"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx
Special thanks to Ric Knight for the CSS tips. Go check out his blog at http://ricthoughts.blogspot.com, you’ll be glad you did.
On a side note, I am busy working on tweaking the blog so it may take some time for things to look “right” but they will get there.
Since I switched to Firefox there have been a couple of weird glitches, one is for some reason it appears that the font size has shrunk. I am not sure why, but I am working on it.
If you are proficient at coding and want to offer your help it will be gratefully accepted. In the interim I need to eat breakfast.
Which Extremity of the World Are You?
YOU ARE THE NILE
At 4145 miles from your furthest extremity to the Mediterranean Sea, you outdo the Amazon to become the world’s longest river. The piranhas hate you.
Beneath you lies an underground river with six times your volume. You kept this remarkably quiet for several thousand years. In fact, you’re full of mystery; your source wasn’t discovered until 1862. You’re also full of water. And crocodiles. And nuclear pharaoh machines that run on light and can see through time.
This is a topic that has been addressed a thousand times and in a thousand different ways. What can we do to improve the education of Jewish children. I would change the focus to read more along the lines of what can we do to improve Jewish education.
One of the key problems is that there is a lack of understanding/consensus on what the ultimate goal of being Jewish is. It may sound foolish, it may seem silly, but I submit that this is a question that many cannot answer. Here are several things that need to be addressed.
Why be Jewish?
What is the goal of being Jewish?
What does it take and mean to be a good Jew?
There are more questions that can be raised, but this is a good start. I would argue that if you want committed Jews who are interested in a future and continuing Judaism you need to be able to answer these questions.
I would also add that there need not be one answer to these questions, there can be many. That does not mean that there are not some central core beliefs that must be adhered to be a Jew, obviously there are, but that is a discussion for a later date.
On a side note I should mention that posts like this are best started when I have more time to write and am not limited by repeated calls to dinner. In the interest of Shalom Bayit I must run for now.
Good Shabbos to all.
My son and I dared to challenge the hordes at the mall on this Black Friday. We went to a local stop in Sherman Oaks that I knew would be crowded, but not oppressive. I had a couple of items that I wanted to check on, but did not need to do any real shopping.
While I was waltzing through the mall we encountered numerous examples of what I dislike about the holiday season.
Frankly as a Jewish person I find the crush of Christmas music/decorations to be rather oppressive. The commercial aspect just drowns out any religious compoent, or so it seems to me. If that holiday was a part of my faith I would be offended at the influence of money upon the holiday.
And to that end I really dislike any attempt to equate Chanukah as being the Jewish version of Christmas. They are not equivalent and shouldn’t be drawn that way.
I also have a problem with the push to be nicer and more charitable because it is part of the holiday spirit. What it says to me is that it is only important to act like this for about 45 days a year. In other words members of the disenfranchised groups only have a small window in which it is meaningful to demonstrate concern about their welfare.
It is the same perverse logic surrounding Valentine’s day, which is in large part why I refuse to observe the day. You can expect commentary about that false holiday closer to mid-February.
The bottom line to me is that it is wrong and disingenuous to suggest that we should be better people for a short time each year. The ideals that we see people preach during this time of year are things that should be expressed with the same fervor all year long.
No really, it will resume. Been bored with some of it so I haven’t done it recently.