tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-144566622012-01-31T11:58:02.815-06:00Musings and kvetchings and Torah thoughts from an unconventional Orthodox Jew.Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.comBlogger731100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-21916537794991884552011-04-10T10:53:00.007-05:002011-04-10T11:33:52.318-05:00

Okay, it seems to me that the answer to this little arithmetic problem that's been working its way around the internet is 2, and not 288. A lot of people are going to argue with that, but hear me out.According to Wikipedia, for those who aren't already aware, the standard order of operations in arithmetic is:* terms inside brackets (or parentheses)* exponents and roots* multiplication and

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-54123127079516404892011-02-25T10:02:00.006-06:002011-02-25T10:22:46.661-06:00

I'm sickened by the utter hypocrisy and blatant censorship being practiced by The Jewish Week.Not surprised, mind you. Just disgusted.On Wednesday, February 23, Jonathan Mark, an associate editor at that paper, posted an article discussing Glenn Beck's comparison of Radical Islamists and Reform Jews. It was cogent, well thought out, and expressed a position that made the left shriek in rage. The

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-48570808950371539562011-02-07T18:57:00.002-06:002011-02-07T19:25:03.890-06:00

I finally figured it out.There's a guy named Mostafa who is currently posting on an online forum I frequent. He's Egyptian, and he first stopped by to "educate" us about Islam. He's adamantly convinced that Islam has never hurt anyone who hasn't attacked first, and that Jews are evil babykillers. So fine, that's about what I'd expect. But then a part of the discussion included the following.

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-42079566685917686562010-12-07T10:55:00.003-06:002010-12-07T12:31:33.783-06:00

Something I saw on the internet this morning made me think of trolls and how much they suck. So since I can't get Candlelight out of my head anyway, I thought I'd snag the tune for another purpose. If you've run into people like this, you know what I'm talking about.Cyberblightby Lisa LielI’ll tell a tale tale tale taleOf cyberspace's biggest fail fail fail failWhen a talkback's getting stale

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-83262456997220444782010-08-30T16:55:00.002-05:002010-08-30T18:14:40.206-05:00

Today, my daughter came home from her first day as a fifth grader with a homework assignment for me and my partner. Her history teacher wants us to write down the three most important events in American history, in our opinions. And it got me thinking about America, and the various changes it's gone through. See, I fear and hate Barack Obama. I have done since Jeri Ryan (nee Zimmerman, btw)

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-22508185818058245782010-08-06T15:42:00.002-05:002010-08-06T16:10:27.177-05:00

Caveat: this may come across as Haredi-bashing. All I can say is that it's intended as constructive criticism. If even one Haredi Jew reads this and starts to realize that there's a problem, I'll consider this post a success.I live in a house that was previously owned by a Lubavitch family. They had a lot of kids, and it was pretty clear that they have no intention of those kids ever going to

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-14391561495158107142010-07-29T15:35:00.003-05:002010-07-29T16:45:01.415-05:00

Albert Einstein is supposed to have defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I want to talk about two instances of this kind of insanity that have possibly been overlooked by those who think there will ever be a peace with the Arabs that doesn't involve beating them completely.PartitionsToday, Mahmoud Abbas / Abu Mazen (the chairman of the PLO, and

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-3527663372008253002010-07-25T14:23:00.008-05:002010-07-25T17:59:11.143-05:00

Ayn Rand died in 1982. She was probably better known for her novels than she was for her philosophy, Objectivism, but what she wrote, both fiction and non-fiction, has affected millions.One of the more persistant criticisms I've heard of Rand as a writer is that her characters aren't like the people you'd meet in real life. There are people who have a problem with that. Or maybe more accurately,

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-61324342101918657792010-07-16T15:41:00.003-05:002010-07-16T15:53:01.583-05:00

Okay, so there's a site called Who Do I Write Like that takes a sample of your writing and analyzes it to see who you write like. I decided to input a number of my blog posts and see what it said. The results were kind of interesting. Apparently, I write like an awful lot of different people. It makes me wonder, when believers in the Documentary Hypothesis use literary analysis to conclude that

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-82352352112389527922010-06-09T07:20:00.008-05:002010-07-08T08:57:21.751-05:00

There's a troubling phenomenon in the Israeli national camp, as well as among American Zionists. It's done, in most cases, I'm sure, for purely pragmatic reasons. But it is fundamentally an issue of flattery, or חניפה, which is prohibited in Judaism.Flattery, in the halakhic sense, isn't simply a matter of telling a white lie to make someone feel good. Telling someone with an ugly hat that the

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-87841221473020919522010-05-26T09:42:00.003-05:002010-05-26T10:12:42.011-05:00

Okay, this is probably going to really piss off my gay friends (and gay friendly friends). But there's a difference between pushing the envelope and being totally obnoxious, and last night's episode of Glee went about 10 steps over the line into obnoxity.The character of Kurt has bugged me a little since the show started. There've been other people who have objected to flaming, mincing,

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-91332937860968894952010-04-30T09:31:00.001-05:002010-04-30T09:32:58.458-05:00

On 4 March 1797, the world changed forever. For possibly the first time in history, the ruler of a nation handed over the reins of state to someone else, not because he was unable to fulfill his duties any more, and not because he was coerced, but because a piece of paper said that’s what he should do.This was the day that George Washington gave over the Presidency of the United States to his

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-59345508671409048552010-03-25T15:52:00.004-05:002010-03-25T18:52:37.644-05:00

The Haggadah begins with a paragraph that is either taken for granted or misunderstood by the vast majority of Jews. I thought I'd post something about it, with Passover coming up and all.This is the bread of affliction, which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt.All who are hungry, come and eat;All who are in need, come and partake of the Paschal offering.Now we are here, next year we will be in

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-19509100068995814602010-03-25T14:19:00.003-05:002010-03-25T14:46:09.586-05:00

We're led by blind people. Demopublicans. Republicrats. They make a lot of noise about wanting different things, but the bottom line is, they're all on board with the idea of using people as resources. They're all on board with the corporate agendas of the insurance industry and every other industry out there.You'll hear the Democrats claim that the Republicans just wanted to deregulate the

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-23202975564955745002010-03-07T23:00:00.002-06:002010-03-07T23:20:53.497-06:00

When I was a kid in college, lo these many decades ago, I became an Orthodox Jew. I've written about it on this blog, in case you want to read the boring story, so I'm not going to go back into it now. The main thing you need to know is that I became a serious supporter of Rabbi Meir Kahane.Now... I'm on the right hand side of the bell curve when it comes to intelligence and problem solving

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-41045284435649459082010-03-04T12:29:00.004-06:002010-03-04T12:32:48.998-06:00

This is a great, great video of a talk by Joyce Kaufman.I hope she won't mind if I post a transcript of her talk here:Joyce Kaufman - The 7 Reasons to Support Israel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmV1ffKP0msBut I'm here to talk about why, why you should support Israel. Because anyone who thinks that Arabs hate us primarily because we support Israel is either stuck on stupid or looking for

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-9417699146627432582010-01-25T13:18:00.002-06:002010-01-25T13:20:45.652-06:00

The Corporate Limitation Act (CLA) does not ban companies. Companies existed before corporations obtained their "legal personhood", and they will exist even after the passage of the CLA. But the liability of a corporation will be held by individuals. This increases the risk of investment, and may, in the short run, reduce investment, but it is the risks permitted by the limited liability

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-11088705170177953902010-01-11T15:46:00.005-06:002010-01-11T16:32:52.146-06:00

The term "crackpot" is derogatory. Intentionally so. The essential meaning of the term is theories which lay so far outside of the paradigm that the amount of work that would need to be done to provide them a foundation that could compete with the foundations of the reigning paradigm is more than is reasonable to expect.All paradigm-buster ideas are crackpottery at first. Germ theory, for example

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-26209090271111928142010-01-10T16:42:00.003-06:002010-03-07T23:00:47.733-06:00

This is sort of an open letter to my friend Yaaqov. Last week, he posted a blog article entitled Why I Am Cancelling My Likud Membership. I want to explain why that's the wrong choice.I have to start by pointing out that Yaaqov and I share the same view on how things should be different in Israel, at least in broad terms, and possibly even in details. And Yaaqov is currently living according to

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-7498446465290939302010-01-04T10:01:00.005-06:002010-01-04T22:42:12.472-06:00

The Zeros being 2000-2009. Interesting, isn't it, that 2000 was part of the 20th century and part of the first decade of the 21st century? But there you have it.Anyway, I went through a list of movies that came out in the Zeros, and came up with 40 of them that I thought were really excellent. Interestingly, none of them are from 2009. Anyway, here they are, with brief comments where applicable

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-61378135520542530292009-12-15T15:18:00.001-06:002009-12-15T15:19:57.794-06:00

Katonti, but I'd like to offer this up anyway.לא-אל של מתבוללים הוליד לא-עם של מחבלים אומות אותי מגנים נשים וטף נהרגים אך בזכות תורת האל נקצוץ ידו של ישמעאל ושוב נבנה ועוד נחיה תחת כנפי שכינת אל Lo-el shel mitbolelim Holid lo-am shel mechablim Umot oti meganim Nashim v'taf neheragim Ach bizchut torat ha-Kel Niktzotz yado shel yishmael V'shuv nivneh, v'od nichyeh Tachat kanfei shechinat Kel A "no

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-30117729190572610212009-12-07T11:00:00.005-06:002009-12-07T11:35:48.487-06:00

My friend Devo posted this on Facebook in Hebrew. I'm not quite sure how it'll translate, but let's give it a try.A Litvish Haredi father explains:-Abba, how did we beat the Greeks?-With the help of God.-So what were the Maccabees for?-They were only soldiers. God helped them, thank God, and blessed be God, they won.-The Maccabees were soldiers?-Uh... soldiers of God. Forces of God.-So the

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com4tag: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.com8tag: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.com14tag: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.com2tag: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.com4tag: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.com6tag: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.com6tag: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.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1144263727324747962006-04-05T12:20:00.000-05:002006-04-05T18:26:03.320-05:00

The Problem:Over on RespondingToJBlogs, the issue of Hammurabi's laws and their similarity to laws in the Torah came up. The surprise I felt when I read this was a good indication of how long it's been since this was resolved, at least to my mind. So I wrote this whole long comment in response, and it turned out to be too long, and most of it was truncated. Which is really infuriating, because I

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1143657997286812602006-03-29T12:05:00.000-06:002006-03-29T12:46:37.353-06:00

Recently, I've been poking around in the blogosphere, reading various Jewish bloggers. There's a distressing number of blogs written by Jews who are frum in their day to day lives (or at least they identify that way), but have the hashkafa of left-wing Conservative Jews.Moses Mendelssohn is considered the spiritual father of the Reform movement. Ol' Moses did such a hot job Jewishly that his

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com42tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1143606778140172792006-03-28T22:22:00.000-06:002006-03-28T22:32:58.156-06:00

(Originally posted on soc.culture.jewish.moderated, 11 August 2002)A certain escapee from my killfile (don't worry; that won't happen again) wrote:>Lisa does not claim to believe in>the truth of Torah. She declares the truth of the Torah as being something>outside the realm of belief, as something that isn't "believed,"And added:>And further, she declares not just that "Torah" is truth, but>that

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1143515712065557692006-03-27T20:49:00.000-06:002006-03-27T21:15:12.080-06:00

On January 30, 2006, Yehoshua Etzion passed away suddenly. I heard about it from his wife, Dalia, on February 9.Yehoshua Etzion was a violinist with the Jerusalem Symphony, and the author of התנ"ך האבוד (The Lost Bible), published by Schocken Publishing House in 1992. I had read a summary of the book, which you can read for yourselves here, back in the 1980s, and I was very excited when the

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1140119267696869252006-02-16T13:43:00.000-06:002006-02-16T13:47:47.723-06:00

I was raised lukewarm Conservative. We didn't keep kosher, but we didn't eat meat and dairy together at the same table. We put away the bread and cookies during Passover, but that was about it. When we hit the Bar/Bat Mitzvah cycle (I'm the oldest of four, so it was from when I was 12 until after my youngest sister was 13 -- that'd be about 8 years all told), we started going to synagogue on most

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1139843183043675232006-02-13T09:04:00.000-06:002006-02-13T09:07:30.273-06:00

We're coming up on Purim, and some thing have to be said. Purim, we're told, will be with us even after all other post-biblical holidays are no longer celebrated. And there's a solid reason for that.Judaism is about making distinctions. Distinctions between sacred and secular, between light and dark, between Jews and non-Jews, between male and female, between good and evil. We don't blur

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1138109719922267882006-01-24T07:31:00.000-06:002006-01-24T07:35:19.946-06:00

So... over at Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer's blog, there's been some talk about Assyria and Egypt, and how their chronologies appear to show an unbroken historical chain of events and artifacts that stretches back past the Flood.I've written (on my website) about issues in ancient history, and I don't think this is an issue. But I'm happy to discuss the matter here. So I'm posting this in

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1138045202904029912006-01-23T13:23:00.000-06:002006-01-23T14:46:45.633-06:00

On to more Jewish topics...A little over a week ago, JOFA had a conference here in Chicago. Now, I'm definitely a supporter of women's davening groups (so long as they're done according to halakha), but JOFA stands for a lot more than that. The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance was founded by Blu Greenberg (of "Where there's a rabbinic will, there's a halakhic way" fame), wife of Yitz Greenberg (

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1138044223942818812006-01-23T13:13:00.000-06:002006-01-23T13:23:43.956-06:00

Not that way, dirty minded readers (that's only addressed at the dirty minded ones, mind you). In the literary sense.So I'd posted here before, back at the beginning of this blog, about the story I wrote that was going to be published in an anthology of short stories. That anthology hit the bookshelves on November 29, 2005, and while I have no idea if it's in stock anywhere, it's definitely in

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1138043606756833752006-01-23T13:11:00.000-06:002006-01-23T13:13:26.773-06:00

Hmm... I wonder if anyone is even reading this any more. I've been totally delinquent about posting, and it's not as though I don't have a ton to say.Anyhow, no promises, but I'm at least planning on posting about a few things today.

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1127412483535262452005-09-22T12:39:00.000-05:002005-09-22T13:08:03.553-05:00

Read this blog entry. Weep for what the frum community has become.I'm choking right now. I want to throw something. I want to break something. I want to hurt someone.I can't even finish reading through the garbage responses to this person's blog post, and worse, his own comments.Here's a guy who loves nothing more than to bash the Torah world. Yes, some of his issues with the way things are done

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1124134084220266272005-08-15T14:23:00.000-05:002005-08-15T14:28:04.230-05:00

A sane person would say that the State of Israel cannot afford to pull out of Gaza. Forget the crime that's being committed against innocent Jews -- simply from a defense point of view, this will exacerbate terror horribly.You'd think that with the Arabs frothing at the mouth, continuing attacks, and ranting about how this is such a huge victory for them and their methods of terror, the

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1123608579790837132005-08-09T12:28:00.000-05:002005-08-09T15:12:55.170-05:00

I'm a skeptic. Also a bit of an absolutist.("A bit!" Dozens of readers cry, outraged.)Yeah, well... I don't think the government should be in the business of handing out goodies, however important those goodies may be. It should not fund art or science or social programs or universities or schools -- especially schools, but don't get me started on Dewey's Folly -- or space exploration or...

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1123518547154261112005-08-08T11:23:00.000-05:002005-08-08T11:29:07.166-05:00

Orson Scott Card, one of my favorite authors, was kind enough to print this essay on his "The Ornery American" site a few years ago. But I think it's pretty timely just now, as well, so I'm reprinting it here.Peace, as opposed to PeaceBy Lisa LielJanuary 24, 2002In the wake of the September 11th bombings, President George W. Bush was quick to announce to Americans that "Islam is a religion of

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1122501914957927922005-07-27T16:50:00.000-05:002005-07-27T17:05:14.963-05:00

So I was thinking. In Israel, laws are enforced haphazardly at best. Laws are passed much the way that weapons are manufactured. Following their creation, they are held ready for use against a chosen target.Things aren't quite that bad on that front here in the US, but there's still a lot of gunk in the law books that really only exists for historical reasons, and persists because of inertia.So I

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1122477999839832302005-07-27T10:25:00.000-05:002005-07-27T10:26:39.846-05:00

If all goes according to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plans, the Gaza Strip will be emptied of Jews by this time next month. It is tempting to say "cleansed of Jews", but the term has such negative connotations that I hesitate to use it.The shocking thing has been the absolute silence from human rights advocates. After all, what PM Sharon plans is the mass eviction of a significant

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1122067682729053782005-07-22T16:16:00.000-05:002005-07-22T16:28:02.733-05:00

Okay, so I posted that item about my getting a story published. And I am way excited about that. But it's absolutely nothing in comparison to my sister's novel.You have to check out her website. She's a real writer; not an unfocused dilettante like me.My little sister (I'm the oldest, followed by my brother and then my two sisters) wasn't my favorite person when I was growing up. And I certainly

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1121800234046266592005-07-19T14:06:00.000-05:002005-07-19T14:10:34.053-05:00

Can someone explain to me how grading on a curve is ever justified?Correct me if I'm mistaken, but if you grade on a curve, the grade becomes an indicator of how well you did relative to your fellow students. It turns the class or the test or whatever the case may be into a contest between students.If you don't grade on a curve, the grade is an indicator of how well you learned the material.

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1121690109559347142005-07-18T07:13:00.000-05:002005-07-18T07:35:09.566-05:00

Everyone who has ever been to Little Israel in Chicago (that'd be Devon Avenue in West Rogers Park) has seen the sign for Moshe's Kosher Foods (or whatever it's currently called).It's a big trapezoidal sign that says "Queen Esther" and "Sinai" and "Kosher" and I don't remember what else. When I was in high school, I remember people referring to it as "999", for whatever reason.Anyway, I was in

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1121450166229520602005-07-15T12:46:00.000-05:002005-07-16T21:35:29.893-05:00

I decided to create two sister blogs to this one.The first one is called Tipot BaYam. It means "A drop in the sea", and the sea in question is the Sea of the Torah. It's a big sea, and my drops are more like droplets, but I thought it would be nice to have a place specifically for divrei Torah. So that's the place.The second one is called Word Soup. It's for anything literary that oozes its way

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1121362703008840382005-07-14T11:58:00.000-05:002005-07-14T17:15:02.793-05:00

So why Wicca? Well, part of the reason that I stopped being observant during 1997 was that I met someone in 1996. She wasn't Jewish, but I figured it wasn't as big a deal as it would be for someone straight. It's an interesting phenomenon. I know a lot of people who would never get involved with a non-Jew of the opposite sex, but don't have any qualms about it with a member of the same sex. I

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1121350956458289072005-07-14T09:03:00.000-05:002005-07-14T09:22:36.463-05:00

Elsewhere in cyberspace, someone asked me the following question:I read your personal profile with some interest.What made you switch to Yiddishkeit from being a Wiccan, just curious ?Is the food better ?Well, it's more kosher, at any rate. Kosherer?So here's that story. Most of it, anyway. I started up the road to frumkeit when I was 19. I'll tell that story if anyone cares to ask, but that's

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1121290440049605082005-07-13T16:28:00.000-05:002005-07-13T16:34:00.053-05:00

Gawd. No one is going to read this blog. I mean, people are going to come in, see the total lack of any decent content, and just leave. But I can't help it. This is addictive.I just happened across what is now my favorite comic strip. I'm not sure what my favorite was before, but whatever it was, it's been replaced by PartiallyClips.It's a weird strip. Three panels, each with the same piece of

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1121286485400878152005-07-13T15:13:00.000-05:002005-08-16T17:05:06.133-05:00

So, the book that my story "The Last Minute" is going to appear in is due out on September 30. I'm kind of psyched to see it. If you click on the picture of the cover, it'll take you to the page on Amazon.com. The page at the publisher has more information on the book, though.My biggest concern is that a lot of people I'd love to recommend the book to, I can't. There are 14 stories in the

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1121275767730891992005-07-13T12:20:00.000-05:002005-07-13T12:29:27.733-05:00

Okay, so the obvious question is, why did I call this blog Lamrot HaKol?I guess there are a few things. One is that I'm frum. You'd think that I'd have more than enough reasons to run screaming from frumkeit, and you'd be right. But I don't. It's not that I'm a masochist; I'm really not. It's simply that I remain convinced that the Torah is true. And the fact that frum society may treat me

Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104724066252254654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14456662.post-1121274808480684412005-07-13T12:07:00.000-05:002005-07-13T15:12:51.350-05:00

Well, how about that. Resistance really was useless. The blogosphere has assimilated me.Who'da thunk it?Actually, I already have a website. It's just that it takes me forever to get around to updating anything there. I figure this way, I can get thoughts down before they escape, and do it with a lot less effort. Laziness is the mother of invention. You heard it here first.I think I'll start this

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