Jewschool’s very own recently RabbiedDanya Ruttenberg has done it again. Her new book Surprised by God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion (Beacon Press), is in book stores this week (and already available on-line). The book (which I was fortunate enough to read pre-publication) is a beautifully written, smart, witty spiritual memoir which manages to teach and not preach, be autobiographical yet not solipsistic, mystical and still activist and entertain without being cheesy. You also gotta love a book that is blurbed by both Rabbi Elliot Dorff and the co-founder of Bitch Magazine, Lisa Jervis.
Go Danya!
A few months ago, I posted approvingly about the URJ’s new weekly “Mishnah Day” email. An update: they started at the beginning and have been diligently going through one mishnah a week, with commentary and discussion questions. (At this rate, they should finish in 78 years, but that’s ok; you are not required to finish the work.)
I didn’t say this at the time, but when the program started, my deepest fear was that it would fall victim to a common syndrome in liberal Jewish study, and would skip past the parts that were offensive and/or obscure. I am delighted to see that this has not been the case. They’ve gone straight through, without skipping anything. Today’s email (not yet on the website) is devoted to Berachot 3:6, which might be perceived as offensive and obscure.
After a lengthy exposition of the categories of ritual purity and impurity and their relationship to this mishnah, the commentary (by Dr. Michael Chernick) adds:
Handling this mishnah for the Mishnah study program was a major challenge. How does one go about making material so arcane and so “baggage”-ladened meaningful to the liberal student? In my case, I finally decided to take the bull by the horns and let the material speak more or less for itself. This decision was based on the notion that this Mishnah study program is not about candy-coating the contents of the Mishnah, or trying to find meaning in every mishnaic passage, or proving that the Mishnah is ever-relevant. Rather, the Mishnah study program as I understand it is to open the Mishnah as is to liberal Jews as a matter of helping them to know the classic texts of our people.
No one could honestly hold that every passage of every text on the “Jewish bookshelf” is equally meaningful to a Jew who lives in our moment in time. Rather, such passages challenge us to wonder why these issues were so significant to Jews of another era. They also challenge us to think about why we accent certain Jewish matters—many of them matters written in black and white in the Torah—while shunting others aside? What does this tell us about the values of our ancestors? What does this tell us about our own values?
Rabbinic Judaism knew of a category called “Torah lishmah,” Torah study for its own sake. This, it seems, is what this program is about: To become knowledgeable about and aware of traditions whether one will use them or not. But from my point of view it would be even better to think about how even ancient and seemingly outworn traditions can be revitalized by giving them new meaning. This is what Reform and other liberal movements have begun to do with mikveh. It is this kind of creative thinking that only study makes possible. After all, if you don’t know about it, there is nothing you can do with it.
Kudos to the URJ for publishing this. Knowledge is power, and achieving a true understanding of our foundational texts requires studying all of their facets, whether or not we can relate to them today.
Sefer Ha-Aggadah (The Book of Legends), the collection of thousands of stories from the Talmud and rabbinic literature compiled by the Hebrew poet Hayim Nachman Bialik and the editor/publisher Yehoshua Ravnitsky, was first published in 1908, and is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. In celebration, people around the world will be reading and discussing Sefer Ha-Aggadah from start to finish, beginning in just a few weeks and completing it in two years.
Everyone is invited to participate! All you have to do is obtain a copy of Sefer Ha-Aggadah in Hebrew or English, and follow along each day with the schedule. It’s about a page or two each day. You can join the email list to keep up with administrative announcements.
We’ll be discussing each day’s reading on the blog, Sefer Ha-Bloggadah. We have an amazing and diverse team of bloggers (including a number of Jewschool contributors) who will be blogging each day, and all are invited to join the discussion in the comments. In addition to the blog, in-person discussion groups are being organized in some cities, and you’re invited to organize one in your area.
The Sefer Ha-Aggadah project will formally kick off on Shabbat afternoon, August 16 (Tu Be’Av), at the National Havurah Committee Summer Institute, and then the schedule begins on Monday, August 25.
This Biblical baseball game, compiled by late religious studies scholar Hyman S. Baras, was kind of cute, thought I’d share:
(Source.)
And Abner said to Joab, “Let the young men…arise and play before us” (II Samuel 2:14)
…[and] all the people rose up… (Exodus 33:8)
And Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder; and Sheva was scribe… (II Samuel 20:24-25)
And they said unto Jephthah, “Come and be our [Captain]” (Judges 11:6)
…and he measured two lines… (II Samuel 8:2)
And he set the bases… (I Kings 7:39)
And they stood every man in his place round about the camp (Judges 7:21)
…behold, Rebekah came forth with her pitcher… (Genesis 24:45)
Ehud…the Benjamite, a man left-handed … (Judges 3:15)
…the children of Israel …said “Who shall go up for us first…?” (Judges 20:18)
…seek out a man who is a skillful player… (I Samuel 16:16)
…Judah [shall go up] first… (Judges 20:18)
[And] Judah took… (Judges 1:18)
Three times… (Exodus 23:14)
…and…it was good. (Genesis 1:10)
…and Abram went down… (Genesis 12:10)
…out at the base… (Leviticus 4:18)
And Moses…smote… (Exodus 7:20)
…and… [it] became foul… (Exodus 7:21) More »
At first glance, it seemed like a great read. Straightforward writing, accessible style, six chapters each dealing with a different topic in progressive Judaism. Unfortunately, by the time I finished the introduction, I already had a list of complaints. But I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt that author Rabbi Rebecca Alpert would address my concerns in the chapters. Alas, she did not.
“Whose Torah? A Concise Guide to Progressive Judaism” purports to make use of “illuminating readings of sacred texts to unpack the most important social and political issues of our day - race, war, gender equality, social justice, sexuality, and the environment.” Instead, the chapters provide unfounded statements, without proof or citations as back up. Take this gem from the chapter on sexuality:
“Divorce was always an acceptable practice in Jewish law, so it was not difficult to accept serial monogamy as a norm. Single adults having sex is considered appropriate and even desirable for their mental health. Masturbation is assumed to be a normal part of sexual experimentation. Teens are taught about and encouraged to participate in safe sexual activities, provided they treat the partners they choose with respect. The laws of family purity are no longer practiced, and so menstrual rules of intermittent abstinence do not govern sex within marriage. Gays and lesbians also are respected, and liberal Judaism has begun to tackle issues related to bisexual and transgender Jews.”
Grandiose statements? Yes. Are we to believe that Judaism, as a homogeneous behemoth, is unilaterally in favour of serial monogamy (for the unknowing, that’s going from one monogamous relationship to the next, usually with the connotation that these relationships are all long-term, and usually with the additional connotation that there isn’t much/any break between each), masturbation, and respect of gays and lesbians? In that last statement, it read as “[In the undefined Judaism as a homogeneous whole,] gays and lesbians also are respected, [and only] liberal Judaism[, unlike the Whole of Judaism] has begun to tackle issues related to bisexual and transgender Jews.” This, of course, is not true. Not all Jewish communities or denominations are respectful of gays and lesbians; not only liberal communities, but also “traditional” and Orthodox communities have begun looking at issues related to bisexuality and transgenderism. It is not my intention to nitpick this one sentence; it’s just an example of the flaw to this book. Statements need proof - any high school or college student can tell you that.
Also from the chapter on sexuality:
“The ancient textual tradition forbids many sexual behaviors and relationships that are common and acceptable in today’s society while allowing some now forbidden. Although ancient Jews practiced polygamy and prostitution and accepted sexual encounters between unmarried men and women and oral and anal sex within marriage, they prohibited many other sexual practices that are commonly accepted today, such as masturbation, homosexual relations, sex before (and outside of) marriage, romantic love, and sexual relationships with non-Jews.”
(NB: This is copied verbatim, grammatical markings included. I did not omit any of the much needed commas or semi-colons.)Â Jews prohibited romantic love? Really? And how can ancient Jews have both practiced/allowed “sexual encounters between unmarried men and women” while also prohibiting “sex before marriage”? Unfortunately, the other chapters were just as generalizing.
It’s disappointing when liberal, progressive Jews fail to make their arguments. There is so much to work with in our texts to back up many of the progressive statements Alpert wants us to engage with. But she just doesn’t make a case. I want proof, both of the conservative “way things were” statements of yore (and today) and the progressive readings or opinions.
Available in bookstores now, “Whose Torah” is probably not a book for Jewschool readers… It may be a suitable read for those just starting to realise there’s a way to engage with progressive notions, but have not yet done any reading, engaging with ideas, or research.
This past January, The Mandel Center at Brandeis put on a conference on teaching rabbinics; it was, all reports indicate, completely amazing. Lucky for us, the Mandel Center folks were nice enough to record and share a lot of the teaching that took place that week, so we can play now, too.
Go here for a list of the sessions that have videos, powerpoint, handouts and such, and enjoy!
In a course at the U of North Texas, R’ Geoffrey Dennis asked his students to offer a kabbalistic commentary on U2’s mysterious ways. He’s posted some of the choicest bits over at his blog.
Johnny take a dive with your sister in the rain
K.Gr. - Water = Divine experience.
A.D. - Go to the waterside and pray. The Shekhinah will reveal the hidden to you and your soul will awaken.
W. Got - [Into] the feminine side of the Sefirot power.
K.F. - Let [God's] glory fall on you; dive as deep as you can.
Let her talk about the things you can’t explain
J.P.H. - The esoteric.
V.I. - Donkey drivers and women can reveal things that are profound, even thought they don’t seem important.
C.D. - A tzadik or rebbe is required to talk about the things you [the hasid] can’t explain yourself.
K.F. - Find the meaning, keep asking questions.
Anybody got any other pop songs with obvious kabbalistic imagery? YehuditBrachah once told me that “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bil Withers is about the departure of the Shekhina. Full story.
The Union for Reform Judaism has announced that its daily 10 Minutes of Torah email (with over 20,000 subscribers) is making every Tuesday “Mishnah Day”. This weekly Mishnah study will include Hebrew text, English translation, and commentary, and begins next week at the beginning, with Masechet Berachot.
As a blogger who has been both a frequent defender of Reform Judaism and critic of the Reform movement, I think this is excellent news. This is exactly the direction that the Reform movement should be going in. If done well. “Mishnah Day” will enable people to engage directly with the primary sources that constitute the foundation for all subsequent Jewish tradition (in any denomination) while looking at these texts through a perspective infused with progressive Jewish values, and will give people the tools to make informed decisions about their individual and communal practices.
To subscribe by email or RSS, go to the website and select “Tuesday”. (It still says “Hebrew Connections” right now, but I assume they’ll fix that.)
Today was Shushan Purim Katan here in Jerusalem. That is, in a year with two months of Adar, the first month we don’t celebrate the full holiday, but we maybe drink a little bit, and a day later than non-walled cities.
I wanted to tell y’all about the new Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo Podcast - you can subscribe here, or click here to add the podcast to itunes.
So far, we have a special talk on R’ Shlomo Carlebach’s music with Ben Zion Solomon, probably the world’s most knowledgeable person on that topic, as well as Reb Chaim Kramer of the Breslov Research Institute giving over a teaching of Rebbe Nachman on Purim.
I had no idea the depths of Purim until recently - and these talks should help you reach the heights of the highest day of the year.
Last week, one of my teachers remarked to me before class that he’d almost had a heart attack when he looked at my facebook page, due to one of my friends wearing a bikini in her profile picture. He then picked up the theme and taught this Torah from the Mei Hashiloach (at the end of the PDF) all about Purim and nudity. Gevaldt.
Purim sameach to everyone!
(also, there’s a shiur here from Aish Kodesh in New York on Purim Katan that’s probably worthwhile)
Yeshivat Simchat Sholomo, the Carlebach yeshiva in Jerusalem, is live streaming their classes! Even if you’re far away, you can learn “Torah from the heart to the heart.” The schedule is available here, but not 100% up-to-date.
This afternoon (4:30 PM Jerusalem Standard Time) a new four-part series on Torah and Ecology will be beginning, taught by Reb Shaul Judelman of the Eco-Activist Beit Midrash, and a number of special guests. The next few Wednesday afternoons will feature special classes on Purim, and, G!d willing, a session on Carlebach Niggunim with Ben Tzion Solomon, the father of the guys from Soulfarm & The Moshav Band.
For now the classes are just available live, but with G!d’s help, there should be an archiving system in the near future.
If folks would like a more complete up-to-date schedule, ask and I’ll post it in the comments.
There’s an exhibit up at the Yeshiva University Museum called “Printing the Talmud”; their website features video footage of all different sorts of Jews getting their study on–from the Bratslav Yeshiva and Pardes today to Lithuanian and Polish yeshivot from the 1930s. It’s pretty awesome.
Limmud LA is coming up soon–February 15-18. Register now!
In case you haven’t met it yet, Hebrewbooks.org has a mind-boggling amount of seforim available.
Rabbi David Kraemer teaches at JTS on “Jewish Eating and Jewish Identity†at the Henry N. Rapaport Memorial Lecture at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, February 4, 2008.
As we reported a few months ago, Jen Taylor Friedman recently became the first known woman to write a sefer Torah. However, she will certainly not be the last. This week’s Forward has a feature on Rabbi Linda Motzkin of Saratoga Springs NY, who is working on a sefer Torah that she is not only writing, but creating from start to finish.
After finding a rabbi who would teach her, however, Motzkin noted an even more daunting challenge: How to acquire the basic materials, if the vendors refuse to knowingly sell to a woman?
Motzkin, who refused to obtain the tools of her holy trade under a pretense, turned instead to her own backyard, drawing on the townspeople and the environs of Saratoga to fashion her own materials.
Motzkin makes her own parchment out of deerskin, bounty given to her by local hunters, fashions quills from reeds or bird feathers, and ritually immerses herself in a neighbor’s pond. The ink she uses was a gift from her teacher, but she is working with a congregant to brew her own.
Obligatory plug: Rabbi Kevin Hale’s summer 2003 mezuzah-writing class, which the article mentions as the place where Rabbi Motzkin got her start at soferut, took place, of course, at the NHC Summer Institute! I had the privilege of being in this class too, though unlike Rabbi Motzkin, I didn’t actually do anything with it afterwards.
Another unusual and significant element of this story is that Rabbi Motzkin is not only a woman but a Reform rabbi. Every liberal Jewish community with a permanent home has one or more sifrei Torah, but the vast majority of these are purchased from the Orthodox world, since liberal Jewish soferim/soferot are few and far between. As more and more liberal Jews learn these essential skills, the liberal Jewish world can become more self-sufficient.
A critical aspect of communal empowerment is a sense of self-sufficiency and a feeling that one does not need to turn to other Jews in otherwise secluded communities with whom one has no relationship in order to preserve the basics of Jewish life. We all cook and bake. Why shouldn’t every community be making its own matzot? We all know people who can write beautifully. Why shouldn’t they learn to write our sacred texts? Not only is the empowered community richer, it is also more self-confident, as it knows that its self-sufficiency entitles it to a place at the table with any other Jewish community in the world and throughout history.
Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series meant to both present excerpts from the introduction to a new book — The Inner Journey: Views from the Jewish Tradition — as well as spark discussion among Jewschool readers about the nature of Jewish tradition. The first two excerpts are here and here. We encourage you to read on to see the excerpt and share your comments.
The Jewish people have a love affair with the Torah. The Torah is not
simply the Five Books of Moses, or even the entire Bible. More
correctly, it is the whole gamut of Jewish teaching and wisdom
contained in the written law (Torah sheh B’chtav) and oral law
(Torah sheh Ba’al Peh). While Torah has all too often been
translated by the word law, its literal and etymological meaning is
more appropriately translated as direction, instruction and teaching.
The Torah is the prism through which one strives to understand the
significance of one’s self, the Jewish people, the world and the
Divine. It is that body of teaching that transforms Jews into seekers
of the truth that permits them to connect as a self to their people,
to the cosmos, and to the Divine. It embodies an ethic that directs
behavior toward all human beings, other creatures and the environment.
One sage goes so far as to say that for the sake of the study of
Torah, human beings were created. But what is of interest here is
that Torah must be received and understood in our own unique way.
Rabbi Jose’s statement, (Pirke Avot 2:17) “…What knowledge of
Torah a man acquires is personal to himself. It cannot be inherited
or bequeathed.”
A piece I wrote about facing down the difficult history of Chanukah is in the Jewish Journal this week. It starts by talking about some of the lesser-known features of the Hasmonean war, including some exceedingly ugly stuff that Jews did after winning the Jew-on-Jew civil war and vanquishing the Syrian-Greek reigning power. It’s a pretty easy to get disillusioned with this holiday in particular, to have trouble finding the light in the bleakness of our history laid bare.
The question, of course, is what to do with disturbing information about our tradition, and how that might impact our theologies and understandings of ourselves, God and Judaism. How can we embrace Chanukah without denying the full history of what happened?
This is geektabulous. The Aleppo Codex, aka the 10th c. manuscript of the Bible considered to be the most authoratative in terms of transmission of tradition (vowels, word choice/spelling Torah trope, etc.) is now online. Much of the original Codex has been lost, but the Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem has now put all (I think) of what remains–the end of Deuteronomy onwards–online. Not only that, but it’s got all sorts of nifty zooming functions, so you can see the manuscript up close and personal. It’s pretty groovy.
Humor site Cracked has a hilarious list of the 9 Most Badass Bible Verses. They’re not so much central to my religious life (or the way I understand how we live Torah, for that matter), but I laughed. Here’s #8 (the verse is above):
We’ve all been there. You’re walking along, minding your own business, when a gang of cocky, young bastards start hurling abuse at you. Most of us would just keep walking, or maybe, yell some insults back or flip them the bird. Elisha (commonly regarded as the Luke Skywalker to the Prophet Elijah’s Obi-Wan Kenobi), however, decides to take it one step further. Invoking the name of God, he summons motherfucking bears to come and claw the shit out of them. More »
Jewschool’s very own recently Rabbied Danya Ruttenberg has done it again. Her new book Surprised by God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion (Beacon Press), is in book stores this week (and already available on-line). The book (which I was fortunate enough to read pre-publication) is a beautifully written, smart, witty spiritual memoir which manages to teach and not preach, be autobiographical yet not solipsistic, mystical and still activist and entertain without being cheesy. You also gotta love a book that is blurbed by both Rabbi Elliot Dorff and the co-founder of Bitch Magazine, Lisa Jervis.
At first glance, it seemed like a great read. Straightforward writing, accessible style, six chapters each dealing with a different topic in progressive Judaism. Unfortunately, by the time I finished the introduction, I already had a list of complaints. But I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt that author Rabbi Rebecca Alpert would address my concerns in the chapters. Alas, she did not.
This is geektabulous. The Aleppo Codex, aka the 10th c. manuscript of the Bible considered to be the most authoratative in terms of transmission of tradition (vowels, word choice/spelling Torah trope, etc.) is now online. Much of the original Codex has been lost, but the Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem has now put all (I think) of what remains–the end of Deuteronomy onwards–online. Not only that, but it’s got all sorts of nifty zooming functions, so you can see the manuscript up close and personal. It’s pretty groovy.
