Marital habits of Jewish forefathers
2009-07-30 09:23:00 The first head-count of Hebrews in the Sinai shows 603,550 males older than twenty. Empirical demography suggests that at least one-third of the population was younger than twenty. The total number of Hebrew males (excluding Levites) was close to one million. On that background, the firstborns were only 22,273. How come? The average family, it follows, ...
By: Samson Blinded
Real militant Judaism
2009-07-02 09:29:00 It is unnecessary to insist that God revealed the entire Torah word-for-word. Good enough if we accept the divine origin of the commandments and agree that priests considerably adapted the law to changing circumstances, just like the Talmudic rabbis did a thousand years later. We cannot stop working on the Sabbath: power stations, police, air ...
By: Samson Blinded
A club of club-wielding Jews
2009-06-01 09:00:00 Absence of riches is not poverty, and absence of arrogance is not humility. One need not be humble in order to avoid arrogance. Self-respect is a positive attitude. Rabbis emphasized humility for a reason: stiff-necked Jews could be extinguished. Given the weakness of Jews compared to the imperial powers and the host nations of the Diaspora, ...
By: Samson Blinded
Politics of religion
2009-05-11 09:45:00 I have reservations about the Trinity, but so did many early Christians, and the concept is lacking in the synoptic gospels. When Jews adorn Torah scrolls with silver crowns, I?m not in a position to criticize portraits of God in Christian cathedrals. In the synoptic gospels, Jesus hardly said anything contrary to Judaism. His Sermon on ...
By: Samson Blinded
Yes, we?re chosen
2009-05-08 09:35:00 The Jews’ status as chosen people is politically incorrect. The concept is not racist: unlike the black/white skin-color distinction, anyone can join the chosen people by converting properly. The concept, however, is insulting: any Jew is chosen from birth, automatically, while Gentiles have to undergo a very hard conversion. It is of no sense to ...
By: Samson Blinded
The goodness of evil
2009-04-12 10:58:00 Hebrew word for ?neighbor? is a cognate of ?evil?. That puzzling relationship is the quintessence of social order: communities are created for doing evil to outsiders and defending against the evil attempted by outsiders. Communal action is generally evil. Even defense of goodness is clothed in evil: the Russian army in WWII defeated a great ...
By: Samson Blinded
Jewish religious nationalism
2009-03-25 10:27:00 Is there a reason for secular Jews to attach themselves to Jewish people? No reason at all. There is no reason to be Jewish other than being religious. On the contrary, one first becomes religious, and consequentially associates with Jews. And just how one becomes religious? By realizing the improbability of the wondrous human ...
By: Samson Blinded
War, our style
2009-03-23 13:37:00 “When you go to war against your enemies..” Just as they would have no mercy upon you, you should have no mercy upon them. When the UN launched investigation of the IDF bombing UNRWA installations in Gaza, what should have been Israeli response? None. Let the barbarians investigate anything they like; good for them they learned ...
By: Samson Blinded
Facts of Purim
2009-03-09 11:07:00 Like every Jewish historic festival, Purim is a rather blood-thirsty celebration. On Pesach, God made himself known to Israelites specifically by wholesale killing of the Egyptians (Exodus 7:5, 14:17). Jews also were less than politically correct then: the only time the Torah applies the word neighbor to our opponents is when we borrowed jewelry from ...
By: Samson Blinded
Sathya Sai prophesied as ?king of the world? from 2000
2008-12-18 12:09:00 Prophecies supposedly made before Sathya Sai Baba’s birth (as early as sage Brighu around 3000BC) have been promotes as true on a large scale for decades in books and now web pages. None which name him became public until AFTER the points mentioned in it were very well known in India at least, such as ...
The phoenix of Judaism
2008-11-30 16:24:00 In Holocaust, God did not exterminate only the Jews, but the Judaism of Exile, a religion removed from daily realities. When the Jews went into the Exile, sages instituted a fence around the law, the extra-Biblical body of laws designed to safeguard the commandments. Such a necessity became moot with the establishment of Jewish state. ...
By: Samson Blinded
God is merciful?
2008-11-27 16:20:00 Rabbinical commentators have long struggled with the paradox of Jews obligated to fear and love God simultaneously. An obvious scholastic explanation is that Jews fear some aspects of God, and love the other. That?s, of course, implausible, impractical, and hinges on polytheism. We observe multiple manifestations of God, but relate to him strictly as One. ...
By: Samson Blinded
Love is not divine
2008-11-19 16:05:00 I don?t love God. I accept his existence, recognize his omnipotence, respect him ? but not love. Indeed, I find it obscene that Jews express their love of God shortly after he presided over the unimaginably brutal annihilation of the seven million of us. Our Sabbath praises of the one who watched unmoved ...
By: Samson Blinded
The punishment of caret
2008-11-16 15:57:00 Rabbis assert that they dispersed justice in Sanhedrin while the Temple stood. It would be odd if the rabbinical Sanhedrin sat in the Temple controlled by Sadducees who derided all the rabbinical concepts. After bar Kochba?s revolt, Jews lost jurisdiction over criminal matters. By some accounts, Jerusalemites lacked the power of capital punishment still a century ...
By: Samson Blinded
Musings on Dual Loyalty, Judaism as Zionism, and Anti-Semitism
2008-11-10 12:17:00 The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.Always-perceptive commenter James Schipper makes some astute, terse and cut to the chase comments on my post, The "New Anti-Semitism". In it, he moves beyond the typically vulgar anti-Semitism that much modern anti-Zionism descends into and offers a perfectly logical explanation for the dual loyalty accusation leveled at Jews.He also brings up some very difficult questions about the differences between Judaism and Zionism and whether there is really any difference at all.Schipper: If criticism of Israel = anti-Zionism = anti-Semitism, then we should be proud to call ourselves anti-Semites.What is really wrong with Israel? It is not such a bad country for Jews, or even for the Arabs in Israel proper. I would rather be a Jew in Israel than an Arab in any Arab country. Israel was born in sin, but so was every country in the Western hemisphere. I...
By: Robert Lindsay
Jewish fundamentalism
2008-10-21 09:48:00 Jewish fundamentalism should be just that, a return to the fundamentals. Not the Reconstructionist creative reworking of the commandments to suit the today?s preferences. Not the Reformist wholesale abrogation of the commandments. Not the rabbinical substitution of wise and arcane for the divine. Karaites were initially close to the mark, but eventually developed a body ...
By: Samson Blinded
Judaism is reasonable
2008-10-17 09:45:00 Judaism is forthcoming on moral issues, never attempting to change the human mentality. Israeli debate about legalizing prostitution is ridiculous: patriarch Judah used Tamar?s services, taking her for a prostitute. The Torah carefully prohibits Jews to give out their daughters for prostitution, but to have foreign prostitutes. Jews are barred from running after foreign women, ...
By: Samson Blinded
The Institute on Religion and Public Policy
2008-08-07 04:38:00 Joseph Griebowski is one odd fellow. He's head of a very strange organization called Institute on Religion and Public Policy. It will be discussed in an upcoming post. Griebowski himself is some sort of a hardline Zionist. He's also a weird, Strangeglovian-looking character. It's apparently got some kind of big neoconservative and possibly Jewish money behind it.He goes up on Capital Hill and travels all over the world agitating for "religious freedom", generally in lands that are being targeted by the neocons and International Zionism. He's also apparently waging US imperialism's war of words with China. His specialty is humanitarian intervention bullshit as my commenters have been discussing lately. His particular angle is "religious freedom".If your country is not allowing enough religious freedom (which, frankly, is none of our Goddamned business) then he's going to wage fake human rights war on you in service of International Zionism or US imperialism. Lately his targets ...
By: Robert Lindsay
Revenge is better when nuclear
2008-07-24 18:49:00 ?Then the moon [the White One] shall be confounded, and the sun [the Hot One] ashamed; for the LORD of hosts will reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem.? Isaiah 24:23 Many people misunderstand the commandment that children are not responsible for their parents? guilt, and vice versa. If taken at the face value, the commandment ...
By: Samson Blinded
Religion is rational
2008-07-20 16:45:00 Many right-wing Jews, who are now deeply religious, started as atheists. I?m not even talking of those Russian Jews who have a typically Slavic urge for a higher idea. Zealous communists before, they became equally zealous believers now. Jewish patriots seek a firm ground for their ideology, thus Avraham Stern embraced Judaism. Those who didn?t, left ...
By: Samson Blinded
Blood infusion in Judaism
2008-06-26 02:40:00 Jewish ultra-Orthodox concern with blood infusions is in part superfluous. Jews are enjoined against consuming animal blood, ?for its soul is in its blood.? Soul, however, can be only in a single place at a time, and it?s either in the animal or in its blood. The commandment, therefore, only deals with slain animals and ...
By: Samson Blinded
The light against reason
2008-06-22 10:45:00 In recent years, anti-Semites around the world stepped up their attempts at banning Jewish religious books. A number of criminal complaints has been filed alleging racist incitement, notably in Russia. Rabbis seem to recognize that side of our books, as during the Knesset debate on anti-racism law designed to ban the Kach Party, religious parties ...
By: Samson Blinded
The usual apocalypse
2008-06-20 01:48:00 Ignorant Jews claim the Holocaust?s uniqueness. By various estimates, it devoured about a third of the world?s Jewry, including many Christianized Jews, whether formally converted or assimilated into the Christian culture. We have experienced similar catastrophes at least thrice: in the Babylonian onslaught, the Judean War and Bar Kochba Revolt, and the century leading to ...
By: Samson Blinded
Israel? Gaza Invasion Or Peace?
2008-06-08 09:02:00 During the past few years, Israel and the United States have jointly pursued a policy of non-engagement with Hamas. The result of this foreign policy approach bears scant evidence of success. The Israel government is presently confronting a situation in which it could invade Gaza or whether it could risk accepting Egypt’s offer of a ...
Honesty cannot be reformed
2008-06-05 10:29:00 Jewish reformism is not bad per se. Orthodox Jews were the biggest reformers in their time: they have substituted rabbinical Judaism for the Temple-based, land-centered religion. The amount and severity of changes introduced by Pharisaic rabbis pales the current reformist attempts. There is, however, a critical difference between the Orthodox and reformist approaches, namely honesty. ...
By: Samson Blinded
Israel Jerusalem Housing Upsets Egypt
2008-06-04 09:47:00 Over thirty years ago, Israel began to construct housing on the West Bank using the argument such housing units were necessary to assist in the defence of the nation. As the years have passed, Israel West Bank settlers have grown from a few hundred to a few thousand and now over 300,000 creating a formidable ...
Threats And Warnings From Israel And Iran
2008-06-03 15:30:00 Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni warned that although no final decision has been taken by her nation’s leaders about the threat from iran, their eventually will be a final resolution of how to deal with that country. “Iran needs to understand that the threat of military action exists and has not been taken off the ...
Torah Judaism, Homosexuality, and Gay Marriage
2008-06-02 17:23:00 The Torah does not like gays. For some Jews, this is not a difficult challenge to overcome. The Torah may have been inspired by God, but it was written by men. Its intolerance toward homosexuals can be written off as the outdated bigotry of a bygone age. For others, it is not a challenge at all. The ...
By: Jewneric
German Agent Brokers Mideast Peace
2008-06-02 09:03:00 A member of the German intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst(BND) has been responsible for brokering an exchange deal between Israel and Hezbollah on behalf of the United Nations. He has now enabled development of an official proposal which is on the table and the Israeli government will shortly decide whether or not to accept it. Gerhard ...
Shamanic Judaism, 2nd Video On Double Portions
2008-06-01 17:58:00 ?'? ????? ???"?Mab 28Oops? I posted the first shamanic Judaism video twice (a double portion) the first time (correct now). The second video (part 3) is now available for viewing here or here or here. Take another look ... and hear more of the story.
By: Walking On Fire
Shamanic Judaism
2008-06-01 00:05:00 ?'? ????? ???"?Mab 27Hat tip to Asherah's Place for posting links to two available YouTube (of three) videos featuring topics related to earth-based Shamanic Judaism. The teacher in the videos is Rabbi Gershon Winkler of the Walking Stick Foundation.Part 2Part 3I want to make a drum like the one in the videos.
By: Walking On Fire
Bishop Tutu Urges Palestinian-Israel Peace
2008-05-31 09:17:00 Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu spent several days in Gaza exploring conditions and seeking to find a way that would bring together Palestinians and Israelis. The South African cleric, heading a team of UN human rights observers, gathered stories from Gazans about Israel attacks that had killed civilians, including many children. Tutu said the ...
Modern Judaism: An Oxford Guide (Oxford Guides)
2008-05-31 01:35:00 Modern Judaism: An Oxford Guide (Oxford Guides)# Author: Nicolas de Lange , Miri Freud-Kandel# Format:PDF 1.3MB# Page Count: 472 pages# Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (March 17, 2005)# Language: English# ISBN-10: 019926287X# ISBN-13: 978-0199262878A comprehensive, multi-disciplinary, multi-authored guide to contemporary Jewish life and thought, focusing on social, cultural and historical aspects of Judaism alongside theological issues. This volume includes 38 newly-commissioned essays, including contributions from leading specialistsin their fields. This book covers the major areas of thought in contemporary Jewish Studies, including considerations of religious differences, sociological, philosophical, and gender issues, geographical diversity, inter-faith relations, and the impact of the Shoah and the modern state of Israel.Readership: Suitable for all undergraduate students studying Modern Judaism. Also for the general reader looking for a comprehensive guide to Modern Ju...
Some Progress In Syria-Israel Talks
2008-05-30 15:25:00 In the latest rounds of unofficial discussions between Israel and Syria there are reports of some slight progress in resolving issues between the nations. A Syrain official who is close to the negotiations said that issues were being discussed along genral lines in preparation for future talks which hopefully would get down to specific ...
From Orthodoxy to fundamentalism
2008-05-29 09:44:00 The current Judaism is an aberration. Rabbis introduced its most prominent concept, that of the fence around the law, when Jews went into the Exile. The gentile influence suddenly became great, the option of purifying oneself in the Temple was absent, and so the rabbis developed an immense body of legislation to protect against inadvertent ...
By: Samson Blinded
Hamas Makes Threats As Israel-Syria Talk
2008-05-24 14:28:00 Israeli and Syrian leaders are discussing possible peace, but the leader of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, made clear his organization’s refusal to compromise on certain key points and the need to end the Gaza blockade. “If the international community and the concerned parties don’t take the initiative and break the siege, we will break it ourselves. ...
Britain?s Jewish Population Rises In Turnabout
2008-05-20 14:50:00 At the end of World war II in 1945, the Jewish population of Great Britan numbered about 450,000 people but today it has declined to about 280,000. The decline is most probably attributed to several factors such as a lower birth rate among those with higher incomes, the departure of some British Jews ...
No Talk, Time For Action, Says Olmert
2008-05-11 15:33:00 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made clear he is not going to discuss issues with Hamas, but will put an end to the Gaza rocket attacks through some form of military action. “Let it be clear,” he told the Israel Cabinet, “we view Hamas as completely responsible for everything that happens in the Gaza Strip. ...
Israel Independence Day And Palestinian Rights
2008-05-09 18:47:00 Israel is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its establishment as an independent nation. There are parades, speeches and parties as Israeli citizens continue marvel the nation has remained intact despite wars and conflicts. On the same day an alternative “celebration” was being held by Palestinians who regard the birth of Israel as a sad event ...
Palestinian Leaders Charge Olmert With Lying
2008-05-09 15:17:00 Prme Minister Ehud Olmert is facing criminal charges for supposedly accepting money from businessmen, but he is also under attack from another source as Palestinian Authority officials blast his latest comments as deliberate distortion of what is taking place in negotiations. Palestinians leaders are upset at the recent comment by Olmert that “significant progress” has ...
Israel West Bank Settlements Subvert Peace Process
2008-05-06 15:02:00 The continuing saga of Israeli’s subversion of the peace process by constructing new housing settlements on the West Bank porceeds without any serious effort to halt this effort to hamper achievement of peace with Palestinians. The ultra-Orthodox settlement of Modi’in Illit in the West Bank will most probably be granted city status even though council ...
Cease Fire In Gaza?
2008-05-05 14:49:00 The struggle to establish a modicum of peace in Gaza continued as there were hopeful signs Israel was prepared to accept the cease fire agreement hammered out by Egypt with Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza. Reports indicate Israel will give an “unofficial” acceptance of the agreement only after Palestinian factions announce they will ...
Chickens Come Home To Roost To Muslim/Jewish Dismay
2008-05-05 09:08:00 The decision by the European Union to allow pig remains to be used to fed poltry has sparked an uproar of anger among Jewish and Muslim citizens of the EU. Both religious and animal rights activists argue the change would place families at risk, offend religious sensibilities, and lead to a major consumer backlash. There ...
Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism
2008-05-03 18:05:00 Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism # Author:Howard Schwartz# Format:PDF 3.6MB# Page Count:708# Publisher: Oxford University Press (2004)# Language: English# ISBN-10: 0195086791# ISBN-13: 9780195086799Only one of the world's mythologies has remained essentially unrecognized--the mythology of Judaism. As Howard Schwartz reveals in Tree of Souls, the first anthology of Jewish mythology in English, this mythical tradition is as rich and as fascinating as any in the world.Drawing from the Bible, the Pseudepigrapha, the Talmud and Midrash, the kabbalistic literature, medieval folklore, Hasidic texts, and oral lore collected in the modern era, Schwartz has gathered together nearly 700 of the key Jewish myths. The myths themselves are marvelous. We read of Adam's diamond and the Land of Eretz (where it is always dark), the fall of Lucifer and the quarrel of the sun and the moon, the Treasury of Souls and the Divine Chariot. We discover new tales about the great figures of the Hebrew ...
Need For New Gaza Solution Urge Nations
2008-05-03 14:52:00 The Quartet for Middle East peace issued a statement urging all parties to explore the need for a “new approach” to dealing with the ever increasing tragedy of Gaza. The blockade initiated by Israel was intended to create such bad living conditions that Gazans would turn away from Hamas and seek assistance of the Palestinian ...
Rabbinical Wars Rage In Israel Over Conversions
2008-05-02 17:09:00 In an unecedented decision, the High Rabbinical Court of Israel has declared invalid all conversions performced since 1999 by Rabbi Haim Drukman, the head of the Conveersion Authority. The issue arose when the Ashdod’s Regional Rabbinical Court, declared invalid a conversion by a woman, a decison supported by the High Rabinnical Court. They also said ...
Gaza-A Bomb Waiting To Go Off!
2008-05-01 09:00:00 John Ging, Gaza head of the UN Relief and Works Agency, is warning that Gaza is on the verge of an explosion of anger that will result in violence and destruction. Ging describes humanitarian conditions as “shocking” and “shameful” because of the lack of basic supplies. Since Hamas assumed control of the Strip, Israel is ...
Islamic Jihad-Cease Fire Possible
2008-04-30 15:41:00 The Islamic Jihad expressed a willingness to accept an Egyptian-mediated cease-fire in the Gaza Strip on the condition there would be “removal of the siege on the Palestinian people and the opening of the crossings” on the Gaza border. Ziad al-Nahia said he would accept the deal because it would benefit the Palestinian population. The ...
Israel Foreign Minister Unaware Silence Is Golden!
2008-04-29 16:32:00 The conduct of foreign policy is best achieved by quiet diplomacy and avoidance of making public comments concerning those with whom one must negotiate. Israel Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will be meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abdul Ghit this week to patch up their relationship which has been impacted by comments that were ...
Syria Hedges On Peace Talks With Israel
2008-04-27 18:44:00 Syria termed a willingness on the part of Israel tocede the Golan Heights was not sufficint to achieve peace with its northern neighbor. Turkey has offered to oversee negotiations between the two nations, but Syria wants the United States to be directly be inolved in any peace negotiations. Syrian President Bashar Assad made clear he ... |
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