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

[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.