritage.
[…] The former head of the Rabbinate Department in the #IDF, Lieutenant Colonel Rabbi Eyal Krim, was asked in the past if it is permitted for an IDF soldier to rape a woman during wartime. Instead of an unequivocal "no", he explained that in such times one must take into consideration the difficulties of the fighters.
Are these the people the IDF appoints as spiritual authorities?
[…] Rabbi Krim was essentially asked if IDF soldiers are permitted to rape girls during wartime. He answered that as part of maintaining the army's fighting capability and the soldiers' morale, it is permitted to "breach" modesty and #Kashrut fences, so that it is permitted to eat prey and satisfy the evil inclination through laying with good-looking gentile women against their will, "out of consideration for the difficulties of the fighters and for the overall success."
[...] Herein lies a hornet’s nest. The first is that according to Qarim [Krim], the rape of female prisoners is not just permitted, it is also essential to war; the success of the whole at war relies on it.
@baruch While I understand the answer, I disagree with certain aspects.
My rabbi told me that as long as the Mezuzah was written for the person it was intended by a scribe or rabbi, it was a very personal gift and to be treasured (but never hung on the door by the recipient if they are a non-Jew).
I would not give one in that situation, but I can't argue with the fact that a non-Jew may be given one. It seems wrong to argue that since I don't know the intention of the scribe - or the gift.
There are lots of ways in which Jewish texts can seem incredibly unrelatable, difficult to match with modernity, your mindset, or even simply your vocabulary.
On the other hand, there are plenty of instances in which Jewish texts, from hundreds or thousands of years ago, can be timelessly understandable.
The notion of somebody carrying a beam of wood and stopping to adjust it on their shoulder is one of the latter for me. Yes, maybe somebody carrying a barrel walks into him, and hey, maybe the beam-carryer should've warned them, but that's besides the point:
I cannot picture more vividly, nor relate to more on a human level, than that beam-carrying adjuster. You awkwardly shift your shoulder and grunt in the exact same manner that man always has and always will. My heart goes out to you, brother.
It's the little things that make the past seem very recent.
