RabbiO

As the holiest day in the Jewish calendar approaches, sanctified further as it comes on Shabbat, I pray that we are all sealed for only good in this still bright with promise new year. גמר חתימה טובה

שנה טובה ומתוקה To a new year filled with sweetness and that which is good. To a new year filled with blessings and joy. To a new year filled with wholeness. To a new year filled with love and with peace.

As a Jew I have a certain admiration for the late Hyam Maccoby - and in The Mythmaker he raises some issues well worth considering, as he does in the other books he wrote regarding regarding the origins and early period of Christianity. Hpwever, in each of the books he demonstrates the same weakness for speculation delivered as fact with little support for his speculation. Furthermore, as a non-Orthodox rabbi, I believe that Maccoby sees continuities in the development of Judaism and its sacred literature that are not there. I would not dissuade anyone from reading Maccoby, but I would not read Maccoby alone under the assumption that what he presents is, you should pardon the term, gospel.

Pete, May I commend a book to your attention which you, Fawzo and others might find interesting - The Reluctant Parting: How The New Testament's Jewish Writers Created A Christian Book by Julie Galambush. It came out 7 or 8 years ago and I suspect it is still in print. Dr. Galambush, who is a professor of religion at one of the jewels of American higher education, The College of William and Mary, brings a unique perspective to her work. She is a Jewish scholar who prior to her conversion to Judaism was a Baptist minister.

May you and your wife be blessed with strength. May your wife be blessed with refuah shlaymah - the wholeness of healing, the healing of wholeness.

On the other side of Shabbat, we'll get back into this thing, back to the tree and its fruit, back to the snake and Eve, back to just what the heck did G-d mean when Adam was told that if he ate the fruit of the tree that "dying you shall die", which is what the Hebrew literally says, and the punishment meted out to Adam and Eve. Just in passing I will remind you that the fruit of the tree did not impart knowledge as to the difference between good and evil. I have previously discussed that elsewhere on the forum.

The sages of Israel taught that the Torah has seventy faces. Seventy is a number that stands for infinity. In other words there are often a myriad of ways to validly interpret a particular passage. I have pointed out before that there is a midrash in the Talmud regarding a dispute between the disciples of Shammai and the disciples of Hillel regarding interpretation. The argument spanned three years without either side conceeding. Finally the argument came to an end when a voice from heaven declared, אלו ואלו דברי אלוהים חיים Eilu v'eilu divrai elohim chaim. Both this and this are the words of the living G-d.

wizen (v.) Old English wisnian, weosnian "to wither," cognate with Old Norse visna, Old High German wesanen "to dry up, shrivel, wither;" German verwesen "to decay, rot." Related: Wizened. wizard (n.) mid-15c., "philosopher, sage," from Middle English wys "wise" witch (n.) Old English wicce "female magician, sorceress," fem. of Old English wicca "sorcerer, wizard, man who practices witchcraft or magic," from verb wiccian "to practice witchcraft"

Women, it is true, were not accorded the same status as men in biblical times and even after. Your response deserves more than a one line response from me for you raise several issues. Down the line I'll try to respond in greater depth.... but first I want make it through to the end of my remarks on this thread. One thing though, just in passing. There is nothing in Proverbs 31:10 that talks about either a good woman or rubies, rare or otherwise. What it actually speaks of is a capable woman whose value is greater than pearls.

One final digression.... I think! A word about midrash. The word comes from the Hebrew word "to inquire." Midrashim are stories by the sages. There are two types, midrash aggadah and midrash halacha. The first are stories meant to fill the gaps in biblical narrative. The second are stories meant to elucidate and illuminate points of law. The fun thing about midrashim is there are often multiple midrashim dealing with the same biblical narrative and because they are conjecture they are totally at odds with one another. I will be using a midrash or two so I thought this would be helpful.

Thank you for your holiday greetings. Purim begins Saturday night. One more digression before I go on. My friend, you have oft times described my ancestors of biblical times as misogynistic -- that is, they hated women. That is a bit of an overstatement. First of all, the sages of Israel taught a man without a woman was incomplete. As they put it, such a man was alone, without hope, without joy, without blessing and without atonement. Furthermore, the sages believed that without doubt women were more inately spirtual than men, and that women were probably inherently more intelligent than men. What they believed, to the detriment of women, was that men were more rational than women because women were: a) more emotional; and b) less in control of their emotions. While it would be fair to state the male attitude toward women was paternalistic, and while that attitude might rightly be construed as sexist, misogyny is a bit over the top.

And so in a short while we shall return to the garden and the aftermath of Eve's encounter with a talking serpent, who, according to Jewish understanding, was actually........ a talking snake, nothing more, nothing less.

A brief digression before proceeding. I am always candid if I am asked if I belief the story of Adam and Eve to be factual history. Simply put, no I do not. I am also asked, from time to time, if the author of Adam and Eve narrative meant for it to be taken literally or whether it was written as allegory or an etiological "just so" story. The scholarly answer to that question is that we do not know and we probably never will. Nor, at this time, can we say whether the redactors or the canonizers believed it to be factually accurate or something else. What we do know is that the sages of Israel were fundamentalists, but they were not literalists. They believed in the truths that they saw being taught in Torah, but they were not tied to a belief that the narratives were factual reporting.

Elsewhere on the forum, quite some time ago, I had promised some words about Adam and Eve. I have been remiss in doing so. Life has a way, sometimes, of getting in the way of doing what one set out to do. So to begin, and with the aim of following up on this post in the not so distant future, let me first state that according to the Torah - Genesis 2:18 to be exact - woman was created to be man's equal. Translations that simply say "helper" or "help meet" or "help mate" completely miss the mark. In Genesis, G-d says for Adam will be made an - עזר כנגדו- ezer k'negdo - which is an idiomatic phrase which literally means a help opposite to him, but the word ezer connotes strength and is usually used in reference to G-d's power so that a better understanding of the term is that woman was created to be a strength equal to man. As the sages of Israel taught, woman was created from man's side to underscore that she was not meant to walk ahead of him in mastery, she was not meant to walk behind in a subservient manner. She was meant to walk at his side as his equal. The sages further taught that the term ezer k'negdo was used to teach that when a man was right, woman would be there to support him with her strength.... and when man was wrong she would be there with her strength to oppose him. More to come. Honest!

Perhaps I am reading more into your post than you intended, but while you state that you do not loath those who see G-d it does appear you do not have much respect for them either as they are fearful, looking for simplistic answers, and unable to accept reality as it is. That is painting with, in my estimation, too broad a brush.

Tu BiSh'vat, the Jewish "New Year for Trees" begins this erev Shabbat (Friday evening). You will not find it mentioned in Hebrew scripture. As Rabbi Daniel Syme points out, "Tu BiSh'vat is first mentioned in the Mishnah, the code of Jewish law that dates back to around 200 C.E. There, in Rosh Hashanah 1:1, the text speaks of four new years, all of which are connected to an ancient cycle of tithes. Each year, the Israelites were expected to bring one-tenth of their fruits to the Temple in Jerusalem, where they were offered to God and also helped sustain the priestly class and the poor. Since fruit from one year could not be used to tithe for another, the Rabbis had to determine when a crop year would begin and end. They chose the month of Sh'vat as the cut-off date, for this is when, in Israel, the sap begins to run and the trees start to awaken from their winter slumber, before beginning to bear fruit. Like Hanukkah, Tu BiSh'vat is a post-biblical festival, instituted by the Rabbis. However, the holiday has biblical roots. The tithing system upon which it is based dates back to the Torah and its deep concern with trees, harvests, and the natural world, all of which are at the heart of Tu BiSh'vat... Although the celebration of Tu BiSh'vat has a long and varied history, the theme most commonly ascribed to the holiday today is the environment. It is considered a festival of nature, full of wonder, joy, and thankfulness for God’s creation in anticipation of the renewal of the natural world. During this festival, Jews recall the sacred obligation to care for God’s world, and the responsibility to share the fruits of God’s earth with all."

נצר לשונך מרע ושפתיך מדבר מרמה סור מרע ועשה טוב בקש שלום ורדפהו Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking with deceit Turn aside from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it. (Psalm 34)

Given that it is, at least the last time I checked my driver's license, my name, and it's right down at the bottom of my signature line under "shalom", it seems perfectly logical to call me that!

Just a quick thank you to all who offered words of comfort during this difficult time for me and for my family. This internet forum is a community. I count myself fortunate to be able to call so many of you on this forum my friends. Your words of comfort are acknowledged and appreciated. I am humbled in the presence of your caring and your concern. זכרונה לברכה May my sister's name be for a blessing.

Learned late yesterday that my sister had died. I'll be away for awhile.

Passover? Me thinks you meant Purim. At least her name was actually Hadassah, or so the story goes.

As for Thanksgiving, first let it be stated that virtually every culture has had one or more harvest festivals. Second, there is cause to believe - although not enough to definitively state - that the Pilgrims modelled that first Thanksgiving, not on the Harvest Home festival then popular in England because they perceived pagan origins to it, but rather on the Jewish festival of Sukkot. On another note, there is one particular religious group - which shall remain nameless - that believes its brand of faith is the only one that represents the true tradition and teachings of Jesus and the Bible. For that reason, to distinguish themselves from everything else which they see as apostate, they refer to their faith as Christianity and everything else as Christendom. I would hope that you are not engaged in the same kind of word play with your use of the term "Christianism."

None of the above.

The Jewish new year begins this evening. May we all in this coming new year know good health, good fortune, good friends, true love, great joy and enduring peace. (And may the ability to add things in Hebrew font reappear!)

That may be, but you can't use this movie to prove it. A-M was already in her twenties, 22 to be exact, when the movie was made.