The Evolving Jew

I have emunah in God. And yet, he doesn’t exist. Let me clarify. What’s the common definition of existence? Something that has a tangible reality as defined by empiricism. God doesn't meet that criteria, at least not the contemporary idea of an incorporeal god. Through much of the early middle ages, Jews believed that God had a body. But now, we believe Him to be intangible and incorporeal. So he doesn't exist. That's why I think "belief" is such a poor translation of "emunah". I have emunah in Hashem. I feel that outside of the reality of our world there is a spiritual realm and it is in that spiritual realm that God is. I use "feel" because that's what it is. It's about an emotional connection, not an empirical one. That's why I feel that those who try to "prove" God are on the wrong track. You can never prove God's existence, because by all standards of measurement that we use in our physical plane, God does

Wasn't that supposed to be yesterday? I totally forgot. Seems to be a lot less discussion of it on the blogs I frequent than there was last year. Did anyone attend? (Either live or online) How was it? Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Talk about gimmicks! Couldn't they just use apples? Or how about being really radical and just using numbers?

On Her Own writes about a young woman she knows who seems unhappily trapped in the yeshivish lifestyle: "(she) cried to me for half an hour about how she hated wearing her sheitel (she said it pulled her hair out), how she felt like she'd thrown away her life, etc., etc... ...stood before me in her snood, shlumpy clothing covering a slouching and unhealthy looking figure, telling me in a monotone voice about her kids and the yeshiva in which her husband is learning" Here's my comment to her post: I feel for that girl, and unfortunately know so many people just like her, both men & women. I think that the treadmill of seminary-marriage-kollel is a bit of a game. The people on this treadmill don't really think about the permanent ramifications of the treadmill until it's too late, until they're stuck in that life. The turning point is children and that usually happens pretty fast. Once kids are involved, there's rarely any turning back.

Ahhh, it's nice to be taking a nice lunchtime hike :-) The woods clear my brain. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

The left hates it - they see it as a land grab. The right hates it - they don't want any future border defined. I wholeheartedly approve of it. I regret that it makes Palestinians' daily lives more difficult, but not having daily attacks on Israelis makes their daily lives easier, and that's my primary concern. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Sitting in the Nesher sherut to Jerusalem, I have come to the following conclusion about the purpose of speedbumps in Israel vs. In the US. US: Drive slower. Israel: Between each set of speedbumps, even if they're only separated by 10 feet, test the car's ability to accelerate to 80mph and test the brakes' ability to come to a screeching halt. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Just arrived in Israel for a family wedding. I'm not usually prone to "only in Israel" stories, but I have to relate a couple of small things. 1) The young female ElAl employee at JFK who asked me the usual "who packed your bags?", "did anyone give you a package?" questions also, after examining my Israeli passport, demanded to know why, if I had made aliyah, was I living in America. She then proceeded to strongly urge me to uproot my family immediately and return to Israel to live. 2) I caught a nasty cold on the plane. Hundreds of people in an enclosed space for 9 hours... At Ben Gurion Airport, I approached the passport control desk. The woman at the desk, seeing me sniffling, immediately pulled out a roll of toilet paper (I guess she had no tissues) and sympathetically placed it in front of me. It's nice to be home. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry