RabbiO

Welcome to the forum. As for your question, I really have no answer for you. I am not a minister. I am a rabbi. As a rabbi I am called to be יורה יורה כדת של תורה a true teacher of Jewish values, Jewish insights.

A dark side to humanity of which we are only newly aware? Not really. In Genesis 2:8, when it speaks of G-d forming man, the term used is וייצר The word used is related to the word for intent or inclination. From the double letter yod the sages of Israel deduced that human beings have two inclinations within them, one for good and one, the יצר הרע for evil. The only thing that perhaps we have become aware of is just how dark that dark side can be.

ברוך הבא בשם ה Blessed be he who come in the name of the Eternal One. Congratulations.

Does this mean we're all 3 days younger??

Perhaps you'd rather invest in them. Unless you deliberately trying to trigger a visit from the Orkin man.

He's scouting the Patriots for his favorite football team. Fawzo figures if he does a good job, his team might, just might, change their name from the Ravens to the ..... I think you know what!

I am reminded of the old joke about the fellow who is told my his doctor that he has terminal illness and will be dead in 30 days. The fellow replies, "Well, I'd better pack my bags and move to Baltimore." [Actually, in the joke as I heard it the city was Cleveland, but this is my subtle pulling of Fawzo's chain.] When the doctor asks why, the fellow replies, "In Baltimore it will feel like 30 years."

As am I.

You have made clear in previous posts your position vis-a-vis Israel. For those of a similar mindset, then, one can say "is." Be that as it may, my basic point remains valid.

Does one mourn when one's children are born? After all, by giving them birth, one decrees a sentence of death upon them. No, as Kohelet says - לכל זמן To everything there is a season. The yearning for Zion was very real, never forgotten, but to deny joy, to engage in perpetual mourning to the exclusion of all else, is the antithesis of Judaism. That kind of attitude is fundamentally life denying.

hyper - You keep dancing around some point you apparently want to make about Jews. I am not a mind reader - the jury is out on whether that is because I cannot read or I do not have a mind, or both - so it would help me if you would just come to the point. That way anyone who wishes to respond to your point, including me, can do so without the risk of misinterpreting what you wish to say.

Thank you. I suppose I could point out that there are devout Christians who do not celebrate Christmas and who, in fact, decry the observance. So what? Perhaps hyperreal is building to some kind of point that we will just patiently have to wait for.

1) Since the first does not apply to me.... 2) It is not fear. It is the call from the G-d I serve that - צדק צדק תרדף Justice, Justice shall you pursue. It is not fear. It is the call from the G-d I serve that - דרשו משפט אשרו חמוץ שפטו יתום ריבו אלמנה Seek judgment against the ruthless, defend the orphan, speak for the widow. To tell the rape victim, the mother of a son gunned down in a drive by shooting, a Jew sitting in a concentration camp, a child starving in Dafur that things are what they are supposed to be, just as they are is something I cannot begin to fathom. With that attitude there would be no events leading to Hanukkah and the Jewish people would have been consigned to the dustbin of antique curiosities more than 2 thousand years ago.

Tomorrow night is the first night of Hanukkah - חנוכה The festival of lights - חג הנרות The victory of the few over the many. The rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after its defilement by the Selucids. It is celebrated for eight days because the celebration of the Temple's rededication was eight days. Why eight days? Because the Temple was not retaken and rededicated in time to observe the festival of Sukkot, which is an eight day holiday. (For those who think it has something to do with a one day supply of oil that lasted eight days, ask me about it after I come back from vacation.)

אחת, שתיים, שלוש, ארבע, חמש, שש, שבע, שמונה, תשע, עשר ....... מאה I feel better already.

One last, other, perspective, because to continue with this is futile, just as an indication as to the diversity of thought that questions the legitimacy of reading Leviticus in the manner that hyperreal suggest, is that of Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson. Rabbi Artson has noted the proscription of homosexual acts in Leviticus forms the basis for all later halakhic pronouncements in that regard. What is interesting, again as Rabbi Artson makes clear, is these passages in Jewish legal literature speak about homosexual acts outside of the context of homosexual relationship. The nature of the sex is casual, almost circumstantial such as two bachelors who happen to be under the same blanket, a young boy seduced by an older man (Mishneh Torah, Issurei Bi’ah l:14. Rabbi Artson goes on to point out, "The context of the Bible’s knowledge of homosexual acts is clarified by examining the two occasions where these acts are threatened. In the first case, the men of Sodom demand that Lot send out his guests so they could rape them. It should be noted that these would-be rapists are all heterosexual. Similarly, in the second case the Benjaminites of Gibeah demand "bring out the man who has come into your house, so that we can be intimate with him. Rabbi Robert Gordis notes: ‘Actually the two episodes highlight the heinous sin involved in violating the ancient practice of hospitality to strangers ; they are not primarily concerned with homosexuality.’ The Bible knows of homosexual acts, but not of homosexual orientation or persons. There is not a single case in the Tanakh which deals with homosexual acts in the context of homosexual love. Every case deals with homosexuals who engage in homosexual acts as an expression of idolatry, of power (such as rape), or, presumably for fun....The Torah was not speaking about the constitutional homosexual because it had no awareness of the possibility of such a person...The Torah did not prohibit what it did not know."

I could amend my statement to read "Nor can one say with certitude......" but I don't suspect you'd be any happier with my statement. I have previously written regarding the use of the Hebrew word tachar, but there are additonal concerns as well. For example, Rabbi Jacob Milgrom z'l who was probably the foremost Jewish expert on Leviticus in the 20th century noted - "[T]he prohibition is severely limited. First, it is addressed only to Israel, not to other nations. Second, compliance with this law is a condition for residing in the Holy Land, but is irrelevant outside it (see the closing exhortation, Lev.18: 24-30). Third, it is limited to men; lesbianism is not prohibited. Thus it is incorrect to apply this prohibition on a universal scale. Moreover,..both occurrences of the prohibition (18: 22; 20: 13) contain the phrase "as one lies with a woman" משכבי אישה(lit. "lyings a woman"), an idiom used only for illicit heterosexual unions. Thus one could argue that carnal relations are forbidden only if their correlated heterosexual unions would be in these lists. For example, the Bible lists the following prohibited relations: nephew-aunt, grandfather-granddaughter, and stepmother-stepson. Thus, according to this theory, nephew-uncle, grandfather-grandson, and stepfather-stepson are also forbidden. This implies that the homosexual prohibition does not cover all male-male liaisons, but only those within the limited circle of family. However, homosexual relations with unrelated males are neither prohibited nor penalized."

It has been awhile since I poured over Christian scripture, but as I recall there are no words attributed to Jesus in which he condemns homosexuality - of course, there being no words by which he endorses it. Such condemnation as I recall comes in the Pauline epistles. As for Jewish scripture, it would be a mistake to see the story of Sodom and Gomorrah - and a parallel story in Judges - as condemnations of homosexuality either. Those stories actually deal with a violation of הכנסת אורחים the rules regarding hospitality and the protection one owes to visitors. Nor can one say that the passages in Leviticus - which are usually, but not always, mistranslated - which are quoted in support of a condemnation of homosexuality or, at least, homosexual behavior, actually stand for that proposition. I believe that I have covered this in previous posts and so I will not repeat myself here.

I think, in order to be fair, that Songster should be allowed to present, if he so chooses, the reasons he has taken the position that he set forth above.

Mine remains Peter Yarrow's Light One Candle as performed by Peter, Paul & Mary Light one candle for the Maccabee children Give thanks that their light didn't die Light one candle for the pain they endured When their right to exist was denied. Light one candle for the terrible sacrifice Justice and freedom demand. Light one candle for the wisdom to know When the peacemaker's time is at hand. Chorus: Don't let the light go out It's lasted for so many years Don't let the light go out Let it shine through our love and our tears. Light one candle for the strength that we need To never become our own foe Light one candle for those who are suffering The pain we learned so long ago. Light one candle for all we believe in Let anger not tear us apart Light one candle to bind us together With the peace as the song in our heart. Chorus: Don't let the light go out It's lasted for so many years Don't let the light go out Let it shine through our love and our tears What is the memory that's valued so highly That we keep alive in that flame? What's the commitment to those who have died When we cry out, "They've not died in vain." We have come this far Always believing that justice will somehow prevail This is the burden and the promise And this is why we will not fail. Chorus: Don't let the light go out It's lasted for so many years Don't let the light go out Let it shine through our love and our tears

We are proud of you and all who have served.

Are you sending me back to General topics without my supper??

My understanding? As I have noted before there is an old rabbinic dictum that if one runs out of questions one is either a fool or one is dead. I don't think I fit either category - although second opinions are always welcome - and so my understanding expands and contracts, reaches outward and inward in a continual dance. Sometimes I run into a midrash I've not seen before, sometimes something in a text speaks to me in a different way, sometimes an experience brings an insight. Sometimes I get reminded of something that, while not forgotten, I had not considered in awhile. For example, we are in that part of the Torah reading cycle covering Genesis. I had not considered in awhile just how funny the Torah, as well as the rest of the Tanakh, is in certain places, and just how humorous those moments would have been to my ancestors. I was reminded because I was re-reading, Genesis 24:64, of that moment when Rebecca first sees Isaac. Virtually every English translation says that either she alighted from her camel or got off her camel or descended from her camel or jumped from her camel.... That is not what the Hebrew says. What the Hebrew says, rather, both creates a funny mental image and opens up potential inquiry because it changes the dynamic of the scene. What the Hebrew actually says is that when Rebecca first saw Isaac she fell off of her camel. In a more colloquial English way one might say Isaac blew her away or maybe knocked her socks off, but just the original language brought chuckles.

At my age what you take for ducking and dodging is just my bending down and not being able to straighten up again while I look for something to support myself! The Grand Canyon. You've got two paragraphs to describe it and do it justice. Not easy is it? Maybe impossible. That is my problem when someone poses a question about Judaism. It is a giant tapestry woven together with extreme artistry with sudden bursts of color and all kinds of disparate sections that somehow come together. What does Judaism say about...? What does Judaism believe about....? Are we talking Spinoza or are we talking the Ari? Are we seeking the wisdom of the Baal Shem Tov or Maimonides? Are we talking about G-d to Lawrence Kushner or Mordecai Kaplan or even, perhaps, Sherwin Wine? You cannot put it altogether in 20 second sound bites.

Close, actually it is ספר הגלגלים in the plural, Sefer haGilgulim.