The Evolving Jew

RV's don't usually conjure up images of frum Jews, but an enterprising business has found a way to make them a perfect fit! Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

I just spent Simchat Torah in one of the frummer neighborhoods of New York City. You know the type, every block a shtibel, an Agudah, and even the Young Israels are no longer modern. Black hats abound. There are plenty of centrist Orthodox, but they kind of blend in with the Yeshivish crowd. And in no shul do the women actually dance during hakafot on Simchat Torah. Instead, they watch the men. I actually grew up with that model. When hakafot came around, the mechitza would be opened up so the women could watch the men dance. When I was little, I used to dance & happily wave to my mother. But even in my late teens I started doing my own thing for Simchat Torah and went to more modern neighbrhoods and more modern shuls where the women always danced. This was the first time I'd been back to my old neighborhood for ST in something like 20 years. I didn't go to my parents' shul for hakafot - instead I went to a more modern minyan that always used to have women danci...

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