HEY JEWS

the price is def not the problem. the two hour drive is the bigger obstacle. but we'll see. might be nice to get out of philly for a weekend. are hamilton tickets still impossible to get?

i'm gonna guess yes. and in any case, the price is def the problem there.

That show sounds fkin cool
Signed a goy

Goys welcome

this speech was given by one of my yeshiva rabbis last week. it's v much addressed to the orthodox community and some of the challenges facing it (particularly what is known as the "off the derech" or "off the road" aka "leaving Judaism" crisis and a related drug addiction and overdose crisis). because of that i'm not sure if the language will be a huge barrier to ilx posters (and some of the ways of speaking are not at the level of sophistication, particularly about non-orthodox communities, or sophistication of secular humanism, that ilxors might expect) but i thought it was beautiful and i cried multiple times watching it. the ideas being floated in it are not something that are super prevalent within the orthodox community yet but that's why i went to learn w/ him many years ago - bc i thought he was onto something new about the value and meaning of judaism to people's actual lived lives and relationships. at one pt during the speech there's a gasp bc some of the things he's saying are shocking to hegemonic orthodoxy and someone asks if they can record the lecture. from an anthro-social value alone i think it's worth checking out even if u get nothing else out of it: https://www.theyeshiva.net/item/4151

ive been reading Moses Maimonides "The Guide for the Perplexed" and 45 pages in i am quite enjoying it. how prevalent is the idea that God is incorporeal? it is a point he keeps returning to, indeed it is a major theme of the work, which so far has been tasked with introducing the concept of homonyms and words having multiple, contextual, meanings that tend to be reduced to a literalization.

lol and he keeps making fun of people who think the world is flat. this is in the 12th century!

God being incorporeal is broadly accepted in Judaism I can't think of any serious denomination that contradicts that tenet. Maimonides (aka the Rambam) is probably the most canonical figure in the Jewish world (particularly the Orthodox world) and penned the 13 principles of faith that essentially delineate the borders of traditional Judaism. Guide to the Perplexed is fantastic. You'd probably dig this as well - a letter he wrote about Jewish belief in the resurrection of the dead: http://rambam.merkaz.com/Class%2013%20-%20Letter%20on%20Resurrection.pdf

he was also a physician (and some say advisor) to Sultan Saladin. he lived in Cairo and signed all his letters as (paraphrasing), "The one who is sinning by living in Egypt."

yeah i am loving this book! he is really a brilliant thinker, he seems quite hip to the current scientific theories for so long ago. i really like how he talks about the anthropomorphize-ing that usually takes place wrt God. the idea being that we say "God sees" but it is not the same as saying a person sees. he goes on about the different bodily organs involved in perception and the senses, how this is related to sin, how this must be regulated for the goal of worldly moral perfection. he doesn't go deeply into addiction but at one point he notes often people have a peculiar appetite for a particular sense. on the contrary God needs no bodily organs because creation requires nothing that is outside of him. he is incorporeal where we need an ear to hear and an eye to see. his "sight" is a completely different thing than, humans or animals, who are both material and organ-based.

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/3962/#q=maimonides

incredibly ornate illuminated manuscript version of his "Mishneh Torah". really neat psychedelic doodles all over the place. that site is so cool. they have also an original of the "Guide for the Perlexed".

https://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/features/it-s-an-all-jewish-town-but-no-it-s-not-in-israel-1.25044

my brother went to yeshiva with a kid from azerbaijan

https://kavvanah.wordpress.com/2017/06/04/interview-with-yuval-harari-jewish-magic-before-the-rise-of-kabbalah/

- maybe of interest to some here (adam b?)

that is very cool! i had heard of the Sword of Moses. so neat to see a new translation!

6) Why are you personally interested in magic?

Some ten years ago, when I was sitting in an Oxford coffeehouse and pondering about the book I was about to complete, the following sentence came to my mind: magic is a rather boring matter. I knew immediately that these were going to be its opening words. And indeed, in itself, “magic is a rather boring matter: practical action, supernatural technology. In its simple version, a few words are uttered, some of them meaningless. In more developed versions, some acts are performed and then the words are uttered.”

I’ve studied philosophy, Jewish thought, Early Christianity, Gnosticism, Kabbalah and comparative religion. I encountered profound thinking, ideological systems, myths, ethics and sophisticated means of expression. Magic technology is very far from that. It was like turning to the study of Ritual Engineering. Nevertheless, as I also wrote there, something in it captures the imagination. But there is much more than that.

First, there are people behind the praxis. Magic recipe literature is a broad map of human fears and anxieties, distresses and needs, aspirations and desires. It is a practical literature that, focusing on daily needs of the individual, slips beneath the radar of social supervision and reflects life itself in a fascinating way.

Second, magic is highly democratic. It focuses of the individual and, indifferent to religion, race or gender, takes personal needs of all kinds very seriously. It supports the individual at times of crises and assists him or her in fulfilling personal wishes. Bronislaw Malinowski viewed magic as ritualization of human optimism and I totally agree with him. Belief in magic is an expression of human optimistic decision to act rather than to despair and give up.

Unfortunately, power always involves potential aggression and the promise of magical power also has a destructive facet. Books of magic recipes reflect that facet with instructions of how to harm and abuse the other. Painful as it is, here too magic literature mirrors life itself.

Finally, because of the vague borderline between magic and the power of “true religion,” magic discourse is political by its very nature. It concerns knowledge and power, ideology and hegemony, exclusion and reproduction of social structures. That is true concerning all times – past and present.

I’ve studied philosophy, Jewish thought, Early Christianity, Gnosticism, Kabbalah and comparative religion. I encountered profound thinking, ideological systems, myths, ethics and sophisticated means of expression. Magic technology is very far from that. It was like turning to the study of Ritual Engineering. Nevertheless, as I also wrote there, something in it captures the imagination. But there is much more than that.

this has always bugged me a little. what is he talking about wrt "magic technology"? he says he has studied all of these fields of knowledge that are all about rituals and magic and the secret sophisticated meaning of these perhaps superficially silly myths and yet says magic is "very far" from sophistication. i wonder if it has to do with the writer. he also admits to being an atheist and sort of condescending towards the mystical aspects of those spiritual fields. it is my understanding that "magic technology" in its time was a sort of practical folk craft/conceptual art form/role-playing game that was canonically (through the mystical/esoteric post-Xtian Talmudic commentary) integrated into the theological and philosophical sophistication he praises in the Abrahamic religions.

mostly i don't understand why he can say he has studied the Kabbalah and found it "profound... and sophisticated" and then say that magic, the speaking of magical worlds, is not. it seems like he is holding two conflicting opinions at once. i thought the Kabbalah was all about magical words, didn't he just do a translation of The Sword of Moses? maybe he is talking strictly pagan (folk practices w no references to Abrahamic whatsoever) but he does not specify as such.

i am reading Maimonides right now and he is talking about prophets, how prophecy is closely tied to imagination, that the imagination is an important force that can be hampered during times of depression or emotional turmoil (or helped, as some claim). he talks about there being different levels of prophets, from the miracles-producing saint to the streetside fortune teller, and how Moses is sort of the pinacle of the human prophet, above all others, simply due to his superior nearness to God. my understanding is that classical magic is a holy thing, that everyone from the post-Xtian mystics to medieval cosplay theorists to Golden Dawn hipsters treated it as such, with respect to prior ideological/theological systems, myths, ethics, and sophistication.

magic technology = things like amulets, spells, etc. things meant to accomplish real world tasks (heal illness, help fertility, vex an enemy, etc). by contrast kabbalah and other ideological systems generally do not have any practical element.

well, there's the golem

supposedly created with sefer yetzirah but it's unclear to me to what extent they were extrapolating from mystical concepts to practical magic and to what extent it actually has guidelines for creating a golem. my impression is it's more the former.

by contrast kabbalah and other ideological systems generally do not have any practical element.

this would make sense as the act of Creation occurred through speech alone and required no external elements technology or tools. lol its hard to keep your head wrapped around where the line is wrt what is to be taken literally vs as a framework for theoretical/spiritual/philosophical inquiry. a debate as old as time i suppose. probably best to assume the latter as a baseline though all of these traditions incorporate elements and themes from others so yes it can get messy. if so he's talking more about the daily "get lucky in love and money" potions than the mystical concepts then sure. i think the line can get pretty blurry tho.

yeah well that's what the babylonian bowls were - getting healthy, luck, fertility, removing curses, etc

I'm still upset about how bad the shofar blasting was at the kids' service.

Shana Tova to the Jews if ilx!

Trying to figure out what distinguishes good vs. bad shofaring.

Lol wtf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS-3CQjm_wM

J4J?

Looks like it :/

Has to be. Guy seems like complete ass hat

That's all definitely bad shofarery

dear strangers on the street: stop asking me if i'm jewish plz

When I was a kid, the shofarist was a jazz trumpet player who would circular breathe for the last blast

lots of interesting numbers in here:
http://www.pewforum.org/essay/american-and-israeli-jews-twin-portraits-from-pew-research-center-surveys/

Yes. Israel as red state and US as blue does sorta explain Netenyahu , although it seems a bit simplistic.

In unrelated US news, I feel like ugly Chanukah sweaters, jammies, etc. seem to have taken off as a big deal this year. Saw a pic of a DC rabbi wearing a “challah” sweater, and several college age relatives in Chanukah fashions

One of my favorite things our Rabbi does at services every year is to remind us that "this is your time," and encourage us to let our minds wander, to read and follow along if we want to but not to feel terrible if we take some of these few hours to think about stuff, any stuff, related to the holiday or not. I really like that, it's a nice sentiment. My kids are both well into the age where they're stuck with us, not in any junior congregation, but I'm going to make sure to remind them what a gift it is to spend time in such a solid community, with so many friends, free from distraction.

gmar chasimah tovah!

Hey jews!

I took my daughter to the adult erev rosh hashanah services this year (rather than the shorter family service). The rabbi gave a sermon about recognizing when it was appropriate to embrace anger ... we are a v lefty political congregation :)

Hey Jews!

Hi. They’re asleep. What?

_ One of my favorite things our Rabbi does at services every year is to remind us that "this is your time," and encourage us to let our minds wander, to read and follow along if we want to but not to feel terrible if we take some of these few hours to think about stuff, any stuff, related to the holiday or not_
This is great !

https://www.jweekly.com/2000/05/12/interrupters-linguist-says-it-s-jewish-way/

ok lol

my wife is always getting on me for interrupting and I'm like what

Clash of interrupting vs waiting cultures is a pretty useful paradigm to be conscientious of

so here's a fun thing my fellow ILX Jews will appreciate - at the company xmas dinner/party this year somehow I ended up having to "explain" Judaism to the table I was seated at, ppl were asking me about what you do for Hannukah, what does it commemorate, oh it's not such a big holiday? well what are the major holidays? Yom Kippur? What's that? Passover? how does that work? what do you mean the Last Supper was a seder, I thought that was a Christian thing? Wait, Jesus was a JEW?

*sigh*

my wife got very visibly irritated and was like "let me google this for you"

…adults?

Though that puts me in mind of Twain, “properly speaking the Jew ought never to have been heard of” or whatever

…adults?

yes. in their 60s.

If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one per cent. of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star-dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of.

can't entirely disagree with his stats there, but surely our longevity counts for something

That’s where he ends up

He has made a marvellous fight in this world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished.

The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?

brisket iirc