Jewish links, assortment

[chanaleh]

I swear, someday soon I will write more actual content, but probably not until such time as I have functioning internets in my house. (Rather, it appears the internets themselves are functioning, but my new wireless card is not. Well, cycon is supposed to come to my rescue for a bit tonight, so we'll see if that helps!) But in the meantime, anyway...

Quick PSA that Honorable Menschen's next FREE Friends & Family concert is scheduled for Sunday afternoon, Dec. 13, 5pm at tremontstshul. (If you want an email reminder, sign up for our mailing list! :-) One of the new songs we're working on is "Reiach Tapuach", which I am totally loving; it's in 7/8 -- at least our arrangement is -- and the text, although modern, plays strongly on the language and imagery of Song of Songs. Yeah.

I happened to stumble across a new site called Tablet Magazine, subtitled (or sloganed) "A New Read on Jewish Life". Here's a sample article that caught my fancy: "A People Obsessed: Jews, geeks, and a haftorah of repetition and reason":
"Getting ready for Halloween, searching for an extra-large Ghostbuster outfit and something that could pass for a realistic proton pack, I found myself thinking about how the two major components of my identity -- Jew and nerd -- fit into remarkably similar patterns. For starters, both groups spend an inordinate amount of time picking apart canonical texts..."
http://www.tabletmag.com/life-and-religion/19519/a-people-obsessed/

"The Jewish Way to Party": sources on drinking and gladness (don't ask why I was looking this up, but I'm sure it had to do with some concept I want to write about myself at a later date):
http://www.templeohebshalom.org/ser67.htm

Apparently the roster of Jewish congregations in Cambridge also includes a Humanistic one: Kahal B'raira. Among the offerings on their website is a list of blessings with the concept of God taken out. I... just... eek. I am all for the notion of appreciation/reverence for mystery even after one rejects the existence of a sentient divinity, but... it pains me. Hmmm.

I think I'll stick with this model: The Say-A-Blessing Keychain!
http://www.popjudaica.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=25&zenid=a76227d180d313adb203c77340ad8c6e

Comments

[gmpe.livejournal.com]

While I don't ever follow ALL of them, I just wanted to say thanks for all the links. You manage to find lots of things I am interested in, but wouldn't (have time to) find on my own. Thank you for enriching my world.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Aw! That's so nice. :-) Yeah, I do a lot of web research in the course of my actual work, so I end up stumbling on neat things.

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

Tablet magazine is what Nextbook renamed its periodical (formerly known as Nextbook) now that it has become a cultural umbrella organization/holding company.

The Humanistic blessings raise interesting questions. In the absence of a deity what does the word "blessed" or a notion of the sacred mean? Is "Blessed is the light in each of us" an indirect reference to a deity? I'm not surprised that atheists and agnostics want to employ the transformative power of ritual, the utility of which Jay Michaelson discussed in a Forward article (http://www.forward.com/articles/104833/) last spring.

[tapuz.livejournal.com]

Tablet magazine is what Nextbook renamed its periodical (formerly known as Nextbook) now that it has become a cultural umbrella organization/holding company.

aha, thanks

off to update the bookmarks....

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Awesome article! I am a total fan of Jay Michaelson. :-)

It's a very good question what "blessed" and sacred mean to a Humanist... not sure if it is a question I personally need to spend time and energy exploring (when I don't really have the necessary internal framework to make sense out of it), but it's tempting at moments like these.

[eudociainboston.livejournal.com]

Is the family and friends concert kid-friendly (as kids are ok and taking a kid out if the kid needs out is ok)?

You find so many interesting links- thank you because I would not know where to begin looking.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Ah! Yes! In fact, there will be a shul family program immediately prior to the concert (starting at 3pm I think), which you guys might be interested in if not otherwise booked for the afternoon. But for the concert itself, yes, kids are welcome, and coming and going as needed during the performance will be fine (it'll be held in the sanctuary).

Also, nice icon :-)

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

I've gone to a humanistic shabbes service once. It was so painful that I was grateful that it was exceedingly short - I had a chance to pop over to another congregation's service afterwards and get the induced ick out of my system.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Huh. :-) That reminds me of two experiences I've had, though neither merited quite as drastic a reaction. One was a Reconstructionist High Holiday service in college (attending with struct), where they introduced all these changes to the liturgy and explained them as "Well, we [enlightened moderns] don't believe this, so we changed it to that..." and I was all "DON'T YOU BE TELLING ME WHAT I DON'T BELIEVE!".

The other was at Havurat Shalom several years ago with their homegrown gender-neutralized prayerbook; in practice, this (at least in my memory) meant that they shifted between the masculine and the feminine -- which in Hebrew of course affects not just nouns but verbs and adjectives -- pretty much at random, even within the same sentence. Ow ow ow ow. I know it's a nice progressive earthy-crunchy community and all (and, too bad, RIGHT by my new house!), but I haven't been back since.

I'm pretty deeply traditional in my liturgical preferences. :-)

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

Me too.

I'm actually rather fond of my local Reconstructionists, because they are a pleasant small congregation, they are all about the singing, and they have a good feel and energy to them. Except, I have reached the point where I can't quite stand the changes that reconstructionists as a movement make to the text. So while they are perfectly cool with one reciting the traditional while they do their thing, it got old being the only one who did. (Unfortunately, there isn't much else in the vicinity, I quite dislike my local Conservatives, and therefore basically don't have anyplace to go.)

[besamim.livejournal.com]

The former official CCAR prayerbook, Gates of Prayer, had amongst its ten options for Kabbalat/Erev Shabbat services an "equivocal" service, in which the Hebrew was unchanged (well, in the sense of being the same Hebrew as in the other services), but the English paraphrases (not "translations" as such) avoided use of terms like "God," "Lord," "King," in favour of such words as "Source" and "Will," and (as in other, more avowedly humanistic Jewish liturgies) avoidance of addressing God in the second person.

See also Marcia Falk's The Book of Blessings, although I don't believe she considers herself a practitioner of "humanistic" Judaism; rather, her similar reformulations (in both Hebrew and English) stem from her belief in divinity as wholly immanent, not transcendent.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

I don't think I could have, offhand, explained the difference between immanence and transcendence. :-} Woe for my liberal arts education!!

I encourage all interested readers to peruse Wikipedia on same. It is an, you should pardon the expression, enlightening read.

[muffyjo]

Oh, I thank you SO MUCH for the link to popjudica.com. You've just helped me finish my Chaunukah shopping! AND if you subscribe to their newsletter, you get a $5 off coupon for your first purchase after that. (Of course, I am feeling very clever for having figured that out before I made my first purchase altogether! And I know the recipients will be proud of me, too!)

I will have you know it was with great restraint that I did NOT get the dog yarmulke and shawl for a dear friend of mine.

[lonebear.livejournal.com]

Thank GOD I haven't had the misfortune to go the christian service Humanistic service. I can't call it Judaism as the only referent I have to Judaism has God as a fully integral part.

And this from a non-practicing Orthodox Jew.

P.S. Almost finished a Tefillin bag for my father's 70th birthday:

http://rosemary.craftborg.com/2007/08/02/hp-house-fair-isle-pouch-bags/ in Ravenclaw.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

As someone who is probably closest in views to the Humanistic Judaism side of things, please to not be calling people like me Christians. I am NOT a Christian and never will be.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Yyyyeah. "Christian" is far from synonymous with "not Jewish". Even when you want to make a point of asserting that Humanistic Judaism != Judaism in a religious sense... calling it "Christian" makes it smack to me of avodah zarah, whereas this contrast is sort of at the opposite end of the spectrum!

[lonebear.livejournal.com]

apologies.

It will not change my views, I just will cease posting any of them.

[besamim.livejournal.com]

I don't believe hammercock is asking you to do a turnaround and accept Humanistic Judaism as valid. What she is asking is that you not call it something it is not. Think of it from the other side of the coin: would a believing Christian think it accurate to be labelled a "secular humanist?"

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. I mean, I do have some hot buttons about this kind of judgment, admittedly, and I will not go on about them here, but right now I'm simply asking not to be mislabeled. It's not unlike equating pagans with Satanists, for instance. Whatever you think of either group, it is grossly inaccurate to draw the equivalence.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

Hate to say it, but much as Humanism is not my cuppa, you're doing it an injustice.

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

I has ded internets too. Ethernet works fine, wireless duz not. V boring.

[cycon.livejournal.com]

Sorry I couldn't get it working last night. (Though I still grin in recollection of the "extension cord" :P) It may very well be time to get that tech back in.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

You know, of course, I FOUND the ACTUAL extension cord this morning! it was buried inside another bag in another box from last weekend! Graaah.

But yes, I will call the tech for advice. At least maybe he can tell me how to re-derive the "encryption key".