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| Volume 4 Number 107 | Mon Jan 30 23:55:08 1995 |
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 13:00:36 -0800 From: Your Moderator <faigin@aero.org> Subject: Introductions: Rabbi Bob Gluck Per our current custom :-), I would like to introduce Rabbi Bob Gluck. Rabbi Gluck writes: I am a writer and musician who serves a small congregation in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. My training is in the Reconstructionist movement, where I have served as a professional prior to moving to my present home. My special areas of interest are Jewish musicology, communal politics, Jewish mysticism, advocacy regarding domestic violence, and in my spare time, I compose electronic music, much of it in the genre of liturgical settings. I am delighted to be newly on-line, having just entered my fortieth year. Regarding your comments on changing this custom... Don't worry, I have received them. I'm saving them in a file, and will summarize the responses in a future issue.
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 09:37:04 -0800 From: Seth A Gordon <sethg@mit.edu> Subject: Beruriah I thought that the story about Beruriah's ignoble end is from Rashi's commentary, not the Gemara itself. Perhaps it says more about Rashi and the culture that he was writing in than it says about Beruriah or Rabbi Meir. ...Seth "going ga-ga over aggada" Gordon <sethg@mit.edu> standard disclaimer
Date: Sun, 22 Jan 1995 22:43:23 -0500 (EST) From: Gedaliah Friedenberg <gedaliah@panix.com> Subject: CFV: soc.culture.jewish.singles Just to let you know, a new USENET newsgroup is under creation called soc.culture.jewish.singles. Obviously, it is a newsgroup for single Jews. If you want to vote, you can read the CFV (Call for Votes) on soc.culture.jewish, or you can just do the following: Send mail to voting@qualcomm.com To vote yes, in the text of the message write: I vote YES on soc.culture.jewish.singles To vote no, in the text of the message write: I vote NO on soc.culture.jewish.singles Easy as that. Gedaliah
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 13:40:49 -0800 From: Gregory Davis <gdavis@isnet.is.wfu.edu> Subject: Electronic antisemitism What can one do about rabid antisemitism on the Net? A list to which I belong, ZIONET, based at McGill in Montreal, has been the victim of a malignant antisemitic person sending dreadful messages to the list. The messages are standard prejudiced trash to a point, but in the latest message, he intimated that he has "arab connections in the chemistry department who know how to make bombs" and in the same breath says, "If I were you, I'd keep my eye on that Jew home on Peel Street." To me, this goes beyond the bounds of free speech, becoming what I would consider terroristic threatening. This person has apparently hacked into others' accounts, sending his messages of hate under other people's names, getting them into trouble. Isn't there someone on the net in Israel (is it Zvi Lando) who monitors this sort of hate and works to get them off the net? On this 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, I wonder if this person purposely chose this time to threaten us. Thanks, and shabbat shalom, Greg [You might try forwarding the information to the Simon Wisenthal Center, simonwie@class.org, as well as to the postmaster of the site from which the hate mail is originating. Be polite in your posting; administrators are often harried and respond to politeness much quicker. You might also know let the administrator know that threats such as this could open the site to legal liability, and you might also pass the information on to your campus police to investigate. If you are in the US, you might also consider reporting the threat to the hate crimes unit of the FBI (I've heard they are online, but I don't have an address. -- Yr. Mod.]
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 09:07:51 -0800 From: lschweit@stu.athabascau.ca (Lawerence D. Schweitz) Subject: Grading Synagogue Attendence I am serving on the communications committe of our synagogue. We recently sent out a membership survey to ask what is needed in our synagogue newsletter. One interesting fact came out of the survey: That 60% of our congregation had addended shul in the past two months. I was wondering: Is this above or below average for attendence? Shalom, Lawerence
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 1995 18:01:14 -0700 From: atholm@tmx.mhs.oz.au (Athol Morris) Subject: Information on Manchester I am the president of the ACT Jewish Community. One of our members is going to take up a position at Manchester University in the UK shortly, and would like information on synagogues - preferably Liberal or Conservative - and most importantly, on accommodation in that town suitable to Jewish life. If anyone knows anything about this, could they please either email Stephen Buetow (sab868@anu.edu.au) or me (atholm@tmx.mhs.oz.au) with this. Stephen is 34, single, and a university research fellow in primary health care. Athol Morris
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 19:21:07 -0800 From: mshulman@ix.netcom.com (Moshe Shulman) Subject: Re: Judaism vs. Christianity gedeon@melbpc.org.au (Gedeon Herschberg) writes: >Your friend believes in every word of the bible literary and so that is the >start. Since that is where the discusion has to commence and end. To me and >others that is ridiculous enough - that every word as written by humans and >repeatedly copied and in fact different in different version - eg Dead Sea >Scrolls as onlt one example - should be the "words" of the creator of the >universe!!! I would suggest that you investigate the latest work by Professor L. Schiffman 'Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls', where he discusses the question of texts and canon. Another good person in this area is Prof. E. Tov. The differences are greatly exxagerated, and generally irrelevant.
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 09:20:23 -0800 From: menken@israel.nysernet.org (Yaakov Menken) Subject: Judaism vs. Christianity gedeon@melbpc.org.au (Gedeon Herschberg) writes > Your friend believes in every word of the bible literary and so that is the > start. Since that is where the discusion has to commence and end. To me and > others that is ridiculous enough - that every word as written by humans and > repeatedly copied and in fact different in different version - eg Dead Sea > Scrolls as onlt one example - should be the "words" of the creator of the > universe!!! I'm afraid that these sort of comments - and their quite literal redicule of Jewish tradition - are much the problem. One detail of the "conversion process" mentioned frequently by Rabbi Singer and others is that a young Jew will often consult his or her Rabbi before making a final decision. Instead of explaining Isaiah, many Rabbis try to sit down and explain their theories as to how Isaiah and other works actually came to be written. Thus the young proselyte, who comes in searching for spirituality and Jewish answers to questions of G-d, leaves knowing quite well that the Rabbi doesn't share those beliefs that his or her great-grandparents once held dear, and which Christian evangelicals believe today. It might be far more productive to leave these theories for later discussion, and deal with the texts themselves - as the People of the Book did back in the days when almost no one conceived of conversion, even under threat of death. {The scrolls, btw, are extremely good evidence for the strength of Jewish tradition. Among others, they show a text of Isaiah that is indeed almost letter for letter with what we have today - only a few hundred years after the Isaiah was written, not to mention its speculated "merger" with Deutero-Isaiah. The scrolls pose far greater troubles for those challenging the authenticity of the works than they do for traditionalists.} Yaakov Menken menken@israel.nysernet.org
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 09:28:49 -0800 From: Arnie Bernstein <ABernst672@aol.com> Subject: New Book: Wonderlands (Blatent Plug Warning) Now--to the heart of my note: This is for posting only if you think it's alright. I don't want to exploit this valuable journal or make any blatent commercial plug BUT.... My first novel--WONDERLANDS--has just been published by Spectrum Press of Chicago, IL. Spectrum is one of several growing numbers of computer disk presses which publishes material ranging from Shakespeare to contemporary novels like mine. The entire novel is contained on a single floppy in either IBM or Mac format. WONDERLANDS deals with--among other things--a Jewish teenager in post-WWII Brooklyn who feels alienated from his Orthodox roots and who seeks solace in the grime of a Times Square freak show. One of the novel's central questions is "what does it mean to be a Chosen Person" and contains many variations on this theme--in Brooklyn, in Times Square and in the aftermath of Auschwitz. WONDERLANDS also has been honored with an award for literary excellence from the Puffin Foundation of Teaneck, NJ. The novel is available for $7.95 through Specpres@AOL.COM. I think "Liberal Judaism's" readers might be interested in my book and I would be happy to do any kind of follow-up E-mail discussions if people were interested. However, if you don't want to use "LJ" as an electronic bazaar where everyone with something to hawk starts flocking to in droves, I'd understand completely. Let me know either way through E-mail! [I have no problem with making people aware of a book with Jewish content, especially if it is from a member of our electronic family and the announcement is short. -- Yr. Mod.] Best-- Arnie Bernstein (ABernst672@AOL)
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 05:38:06 -0800 From: hrubin@stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) Subject: Re: Political Correctness (PC) David Philips <DNPhilips@aol.com> writes: > To me, as Jews we are required to do more than just give money to the poor, > we have an obligation to attack the attitudes that lead to group poverty and > powerlessness in society. Allowing self-labeling is one way to do that. As a thinking Jew, I disagree. We have to attack the attitude which leads to INDIVIDUAL proverty. Nor do I believe in allwoing unlimited group self-labeling. The label must be meaningful to others, and properly descriptive, or it cannot be used. If we Jews insisted on the label "monotheists" as the proper term to distinguish us from essentially all others, this should quite properly NOT be adopted by others, as there are many other monotheists.
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 18:11:15 -0800 From: Seth A Gordon <sethg@mit.edu> Subject: Political Correctness and Lashon Hara See Ruth Perry's essay "A Short History of the Term _Politically Correct_" in Patricia Aufderheide, ed., _Beyond PC: Toward a Politics of Understanding_ (St. Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 1992), pp. 71-79. Seth "hey, hey, ho, ho, boring chants have got to go" Gordon <sethg@mit.edu> standard disclaimer
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 15:12:01 -0800 From: David Philips <DNPhilips@aol.com> Subject: Purim As I have mentioned in a previous post, I find part of the Purim story troublesome. Luckily, I have been give the assignment by our small community to lead the Purim study session, and I thus may be able to work through some of my distress. Can anyone out there provide me with information about the following topics? 1. Bible criticism: In _The Jewish Home_ R. Danny Syme says that many scholars believe the story to be fictional; some believe that the story was invented to "Judaize" pagan carnavals that the common people were celebrating anyway, some that it was written after the Macabean revolt in the flush of victory, and some say it was an adoption of the Marduk (Mordechai) and Ishtar (Esther) myth of Babylonia. Does anyone know more about these assertions, and who these scholars might be? 2. Torah centered: Megillah Esther (Tanach, JPS 1985) says: "the Jews mustered in their cities to attack those who sought their hurt; and no one could withstand them, for the fear of them had fallen upon all the peoples." (9.2) and, after killing Haman's family and 800 others in the city of Shushan, "The rest of the Jews ... likewise mustered and fought for their lives. They disposed of their enemies, killing seveny-five thousand of their foes, but they did not lay hands on the spoil." (9.16) Can anyone comment on a) the translation, b) the reaction of the Rabbis to this aspect of the story through the centuries, and c) whether there are midrashim on this that soften it? It was a bloody era, the time of Xerxes and Artaxerxes, but I can say as a Viet Nam vet who has seen more than his share of bodies, this is a LOT of dead people, one of the bloodiest single days in history (if true). And does anyone else have the feeling that most of those killed were relatively defenseless, or am I reading that in? To me, this is one of the tough questions, a Jewish koan. How does it relate to Baruch Goldstein? How does it relate to the mitzvah of drunkeness on Purim? Can it be seen as something less horrific than the mass slaughter of anti-semites? If not, is it possible to see it as slaughter and still have it bring me closer to G-d and my people? Is Baruch Goldstein's G-d my G-d?
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 20:16:29 -0800 From: Muriel Horowitz <murielh@aol.com> Subject: Rosh Chodesh Group: Building Community Our Rosh Chodesh group is meeting next week (as you can see I'm always last minute). A friend and I are responsible for planning this month. As an outgrowth of last month's discussion, we feel we need to explore building community. Some in our small group (about 8) feel connected to one or more groups in the Jewish comm. Those who have moved here more recently ( 3-6 years ago) feel a real lack of community here. We want to look at what makes a community? What is special about community of women? How can we help our friends feel connected? etc, etc. Specifically, we need to find a story and perhaps a meditation that would help us move in the right direction. Any help would be appreciated either through on the mailing list or to my personally. MurielH@AOL.COM Thanks so much. Also, is there any interest out there for a Rosh Chodesh group forum or mailing list?
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 18:29:26 -0800 From: Michael Robin <mrobin@igc.apc.org> Subject: Shamash Our moderator added the following comment to the announcement about AJCongress Online: > [It should be noted that AJCongress is part of shamash, a project that is > working towards a unified approach for the electronic Jewish > community. M.l-j has been involved with shamsah from the start, back in the > days when it was just israel.nysernet.org. I encourage everyone to support > the Shamash activities. -- Yr. Mod.] How can I receive more information about Shamash activities, its goals and its background? [Drop a note to Avrum Goodblatt, goodblat@shamash.nysernet.org. -- Yr. Mod.]
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 13:34:02 -0800 From: bottero@oce.orst.edu (Joseph Bottero) Subject: The Role of Women in Orthodoxy [Please note: The following article is not saying that the treatment of women is wrong, from the Orthodox point of view. Rather, it is talking about the term used to describe that treatment. -- Yr. Mod.] Moshe Shulman, in his defense of the status of women in Orthodoxy (V4, #104), mounts an argument that reminds us of something we have heard before. One of the most hotly contested issues of the American civil rights struggle was the notion of "separate but equal". In the sphere of civil rights, that notion has been thoroughly discredited. Most of us understand that it is always a dodge, used by one class to preserve special rights at the expense of another class. I would like to suggest that the situation in religion is remarkably similar, and that in religion - and not just Jewish religion - "separate but equal" also is a tainted concept. This is not necessarily an argument against the status of women in Orthodoxy, but we should be clear about the meanings of the terms we use. By no stretch of the imagination can the Orthodox and Traditional movements be termed egalitarian; that they are not is all that was implied in the post that prompted Shulman's reply. My dictionary defines egalitarianism as "a belief in human equality, especially with respect to social, political, and economic rights and priviledges." The extension to Jewish religion is simple and obvious, and involves the equal access of men and women to the rituals, practices, honors and offices of Judaism. Let's get real: worship services conducted entirely by men while the women sit passively behind a screen, are *not* egalitarian. To claim that they are is at best ingenuous. That claim ignores the common, obvious meaning of the word. Shulman's use of circumcision as an example of why the roles of men and women differ is a crude red herring. No one has suggested that Jewish women should be circumcised. However, many Jewish women, many Orthodox women in fact, do wish to participate fully in Jewish life and are not prevented from doing so by any physical or psychological condition of their sex. The implication that to advocate equal participation is "PC" and therefore illegitimate is another red herring. The status of women revolves around a number of well-defined questions that can be argued on their merits. Name-calling misses the point and usually signals that the person wielding that particular axe has no arguments to make. I am not arguing here for or against any particular status for women. That is a different issue. I *am* concerned that we use words appropriately and in line with their common meanings. Orthodox men who wish to claim that they honor women and treat women with consideration and respect are free to do so, although not everyone would agree with them. What they should not do is assert that Orthodox Judaism is egalitarian. It isn't.
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 09:50:42 -0800 From: Seth A Gordon <sethg@mit.edu> Subject: Re: Women and Tallitot in Amsterdam My mind simply boggles that a shul administration can permit women to serve as chazan and *discourage* them from wearing a rectangular piece of cloth with tzitzit, especially if the only justification the board gives for the prohibition is > "no, women wearing a tallith is not the custom so we've got to be careful > not to alienate people." That quote reminds me of the Chatam [sp?] Sofer's comment "_Kol chadash assur min ha-Torah_ [Everything new is forbidden by the Torah]." (The Chatam Sofer was a Hungarian Orthodox rabbi who took a hard line on tradition as a reaction against Reform.) ...Seth "OCRRH reconciliation is closer than I thought" Gordon <sethg@mit.edu> standard disclaimer
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