A big religious-zionist rabbi in Israel is hoping to get rid of "gentiles striving to undermine the country" by coming out with a bill that will revoke non-Jews of their citizenship. They are also trying to give citizenship to Jews who are not even living in Israel. The ultra-orthodox religious-zionist agenda has become to clear to me now. Just as Mea-She'arim is a community that tries to close itself off from the rest of the world, so too do the leaders want to close off Israel from the rest of the world, making it a national shtetl. What nudnikim.
About two years ago, a Jewish 23 year old boy from France was captured, tortured, and held ransom by a group of anti-semetic animals, most of whom were Muslim. Now this is obviously a terrible act, and it should be known that I'm not posting this to be a right wing conservative, Kahanist, Honest Reporting, Islamophobic asshole, but because I stumbled upon a blog written by "an unapologetic liberal and a proud American Muslim" named Akram's Razor who covered this story and does a great job. It's really interesting to read this post from an eloquent, liberal, Western Muslim's point of view. He touches on the issue of anti-semetism in the Muslim world and I think its a topic that isn't dealt with enough from the inside. I get annoyed by Jews who call on "moderate Muslims" to take back the true message of Islam blah blah blah, but its reassuring to see it actually happening without some asshole like David Horowitz telling them what to do.
I also wanted to post this great article by the Forward about how progressives who are into social justice love Passover, even if they do go a little overboard with the seder plate sometimes.
Moral Reprobates or Superstitious Lemmings? For better or worse, I didn't have this kind of experience when I went to Mayanot, but I can definitely relate to where he's coming from.
I found this on College Humor so it is obviously supposed to be funny, but I actually think it's really depressing. I think it is a serious critique of what has become of the more liberal sides of Judaism. I assume this is a Reform synagogue but I think that the same critique applies to Conservative as well. There are two issues that I have with this dvar torah. The first issue that I have is the lack of knowledge that this young man has about what Judaism believes and that this ignorance has led him to come to these conclusions (or lack of conclusions) about G-d. I am not saying that there is no place for agnosticism in Judaism, in fact I believe that aspects of agnosticism, questioning, and skepticism are healthy and that they lead to progress within Jewish theology and philosophy. My critique is of the whole process of Bar and Bat Mitzvah within Unorthodoxy in America. This boy speaks very eloquently about his lack of faith in G-d and I think it is a very standard view among young American Jews, in fact I think he is very brave to say these things on the day of his Bar Mitzvah since most agnostic thirteen-year-olds just regurgitate what they think the congregation wants to hear. I know I did. What makes me sad watching this video is that no one encouraged him to have faith and that there was no positive role-model of faith to guide him. His Bar Mitzvah was forced and he just went through the motions like most Bnai Mitzvah. It is true that I don't know the back story of this video and it is possible that he did have positive role models, maybe he is just an ardent atheist who is very grounded in his views about G-d. If this is true then my only critique is that he shouldn't be having a Bar Mitzvah at all because it is unfair to him. Rather, I can say with some certainty that his parents probably did not encourage him because they are most likely skeptics too, and his rabbi didn't encourage him because they probably barely know each other. I know this because this is the society that I grew up in and I know that it was true for me. This leads me to my second issue with this video - that no one objected to this dvar (in fact it seems to have been encouraged) and that everyone in the congregation accepts it as a legitimate sermon; they are all laughing and enjoying it and in the end the rabbi even makes a joke about it. Of course, as much as I believe that this type of discourse should not be allowed in a synagogue setting, again, I am not saying that this is wrong. I am against censorship, I support this boy's agnosticism, and I am not trying to sound like the rigid Orthodox rabbi who only says, "no." Rather, I'm trying to point out that the problem is that this is not shocking to anyone, because there are very few people in the congregation who would disagree with him, it is only funny because no one every brings it up on the bimah of a synagogue. This, to me, is the reality of Unorthodoxy. It seems so counter-intuitive that there would be a synagogue, a place of worship, filled with skeptics, agnostics, and potentially even atheists. Why go through the rituals if they are meaningless? If no one cares about the object of the tradition, why is there any need for the tradition at all? And what is the rabbi's role in this situation? I assume he is a man of faith because if he isn't that would just be silly. (Are there such things as agnostic rabbis?) His job should be to impart some type of love for G-d or appreciation of the teachings to a boy who is getting Bar Mitzvah'd. So did he fail with this one? If it can be considered a failure then I would say that almost all rabbis outside of Orthodoxy fail at this. I am sure that the lack of rapport between the boy and rabbi has to do with the size of the congregation, and that the boy probably never comes to synagogue. So then it leads into the issues of synagogue membership. Why do people pay dues when they only come out of guilt or adherence to tradition? Why do people care? Why do they lie to themselves? I really feel so bad for this boy and I think that the majority of boys and girls in his position feel exactly the same way. It really shouldn't be this way. Halachicly, a Bar Mitzvah is a time where the boy or girl is now old enough so that the mitzvot that are incumbent on them become their responsibility and not their parents. So, halachicly, if a boy or girl doesn't want to do the mitzvot because they don't believe in them, they shouldn't become a Bar or Bat Mitzvah because it defeats the whole purpose. I guess I just don't understand the concept of a Bar Mitzvah within Reform Judaism (and Conservative now that they don't care about mitzvot anymore). If someone knows why, theologically, Reform Judaism (and soon to be Conservative Judaism also) continues to have Bnai Mitzvah if it is not about mitzvot anymore, please tell me. It is obviously not a coming-of-age ceremony because the kids are only thirteen. So what is the point?
Yeah, this is highly inappropriate, but I can't help but post it. David Wain is absolutely hilarious.
But Kristin Schaal is the winner of the night. She plays Mel in Flight of the Conchords, and she writes/stars in this show called Penelope: Princess of Pets where when she "becomes a woman" she learns how to talk to animals and has to save the world. It's genius.
Ok ok ok I'm going to sleep. Just one more though.
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