Saw this online and I laughed out loud:
All Jews, regardless of their belief or disbelief, pray the same prayer, only with a different dialect. The traditional Jew prays, "Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad." Not to be outdone, the atheist Jew prays, "Shema Yisrael, I deny Eloheinu, I deny Echad." And the agnostic Jew recites, "Shema Yisrael, I dunno Eloheino, I dunno Echad."
Onwards to a rational observant Judaism!
About Me
"You speak of dogmas, dogmas of faith! In answer thereto, I would briefly say that Judaism enjoins six hundred and thirteen duties but knows no dogmas." - R' Samson Raphael Hirsch, Fifteenth Letter
Email me at Orthoprax2@yahoo.com
Blog Archive
-
▼
2005
(195)
-
▼
May
(16)
- Any Given Week
- Job 13
- Possibility of Believing in God
- Religious Liberty in Israel?
- Ha!
- The Artful Blogger
- How Religious Are You?
- Cult Checklist
- The History of Tefillin
- Where Morality Steps In
- Rambam - the First Reform Jew
- Universe for the Taking
- Late Passover Post
- Stepping Stones
- On the way to Monsey
- I've Been Away
-
▼
May
(16)
Blogger Links
- Jewish Atheist
Pretty self-evident. - Existential Angst (aka XGH)
Godol Hador's reincarnation - Ohr Chadash
Blog by B. Spinoza in an effort to reinvent a vigorous meaningful Judaism. - Wolfish Musings
"Some notes on the frum community from a local wolf." (In sheep's clothing.) - The Things I Care To Share
Little bit country, little bit rock 'n' roll. - Ben Avuyah
A great writer who hits the heart of the issue. Two thumbs up! - In My Humble Jewish Opinion...
An "outspoken" post-seminary girl. Like looking into a philosophical reality warp... - Baal Habos
"Ignorance Is Bliss" - Bilbulatsia
"There's a blaze of light in every word, it doesn't matter which you heard, the holy or the broken Hallelujah..." - Da'as Hedyot
"Definitely not da'as torah." - David's Harp
"Musings on the jumbled interplay between emotions, ideas and beliefs"
- The Frum Skeptics Group
A forum for skeptics of all flavors Jewish to get together and gripe about whatever. Must be a Yahoo member to enter. (Don't worry, it's free.) - Talk Reason
"This website presents a collection of articles which aim to defend genuine science from numerous attempts by the new crop of creationists to replace it with theistic pseudo-science under various disguises and names." Also, take a special look here and here - Talk Origins
"Talk.origins is a Usenet newsgroup devoted to the discussion and debate of biological and physical origins." Check out 29+ Evidences for Macroevolution - Daat Emet
"DE has been operating since 1998 as a public organization, whose main goal is the study of classical Jewish culture and the dissemination of its scientific, humanistic interpretation." - Concordance of the Bible
Find any word used in the Bible in Hebrew or Greek (includes Christian texts) and their meaning in every passage. - Internet Sacred Text Archive
It's an archive of all the world's notable religious, cultural, and philosophical works. I suggest taking a look at the Judaism section; it's even got the Bible! - An introduction to the history and culture of Pharaonic Egypt
The title is a misnomer. This site has everything on Ancient Egypt.
- Mis-nagid
The Cantankerous Atheist "Frum" Jew. Always has something interesting brewing. - The Godol Hador
Amusing irreverent satire of the Greats of our time. - Recovering Ortho Jew
A critical look at Rabbinic Judaism
<<
List
Jewish Bloggers
Join
>>
8 comments:
Ben,
Found it here: http://www.vbs.org/rabbi/hshulw/outreach_bot.htm
One of the selected speeches of Rabbi Harold Schulweis which I found rather enjoyable.
I can start praying again! I just didn't know how to say the words anymore. Funniest thing I've read in a while. Thanks for posting!
Ben,
From what I've read of the guy he is conservative/reconstructionist in his beliefs and approach to Judaism.
If you read what he means by things he doesn't believe in an actual eternal soul as a _noun_, as a thing. But rather as a process of being passed on in genetics, heritage, tradition, and memory. Eternal life is not "out there" but within and between us all.
Very poetic but also nearly nonsensical. He's rather naturalistic in his approach to the world but tries to fit some sort of Jewish belief and terminology into things.
If one were to ask him if the Torah is true or not, he'd answer with the question, "Is the Mona Lisa true or not?" It is what it is and taking anything in the Torah literally is a way to ruin.
So us not believing in an actual soul isn't really a much different view from his own.
Nonsensical? I thought that dvar rocked! It really spoke to me; different strokes for different folks, I guess. His view of God as a verb rather than a noun is awesome.
Anon,
Hey, I really liked it too but the point is that he's really just trying too hard. God has never been a verb and turning "caring" into faith is just mixing up terms.
It really is a nice idea which removes empirical claims from Judaism and turns skeptics into heroes but I can't imagine anyone taking it seriously.
What does it mean to believe in "acts of kindness"? Nothing at all.
That's very amusing.
How did it happen that I switched schools? It's a complicated story. Would you prefer the condensed version or the long one?
Either way, my parents are very insightful/special people.
Chana,
I'd be curious to hear anything you'd be willing to tell me.
Your parents must lean way to the left in Orthodoxy to permit something like that. If not then your parents must be even more unusual.
All right, will be quite happy to relay the story to you. And actually, no, my parents are quite Orthodox- not right-wing, because that implies close-mindedness, but the Torah u'Madda kipa-srugah wearing type of right-wing. My father is the Baal Keriah/Korei, for example, at our shul....so he moves within all the Orthodox circles.
And yes, they're pretty unusual.
The reason they'd let me attempt such a thing has to do with their family background and the way in which they raised me. My mother is Sephardi and from Uzbekistan (but her English is perfect with absolutely no trace of accent), she emigrated when she was 18 or so. Her father was the wealthiest man in his community, known as Moshe Gibor Simantobov, the man who built the mikveh, gave out tzedakah, etc. There they were all persecuted, etc, by various Muslims who lived there- it was the time where shechitah, donkeys, and pogroms were all the norm. She went to the elite KGB school there- all Non-Jewish, of course, and came out perfectly fine. More so, in fact, because she doesn't have textual knowledge- better yet, she has practical knowledge. Knowledge of halachah, kashrus, the various laws...much more than we learn in high school nowadays.
My textually learned father, on the other hand, is an American Ashkenaz whose parents survived the Holocaust, so he had his own battles to fight growing up to find a type of Judaism that was truthful, since he, and his father (my grandfather) saw so many examples of hypocrisy. My grandfather worked for the IRS and saw many religious Jews who cheated on taxes, for instance. My father finally found a wonderful role model (it wasn't easy) and based his knowledge and parenting on this man's style. He and my mother both went to YU.
There they both felt an affinity with R' Soloveitchik, which they have passed on to me, and his understanding of Orthodox Judaism.
I think this background of my parents is a prerequisite to understanding how they could possibly switch me, as I will unfold that story.
Post a Comment