Promoting

love this boy but this blog post in particular is very interesting...

Fear

i couldn't think of a good title for this post. the only thing i could think of was 'fear'.
in extremely conservative forms of religion - be it Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Muslim - there is always, ALWAYS a division split right down the middle. that division is based on sex.
its such a rats nest trying to sort that aspect out which is why, many times, instead of actually creating reform inside those conservative movements people opt to leave and create a community of their own. this does not diffuse anything. this does not change anything. this does not create an understanding. this does not facilitate a movement of change. its plain and simple abandonment.
this abandonment creates hostility. that hostility is often expressed in cruel unkind ways such as those in this article.
that hostility comes from a sense of fear. fear that is embedded in their belief system. what does it say if all of a sudden your 'system' tells you that what the Rabbis, Popes, Imams etc. that preceded you believed was WRONG? some people might say it doesn't matter. but when your belief system is based on following the strict letter of the law and it turns out you were not doing it right and neither were they for the last umpteen Millenia it does matter...how many 'righteous souls' are lost? who is going to be responsible for that?

you may also so say that does not matter. but to these strict observers it does. this responsibility is too heavy to bear. one could say 'we'll grandfather them in', however one does not get to make that decision - only God does.*

and that's why people feel they have to leave to make change.

they fear being the pariah now even though they will be the saint later on (and i am not implying that people only do good for recognition. it is the fear - again - that the positive will not be seen in their actions and that scares them into inaction. this regularly happens although time has proven that the Pariah is rarely wrong [see: Jesus Christ]).

so shame on the Catholic church for changing the subject in the sex abuse scandal.
and shame on the Haredi men for spitting on those women.

i have many opinions about a woman's place in Judaism - most of them not at all in line with this lady Rabbi's. although i am 100% a 'blue' blooded, bleeding heart liberal i hold very conservative opinions on Judaism and women's roles.
but one thing i can agree upon is that the fear these men exhibited was not OK. it WAS NOT OK.

I'm also from the south and in the south, gentlemen don't spit.





*side note: in the case of the Catholic chruch however this is not always true

Luke and the Samaritan

this is an interesting parable to me. He uses it to make the Jewish priestly classes out to be the enemy (which they were in the story of Jesus and thus the need for a comparison of this nature) or the selfish uncaring ones because they do not want to jeopardize their status of ritual purity. my curiosity about this parable is (and Luke would be well aware of the following fact) why, when Mikvahs were/are a dime a dozen in Israel (I've seen the archaeological remains 1st hand, as well knowing what defines a Mikvah one would only need find a natural body of water to have one) would Luke make his point around this? that is, these two Jewish men would have easily been able to cure their ritual impurity so its hard to believe that they passed up this man based on that fact. I would be more comfortable with these two Jewish men being selfish and having racism towards the man in the ditch who was not Jewish(which they would have) then them being against touching a supposed dead body. how do i know he's not Jewish, cause if he was they wouldn't have ignored him - believe it or not but the Body is incredibly important in Judaism as is the mistreatment and neglect of a body and this would never have occurred if the man was a Jew.In Judaism Chevrah Kadisha is considered a BIG Mitzvah and it goes against the Jewish beliefs of Tzedakah and performing Mitzvot to say these men didn't want to care for a dead body. But it is incredibly believable to me that these men chose not to deal with a non-Jew because there was a very pervasive desire in Ancient Israel to segregate from the non-Jew. Now these 2 men would not be handling the care taking of a non-Jew's body either but that simply reinforces the argument for them avoiding the man because of his ethnicity and not because he may be dead.

Joseph as Yuya

this is incredibly interesting. the Semitic/Caucasian looking Mummy of Yuya - the Father-in-law of Amenhotep III - Grandpa to Tut-Ankh-Amun, could be the Biblical Joseph.
the famed Ramesses II (Moses's Brother) was a Pharaoh of the 19th dynasty and would have reigned at about 113 years after Joseph's life in Egypt (Joseph most likely died in his 60's).
they say Thutmose IV was a 'teenager' when he assumed the throne, Thutmose would have been the one to appoint Joseph/Yuya to his position and Yuya served in Thutmose's court. Thutmose's son Amenhotep married Yuya's daughter and made her the 'Great Royal Wife' - head queen. Amenhotep fathered Akhenaten who fathered Tut who had no children. Tut's unrelated successor was Ay who's unrelated successor was Horemhed the last king of the 18th dynasty. His unrelated successor was Ramesses I father of Seti I and his successor was his son Ramesses II Moses's Egyptian Brother. whew...that reads like the begats in the OT and the begats in the Iliad...

it isn't quite clear if Seti would have been Moses's adopted dad or if someone else was. the intermarriage and the successions of the Pharaohs are so mixed it would take a lot of work to sort out a probable Nile Princess - but she is biblically know as Thermuthis or Bithia.
Moses was most likely part of the 2nd generation of Hebrews in Egypt which places him perfectly along the timeline of Ramesses II's rule and it would make sense that the Pharaoh would have been Moses's Egyptian brother.

Ahmed Osman makes a great case for Joseph/Yuya but makes some embarrassing arguments for other biblical and Egyptian figures which makes him sound less then credible. it is very, very interesting and to me, as an archaeologist, it sounds very plausible - it would be interesting to run some DNA tests on Yuya.

you can view his fascinating argument here its absolutely worth the read.

to give Osman some credit MANY Archaeologist who came before him and who made amazing discoveries have also made nutty outlandish claims about those discoveries (just google Troy or Heinrich Schliemann) that have proven to be nothing but fantasy, inflated ego and wishful thinking...and faked evidence to boot. if these Archaeologists still have any credibility - and they still do, believe it or not - then we can at least give Osman's Joseph theory a chance and ignore his others.

as we speak theories we always thought were solid and proven about sites such as Qumran are being shown as nothing more then wishful thinking and who-ha. Archaeological theory changes all the time.

if Tut can die of Malaria and not murder as previously thought (and even believed to be proven by CAT scans...) then Yuya can be Osman's and my Biblical Joseph. I'll give him the time of day just like i would give it to Jacobovici.

Tiberius

I'm sitting in intro to NT class and we are discussing Palestine. Question, if Rabbi Bar Yochai cleansed Tiberius in 145, did he have to go to Mikvah AFTER he cleansed the city because when he entered it the city was still unclean, therefore making him ritually impure?

s.

hmmmm...since its almost Christmas

Was just watching "The Davinci Code" on TNT. I have read the book as well as Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" book, have not read the latest. Not going to comment on what i think about the books (or writing style) no, no, this post is more a question...a conundrum...

So if Sophie was the last descendant of Mary and Jesus...does that make her a Jew or a Christian? Because I think I'd be a bit conflicted if I found out who I was I might be thinking, well crap! What would great x 79 Grandpa Jesus want me to be...cause he was a devout Jew...but then there is this Christan thing - even though he wasn't one, just his followers, does that make me one though? or does that make me a Jew...and...all hell...confusing.

Being a little more Universal in our actions

Last year on Yom Kippur I posted my essay on Jonah called ‘Lessons from a Fish’(read it here). This year on Rosh Hashanah I have been struggling with what to write about. There’s so much one can pick from that I was finding it hard to focus. It seems, however, I can not stray far from the same message I wrote about last year – caring for people who are different, primarily our Muslim neighbors.

The Torah portion for Rosh Hashanah includes the story of Abraham making a truce with Abimelech, the King of the Philistines. For those who do not know the background, the Philistines are the ancestors of the Palestinians; Palestine and Palestinian are what the Roman’s called the Philistines. The story of Abraham and Abimelech comes after the story of Hagar and Ishmael being kicked out (this is also part of the Torah portion for Rosh Hashanah) where G-d tells Abraham basically not to worry that Ishmael’s children will also become a nation because Ishmael, like Isaac, is a son of Abraham. Ishmael’s descendants are the Semitic peoples of the Middle East commonly referred to as ‘Arabs’ - I try to refrain from this label as it implies a connection to Saudi Arabia and MOST Middle Easterners are NOT from Saudi Arabia.

So where am I going with this? Well lets start with the 1st story – that of Ishmael and Hagar. Ishmael is the father of Islam. What pains me the most about Jewish anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rants is that we (and I use we because whether I like it or not we are all counted among the numbers and responsible for how as a group are viewed) are raging against our FAMILY. One of the most pervasive ideologies of Judaism is the importance of the Family. I find it very hard to be represented by people who are so blind when it comes to our reality. This is our reality – all people of Semitic background are related – G-d says so! We are all family and we need to look TO one another and look AT one another in this way. Until we are able to truly embrace what our G-d has said to us in his own words we will never know what it is to have Peace. We are a warring household, perhaps the perspective we need is to see ourselves as such. So far just being democratic and trying to recognize each others right to ‘exist’ and right to ‘be’ isn’t working – on BOTH sides.

The 2nd story proves to both the Jewish people and the Philistines/Palestinians that we have had peace once before, we can have it again. I won’t even begin to pretend that I know the solution to the problems in Israel. We read this Torah portion EVERY YEAR on Rosh Hashanah how is it that we have yet to try and renew this peace? How is it that we can casually let this slide by in our minds and not actually sit and think about what is being relayed to us by G-d in this Torah portion? Could it possibly be that this isn’t just a filler story but it is G-d trying to send us a message?
I understand that in Judaism the most important part of this Torah portion is the ‘Binding of Isaac’ and from this many things begin in Judaism and that’s fine I won’t deny it’s a pretty important part of the story of the Jews but maybe for once we can pay more attention to the story of the peace, between the Philistines and the Jews, and if we can grow from it and learn from it, from here on the Torah portion can have 2 important events for the Jews instead of the one.
In years to come we can recount how it was that like our Ancestors Abraham and Abimelech the Jews and the Philistines were able to live peaceably with one another and on Rosh Hashanah we celebrate this with a New Year of life and a New Year of Peace for all of G-d’s children.

I sometimes worry that as Jews we’re too busy only looking inward and not really looking around. It really isn’t all about us. In Judaism we call this Particularism – where we only focus on the Jewish community verses Universalism where we focus on the entire world as a community that we are a part of.
I would like for us as Jews to really pay attention this year to what is really being told to us in the Torah. Consider every story – there’s a lot of not so fun stuff in there. My future in-law mentioned to me the anger he feels about how Islam is a religion of war and preaches such, I kept my mouth shut but what I wanted to say to this was, Judaism isn’t no Saint of a religion its self! We took what we wanted because G-d said it belonged to us, and we killed a lot of people on the way. We are STILL doing this to this day. People who are for all tense and purpose our FAMILY.
And this is what I mean when I say read the stories and really digest each and every one, BIG and small. They are all important because they are ALL the word of G-d. You’ll learn more then you thought would be in there. Maybe if we all did this, something THIS YEAR, this Shana Tova, this New Year of Life, things might actually change for us and the world we share.

As a side note: I find it very interesting that Both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur mention instances where G-d points out that it is important for us to care for our Muslim friends and discusses peace with them as well as showing that we are family. There are many directions one can go with this and why/how it relates to these holidays in particular but I’ll let your mind do that walking…