Category Archives: Talmud

Labor MK and Reform rabbi Gilad Kariv joined the Women of the Wall for prayers and the Torah reading for Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan at the Western Wall amid disturbances on Thursday. Blue and White MK Alon Tal also took part in the prayers.

Kariv brought a Torah scroll to the plaza for the women to read from. As they attempted to read from the scroll, they were removed from the women's section of the plaza and finished reading the portion at the entrance to the women's section as they were pushed and yelled at.

Video from the plaza showed a security guard asking the women to "please stop" and stressing that the Torah scroll could not enter the women's section. "Let's prevent the provocation and mess. Stop," added the guard.

Protesters could be heard yelling and whistling in the background as the security guards confronted the women.

Women of the Wall attempt to read the Torah on Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, October 7, 2021. (Credit: Women of the Wall)

The women stated that many of those confronting them during their prayers were not wearing masks, in opposition to Health Ministry guidelines.

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation stated that it was "saddened" by the disturbances on Thursday morning, saying that Kariv's attempt to bring a Torah scroll into the women's section was in opposition to explicit instructions from the Justice Ministry.

They stressed that a representative of the foundation approached Kariv and asked him not to use his immunity to take this step and that the MK had responded that while he respects the activities of the foundation, "he plans to act as he sees fit."

The foundation added that it made a special path for the Women of the Wall group "in an attempt to avoid friction by separating the groups."

"The foundation is deeply pained by these events and calls upon all parties to set aside disputes and give the proper respect to this holy site," it said.

"Once again, the rabbi of the Western Wall has shown that he is violent toward anyone who does not obey the separatist and extremist ultra-Orthodox laws that he is trying to impose on the Western Wall," according to Yochi Rappaport, director-general of Women of the Wall. "We call for the immediate implementation of the Western Wall layout and until then we will continue to arrive at the Western Wall and pray there as usual."

Kariv stated in response to the incident that the "conduct of the Western Wall rabbi and his men towards the women of the Western Wall is tainted by a serious violation of the provisions of the law and the ruling of the Jerusalem District Court."

The MK stressed that he and other MKs would "defend the right of the women of the Western Wall to pray as usual and to read the Torah in the women's section, until the full implementation of the outline of the Western Wall."

In protest against Kariv's participation in the prayers at the Western Wall, Porush sat down on the floor of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee and began reciting Psalms in order to disrupt the committee meeting while Kariv was speaking.

UTJ MK Meir Porush recites Psalms in protest during Knesset committee meeting, October 7, 2021 (Credit: Knesset Channel)

After allowing Porush to recite Psalms for a few minutes, Kariv continued the meeting while Porush continued reciting Psalms before eventually calling a ten-minute break to give Knesset ushers an opportunity to remove the UTJ MK from the room.

Kariv quoted a discussion in the Talmud concerning the sanctification and desecration of God's name in public, stressing that the Talmud states that sanctification comes by acting in a way that will cause the public to value tradition and faith. "I think we are receiving here a good class on what the desecration of God's name is and what the sanctification of God's name is," said Kariv.

Porush eventually left the room, saying "I will continue this protest until you get away from the Western Wall. You will not come to the women's section and I will not come here."

"The right to protest of Knesset members is important," said Kariv in response. "I was at the Western Wall this morning and I am glad that other Knesset members are exercising their right to protest. The walls of the committee did not fall and at least you merited us with a few Psalms."

See the rest here:

Women of the Wall conduct Rosh Chodesh prayers with MK Kariv - The Jerusalem Post

(RNS) I never really liked working at archaeological digs in Israel. Too much dust.

Besides, I have my own archaeological dig. Its called my files, and right about now, I am digging through them, trying to discern what to keep and what to discard.

That is how I came across a now-yellowed clipping from Esquire, November 1974. It is a long essay by the author Cynthia Ozick, with the title: All The World Wants the Jews Dead.

Ozick wrote that essay in the wake of the Yom Kippur War. Its subtitle: An overwrought view from the peak of the bottom. The piece is an anguished reflection on what had already become woefully apparent to me that anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism were essentially identical.

Among many prescient quotes, this one: Jewish and Israeli are one and the same thing, and no one, in or out of Israel, ought to pretend differently any more. While that is not demographically true, she was right the terms Israeli and Israel were substitutions and euphemisms for Jews.

It is now 2021, and novelist Dara Horn has published her own set of reflections People Love Dead Jews: Reports From a Haunted Present. Dara mirrors and echos Cynthias literary flair, her focus on Judaism and her suspicions about the Jewish place in the world.

Take a minute to compare the titles of those two works.

Ozick believed the world wanted the Jews dead or, at the very least, that it wanted the Jewish state obliterated.

(Do I believe that? My conclusion is not as bloody as hers. It is fair enough to say that many people in the world want the Jewish state discredited.)

For Horn, it is not that the world wants the Jews dead.

But many in the world are blas about Jewish death, and therefore, find dead or suffering Jews to be the most sympathetic.

Consider a recent reflection by comedian Sarah Silverman. Sarah pleaded with the Squad (whose domestic politics she otherwise admires) not to defund the Iron Dome: Please dont defund the Iron Dome. You know my family lives there People only really like Jews if theyre suffering. Dead Jews get a lot of honor.

From Ozick to Horn to Silverman, the sobering truth: The world can relate to Jews who suffer. To Jews with power, not so much.

But it is not only the world that has a fascination with Jewish suffering. It is the Jews themselves.

For decades, I have been pushing back against what historian Salo Baron called the lachrymose view of Jewish history. Throughout my career, I have noticed it was easier to raise money for Holocaust memorials than for Jewish education, and that more Jews seemed to care about how Jews died than about how Jews live.

Horn has read my mind. She notes that any Jew can name three death camps, but that almost none can name three Yiddish authors the language spoken by over 80 percent of death-camp victims. What, I asked, was the point of caring so much about how people died, if one cared so little about how they lived?

In one essay, she contrasts the turnout at a rally against antisemitism with that of a celebration of the ending of a cycle of Talmud study (that essay contains some of the best descriptions of the world of the Talmud that I have ever read).

Horn makes so many salient points in this book of essays. Let me list for you my major takeaways.

Horn looks at the 2019 attack on the kosher grocery store in Jersey City, quite close to where she lives. There were almost immediate choruses of hemming and hawing, with some observers saying the attack on the Orthodox Jews was really a protest against gentrification.

Never mind that the Orthodox victims were themselves refugees from the gentrification of their old neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Never mind that the murderer did not live in that neighborhood, but rather, almost randomly looked for Jewish locations to attack.

Moreover, even if the murders had been a pushback against gentrification, whence the idea that violence is an appropriate reaction to neighborhood change? She writes:

As the journalist Armin Rosen has pointed out, the apparently murderous rage against gentrification has yet to result in anyone using automatic weapons to blow away white hipsters at the newest Blue Bottle Coffee.

People said you needed to put this horror into context. The very idea is obscene.

Context? I was not able to find any similar context in media reports after the 2015 massacre at a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, or the 2016 massacre at an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida, or the 2019 massacre at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas frequented by Latino shoppers all hate-crime attacks that unambiguously targeted minority groups This is hateful victim-blaming, the equivalent of analyzing the flattering selfies of a rape victim in lurid detail in order to provide context for a sexual assault.

Many of us understand that Jews, and Judaism and Jewish culture, are different. How different? Horn, who is first and foremost a scholar of Yiddish literature, points out that whereas typical stories end on an up note They all lived happily ever after that is not how Jewish stories end. Jewish stories are not as uplifting as we would want them to be.

This is especially true with stories about the Shoah, and it is even more true with stories about righteous gentiles. Everyone loves Schindlers List, but the truth is that .001% of Europeans saved Jewish lives.

In fact, quite often, Jewish stories do not end; they stop. The Torah does not really end; it just kind of stops with the death of Moses. In Jewish storytelling, (there is) a kind of realism that comes from humility, from the knowledge that one cannot be true to the human experience while pretending to make sense of the world, Horn writes.

You want to bring down the full wrath of a Jewish audience on your head? Try telling them: No, the people who worked at Ellis Island did not strip your great-grandfather of his European name.

And no, your ancestor was not the exception to that historical fact.

The truth is: The people who worked at immigration centers were highly literate, in multiple languages. They were not able to blithely change peoples names. They already knew the names of new arrivals. Why? Because they had the ship manifests before them.

But, no. This is the origin myth of American Jews, and as a myth, it is quite potent.

Horn says: No. She shows that it was Jews themselves who changed their own names, because they believed that more neutral names would lubricate their entry into America, and would be the key that would unlock the gates of opportunity.

I could have imagined Horn arguing that, in fact, it was the Jewish need to fit in that drove the name-changing thing. In other words, we changed our names because we wanted to assimilate.

Except

Many names circulating in the United States during this period were foreign-sounding and difficult to pronounce and spell for example, LaGuardia, Roosevelt, Juilliard, Lindbergh, DiMaggio, Vanderbilt, Earhart, Rockefeller, and Eisenhower. Yet as the remarkably low numbers of non-Jewish name-change petitioners in New York City demonstrate, such families and their forebears do not appear to have been subject to embarrassment or affected socially, educationally, economically, and patriotically by having names that were difficult to pronounce and spell.

In other words, it was not the desire to merely fit in. It was fear fear that American antisemitism would prevent their familys success. That Jews were not welcome here.

One last thing. It occurs to me that all the people whom I have cited in this essay Ozick, Silverman and Horn are women. Add to this the names of Deborah Lipstadt and Bari Weiss. Not to mention Horns dissertation adviser, Ruth Wisse.

It has long been this way, but it is only now, perhaps, that we notice: Some of the most trenchant observers of Jewish life and especially, some of the most vociferous voices against antisemitism are women. (Yes, her recent remarks offered Silverman an honorary key to this club.)

This is, as they say, good for the Jews.

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The thing about dead Jews - Religion News Service

A Jewish school in London is refusing to teach pupils about same-sex relationships despite warnings from education watchdog Ofsted.

The Talmud Torah Machzikei Hadass, a strictly Orthodox school in Hackney, was rebuked by Ofsted for failing to meet the requirements of the curriculum.

In a recent inspection report Ofsted said: The curriculum did not pay regard to all the protected characteristics, specifically same-sex relationships and gender reassignment.Leaders are absolutely clear that they continue to have no intention of referencing same-sex relationships and gender reassignment with pupils.

An independent day school for boys of the Jewish faith,Talmud Torah Machzikei Hadass has 641 pupils between 3 to 16 and is chaired by Rabbi Baumgarten and Rabbi Klein.

Judaism categorically asks its followers to abstain from practicing same-sex relationships.Leviticus condemns the act, saying: If a man lies with a male as one lies with a woman, the two of them have done an abhorrent thing; they shall be put to death their bloodguilt is upon them.

SomeReform Jewsmay accept homosexuality, arguing that todays culture is very different to that of theAncient Hebrews. However, most Orthodox Jews would argue that Gods commands must be obeyed in a literal sense, in the same way that they follow the Jewish laws relating to food.

This is the second inspection of the school. In the 2020 inspection report Ofsted found that the standards of literacy in English were poor and the teaching of early reading in English did not start early enough. Furthermore, it said pupils weak reading and writing skills had a knock-on effect on their learning in other subjects.

The inspection report also stated that pupils did not learn enough about science, history or geography and teachers lacked expertise. There was not enough subject-specific training for staff.

Although the current inspection report suggests that some improvements have been, the report says: Improvements represent a step in the right direction. However, their long-term impact is yet to be seen.

See the rest here:

London Jewish school tells Ofsted it won't teach about same-sex relationships - 5Pillars

Three tragic events came together this past Thursday.

This was a day for crying and contemplation, and a day for once again posing that most probing, most essential eternal theological question: Simply put, does God exist, and if so, how does he interface with the universe? Is there a vigilant, involved, all-knowing Creator minding the store, or are we at the mercy of capricious fate and fortune be it good or bad which operates independently of a higher power? For anyone who has, or is suffering, for anyone who has lost something precious particularly if that loss seems to be cruel, unjust or undeserved this is more than just mental gymnastics; it cuts right to the heart of our belief system and directly impacts the moral compass that allows us to maintain our sanity and move forward with productive lives.

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It would seem to be a spiritual Gordian Knot: If God is indeed in complete control of the worlds events and micro-manages his creatures existence, then why do tragedies occur? Why do children die in an instant on the road; why does evil flourish, why are some selected for lives of ease while others seemingly good people struggle to simply survive? And if God is not either willing or capable of managing the planets affairs and seeing to it that justice is done, then how do we rationalize praying to a merciful, compassionate deity in the face of these catastrophes? Is life simply a random sequence of events, a rudderless ship without a captain at the helm?

Since the dawn of time, the brightest minds have grappled with this problem. Cain, who killed his brother Abel the worst crime in history, whereby 25% of the worlds known population was murdered expressed this quandary and confusion when he remarked, Am I my brothers keeper?! The emphasis here was on the I. Cain was essentially challenging God: You supposedly control the world; if Abel lies dead, surely that must be Your will as much as mine!

Moses after witnessing the cruelty and death that accompanied the slavery in Egypt was deeply troubled by the seeming inequity of the world, as were the prophet Isaiah and Job; each of them cried out to God for an answer. And the Talmud debates the issue repeatedly, indicating that even our greatest religious models were plagued by the question; their numerous statements display their angst and ambivalence.

Some opinions clearly express a staunch belief in Heavenly control of earthly events:

Said Rav Chanina: No one so much as cuts his finger in the world below, unless it is so ordained in the world above (Tractate Chulin 7b). Said Rav Ami: There is no death without sin, and no suffering without guilt (Shabbat 55a). Rabbi Akiva said: Whatever the Almighty does is all for the good (Berachot 60b). Maimonides wrote: Calamities as well as good things are dispensed equitably, with no injustice whatsoever (Guide to the Perplexed). Rabbi Shlomo Aviner succinctly summed up this approach: Every bullet has an address, he said.

Yet other authorities took a markedly different view:

King David said in his Psalms, Death may occur as a result of Divine decree, but may also be the consequence of natural causes (such as old age), or result from human actions (such as in war) (The Kuzari). Ninety-nine out of 100 people die due to negligence, while only one dies by the hand of Heaven (Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 14). Rava said: Length of life, children and prosperity depend not on merit, but on mazal (Moed Katan 28).

These different approaches are perhaps best illustrated by the famous story of the sage Elisha ben Avuya. He witnessed a young boy climbing a tree, at his fathers behest, to shoo away a mother bird from her nest in order to take the eggs. The boy fell from the tree and died. Elisha, his faith shaken, looked to the Heavens and asked, Where is the reward of long life, promised by the Torah both for obeying ones parent and sending away the mother bird?! Horrified that a God who espoused truth and kindness could allow this catastrophe to happen, Elisha became a heretic and remained estranged from Judaism.

Yet later, in assessing this same incident, Rabbi Eliezer concluded that God was not to blame for the tragedy. The ladder the boy climbed upon, he said, must have been rickety, and where there is danger, one may not rely upon a miracle to be saved (Kiddushin 39b).

Perhaps Rav Yannai offers the most salient comment of all, to which many of us would nod in approval, when he declared, It is not in our (human) hands to explain why the righteous suffer or why the wicked prosper (Avot 4:19).

It seems clear that the clear indecision of the sages, and the radical diversity of their outlooks, mercifully provides each of us with the freedom to choose our path. If it soothes our conscience and lessens our grief, we can maintain that events follow a natural course and just happen because thats the way it is; God is not apt to miraculously save us when a hurricane or epidemic strikes, or when we choose to endanger our lives by crossing a busy street with our eyes closed. Alternately, we may opt to believe that specific events do indeed emanate from God, yet we mortals are not necessarily privileged to know or understand why we were chosen and others were not. Or, as King David said, there may be several options which cover all the bases.

Despite all the pithy and profound statements that this subject generates, after all the centuries of debate and discussion, the bottom line for many myself included may very well be an admission that where certain things are concerned, we simply do not know. We rely on the prophet Habakuks motto, Ish bemunato yichye, the righteous shall live by their faith.

Or, as my late father would put it, You bets your money, and you takes your chances.

The writer is director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Raanana.

jocmtv@netvision.net.il

Excerpt from:

When tragedy strikes, where is God? - The Jerusalem Post

In 1947, when Vivian Sigel zlwas 18, she began commuting every day on the train from Worcester to Brookline to attend Hebrew College on Hawes Street.

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In her four years at Hebrew College, she earned her college degreeand fell in love with being a Judaic scholar. She loved studying Talmud and became fluent in Hebrew. She also became very steadfast in her Jewish traditional beliefs and her commitment to teaching. Perpetuating Jewish education really became a life mission for her, said her son, Bob.

Vivian developed her passion for Judaism watching her father, Hyman Steinberg, a Lithuanian immigrant who enriched Jewish education in his adopted community by founding the WorcesterIvriahSchool and achugfor Yiddish speakers like himself.

My grandfather was the one who inspired my mom to become a Hebrew teacher, Bob said.

Bob remembers his mother talking about becoming very close to several people at Hebrew College. She always encouraged people to study there. She was all about sustaining Jewish education and its value. She was incredibly committed.

After graduating from Hebrew College in 1951, Vivian married, started a family and worked as a Hebrew teacher for many years at Beth Israel Synagogue in Worcester, where she had also worked part-time while studying at Hebrew College. Bob recalls, Mom was my first grade Hebrew teacher. I called her Morah Sigel. In class she would whisper in my ear, If you dont pay attention and behave, Im telling your father when we get home!

According to Bob, his mother was responsible for pushing his family to understand Hebrew language, Jewish values and their Jewish rootsand that passion came from her upbringing and her experience at Hebrew College. We called her The Family Rebbetzin, he said. Not only was she learned, she also instilled values of love of Jewish learning, tikkun olamand a commitment to Jewish philanthropy in us. And those are values we carry on today.Ldor vador!

Bob followed his mothers footsteps, attending Hebrew College Prozdor as a teenager.

And she also inspired her children to give back to Hebrew College and other Jewish causes. Among their many philanthropic endeavors, the family helped found the Solomon Schechter School in Worcester; he and his siblings have held numerous positions on Jewish boards in the Worcester area; and Bob and his siblings foundation, the Sigel Family Foundation, recently supported Hebrew Colleges Capital Campaignfor thenew shared campusin memory of his mother.

Hebrew College was always in the back of my mothers mind. She attributed her knowledge and her lifelong passion for Jewish education to her professors at Hebrew College. I know it was a special place to her.

Learn more about Hebrew Colleges centennial year and special events here.

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This post has been contributed by a third party. The opinions, facts and any media content are presented solely by the author, and JewishBoston assumes no responsibility for them. Want to add your voice to the conversation? Publish your own post here.MORE

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The Family Rebbezin | JewishBoston - jewishboston.com

PODCAST Hello Rapids Fans! This week on HTHL, it was a tale of two games. We look at how the Colorado Rapids trouble with elite teams. The guys banter about the disturbing news coming out about the NWSL and the upcoming USMNT World Cup Qualifiers. We review the win against Austin FC and the loss at Seattle Sounders.

Holding The High Line is an independent soccer podcast focused on the Colorado Rapids of MLS and a member of the Beautiful Game Network. If you like the show, please consider subscribing to us on your preferred podcatcher, giving us a review, and tell other Rapids fans about us. It helps a ton. Visit bgn.fm for a bunch of other great podcasts covering soccer in North America.

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Matt Pollard is the Site Manager for Last Word on Soccer and an engineer by day. A Colorado Convert, he started covering the Colorado Rapids as a credentialed member of the press in 2016, though hes watched MLS since 96. When hes not watching or writing about soccer, hes being an outdoorsman (mostly skiing and hiking) in this beautiful state or trying a new beer. For some reason, he thought that starting a podcast with Mark was a good idea and he cant figure out how to stop this madness. He also hosts Last Word SC Radio.

Mark Goodman, the artist formally known as Rapids Rabbi, moved to Colorado in 2011. Shortly thereafter he went to Dicks Sporting Goods Park, saw Lee Nguyen dribble a ball with the silky smoothness of liquid chocolate cascading into a Bar Mitzvah fountain, and promptly fell head over heels in love with domestic soccer. When not watching soccer or coaching his sons U-8 team, hes generally studying either Talmud or medieval biblical exegesis. Which explains why he watches so much MLS, probably. Having relocated to Pittsburgh in 2019, he covers the Pittsburgh Riverhounds of the USL for Pittsburgh Soccer Now.

Photo Credit: Mark Shaiken, Last Word on Soccer.

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Holding The High Line: The Colorado Rapids Trouble with Elite Teams - Last Word on Baseball

CITY OF EGG HARBOR CITY PLANNING AND ZONING BOARD NOTICE OF HEARING TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: In compliance with the pertinent provisions of the Egg Harbor City Zoning and Land Development Ordinance and the New Jersey Municipal Land Use Act, N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq., notice is hereby given that a written appli-cation has been filed by the undersigned with the Egg Harbor City Planning and Zoning Board for an Interpretation or, in the alternative, use variance relief pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70(d)(1), and any and all other variances or waivers the Board may reasonably require in the exercise of its discretion, and without further public notice, in order to allow the undersigned applicant to utilize the existing 3 story school building (former Saint Nicholas' School) as a Yeshiva for Jewish rabbinical seminarians. A Yeshiva is an institution for higher education in the study and practice of the Jewish Torah and Talmud. The Yeshiva is proposed on property shown as Lots 1 through 5 in Block 440 and Lots 6 through 15 in Block 440 on the Egg Harbor City Tax Map, which property is located at 500-518 and 526 Chicago Avenue. No change to the existing site plan, and no building expansion, is proposed, although interior renovations to the existing building are proposed so as to provide sleeping accommodations for the students. Public hearing on the above-mentioned application has been scheduled for October 19, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. in the Municipal Building, 500 London Avenue, Egg Harbor City, New Jersey, at which time and place any interested party (as defined in N.J.S.A. 40:55D-4) will have an opportunity to be heard. All documents in support of this application are available for public inspection between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. in the Building Department, Municipal Building, 500 London Avenue, Egg Harbor City, New Jersey. NEHMAD DAVIS & GOLDSTEIN, P.C. Attorneys for Applicant Yeshiva Shagas Aryeh, Inc., a New Jersey Not for Profit Corporation BY: STEPHEN R. NEHMAD, ESQUIRE 4030 Ocean Heights Avenue Egg Harbor Township, NJ 08234 (609) 927-1177 Dated: October 7, 2021 Printer Fee: $36.80 Pub Date: October 7, 2021 Order #: 0000174457

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CITY OF EGG HARBOR CITY PLANNING AND ZONING BOARD NOTICE OF HEARING TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: - Press of Atlantic City

(This article is written by guest writer Aron Gamman.)

Exploring Judaism through the lens of Spiritual Naturalism brings forth many possibilities. On the one side it challenges Jewish traditions by denying a supernatural agency. But in as much as Judaism has been less otherworldly than some of the other major religions, Naturalism and Judaism do have a common ground.

Treating Jewish theism as mythology, rather than taking it literally, challenges the heart of what it means to be Jewish to those who hold to a more static interpretation of the tradition. This same sort of attitude reflects the reaction that the Jewish community in Holland took towards Baruch Spinoza in an earlier time. His idea of God challenged the traditional view as it also challenged the idea of God held by the Christian churches of his day.

Spinoza began his life much like any other Jew of that period. His parents had moved to Holland from Portugal to escape religious persecution. But more radically than other Jews of the time, Baruch questioned tradition and consider other options. Whether or not he saw himself as a radical, its difficult to know, but it led to his being excommunicated. In a sense he became the first secular Jew. In anarticle in the Jewish Virtual Library, it states:

At first Spinoza was reviled as an atheist and certainly, his God is not the conventional Judo-Christian God. The philosophers of the enlightenment ridiculed his methods not without some grounds. The romantics, attracted by his identification of God with Nature, rescued him from oblivion.

It is a bit ironic that while Spinozas family had immigrated from Portugal to gain religious freedom, Baruch sought in his new country a different kind of religious freedom. He remains today one of the heros for those of us who think that the words God and Nature essentially refer to the same thing.

Today, we possess a freedom that many in the past did not have. This allows us to explore our Jewish identity, even those of us who can no longer accept its model of theism. We can acknowledge the well-known literature (or canon) of Torah, Mishnah, Talmud, Siddur; we can appreciate how they established norms as well as humanistic ideas and values in the past, but we do not have to give them undue authority or take them literally. We can still connect to the memory of our ancestors and their stories, but in a different, perhaps more authentic form to us and our communities; one that can be integrated with the world view revealed by modern science. We can accept the possibility of new stories and new interpretations arising in the present and furthering the tradition.

We do not think religious expressions necessarily fit secular interpretations of Jewish history and human experience. Yet we wish to speak for ourselves. We wish to experiment with many of the concepts presented on our own outside of religious guidelines. We do not necessarily need to be validated by traditional religious texts.

We approach a plurality of Jewish roots so we have the power to choose. We deny a single Jewish tradition, but accept many Judaisms. Many counter-establishment traditions have existed in the past and continue to exist. These have included both mystical and secular varieties. The presence of these traditions are written of in the Talmud and elsewhere, even if some were officially ignored once issues were decided. Underground and folk traditions are as rooted in Jewish tradition as much as official ideology.

A Spiritual Naturalists approach to Judaism can be seen as a new counter-establishment tradition. Who has the authority, now? It is us. Spinozas ideas preceed those of modern science, yet to some degree he inspired them. Currently he also serves as an inspiration for those of us who embrace the world view advanced by science, yet continue to value their Jewish identity and the rich, ages-old tradition in which that identity has developed. We can embrace the incredible picture of the creation that modern science is presenting to us, while maintaining our roots in the Jewish tradition.

Read this article:

Jewish Religious Tradition and Spirituality in a Naturalistic Perspective - Patheos

What is it like to grow up as the son of arguably the most famous Holocaust survivor in the world?

That was the question put at AJRs next generations conference by Stephen Smith, now UNESCO Chair on Genocide Education and Executive Director of the USC Shoah Foundation. Dr Smith, founder of the UK Holocaust Centre in England and cofounder of the Aegis Trust for the prevention of crimes against humanity and genocide, was in conversation with Elisha Wiesel, son of the writer and Nobel prize-winner Elie Wiesel, who died in 2016.

In fact, as Elisha Wiesel made clear in their conversation, he is the son of two Holocaust survivors, but with very different attitudes towards their wartime experiences.

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His mother, Marion, wanted to put the war behind her and not talk about it ever again, he said. But to mark his mothers 90th birthday in 2020, he had managed to get a film crew to record her talking about her familys departure from Vienna after the Anschluss, their subsequent moves to Belgium, France and then Switzerland, where she remained for the rest of the war.

Elie Wiesel, by contrast, wrote 60-70 books, many detailing aspects of his survival, and not all of which, his son admitted, he had read.

The AJRs Connecting Next Generations conference at Stamford Bridge, in London (ASL Corporate Photography)

He actually sheltered me quite a bit from knowledge of the Shoah, Elisha Wiesel said. But one picks things up in an ambient fashion. When my friends [in New York] were going to Palm Beach for sumner camps, I would be going to death camps in Poland.

Overall he characterised his father as an incredible listener.he loved to engage with people and hear their stories.

Elisha Wiesel (via Twitter)

For a long time, from about age 14 onwards, Elisha wanted nothing to do with the old world. I resented being known as the son of Elie Wiesel, and I led a very rebellious teenage life, only interested in my guitar and meeting girls.

Today, however, aged 49, things are very different. Almost to his own surprise he studies a page of Talmud every day and says since he married and had children, he has joy in passing on knowledge and faith. In his family, he says, he talks much less about the Shoah and much more about what it means to be Jewish. But he admitted, with a grin, to Stephen Smith that he still plays the guitar.

Elie Wiesel had only two red lines for his son, which he hopes to pass on to his own children. He insisted that I had to marry someone Jewish, and he asked me to say kaddish for him. Now, says Elisha, he has made peace with being the son of Elie Wiesel, and makes himself available to speak about his father and bearing witness in the Second Generation wherever he can.

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Elie Wiesel's son: 'My father sheltered me quite a bit from knowledge of the Shoah' - Jewish News

THE QUESTION:

When Does Life Begin?

THE RELIGION GUYS ANSWER:

Those four words are regularly posed in the current abortion debate, so lets scan the lines in pregnancy that have been drawn.

Pre-scientific cultures spoke of quickening, typically between 16 and 18 weeks, when the mother first feels the unborn child moving in her womb. A famous example involves the unborn John the Baptist in biblical Luke 1:41. Some ancient Jewish authorities in the Talmud, and Roman and Greek philosophers, supposed that the unborn child formed earlier, at 40 days.

Then theres viability, when a fetus can live on its own outside the womb, typically reached around 23 or 24 weeks, or somewhat earlier or later in individual cases. The U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion before that point in its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, and after viability when there are risks to the mothers health, broadly defined.

The high Court on December 1 hears a case from Mississippi, which defied the Roe ruling and bars abortions after 15 weeks. A Missouri law, also under court challenge, puts a ban at eight weeks when everything that is present in an adult human is now present in your baby, according to the American Pregnancy Association. The Court temporarily left in place a ban in Texas (likewise in 13 other states) after six weeks, when pulsations can be diagnosed at what eventually becomes the fully formed heart.

Many modern Christians believe that life begins at conception (sperm first meets egg) or implantation (fertilized egg attaches to the mothers womb) while some put the line a bit later at twinning (after which multiple pregnancies do not occur).

Note the brief filed last month in the Mississippi case by pro-choice religions including mainline Protestant churches, non-Orthodox Judaism, Unitarian Universalists, and others. It says numerous religious traditions posit that life begins at some point during pregnancy or even after a child is born. That perhaps refers to the judgment of some Jewish authorities that the baby only becomes a person at birth, though thats different from when life begins.

Pro-choice Supreme Court briefs contend that when life begins is a question of religious belief and therefore not the business of government to determine. That assertion is contested by conservatives such as Catholic author George Weigel, writing for First Things magazine. When human life begins is not a matter of faith; it is a matter of scientific fact, he writes. People believe in the conception line just like they believe that the Earth is spherical, not flat; that Venus is the second planet in the solar system; that a water molecule is composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. . .

Christians like Weigel have a point if biological science determines the question. Its incontestable that at conception, or right afterward at implantation or twinning, a genetically unique entity in the human species exists that will automatically generate continual growth on its own unless abortion or natural miscarriage intervenes.

If so, then the question is not really when does life begin, which is firmly established by science. Rather, the issue religions, judges, politicians and citizens face is when protectible life begins. Does this tiny living organism have any inherent value and right to exist, balanced against the right of the mother to abort? Why or why not, at what stage of pregnancy, under what circumstances, and who decides? That takes us beyond biology to moral decision-making.

On that, the Catholic Church teaches that direct abortion is illicit even if performed to save the mothers life. This is defined in the 1974 Declaration on Procured Abortion from the Vatican doctrinal office, ratified by Pope Paul VI. Even a serious question of health, sometimes of life or death, for the mother can never confer the right to dispose of anothers life, even when that life is only beginning. Pope John Paul II affirmed this in his 1995 encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life).

The U.S. bishops 2001 medical directive notes that the church does not forbid treatments to cure proportionately serious pathological conditions of a pregnant woman that cannot be postponed till birth, even if they will result in the death of the unborn child as a secondary effect.

Among Protestants, however, even conservatives and evangelicals allow abortion to save the mothers life. So do all branches of Judaism. Consider the 2019 policy statement against New York States viability line issued by the Rabbinical Council of America, the largest organization of Orthodox rabbis. It declares that there is no sanction to permit the abortion of a healthy fetus, but if the mothers life is endangered then abortion is allowed, even at a late stage. The healthy adjective indicates that some Orthodox scholars permit abortion of compromised fetuses in extenuating circumstances, and some Protestant denominations agree.

The mothers-life exception has roots thousands of years ago in biblical law (Exodus 21:22-25). This passage concerns a pregnant bystander who is accidentally killed during a fight between two men. If she dies, the punishment for the killer is execution, but if only her unborn child dies a fine is paid. On that basis, Judaisms Mishnah is emphatic that the mothers life takes precedence over the fetuss life in rare cases of conflict.

What does Judaism say about other reasons to abort?The late bioethics specialist David Feldman compiled many rabbinical rulings with varying stands over centuries in Birth Control and Jewish Law (1968). A 2019 article by Rabbi Rachel Mikva of Chicago Theological Seminary summarized much the same about the history that underlies todays Jewish debate between stringent opinions versus lenient interpretations that expand justifications based on a womans well-being.

As Mikva observes, except for the Orthodox, contemporary Jews are reluctant to legislate moral questions for everyone when there is much room for debate, and they take that stance in current Supreme Court briefs.

[Disclosure: The Religion Guy co-authored Aborting America, the autobiography of gynecologist Bernard Nathanson, an atheist at the time, who ran the nations largest abortion clinic but then turned pro-life.]

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Central to the Abortion Debate: When Does Life Begin? - Patheos