tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-144566622009-10-27T11:53:59.151-05:00Musings and kvetchings and Torah thoughts from an unconventional Orthodox Jew.Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-3781241047080320582009-09-15T09:18:00.004-05:002009-09-15T09:27:26.208-05:00

So. There's a midrash that says that we had fallen to the 49th level of tum'ah in Egypt, and that had we fallen one level more, we never would have been able to be redeemed. And there's a midrash that says that during the 7 weeks between the Exodus and Matan Torah, we rose to the 49th level of bina. I don't know if the two are the same source.I've been trying to find the source of these

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-74608731642174668282009-06-07T09:57:00.002-05:002009-06-07T10:03:41.232-05:00

Step 1: Announce that Judea and Samaria are an integral part of Israel, and will never be given to anyone. Ever. For any reason whatsoever. Step 2: Offer $100K to any Arab family that chooses to leave (citizens or not, and with the understanding that if they're Israeli citizens, they won't be any more). Make it $150K per family if everyone in a town decides to leave (a little neighborly peer

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-48659570279774871052009-05-26T08:59:00.008-05:002009-05-26T09:29:29.011-05:00

The Sages tell us that אין בין העולם הזה לימות המשיח אלא שעבוד מלכויות בלבד. “There is nothing between this world and the Messianic era but Shi’abud Malkhuyot alone.”“Shi’abud Malkhuyot” translates literally as “the enslavement of the kingdoms.” We will get back to what exactly that means.Some have understood the above statement as meaning that the only thing that will be different about the

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-56005531515329376832009-03-31T11:52:00.001-05:002009-03-31T11:55:10.551-05:00

I wrote this originally as a letter to the Chicago Jewish News, which had run an article on the "Women of the Wall", a group which I feel is extremely problematic. The CJN ran it on 11/21/2003.Respect for Jewish viewsThis is in response to the article "Woman leading Women of the Wall," in your Nov. 14 issue. I am a Jewish woman who enjoys going to women's prayer groups. I enjoy being able to

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-89436748150263525612009-03-02T16:16:00.006-06:002009-03-02T17:13:22.172-06:00

Here's a much overlooked masterwork. Back in the 1980s, Nicholas Guild wrote a book called The Assyrian. It struck my eye, because I have something of an interest in ancient Assyria and the rest of the ancient near east. I think I saw it several times before I finally bought it. And read it. And I was simply wowed.Look, there are basically four components of any novel at the widest level.

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-69901571839473125052009-02-24T10:33:00.008-06:002009-03-02T17:02:03.656-06:00

Emergence, by David Palmer, is one of my favorite books in the world. Actually, if I'm posting a review of a book, odds are that it's one of my favorite books in the world, because I'd be unlikely to waste my time reviewing something I dislike (yes, J.R.R. Tolkein, I'm looking at you).Anyway, I really liked Podkayne of Mars when I was a kid (the original editor's ending; not Heinlein's horrible

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-30032579840610858852009-02-24T10:19:00.002-06:002009-02-24T10:32:53.992-06:00

So. How many blogs have I started? And how many have I kept up with? Hint: the answer to the first question is significantly larger than the answer to the second.Maybe part of the problem is that I've been trying to specialize. I made this blog as a main blog, Word Soup for literary stuff, Tipot BaYam for Torah tidbits. I thought for a while that I'd try and do a weekly parasha thing, but I

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-63747455007978416572009-01-15T12:30:00.003-06:002009-01-15T12:43:37.283-06:00

So... I don't think it will come as any surprise to those who know me that I didn't vote for Barack Obama. That said, he's doing a number of things that I like. The visibility of his http://www.change.gov/ site seems good. And now he's created a thing called the Citizens' Briefing Book. This is basically a suggestion box. Ideas that are voted for by a lot of people will be presented to Obama

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-90874215055623043572008-09-04T17:35:00.002-05:002008-09-04T17:40:02.621-05:00

Okay... this is annoying. I've been trying to track down a source for kosher goat meat. Why should that be a problem? Kosher beef, easy. Kosher lamb, almost as easy. I can even find kosher elk and kosher venison. But goat is elusive.When the Temple is standing, we offer goats and sheep and cows... but only sheep and cows seem to be available as kosher meats these days.So far, I've managed

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-46618907358775771532008-09-04T12:24:00.002-05:002008-09-04T12:32:15.351-05:00

I started another blog. Because I've been so good at keeping up with this one, right? Anyway, the blog is devoted to one of my unfortunate addictions:Comic GeekeryWhat are the odds that anyone who reads this blog will have an interest in DC comics? Probably not all that different from the odds that the person writing it does. But then... does anyone read this blog in the first place?

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-21084500616874055442007-12-05T07:58:00.000-06:002007-12-05T09:04:27.225-06:00

I'm so tired of the watered down version of Hanukkah that gets ladled out every year. Hanukkah is not a celebration of religious freedom. The Maccabees were fanatics who objected strenuously to the Hellenization of Jewish culture. The revolt actually began with the murder of a Jew who was about to publically worship an idol.It's also not a celebration of beating the Syrian Greeks. The war with

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1165506265453639992006-12-07T09:29:00.000-06:002006-12-07T09:44:25.556-06:00

So... yesterday, the Conservative Movement decided that it's okay to ordain gay and lesbian rabbis and to officiate at commitment ceremonies. It looks as though Joel Roth and others on the right wing of that movement are going to bolt.The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) is currently deciding whether or not to accept grads of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT) as rabbis. YCT is the extremely left

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1156451733841940312006-08-24T15:29:00.001-05:002009-09-16T23:25:33.089-05:00

Autonomous Arab Regions within the boundaries of Eretz Yisrael. An idea whose time has come.I know, I know, it's been thought of before. But always on such a limited scale. The Land of Israel is far larger than the small part we are happen to call our homeland at the present time. At some stage, we're going to have to start taking responsibility for the other parts of the land God gave

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1155155578067610762006-08-09T15:30:00.000-05:002006-08-09T15:32:58.080-05:00

People have commented on the fact that more Arabs are dying in this war than Israelis. They say it as though it makes the Israeli actions worse than the Arab actions. Or even comparable. The real difference gets ignored, and it must not be.The difference is very simple. They are not killing us to stop us from killing them. They are killing us because they hate us and want to destroy us. We, by

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1152298113455884272006-07-07T13:28:00.000-05:002006-07-07T13:50:59.456-05:00

AP reported recently on a new push for phonetic spelling. Of course, people are up in arms about this, and that's understandable. Without redoing the English language from scratch, you really need some of that archaic spelling. For one thing, it helps to distinguish between homonyms (yes, I grew up in the '70s, and I insist on using the term "homonym" instead of the current "homophone"). For

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1150383462074670732006-06-15T09:56:00.000-05:002006-06-15T12:22:53.476-05:00

I'll admit it: I'm in a pissy mood, and I have been for the past week or so. But this is something that has irked me for about 20 years now, and I was just wondering whether anyone else shared my annoyance.It used to be that you'd go to a store, pay the cashier, and he or she would give you your change. You'd put the change in your wallet, and the cashier would hand you your receipt.But then

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1149868658278689382006-06-09T10:55:00.000-05:002006-06-09T10:57:38.330-05:00

I walked into the kitchenette at work, and someone has placed a standing frame in front of the toaster with the following notice on it in large letters:PLEASE DO NOT BUTTER YOUR BAGEL BEFORE PUTTING IT IN THE TOASTER.It's one of those things that can give you a headache just thinking about what caused it.

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1149511311977137062006-06-05T07:30:00.000-05:002006-06-05T10:13:50.380-05:00

I'm going to start a subsection of this blog (rather than a new blog) to deal with the various idiocies in the joke known as the Documentary Hypothesis. You may know of it as the JEDP Hypothesis. It's the idea that the Torah is actually a patchwork of documents written by different people in different places, clumsily patched together by a Redactor some time either towards the end of the Kingdom

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1147470992478894992006-05-12T16:51:00.000-05:002006-05-12T16:59:44.636-05:00

Possible Spoiler AlertIf you're a fan of Alias, and you don't want to hear my ideas for endings for the series (two episodes left, btw), don't continue reading.Seriously.Fine, don't blame me.Ending OneCarrie and Marshall have a fight, because Carrie gets tired of the crush Marshall has on Sydney. He goes out and, uncharacteristically, gets drunk as a skunk.Stumbling back into APO, he falls

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1147453608547590292006-05-12T11:38:00.000-05:002006-05-12T12:06:48.580-05:00

When I was in high school, someone brought in a proof that 1 = 0. Some of you have seen this before:Set x = 1 multiply both sides by x: x2 = x Subtract one from both sides: x2-1 = x-1 Factor x2-1: (x+1)(x-1) = x-1 Divide both sides by (x-1): x+1 = 1 Subtract 1 from both sides: x = 0 We sat around trying to figure out what was wrong with it, since everything worked out great. In the end, it

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1147445660406134602006-05-12T09:48:00.000-05:002006-05-12T09:54:23.016-05:00

When someone has to institute a rule like this, it's pretty sad.Some people think it's valid to respond to blog entries by posting ad hominem comments about my sexual orientation. For those of you who don't know what an ad hominem argument is, it's when you ignore the substance of what a person says, and attack the person instead. An example might be where Reuven says, "Capitalism rocks." Then

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com43tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1147125207961974472006-05-08T16:47:00.000-05:002006-05-08T16:53:27.980-05:00

Pardon me. I suppose not all dog owners do, but I find it interesting that so many dog owners think that just because they've chosen to adopt an animal, other people need to be afflicted by that choice.Yesterday, I went with my partner and our daughter to a beach. Turns out that there was a pilot "dog beach" next to this one, fence and all. A place where dogs could be let off their leashes

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1145921334614265712006-04-24T18:21:00.000-05:002006-04-26T23:14:16.916-05:00

In 1923, Jacob Hoschander, a professor of cognate languages at Dropsie College (later on the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary) wrote a book called The Book of Esther in the Light of History.It's a brilliant book. Despite the fact that Hoschander was an old style bible critic (though not so "old style" in the 1920s, I suppose), he actually argued very strongly that the events in the Book

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1144720081363064712006-04-10T20:42:00.000-05:002006-04-10T20:48:01.376-05:00

I'm about to turn 43. This Wednesday is my birthday by the Catholic calendar (it always irks my Dad when I call it that), but it's only 4 days later by the Jewish one.And it's not about getting old. It's just about... I don't know. I feel like I'm in a cell, and that I should scratch a mark into the wall for one more year down. That much closer to when I can get out of here. Or be eligible

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1144412586087029152006-04-07T07:01:00.000-05:002006-04-07T07:23:07.080-05:00

RespondingToJBlogs responded to my previous post by saying (among other things):I still do not see a source, other than your assertion for a later dating of Hammurabi. Your argument basically boils down to "There is uncertainty in the field and therefore the field is unreliable."With regards to Hammurabi, I am not saying that "There is uncertainty in the field and therefore the field is

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com5