The Evolving Jew

http://evolvingjew.blogspot.com/2015/07/a-lesson-of-tisha-bav.html A separate thought - the loss of the Beit Hamikdash is very abstract. We mourn, but many of us who mourn struggle to feel it personally. But in this year of mourning for my father, I suddenly understand what loss is on a new level. 

I just got up from sitting Shiva this morning. I will write more about my father when I have had time to process things more. But I want to share a picture of me and my father some years ago (before my beard grayed to match his). I miss you, Abba. May the neshama of Yitzchak ben Avraham Yosef Halevi have an aliyah.

What's going on in Israel is extremely alarming. The fact that they could have a constitutional crisis where the judiciary and the Knesset are staring each other down is unprecedented, with the judiciary threatening to strike down the law that's intended to neuter the judiciary. Mass protests, members of the government calling for the arrest of opposition leaders? Democracy there has never been more at risk. Of course it's easy for me to blame Bibi, and I do, for cozying up and elevating extreme elements. But honestly, one can blame the center opposition parties as well. Was it worth rejecting Netanyahu so utterly that you end up with a coalition like this? The only stable coalition that would govern from a normal center-right place, that would preserve democracy, is a national unity government with Likud, Yesh Atid, and a few others. That would be stable, would still lean to the right, as Likud voters obviously wished for. And you wouldn't have this moment of crisis. L...

Interesting post from 2013. I had even forgotten some of this stuff myself: V'ten Tal U'matar, Thanksgivikkah, and the slippage of the Hebrew calendar http://evolvingjew.blogspot.com/2013/12/vten-tal-umatar-thanksgivikkah-and.html

I've been looking through some of the saved drafts of posts imported from my old blog that I never published here, or never finished writing, so never published at all. Here's one from 2008: Title: I want to raise kids far away from NY Even Modern Orthodox institutions in the NY area have elements like this: Racial Comments ‘Shock’ Principals Do I really want my kids hearing this racism from their classmates? In "out of town" schools, this is far less common. Fast-forward 14 years, I am raising my kids "out of town" and the Modern Orthodox community here is by-and-large free of racism :-)

Translation of every front page newspaper headline in America today: "We still don't know anything because no votes have been counted, but here's yet another bunch of inane articles about the election to keep you reading and cover the fact that there won't be any real news till tomorrow"

Or more accurately, it was the 15th anniversary last month of the various iterations of my blog. I started out as the blogger "Yehudi Hilchati" just over 15 years ago - my first post was on February 28, 2007. Though along with the rest of the JBlogosphere, my blog is mostly silent these days, I happened to notice that I missed the anniversary and decided to mark it.

 Originally posted in 2017: A friend wrote a piece about how Orthodox Jewry often has problems discussing God. My thoughts? The Torah says that Hashem created us in his image, and there's been a lot of philosophical musings about the various meanings of that. Ultimately, I think it's more accurate to say that we create God in our image. Not that God isn't real - I may doubt much of Jewish dogma, but I believe in Hashem. But part of what makes it difficult to speak about God communally in the Jewish community is that there are many Gods - or rather, many different perceptions of God. Hashem is an emotional concept. We each find our own path to him (or her) by perceiving God in a way that each of us can relate to - in our own image. For some that's a grand king, though that concept is more difficult to relate to in a democratic age where people have the right of self-determination. For others it's a parent, sometimes loving, sometimes stern. For others Hashem is a fri...

https://evolvingjew.blogspot.com/2016/09/my-9-11-story.html

 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tammuz-Mesopotamian-god  "Tammuz , Sumerian  Dumuzi , in  Mesopotamian religion , god of  fertility  embodying the powers for new life in nature in the spring."

Israel should reform its political system to eliminate the need for a coalition at all. Step 1) hold an election for the Knesset 2) have a set number of ministerial posts, far fewer than they have now (a lot of them were created just to get parties into a coalition) 3) the Knesset as a whole votes for who they would like to fill each ministerial position, including prime minister, using ranked choice voting or runoffs And there you have a functioning government in place. Individual Knesset members are free to vote however they want on any particular issue. Not perfect, but better than what they have now.

I've seen that assertion quite a bit lately. No question, Donald Trump is a despicable human being and was a horrible president. But worst president ever? Here are some worse ones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_who_owned_slaves That list includes George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. No matter their accomplishments, no matter their leadership, THEY OWNED SLAVES! They kept other human beings as personal property! They treated black human beings like we treat cattle today. Yes, I know times were different. I know it was accepted then. That's not an excuse. There were already American abolitionists in colonial times. Donald Trump is many terrible things, including a racist. But he's never owned slaves. A little historical perspective, please.

And also the night before a fast day, this year, so don't forget to fill up on chinese food tonight! http://evolvingjew.blogspot.com/2012/12/silent-nacht-holy-nacht.html

 I have a question that I'm sure many of us have. I can't imagine how anyone could vote for the other guy. (In my case, the other guy is Trump). And not only vote for him, but do so enthusiastically?? In the abstract, I have to question what kind of people those voters are, that their judgement is so deeply impaired. And yet many of those voters are friends and relatives of mine. People who I know to be kind and generous, and deeply good to the core. How could they possibly vote for someone who I feel is a deranged, racist demagogue? But I put those questions aside. Because I won't let politics, even a year as extreme as this, get between me and the people I care about. I hope the people on the other side of the political divide feel the same way about me.

http://evolvingjew.blogspot.com/2015/07/a-lesson-of-tisha-bav.html

New York Times, January 8th, 2020 ( link ): China Identifies New Virus Causing Pneumonialike Illness While a great deal of blame can go around for how COVID-19 was handled and the subsequent deaths and upending of our lives, no one can be blamed for not being aware of this virus strain before January. The same can't be said of the other (social) pandemic roiling our country. Racism and police brutality didn't first appear in a New York Times article 6 months ago. It's been with us for a long, long, long time, hundreds of years. There are no excuses. Enough.

BLACK LIVES MATTER Things need to change in this country. Now. I say this despite the fact that I have deep reservations about the lack of social distancing at the protests. And am deeply frustrated, even angry, at the hypocrisy of public officials and politicians who look the other way at the crowds gathering in a time of pandemic while still keeping our kids home from school and out of the playgrounds. It's a mockery of those of us who have meticulously socially distanced for months at the expense of our children's emotional health and development. But none of that should obscure the fact that the cause is deeply just. George Floyd's death (and the death of far, far too many black men and women) should not be in vain. I hope that this moment in America brings about real and lasting change.

With everything that's going on, it seemed inappropriate for the top post on my blog to have been about the Israeli election results (and that post was out-of-date anyway). Like everyone else, we are surviving, dealing with the challenge that everyone has right now, of having the kids home from preschool 24/7. But thank G-d we are healthy. May Hashem heal all who are sick and may this pass swiftly.

I'm deeply disappointed by yesterday's election results. I'm not a fan of Netanyahu (to put it mildly) nor of the right wing in Israel. But the people have spoken. There have been enough elections already. Some party or faction on the center or left should just swallow their pride and join a coalition led by Bibi. Israel needs a functioning government and maybe a center-left element might moderate it slightly. Enough elections. Update Mar 8: The above was written when it looked like the right-wing bloc had 60 seats. With only 58, it's anyone's guess what will be.

United Torah Judaism's Rabbi Yaakov Litzman ( protector of child abusers ) said, regarding Lapid: “I have never seen such a campaign of hatred against the ultra-Orthodox. If you, Mr. President, saw a campaign ad on the street of one of the candidates saying he was boycotting Ethiopians or Druze, you would be enraged: We do not know why we and the citizens of this state are punished like this.” Disingenuous, to say the least. Charedim aren't an ethnic group. They are people who have chosen a certain lifestyle. A million people (including myself) share some elements of that lifestyle, such as halachic observance. But the draft avoidance? The lack of educating children for jobs? The erasure of women? The dependence on welfare without giving anything in return? Those are choices, and choices, whether by individuals or groups are valid targets for criticism. Shame on Litzman for comparing Charedim to ethnic groups who have encountered deep discrimination just because of what et...