Tuesday, March 2, 2010
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.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
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.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
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.
s.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
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…
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…
Monday, March 16, 2009
we've had our suspicions....
this came out today. Among the Biblical Archaeology world it has been a theory for some time that the site has been incorrectly 'diagnosed' to put it one way. This theory only adds to the list of others out there. One Theory is that the actual site was a clay factory (see here for an article and links) and that the Essenes came upon it later after it had been abandoned but that by this time the scrolls had already been in the caves. Things like that. google it and see what you think...I won't say where I stand! :) well not in this post at least!
cheers!
miss s.
cheers!
miss s.
Friday, March 6, 2009
in an attempt to right our wrongs
so there are some theories out there that Gobekli Tepe is the infamous Garden of Eden. when i first read about this site i thought it was a giant hoax. it was just really unreal and 'too good to be true' in the world of Archaeology.
but it is real and people want it to be Eden. somehow this idea really creeps me out. from what i have read about this place - there are more articles out there then just the one i linked so google it ( here is Wikipedia's Vanilla version)- its a pretty tragic story. it reeks of the tragedy at Easter Island with the addition of human sacrifice - yikes!
all in all i'm not comfortable with the idea that this is Eden. it doesn't fulfil the requirements of "Eden" to this Archaeologist. And the archaeological evidence of what went on and what was going on at Gobekli Tepe doesn't sound like 'paradise' at all to me.
so if this is the Garden of Eden how did we get from Gobekli to Eden?
In many ways this place does fit Eden. from the art there is evidence that the abundance of animals and vegetation was quite remarkable - like the Garden of Eden in Genesis/B'reshit has us believe. its location is ok. this is the 1st part that does not convince me. but the main part of why i don't like Gobekli Tepe is because it just really freaking creepy.
what happened here? somehow these nomadic peoples in what is now Turkey got together and built this incredible structure. Why? we don't really know but i would put all my money on religious purposes - i mean, duh - anyhow...
the archaeological record shows that these nomadic people got together and built this amazing, gigantic structure for religious purposes. now when we talk about religious purposes we often think in our terms of how we gather and worship today. and its a pretty good model to use. believe it or not no matter how much we have advanced in technology we're still very much the same people we were 11,000 years ago. anyhow, the issue with Gobekli is what happened to the environment because these people needed to gather and build this place and then put the place into use.
the tragedy at Easter Island is an excellent example of the "Carrying Capacity" theory. the population of Easter Island destroyed their environment because they surpassed their Carrying Capacity's limit - that is the environment was no longer capable of supporting the population.
the result was a complete devastation of the environment which left the people trapped on an Island they could not escape (because they used up all their trees and could no longer build boats to get to the main land) and starved to death. as a result the people of Easter Island took out their anger on their gods and toppled their famous stone statues.
how is Gobekli like this? because a large population of nomadic people were forced to be sedentary for as long as it took to build this massive complex. this taxed the environment and changed the way these people lived. as well any time a large group of people were at the complex at any given time worshiping this would happen all over again. so a group that was reliant on being Nomadic and feasting off the land without having to work it was all of a sudden forced to be in one spot and forced into a sedimentary life. this dramatically changed the landscape. this change is why the archaeologists believe the people at Gobekli started to preform human sacrifice. the change in environment may have made them believe that their god or gods were angry with them (which is pretty much the argument always for human sacrifice) and so they began to sacrifice one another to appease/please their Deity/Deities. well this doesn't seem to have worked because they then covered the entire complex(!!!!!) with soil, abandoning it to be buried forever!
whew! my fingers hurt.
any how. this real life occurrence smells very similar to the story of Eden in the Bible as well as the Greek Mythology of how man kind was forced to work the earth because Prometheus stole fire from Zeus AND combine that with the myth of Prometheus's brother Epimethius (Adam) falling in love with Pandora (Eve) giving her that 'box' that she opened (the apple) even though both her and Epimethius new NOT to open the box (G-d's warning to Adam and Eve) and thus releasing evil into the world (being kicked out of Eden).
small side note Prometheus means "Foresight" (he was the smarter brother) and Epimethius means "Hindsight" - go figure...
all that said Gobekli Tepe is a good argument for Eden i suppose though its location really doesn't suit where i personally believe Eden would have been - i'm thinking Iraq in the Plain of Eden/Adan. its amazing how names that survive from biblical times end up being where those biblical places actually where! shock! yes i'm being cheeky. and although it is a good argument for Eden i feel unsettled about the reasoning because it assumes too much. we are speaking for these mesolithic and neolithic people and giving them very complex responsibilities about OUR beliefs. its just unsettling to me.
this is where i get the title for this entry - In an attempt to right our wrongs - we are essentially trying to make restitution with our bad behavior of getting kicked out of Eden by finding G-d's Eden. and if we do find it what do we think we can do? do we think we can make up for lost time and say our sorrys? go back to this easy life of nakedness and no work? no we can't. Archaeologists and Biblical Scholars have for many years (as you will read in the article) believed that Adam and Eve wasn't a story to be taken literally. it was a story of the beginning of a 'people'. think of it this way, if you're trying to explain the History of the State of Texas for instance you're not going to go into the background story of how the Roman Empire played a part in the creation of the Catholic Church which then played a part in the shaping of Europe which then played a part in the Conquest of the Americas which then led to the State of Texas...are you? well neither is the bible...
so when the bible begins to tell the story of the Jewish people it doesn't really talk about all the other multi-god (polytheistic) people living in the fertile Crescent at the time its just going to focus on a point in time that is relevant to the explanation of where Abraham and Sarah came from. Adam and Eve is this point. their story is that of one couple in particular living a nomadic existence in the Fertile Crescent at a point in time and how they went from being mobile to sedimentary and why. people needed to know why they worked the earth and just like the Greek Myth our Biblical story (which more then likely comes from the same source as the Greek Myth originally) explains why.
to give Gobekli so much control over the 'story' when that's all it really is, is what i have biggest issue with. to say that the biblical story is about a group of people that lived in the Plain of Adan in Iraq and were the first to be sedimentary makes sense, but to say that Gobleki was the actual Garden of Eden in its literal word for word sense - a Garden - is out there....i just think its us grasping at straws and trying to find this thing that was the key to our 'goodness' and we lost it by being bad. i think we are trying to make up for our wrongs - Adam and Eve's wrongs by finding it again for G-d and humanity. well guess what, G-d knows where it is. and if it really was a for real place and true paradise, he'll let us back in when he thinks we should be allowed back in...
but back to what i said at the very beginning about how its 'too good to be true' and an amazing archaeological find. well it is. the technology and the organization that it took to master the building of the site is a great eye opener and really solidifies what us archaeologists always knew and that is that mesolithic and neolithic people are quite capable of accomplishing great things (so your Alien's built it argument does not float!) with their hands and their 'arrow heads'.
cheers,
Miss S.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
away from Christmas and on to Jesus
so i have to say good! to this strange you think being a Jew and all? not so! and I'll explain why...
the fact the Jesus may be a valid person who walked, talked, and preached around 2000 years ago means that its possible anyone in the Jewish and Christian Bible walked,talked, and ministered to the masses in the biblical middle east. its a basic umbrella of validity that biblical writings do indeed contain Truths. that the Bible/Torah/Tanach is a valid history not 'folklore'.
so any how...
the fact the Jesus may be a valid person who walked, talked, and preached around 2000 years ago means that its possible anyone in the Jewish and Christian Bible walked,talked, and ministered to the masses in the biblical middle east. its a basic umbrella of validity that biblical writings do indeed contain Truths. that the Bible/Torah/Tanach is a valid history not 'folklore'.
so any how...
some thoughts after the holidays...
The December Dilemma
Every year around December there is a big deal made about Christmas vs. Chanukah and what to do if 1) you are an interfaith family/couple 2) your kids are influenced by their Christian friends 3) any general “what do I do in ________________________ situation?”, type Christmas dilemmas for Jews.
This dilemma is different. This dilemma is a Messiah dilemma.
Being able to stand back and watch the Christmas craziness is very interesting for a non-Christian and considering that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world there are more and more non-Christians out there every year witnessing the nuttiness that is the Christmas Fever or Fervor for that matter. It may sound harsh but it often reminds me of the whole sober person in a room full of drunks scenario.
Watching from the other side of the glass is indeed interesting on a couple of different levels but the one that is the most interesting and causes the infamous dilemma for me is two levels in particular, the Secular Christmas celebrator and the Believer Christmas celebrator. Both of these – for different reasons cause me to question my own personal beliefs in a Messiah every year.
Let’s take the Secular Christmas celebrator. These are the people that for many personal reasons don’t buy into the religion part of the holiday but instead buy into the consumerism side of the Holiday. At first I was tempted to coin it “Hallmark” style side of the holiday but felt that a bit unfair to Hallmark because Hallmark in many, many ways (for all holidays including Valentines!) does an excellent job at focusing on the religious side of a holiday more then the “buying gifts” aspect of all holidays. But I digress…
The non-religious celebrator is difficult for me because coming from the Jewish side it doesn’t make much sense to celebrate a holiday if you do not buy into the religious reasons for the celebration. At this point you are basically mocking the religion of said holiday and making it even more meaningless and trivial to non-Christians.
It would make no sense for a Jew to fast for Yom Kippur if they didn’t believe in redemption (now I get this is nothing like gift giving but give me a break we’re Jews we don’t have holidays like that – that’s right Channukah isn’t about gift giving believe it or not!). Nor would it make sense for a Jew to go through all the Pesach ‘motions’ like leaning to the left and eating the Carpas if we thought the whole Passover story wasn’t real. Therefore it’s very difficult for me to understand the concept of celebrating a holiday you have no religious connection to. Just like Jews who take part in Halloween! Makes no sense…
But the hardest part of my December Dilemma is that part about a Messiah. I’ll just come right out and say it, if I can’t believe that their Messiah isn’t a joke then how will I know when my Messiah comes? How do I know I won’t react the same way to my true Messiah? Being unable to believe in the possibility of their Messiah deeply affects my own personal beliefs in a Jewish Messiah for me.
As Jews I feel we are so busy being caught up defending ourselves against why Jesus isn’t for us (and he isn’t for so many reasons – most of them because he didn’t fulfill the prophecy of the Jewish Messiah to qualify for the job) that we never stop to question our own beliefs in a true Jewish Messiah.
I come from both sides of the road. As a former Christian in multiple Christian roles – I was baptized Presbyterian, raised (during my formable tween and teen years) Episcopalian, was deeply involved in the Episcopalian church as an adult – I was constantly searching for something that the church couldn’t provide and that was reason. Judaism gave me that reason and gave me the faith I was looking for. I couldn’t believe in Jesus as a Messiah as a Christian. Being Jewish made that ok and made it all make sense in the end – because if I was a Jewish Soul of course I wasn’t going to believe in Jesus ‘Christ’.
There was nothing the years of indoctrination into the church was going to do. Nothing the church could say to me since day one of my Human life was going to form my head and heart around Jesus being a Messiah. So was there something wrong with me? No, I was just a Jewish Soul. And I truly believe this.
But if being Christian for 25 years of my life and being very much in love with the idea of Christianity couldn’t convince me of a Messiah then what does that mean for my Jewish self?
And this is my December Dilemma. We scoff and mumble over the silliness of this Christmas holiday and every year we have the ‘what are we going to do’ discussion – because its very difficult as Jews to figure out what to do with your time on a day where everyone is on lock down and I can’t go to the gym or the store or run errands, cause everything is closed, or even enjoy TV without being reminded of Jesus. But I never stop to think about the religious impact the Holiday truly has on my thinking and this scares me a great deal. If I can’t even give the Christians on ounce of true sincerity that hey maybe their Jesus guy might be a Messiah (although the dieing thing doesn’t make much sense) then who am I to say that my Messiah and my Jewish ideas of a Messiah are correct?
To solve this problem for me I really have only one option – and I will admit it is an unsettling option for me but it does help to build my faith – and that option is to ‘put it in G-d’s hands’. This many times is my answer to something I may be having a hard time with and many times it is a relief. This time it offers me no relief though. But I must assume, that if what the Tanach says about the Messiah is True (and because I believe it is the word of G-d I believe this to be so) then it will be obvious when the Messiah comes. It’ll be really hard to miss the dead coming back to life, eternal peace, the rebuilding of the Temple etc. and because of this I put it in G-d’s hands. I have no other choice with this December dilemma in particular.
Every year around December there is a big deal made about Christmas vs. Chanukah and what to do if 1) you are an interfaith family/couple 2) your kids are influenced by their Christian friends 3) any general “what do I do in ________________________ situation?”, type Christmas dilemmas for Jews.
This dilemma is different. This dilemma is a Messiah dilemma.
Being able to stand back and watch the Christmas craziness is very interesting for a non-Christian and considering that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world there are more and more non-Christians out there every year witnessing the nuttiness that is the Christmas Fever or Fervor for that matter. It may sound harsh but it often reminds me of the whole sober person in a room full of drunks scenario.
Watching from the other side of the glass is indeed interesting on a couple of different levels but the one that is the most interesting and causes the infamous dilemma for me is two levels in particular, the Secular Christmas celebrator and the Believer Christmas celebrator. Both of these – for different reasons cause me to question my own personal beliefs in a Messiah every year.
Let’s take the Secular Christmas celebrator. These are the people that for many personal reasons don’t buy into the religion part of the holiday but instead buy into the consumerism side of the Holiday. At first I was tempted to coin it “Hallmark” style side of the holiday but felt that a bit unfair to Hallmark because Hallmark in many, many ways (for all holidays including Valentines!) does an excellent job at focusing on the religious side of a holiday more then the “buying gifts” aspect of all holidays. But I digress…
The non-religious celebrator is difficult for me because coming from the Jewish side it doesn’t make much sense to celebrate a holiday if you do not buy into the religious reasons for the celebration. At this point you are basically mocking the religion of said holiday and making it even more meaningless and trivial to non-Christians.
It would make no sense for a Jew to fast for Yom Kippur if they didn’t believe in redemption (now I get this is nothing like gift giving but give me a break we’re Jews we don’t have holidays like that – that’s right Channukah isn’t about gift giving believe it or not!). Nor would it make sense for a Jew to go through all the Pesach ‘motions’ like leaning to the left and eating the Carpas if we thought the whole Passover story wasn’t real. Therefore it’s very difficult for me to understand the concept of celebrating a holiday you have no religious connection to. Just like Jews who take part in Halloween! Makes no sense…
But the hardest part of my December Dilemma is that part about a Messiah. I’ll just come right out and say it, if I can’t believe that their Messiah isn’t a joke then how will I know when my Messiah comes? How do I know I won’t react the same way to my true Messiah? Being unable to believe in the possibility of their Messiah deeply affects my own personal beliefs in a Jewish Messiah for me.
As Jews I feel we are so busy being caught up defending ourselves against why Jesus isn’t for us (and he isn’t for so many reasons – most of them because he didn’t fulfill the prophecy of the Jewish Messiah to qualify for the job) that we never stop to question our own beliefs in a true Jewish Messiah.
I come from both sides of the road. As a former Christian in multiple Christian roles – I was baptized Presbyterian, raised (during my formable tween and teen years) Episcopalian, was deeply involved in the Episcopalian church as an adult – I was constantly searching for something that the church couldn’t provide and that was reason. Judaism gave me that reason and gave me the faith I was looking for. I couldn’t believe in Jesus as a Messiah as a Christian. Being Jewish made that ok and made it all make sense in the end – because if I was a Jewish Soul of course I wasn’t going to believe in Jesus ‘Christ’.
There was nothing the years of indoctrination into the church was going to do. Nothing the church could say to me since day one of my Human life was going to form my head and heart around Jesus being a Messiah. So was there something wrong with me? No, I was just a Jewish Soul. And I truly believe this.
But if being Christian for 25 years of my life and being very much in love with the idea of Christianity couldn’t convince me of a Messiah then what does that mean for my Jewish self?
And this is my December Dilemma. We scoff and mumble over the silliness of this Christmas holiday and every year we have the ‘what are we going to do’ discussion – because its very difficult as Jews to figure out what to do with your time on a day where everyone is on lock down and I can’t go to the gym or the store or run errands, cause everything is closed, or even enjoy TV without being reminded of Jesus. But I never stop to think about the religious impact the Holiday truly has on my thinking and this scares me a great deal. If I can’t even give the Christians on ounce of true sincerity that hey maybe their Jesus guy might be a Messiah (although the dieing thing doesn’t make much sense) then who am I to say that my Messiah and my Jewish ideas of a Messiah are correct?
To solve this problem for me I really have only one option – and I will admit it is an unsettling option for me but it does help to build my faith – and that option is to ‘put it in G-d’s hands’. This many times is my answer to something I may be having a hard time with and many times it is a relief. This time it offers me no relief though. But I must assume, that if what the Tanach says about the Messiah is True (and because I believe it is the word of G-d I believe this to be so) then it will be obvious when the Messiah comes. It’ll be really hard to miss the dead coming back to life, eternal peace, the rebuilding of the Temple etc. and because of this I put it in G-d’s hands. I have no other choice with this December dilemma in particular.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Ah good ole Herod...
there have been lots of Herods. But the Harod everyone knows about (and the Herod everyone hates!) is the Herod that renovated the Temple mount in Jerusalem, built Masada and killed all those children in hopes that he got that one Jewish guy named Yeshua, otherwise know as Jesus - hey the kid was gonna take his crown away.
Well they finally found him! they got his Tomb but found that the Jewish revolt in 67 C.E. (the one that resulted in the destruction of the Temple and the final Diaspora of the Jewish people) got to him first...ah well. its tough being the bad guy sometimes...
Well they finally found him! they got his Tomb but found that the Jewish revolt in 67 C.E. (the one that resulted in the destruction of the Temple and the final Diaspora of the Jewish people) got to him first...ah well. its tough being the bad guy sometimes...
Monday, November 17, 2008
i can never remember his name...
but its Pascal.
what a great name!
any how,
Pascals Wager! is a great argument although i am sure most Atheists find it infuriating...
"a person should "wager" as though God exists, because so living has potentially everything to gain, and certainly nothing to lose" --Blaise Pascal
eh i think of it as a glass is half full way of viewing Belief where as an Atheist has a glass is half empty view on Belief.
in the end...what do you lose by believing?
what a great name!
any how,
Pascals Wager! is a great argument although i am sure most Atheists find it infuriating...
"a person should "wager" as though God exists, because so living has potentially everything to gain, and certainly nothing to lose" --Blaise Pascal
eh i think of it as a glass is half full way of viewing Belief where as an Atheist has a glass is half empty view on Belief.
in the end...what do you lose by believing?
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Lessons from a Fish
Lessons from a Fish – learning to care for people who are different
There are a lot of things one learns at the oddest of moments. In my experience the moments where I learn the best lessons usually involve a child taking me to task or a student of mine making an extremely profound statement (5th graders’ insight on the Holocaust is quite remarkable I must say).
So it’s no surprise that one of those “AH HA” moments came to me when teaching my 5th grade class about the Reluctant Prophet Jonah.
The story of Jonah is read as the Haftarah portion on Yom Kippur as a lesson in forgiveness. Recent political goings on in the world and USA have made me audience to some unacceptable hate speech from people I consider friends regarding people who are different then us Jews.
Although Yom Kippur is still fresh in our minds I feel like the lesson Jonah teaches us was either not headed or fell on deaf ears. So I feel the need to revisit it because I find it very relevant at this moment in time in US history and there is something for us all in this story of not just forgiveness but of TOLERANCE and ACCEPTANCE.
To make the somewhat long story of Jonah short, G-d asks Jonah to do something and Jonah refuses. For this refusal of G-d’s wishes Jonah ends up in a fish…fun. After being spit out by the fish Jonah submits (and whines about it a lot) and does what G-d asks.
What G-d asked of Jonah was to go to the people of Nineveh – a town located very close to present day Mosul, Iraq (remember this) – and tell the people to ask for forgiveness of their sins and repent to G-d (they were misbehaving badly) or their city would be destroyed and everyone in it die – and according to the Haftarah portion it would have been more then 120k people and animals.
No big deal right? Why would a prophet be reluctant to “save” people who were misbehaving? That’s his job right?
Well yes.
But…this is Jonah and he was a reluctant prophet.
Jonah said to G-d, “these are not Jews and they do not worship you as G-d why do you care whether they live or die? Why do you care whether they ask for forgiveness?” and G-d’s response to Jonah was, “it doesn’t matter whether they have entered into a covenant with me like the Hebrews did, what matters is that they are my people, my creation, and they deserve salvation if they ask for it.”
Did you catch that?
G-d said I don’t care who they are, Jew or not I love them just the same and you should too!
Now on Yom Kippur we use this Haftarah portion to talk about the idea of forgiveness and it’s definitely in there. G-d wants the people of Nineveh to ask for forgiveness or be destroyed. They do ask for forgiveness and do acts worthy of forgiveness and G-d lets them live. Ok.
But to me the most important part of this story isn’t G-d’s forgiveness its what causes Jonah’s reluctance. This is the message I feel that is often lost. On Yom Kippur we’re very busy with receiving forgiveness and Biblical examples of people receiving forgiveness that we lose sight of the more important message in this story.
The message we forget is the message about loving people who are not like us; people who are not like us in many fundamental ways. More importantly we forget about loving our neighbors and doing what we can to create a bridge of understanding (and in many cases needed peace). Jonah was reluctant to create a bridge of understanding – he refused to try and understand 1) who these people were and 2) why G-d cared so much for a people he had no relationship with prior to Jonah walking into town and telling them about G-d. People who were essentially polytheistic Arabs. Remember where they lived? That’s right G-d loves Arabs! G-d told Jonah to care for these people as if they were Jews and in this G-d is telling us the same thing. Too often as Jews we get caught up in the fervor of the Middle East conflict and forget who as the People of the Covenant we are supposed to be. We stop living as Jews who are required to Tikun Olam – Heal the world and we begin to live as people who are close-minded and angry. Reluctant to build that bridge of understanding and refusing to do as G-d asks of us – to heal the world with peace and understanding and most importantly with forgiveness. We are and have been hiding out in a fish for a very long time and its time we as a community of Jews world wide come out and do as G-d bids us.
So here’s where I stop beating around the proverbial bush. Yes, this is specifically directed to Jews who feel every Arab needs to be killed or blown off the face of the Earth.
Every Shabbat you sit there and have the nerve to say prayers such as “Shim Shalom”, “Shalom Rav” and the “Osay Shalom”. And on top of that you also have the nerve to repeat the words of another prophet, Isaiah, who speaks of a day when, “They [the nations of the world] will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” But then you spout such hateful words of contempt and show a complete lack of understanding. You are blind to what G-d requested of Jonah and thus us. You are as blind as the sinners of Nineveh. But the difference is that they never had G-d until Jonah came along. We have all along had G-d. He never left our side. We have always had G-d’s guidance and words to live by, his promise and his covenant. We don’t have an excuse of not knowing we are doing wrong like the people of Nineveh. To behave with such intolerance and hate has always been inexcusable and will continue to be. As long as we choose this behavior we will never see a Messianic age.
I for one choose not to be trapped in a fish with a lack of understanding and tolerance that Jonah had. Instead I choose to build that bridge he so reluctantly built and turn our “enemies” eyes to G-d and Heal the World as I have been commanded. Leading a life with my ears closed and an unwillingness to come to the table for peace talks has gotten us no where on either side and has cost us both so much in lives. G-d gave Adam and Eve a commandment, to preserve life and create life. Every minute we waste with our ears closed and guns in our hands is a minute more of breaking those commandments.
Cheers,
Miss S
There are a lot of things one learns at the oddest of moments. In my experience the moments where I learn the best lessons usually involve a child taking me to task or a student of mine making an extremely profound statement (5th graders’ insight on the Holocaust is quite remarkable I must say).
So it’s no surprise that one of those “AH HA” moments came to me when teaching my 5th grade class about the Reluctant Prophet Jonah.
The story of Jonah is read as the Haftarah portion on Yom Kippur as a lesson in forgiveness. Recent political goings on in the world and USA have made me audience to some unacceptable hate speech from people I consider friends regarding people who are different then us Jews.
Although Yom Kippur is still fresh in our minds I feel like the lesson Jonah teaches us was either not headed or fell on deaf ears. So I feel the need to revisit it because I find it very relevant at this moment in time in US history and there is something for us all in this story of not just forgiveness but of TOLERANCE and ACCEPTANCE.
To make the somewhat long story of Jonah short, G-d asks Jonah to do something and Jonah refuses. For this refusal of G-d’s wishes Jonah ends up in a fish…fun. After being spit out by the fish Jonah submits (and whines about it a lot) and does what G-d asks.
What G-d asked of Jonah was to go to the people of Nineveh – a town located very close to present day Mosul, Iraq (remember this) – and tell the people to ask for forgiveness of their sins and repent to G-d (they were misbehaving badly) or their city would be destroyed and everyone in it die – and according to the Haftarah portion it would have been more then 120k people and animals.
No big deal right? Why would a prophet be reluctant to “save” people who were misbehaving? That’s his job right?
Well yes.
But…this is Jonah and he was a reluctant prophet.
Jonah said to G-d, “these are not Jews and they do not worship you as G-d why do you care whether they live or die? Why do you care whether they ask for forgiveness?” and G-d’s response to Jonah was, “it doesn’t matter whether they have entered into a covenant with me like the Hebrews did, what matters is that they are my people, my creation, and they deserve salvation if they ask for it.”
Did you catch that?
G-d said I don’t care who they are, Jew or not I love them just the same and you should too!
Now on Yom Kippur we use this Haftarah portion to talk about the idea of forgiveness and it’s definitely in there. G-d wants the people of Nineveh to ask for forgiveness or be destroyed. They do ask for forgiveness and do acts worthy of forgiveness and G-d lets them live. Ok.
But to me the most important part of this story isn’t G-d’s forgiveness its what causes Jonah’s reluctance. This is the message I feel that is often lost. On Yom Kippur we’re very busy with receiving forgiveness and Biblical examples of people receiving forgiveness that we lose sight of the more important message in this story.
The message we forget is the message about loving people who are not like us; people who are not like us in many fundamental ways. More importantly we forget about loving our neighbors and doing what we can to create a bridge of understanding (and in many cases needed peace). Jonah was reluctant to create a bridge of understanding – he refused to try and understand 1) who these people were and 2) why G-d cared so much for a people he had no relationship with prior to Jonah walking into town and telling them about G-d. People who were essentially polytheistic Arabs. Remember where they lived? That’s right G-d loves Arabs! G-d told Jonah to care for these people as if they were Jews and in this G-d is telling us the same thing. Too often as Jews we get caught up in the fervor of the Middle East conflict and forget who as the People of the Covenant we are supposed to be. We stop living as Jews who are required to Tikun Olam – Heal the world and we begin to live as people who are close-minded and angry. Reluctant to build that bridge of understanding and refusing to do as G-d asks of us – to heal the world with peace and understanding and most importantly with forgiveness. We are and have been hiding out in a fish for a very long time and its time we as a community of Jews world wide come out and do as G-d bids us.
So here’s where I stop beating around the proverbial bush. Yes, this is specifically directed to Jews who feel every Arab needs to be killed or blown off the face of the Earth.
Every Shabbat you sit there and have the nerve to say prayers such as “Shim Shalom”, “Shalom Rav” and the “Osay Shalom”. And on top of that you also have the nerve to repeat the words of another prophet, Isaiah, who speaks of a day when, “They [the nations of the world] will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” But then you spout such hateful words of contempt and show a complete lack of understanding. You are blind to what G-d requested of Jonah and thus us. You are as blind as the sinners of Nineveh. But the difference is that they never had G-d until Jonah came along. We have all along had G-d. He never left our side. We have always had G-d’s guidance and words to live by, his promise and his covenant. We don’t have an excuse of not knowing we are doing wrong like the people of Nineveh. To behave with such intolerance and hate has always been inexcusable and will continue to be. As long as we choose this behavior we will never see a Messianic age.
I for one choose not to be trapped in a fish with a lack of understanding and tolerance that Jonah had. Instead I choose to build that bridge he so reluctantly built and turn our “enemies” eyes to G-d and Heal the World as I have been commanded. Leading a life with my ears closed and an unwillingness to come to the table for peace talks has gotten us no where on either side and has cost us both so much in lives. G-d gave Adam and Eve a commandment, to preserve life and create life. Every minute we waste with our ears closed and guns in our hands is a minute more of breaking those commandments.
Cheers,
Miss S
Friday, October 17, 2008
this is how i'd like to spend our honeymoon in Italy...
and yes E and i have already decided that is where we will be going...and greece too...
enjoy! Roman Rugby Stadium meets Dead Romans
enjoy! Roman Rugby Stadium meets Dead Romans
Thursday, September 25, 2008
those that need...
dear all,
the moral of this story is that every person counts.
cheers.
Can we throw a homeless person out of our Shul?
By Tzvi Freeman
Dear Rabbi,
Recently, at our shul, a homeless man named Joe1 who has been attending every week was asked by the rabbi not to enter the building anymore. The reason was that Joe was storing things at the shul without permission and he had washed up for Shabbat in the bathroom in order to change his shirt and made a mess. The rabbi has told me that people do not want to sit next to him and some feel afraid. He said that people have complained that Joe sometimes has an odor. It is interesting that they are mad at him for having an odor and also for washing in the bathroom.
So I'm scheduled to speak on Joe's behalf. I know what the Torah says and what Isaiah says about treating the homeless in our midst. But I need to provide a solution, as well. So I would appreciate whatever advice you could give me on how to address the board of our shul.
Sincerely yours,
--Joe's Rep
Dear Rep,
The solution is quite simple: Provide Joe a place either in the shul or elsewhere to store his things. Find other ways that he can be helped without embarrassment.
When parents bring their children to shul and the children ask what the Torah is talking about, what does the prophet mean, they can introduce their children to Joe. They can show how the shul helps him out, without embarrassing him, as a peer and a friend—because we are Jews and this is what we were chosen to teach the world.
And when they ask, "Where is the most holy place in our shul?" You can tell them, it is not the seat where the rabbi sits, it is not the aron that stores the Torah, it is not even the bimah where the Torah is read. It is the little cubby we gave to Joe to store his things.
King David said in his psalms, "Let the world sit before G_d." The Midrash tells that he was complaining to G_d. "Why did you create inequality in the world?" he said. "Why did you make some poor and some rich, some wise and some dull, some joyful and some sad? Make a world in which all are equal!"
And G_d replied with the second half of the verse, "Who then will guard kindness and truth?"
Meaning: "If everyone had all that they need, then how would kindness fit into my world? Rather, I made an unbalanced world, so that the rich would have the opportunity to give to the poor, the wise could teach the dull, the joyful could cheer those who are sad. And this way all could merit to enter the eternal life of truth—those who gave because they gave, and those who received because they suffered only in order that others should be able to give."
"When you meditate on this," the Rebbe once said, "that fellow human being had to suffer only so that your soul should have the opportunity to help him out, then you give and give again and the giving crushes your heart and humbles you even more."
--Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
--Chabad.org Interactivity-With-People Team
Every person counts
the moral of this story is that every person counts.
cheers.
Can we throw a homeless person out of our Shul?
By Tzvi Freeman
Dear Rabbi,
Recently, at our shul, a homeless man named Joe1 who has been attending every week was asked by the rabbi not to enter the building anymore. The reason was that Joe was storing things at the shul without permission and he had washed up for Shabbat in the bathroom in order to change his shirt and made a mess. The rabbi has told me that people do not want to sit next to him and some feel afraid. He said that people have complained that Joe sometimes has an odor. It is interesting that they are mad at him for having an odor and also for washing in the bathroom.
So I'm scheduled to speak on Joe's behalf. I know what the Torah says and what Isaiah says about treating the homeless in our midst. But I need to provide a solution, as well. So I would appreciate whatever advice you could give me on how to address the board of our shul.
Sincerely yours,
--Joe's Rep
Dear Rep,
The solution is quite simple: Provide Joe a place either in the shul or elsewhere to store his things. Find other ways that he can be helped without embarrassment.
When parents bring their children to shul and the children ask what the Torah is talking about, what does the prophet mean, they can introduce their children to Joe. They can show how the shul helps him out, without embarrassing him, as a peer and a friend—because we are Jews and this is what we were chosen to teach the world.
And when they ask, "Where is the most holy place in our shul?" You can tell them, it is not the seat where the rabbi sits, it is not the aron that stores the Torah, it is not even the bimah where the Torah is read. It is the little cubby we gave to Joe to store his things.
King David said in his psalms, "Let the world sit before G_d." The Midrash tells that he was complaining to G_d. "Why did you create inequality in the world?" he said. "Why did you make some poor and some rich, some wise and some dull, some joyful and some sad? Make a world in which all are equal!"
And G_d replied with the second half of the verse, "Who then will guard kindness and truth?"
Meaning: "If everyone had all that they need, then how would kindness fit into my world? Rather, I made an unbalanced world, so that the rich would have the opportunity to give to the poor, the wise could teach the dull, the joyful could cheer those who are sad. And this way all could merit to enter the eternal life of truth—those who gave because they gave, and those who received because they suffered only in order that others should be able to give."
"When you meditate on this," the Rebbe once said, "that fellow human being had to suffer only so that your soul should have the opportunity to help him out, then you give and give again and the giving crushes your heart and humbles you even more."
--Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
--Chabad.org Interactivity-With-People Team
Every person counts
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
the pesky mikvah
The pesky Mikvah
Before I even began working on my graduate degree I had already decided what I wanted to write my thesis on – this of course changed the minute I took a philosophy class on Hermeneutics and Polysemy – BUT before discovering that fantastic aspect of theology (which we will get into another day) I wanted to write my thesis on Ritual bathing and Menstruation. In fact I managed to make a linguistics professor of mine blush when I wrote a paper on this subject in my intro to Judaism class senior year at UT.
Why such a topic? Ritual bathing (going to the Mikvah) and the reasons for going to the Mikvah were very interesting. The Mikvah could make anything that was unholy and unclean holy and clean again. Purity could be found in the bath even though you may be in the water less then 5 minutes. It was the Mikvah that gave birth to baptism.
Life vs death
In Judaism purity equates to life and impurity equates to death.
For example, touching a dead body is a big “no-no” and requires the toucher to go to the Mikvah to become pure again. The Menstruation period for a woman as well makes her impure because of its relation to a loss of life. When a woman has her period it means that she lost that particular chance to create a life, thus death. This concept is fascinating considering the fact that in Judaism a fetus is not considered [equal to] a life so how can the loss of an egg be mourned as a loss of life? Because it is a loss of potential life.
Another curiosity of women’s impurity is the idea that a woman is impure after she gives birth (creating life) and depending on whether she has a boy or a girl may be subjected to 33 or 66 days of Niddah (separation) until she can become “clean” again. There is no explanation as to why the time period is different.
Consider another concept of why menstruation is impure as well, in kosher food blood is unclean and for the meat to be kosher (assuming all other kashrut laws were also followed) it must be removed of all blood before it can be eaten. Blood is an impure entity regardless of whom or where it is coming from.
Along the same lines (sort of) put your self in a place and time where they had limited knowledge of a woman's system and consider how you would have reacted to seeing a woman bleed for as long as 8 days and not die.
So essentially blood is unclean because it occurs in/around death.
Separate lives
Those who are unclean are separated from the community. The age old adage “one rotten apple can spoil the bunch” is very true in Jewish ideas on purity.
Lepers were unclean because they were sick and contagious. Death always carried the stigma of disease (as in death and decomposition = disease) as well. And so any situation relating to a disease and death – whether there was something to catch or not was not taken lightly. Quarantine, quarantine, quarantine.
Jesus was a maverick because he wanted to bring the lepers back into the community. But the lepers had no place because they were unclean not because they were bad people. Although this is often a parable about being accepted, forgiven and welcoming the stranger these are incorrect correlations to make because the assumption is that these people are being punished with rejection when in fact they were being made to follow the law because they were contagious.
Even in modern secular society we quarantine people for health reasons. Ritual purity in Judaism was a way to regulate the health of the population not punish individuals for being born a certain sex or catching a particular illness.
Impurity is always able to be “cured” – one does not have to live with this mark for life.
Take a dead body. We have to do something with death it can’t be left unattended and untouched. Even though touching a dead body is bad (esp. on the Sabbath i.e. the story of Jesus’ death) we must perform the act of cleaning and preparing the body for burial. Once this has been done we are able to go to the Mikvah and become pure again.
Everyone becomes impure at some point in their lives yet at the same time we always have the opportunity to reverse this.
However, as stated above, impurity forces us to lead separate lives from the community. There are many social taboos that must be respected when one is not pure. The preparation of food, the sharing of beds, sex, touching others who are pure, going to the Temple and making sacrifices, these are things one can not do.
But even Judaism contradicts its self for one CAN make a sacrifice in order to become clean again, as is the case of a woman who is Niddah after birth. This is a contradiction because technically she can not enter into the Temple grounds unclean yet she has to, to be able to make this sacrifice to become clean…
I often think of this like I do the rabbinical teaching of “sin as if you were a holy person sinning”. I know that sounds silly but the idea is, if you’re going to sin do it in a holy way…if you lie, lie so that you can give more to charity, or something like that. It’s almost like the adage “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”.
So the correlation to this and the unclean woman is, she can be unclean and enter the Temple as long as she is going to make a sacrifice, which will make her clean. Sinning in a Holy way.
One thing I have always told my students is there is an exception to every rule in Judaism you just have to look for it. Oh, and it is usually a “if you're going to do it, do it holy” kind of exception.
How do you Mikvah?
Going to the Mikvah is such a process. Let’s just say it’s easier to be dirty then clean in Judaism.
First there are the Kosher laws…ah the good ole Kosher laws.
Now I LOVE Kosher laws I find them just as interesting as the purity/impurity Mikvah issue, but Kosher laws can be daunting. And the whole rotten apple spoiling the bunch saying also applies to the Kosher laws as well – oh and just like being dirty is easier then being clean, being unkosher is easier then being kosher in Judaism too. However unlike purity laws (where one esp. a woman is always in a vicious cycle of pure and impure) once you get things going Kosher in most cases its easy to maintain (like your kitchen for instance).
So Mikvahs like many things of spiritual and health issues in Judaism must be Kosher.
Technically, the world’s natural bodies of water — oceans, rivers, spring-fed lakes — are all valid Mikvah. However, for obvious reasons like accessibility, privacy and safety, so-called “domesticated Mikvahs” have been in use for thousands of years.
What makes a [domesticated] Mikvah Kosher?
• A Mikvah must be connected to a natural spring or well of naturally occurring water
• A Mikvah must, according to the classical regulations, contain enough water to cover the entire body of an average-sized man; the necessary volume of water was estimated as being 40 seah of water. The exact volume referred to by a seah is debated, and classical rabbinical literature only specifies that it is enough to fit 144 eggs; most Orthodox Jews use the stringent ruling of the Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz, according to which one seah is 14.3 litres, and therefore a Mikvah must contain approximately 575 litres.
• The water must flow naturally to the Mikvah from the source, which essentially means that it must be supplied by gravity or a natural pressure gradient, and the water cannot be pumped there by hand or carried. It was also forbidden for the water to pass through any vessel which could hold water within it, (however pipes open to the air at both ends are fine) as a result, tap water could not be used as the primary water source for a Mikvah, although it can be used to top the water up to a suitable level
And then of course there is the list of how to make your self “kosher” to go into the Mikvah. Let me tell you removing my nose piercing for the Mikvah was no fun!
• No jewelry
• No body hair
• No scabs
• No makeup
And there is always someone there to look you up and down to make sure these requirements are met…
John who Baptizes
John was making “Christians” right? Well really John was making clean Jews. John was immersing people in a Mikvah to cleanse them of there sins – there impurities. This is where the concept of baptism comes from – the idea that we are being cleansed of our sins by immersion. It would have been very common for not just John and the people he was immersing but for Jesus to go to the Mikvah regularly as a Jew. Jesus just happened to be in the right place at the right time and everything snowballed from there.
So needless-to-say there is a lot to the Mikvah and it’s a very interesting concept.
One of my students this year was adopted by a Jewish family in our synagogue last year. She proudly showed me the invitations to her conversion ceremony which had both the time of her Mikvah at 2pm at Barton Springs and the time of her Shabbat service Blessing and Conversion ceremony.
Going to the Mikvah before one goes through their conversion ceremony makes a person pure as they enter into the tribe.
This concept is clear and the same in Christianity where one must be Baptized (ritually cleansed) before one can go through confirmation and become a member of the church/community…
Before I even began working on my graduate degree I had already decided what I wanted to write my thesis on – this of course changed the minute I took a philosophy class on Hermeneutics and Polysemy – BUT before discovering that fantastic aspect of theology (which we will get into another day) I wanted to write my thesis on Ritual bathing and Menstruation. In fact I managed to make a linguistics professor of mine blush when I wrote a paper on this subject in my intro to Judaism class senior year at UT.
Why such a topic? Ritual bathing (going to the Mikvah) and the reasons for going to the Mikvah were very interesting. The Mikvah could make anything that was unholy and unclean holy and clean again. Purity could be found in the bath even though you may be in the water less then 5 minutes. It was the Mikvah that gave birth to baptism.
Life vs death
In Judaism purity equates to life and impurity equates to death.
For example, touching a dead body is a big “no-no” and requires the toucher to go to the Mikvah to become pure again. The Menstruation period for a woman as well makes her impure because of its relation to a loss of life. When a woman has her period it means that she lost that particular chance to create a life, thus death. This concept is fascinating considering the fact that in Judaism a fetus is not considered [equal to] a life so how can the loss of an egg be mourned as a loss of life? Because it is a loss of potential life.
Another curiosity of women’s impurity is the idea that a woman is impure after she gives birth (creating life) and depending on whether she has a boy or a girl may be subjected to 33 or 66 days of Niddah (separation) until she can become “clean” again. There is no explanation as to why the time period is different.
Consider another concept of why menstruation is impure as well, in kosher food blood is unclean and for the meat to be kosher (assuming all other kashrut laws were also followed) it must be removed of all blood before it can be eaten. Blood is an impure entity regardless of whom or where it is coming from.
Along the same lines (sort of) put your self in a place and time where they had limited knowledge of a woman's system and consider how you would have reacted to seeing a woman bleed for as long as 8 days and not die.
So essentially blood is unclean because it occurs in/around death.
Separate lives
Those who are unclean are separated from the community. The age old adage “one rotten apple can spoil the bunch” is very true in Jewish ideas on purity.
Lepers were unclean because they were sick and contagious. Death always carried the stigma of disease (as in death and decomposition = disease) as well. And so any situation relating to a disease and death – whether there was something to catch or not was not taken lightly. Quarantine, quarantine, quarantine.
Jesus was a maverick because he wanted to bring the lepers back into the community. But the lepers had no place because they were unclean not because they were bad people. Although this is often a parable about being accepted, forgiven and welcoming the stranger these are incorrect correlations to make because the assumption is that these people are being punished with rejection when in fact they were being made to follow the law because they were contagious.
Even in modern secular society we quarantine people for health reasons. Ritual purity in Judaism was a way to regulate the health of the population not punish individuals for being born a certain sex or catching a particular illness.
Impurity is always able to be “cured” – one does not have to live with this mark for life.
Take a dead body. We have to do something with death it can’t be left unattended and untouched. Even though touching a dead body is bad (esp. on the Sabbath i.e. the story of Jesus’ death) we must perform the act of cleaning and preparing the body for burial. Once this has been done we are able to go to the Mikvah and become pure again.
Everyone becomes impure at some point in their lives yet at the same time we always have the opportunity to reverse this.
However, as stated above, impurity forces us to lead separate lives from the community. There are many social taboos that must be respected when one is not pure. The preparation of food, the sharing of beds, sex, touching others who are pure, going to the Temple and making sacrifices, these are things one can not do.
But even Judaism contradicts its self for one CAN make a sacrifice in order to become clean again, as is the case of a woman who is Niddah after birth. This is a contradiction because technically she can not enter into the Temple grounds unclean yet she has to, to be able to make this sacrifice to become clean…
I often think of this like I do the rabbinical teaching of “sin as if you were a holy person sinning”. I know that sounds silly but the idea is, if you’re going to sin do it in a holy way…if you lie, lie so that you can give more to charity, or something like that. It’s almost like the adage “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”.
So the correlation to this and the unclean woman is, she can be unclean and enter the Temple as long as she is going to make a sacrifice, which will make her clean. Sinning in a Holy way.
One thing I have always told my students is there is an exception to every rule in Judaism you just have to look for it. Oh, and it is usually a “if you're going to do it, do it holy” kind of exception.
How do you Mikvah?
Going to the Mikvah is such a process. Let’s just say it’s easier to be dirty then clean in Judaism.
First there are the Kosher laws…ah the good ole Kosher laws.
Now I LOVE Kosher laws I find them just as interesting as the purity/impurity Mikvah issue, but Kosher laws can be daunting. And the whole rotten apple spoiling the bunch saying also applies to the Kosher laws as well – oh and just like being dirty is easier then being clean, being unkosher is easier then being kosher in Judaism too. However unlike purity laws (where one esp. a woman is always in a vicious cycle of pure and impure) once you get things going Kosher in most cases its easy to maintain (like your kitchen for instance).
So Mikvahs like many things of spiritual and health issues in Judaism must be Kosher.
Technically, the world’s natural bodies of water — oceans, rivers, spring-fed lakes — are all valid Mikvah. However, for obvious reasons like accessibility, privacy and safety, so-called “domesticated Mikvahs” have been in use for thousands of years.
What makes a [domesticated] Mikvah Kosher?
• A Mikvah must be connected to a natural spring or well of naturally occurring water
• A Mikvah must, according to the classical regulations, contain enough water to cover the entire body of an average-sized man; the necessary volume of water was estimated as being 40 seah of water. The exact volume referred to by a seah is debated, and classical rabbinical literature only specifies that it is enough to fit 144 eggs; most Orthodox Jews use the stringent ruling of the Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz, according to which one seah is 14.3 litres, and therefore a Mikvah must contain approximately 575 litres.
• The water must flow naturally to the Mikvah from the source, which essentially means that it must be supplied by gravity or a natural pressure gradient, and the water cannot be pumped there by hand or carried. It was also forbidden for the water to pass through any vessel which could hold water within it, (however pipes open to the air at both ends are fine) as a result, tap water could not be used as the primary water source for a Mikvah, although it can be used to top the water up to a suitable level
And then of course there is the list of how to make your self “kosher” to go into the Mikvah. Let me tell you removing my nose piercing for the Mikvah was no fun!
• No jewelry
• No body hair
• No scabs
• No makeup
And there is always someone there to look you up and down to make sure these requirements are met…
John who Baptizes
John was making “Christians” right? Well really John was making clean Jews. John was immersing people in a Mikvah to cleanse them of there sins – there impurities. This is where the concept of baptism comes from – the idea that we are being cleansed of our sins by immersion. It would have been very common for not just John and the people he was immersing but for Jesus to go to the Mikvah regularly as a Jew. Jesus just happened to be in the right place at the right time and everything snowballed from there.
So needless-to-say there is a lot to the Mikvah and it’s a very interesting concept.
One of my students this year was adopted by a Jewish family in our synagogue last year. She proudly showed me the invitations to her conversion ceremony which had both the time of her Mikvah at 2pm at Barton Springs and the time of her Shabbat service Blessing and Conversion ceremony.
Going to the Mikvah before one goes through their conversion ceremony makes a person pure as they enter into the tribe.
This concept is clear and the same in Christianity where one must be Baptized (ritually cleansed) before one can go through confirmation and become a member of the church/community…
Friday, August 29, 2008
we like to get shaken up a bit...
the smart people lived where the earth shook!
it just adds to the excitement...i mean who wants a boring civilization?
it just adds to the excitement...i mean who wants a boring civilization?
History can be bad but does get better with time...
Underground Jewish History in Vienna
August 27, 2008
Vienna, Austria has a dark history with regard to the Jewish community. The horror of the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938 and the successive deportation of Jews from the city by the Nazis are events that are firmly inscribed in the historical annals of the 20th century. Fortunately, the post-war era ushered in a change in the attitude of Vienna towards its Jewish citizens, and in 1995 a design was selected for a memorial monument to the victims of the Holocaust that was to be erected in Judenplatz, the central area of the medieval Jewish quarter of Vienna. Before the memorial was to be erected, however, the city officials of Vienna launched an archaeological investigation of the Judenplatz, bringing to light a remarkable layer of Jewish history.
Eerily reminiscent of the tragic events of the 20th century, these recent excavations have unearthed the remains of a beautiful medieval synagogue that was destroyed in 1421, during another pogrom against the Jews. The 500-year-old predecessor of the Nazi-organized aggression was ordered by Duke Albrecht V at the behest of the Catholic Church. It was determined by archaeologists that the synagogue, which had stood for approximately 20 years before it was destroyed, had undergone three distinct phases of expansion and modification between 1236, when it was first thought to have been constructed, and 1421, when the building was destroyed. Today the remains of this medieval synagogue are on display in an underground museum beneath the Judenplatz.
The Jerusalem Post reports on Vienna’s underground synagogue
August 27, 2008
Vienna, Austria has a dark history with regard to the Jewish community. The horror of the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938 and the successive deportation of Jews from the city by the Nazis are events that are firmly inscribed in the historical annals of the 20th century. Fortunately, the post-war era ushered in a change in the attitude of Vienna towards its Jewish citizens, and in 1995 a design was selected for a memorial monument to the victims of the Holocaust that was to be erected in Judenplatz, the central area of the medieval Jewish quarter of Vienna. Before the memorial was to be erected, however, the city officials of Vienna launched an archaeological investigation of the Judenplatz, bringing to light a remarkable layer of Jewish history.
Eerily reminiscent of the tragic events of the 20th century, these recent excavations have unearthed the remains of a beautiful medieval synagogue that was destroyed in 1421, during another pogrom against the Jews. The 500-year-old predecessor of the Nazi-organized aggression was ordered by Duke Albrecht V at the behest of the Catholic Church. It was determined by archaeologists that the synagogue, which had stood for approximately 20 years before it was destroyed, had undergone three distinct phases of expansion and modification between 1236, when it was first thought to have been constructed, and 1421, when the building was destroyed. Today the remains of this medieval synagogue are on display in an underground museum beneath the Judenplatz.
The Jerusalem Post reports on Vienna’s underground synagogue
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