How Anti-Zionism Seduced the Intellectual Left The Zionist movement never commanded a Jewish majority until after the Second World War. Clearly, Jews themselves, not to speak of non-Jews, could and did adopt anti-Zionist positions without any concomitant anti-Semitic overtones. It may seem strange to think of any Jew being anti-Semitic but under certain circumstances, the oppressiveness, continuity and pervasiveness of anti-Semitism can propel some of its victims to seek a way out by associating with and internalizing the views of their persecutors. It is not my intention to labor this point but rather to emphasize that in the past, anti-Zionism did not have the same connotations as it has today and that people holding such views did not necessarily do so with malice. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. Leslie Stein, Quadrant Online
Thanks to Jewish Issues Watchdog for the link.
| DON’T BE HATING THE INTERNET |
Useful and entertaining, a straight forward discussion of everything, but really everything you need to know about using the Interner without giving up your immortal soul.
Internet Filters for the Orthodox Jew There are three methods of filtering: time control, content filtering and content control. Time control sets limits on the time when internet access is available. For example, you can only allow it between the hours of 8 and 9pm or on Sundays from 3 to 5pm. This can help prevent overuse of the internet and also ensure that people only access the internet when others are likely to be awake and may walk into the room.
Also read in this entry about: Activity monitoring, choosing a filter, and mobile devices. Then scroll all the way down to the end of the article, where the author wisely cautions: Filters are not the answer. To my knowledge, no commercially available filters reach the standard of Orthodox Judaism. Hirhurim
| SLOSHED JEWS |
Who said Mussar is a thing of the past? Some of us are quite good at dishing it out. Word of advice: don’t try this at home. Leave it to the experts. Like this guy…
Had I gone out to a Kiddush Club Had I gone out to a Kiddush Club during the haftorah this morning, I would have missed a few things. I would have missed seeing a Bar Mitzvah boy read the haftorah – perfectly – from a klaf (parchment, without the vowels). I would have missed saying Yekum Purkan with my youngest, who is racing through the words a little too quickly but is adorable doing so. The Rebbetzin’s Husband
| AND WE THOUGHT ALL THE GERMAN BIBLE CRITICS DIED IN THE DELUGE |
Totally expected something a little richer in citations and references to supporting documents. But the author decided to forego all that, which, to me provided a rare opportunity to see the scientific process in action. Free from the cumbersome weight of proof and evidence, it is easier to see the thought entering the thinker’s mind, spending some necessary time there, and shortly thereafter being squirted onto the computer screen. Now I know. What is Azazel? And How Did our Conception of Him Develop proto-Jews believed some desert demon, connected somehow, or for some reason, to the goats that lived there, that needed to be appeased. So they sent him a goat offering. Possible reasoning: The spiritual lord of that region loves goats.
Later, at various stages, midrashim were developed to further explain or interpret the ritual. DovBear
| BOOK REVIEW |
Stories of Suffering in Talmudic Literature Shulamit Valer. Sorrow and Distress in the Talmud. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2011. 313 pp. $59.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-936235-36-0. Shulamit Valler’s collection of seventy-five narratives from Talmudic literature that deal with grief and distress is an illuminating illustration of the statement: “What a religion has to say about suffering reveals in many ways more than anything else what it believes the nature and purpose of existence to be.”
Valler’s study of stories of sorrow in Talmudic literature exhibits an all too rare combination of scholarly erudition and didactic practicality. This book will fuel further scholarship and also be useful in teaching. It will make a valuable addition to wide variety of Jewish studies collections. Marc Bregman, H-Net Reviews
Thanks to Jewish Ideas Daily for the link.