The Evolving Jew

I like to think I'm pretty savvy about the origins of various minhagim, and I usually look at the legends behind the various customs with a skeptical eye. But I only learned today that the Rosh Hashana prayer "Unetaneh Tokef" was found in the Cairo Geniza, in a manuscript dating to the 8th century. That is far earlier than the traditional belief in the story of R Amnon of Mainz in the 10th or 11th century, who wrote it as he lay dying because of his refusal to convert to Christianity. I had already viewed the details of this story as suspect, because it smacked of being too perfect in its emotional impact. But until today, I still assumed that the authorship, and its time period, were relatively accurate. It turns out that the issues with the authorship are well-known, and have been for half a century. The Geniza manuscript was known to scholars as early as the 1950's. And that is not not the only issue with the traditional story. See this Schechter Institute ...

July 5, 1776 PHILADELPHIA — Voters in America decisively rejected independence from the British Empire in a referendum that had threatened to break up the 150-year union, but also appeared to open the way for a looser, more federal Britain. With results tallied by early Friday from all 13 colonies, the “no” campaign won 55.3 percent of the vote while the pro-independence side won 44.7 percent. The margin was greater than forecast by virtually all pre-election polls. The outcome was a deep disappointment for the vocal, enthusiastic pro-independence movement led by Benjamin Franklin, who had seen an opportunity to make a decades-old nationalist dream a reality and had forced the British crown into panicked promises that they would grant substantial new power to the colonial governments. The decision spared King George III of Britain a shattering defeat that would have raised questions about his ability to continue in office and would have diminished his nation’s standing in th...

In Ferguson, I think we can all agree, violence is absolutely unacceptable. And those who engage in violence should be subject to due legal process and punished. However, I think we can also all agree that the fact that some engage in violence doesn't mean that the protesters don't have legitimate grievances and that those grievances shouldn't be addressed. Further, I think we can agree that those engaging in violence, wrong as they might be, wouldn't be doing such things without the injustice present that created the underlying tension. Now, with due disclaimers that I am not drawing a 1:1 comparison, just for a thought experiment, please replace the word "Ferguson", above, with "Gaza", and read the paragraph again. Thoughts?

DISCLAIMER: I am in NO way making excuses for the terrorism of Hamas. I'm just musing on the nature of warfare. It's interesting - Israel is negotiating with Hamas for a long term cease-fire. So even though we say that terrorism, in the form of shooting rockets into cities indiscriminately, is not legal warfare and should only be answered with force, we nonetheless negotiate with them as if they were playing by the rules. Of course, the idea that innocents shouldn't be targeted during wartime is a fairly recent one. For most of human history, war, people expected war to bring rape, massacres, expulsion, and people being taken into slavery. That was just the way of things. The notion of human rights didn't exist. Now, we pretend to be more civilized. Yet only 70 years ago, the United States, which is supposed to be a bastion of human rights. dropped weapons of mass destruction on innocent civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing between 150,000 and 200,00 peopl...

Earlier, on Facebook, I criticized the establishment of a new settlement in the memory of the 3 boys. I suggested that if they really wanted to honor their memory, they could give tzedaka, learn mishnayot, even establish a new yishuv inside the green line, rather than creating a political provocation for the PA at a time when Yehuda and Shomron has, thankfully, stayed relatively quiet as compared to Gaza. Of course, a number of you strongly disagreed with me, as I expected. But one comment really bothered me, implying that since I don't live there, I shouldn't question these types of decisions. Here's my issue with that attitude. Even if you accept the "you're in chutz la-Artez, you can't judge the war in Gaza" argument (which I don't), this case is entirely different. This has nothing to do with protecting people. I happen to have consistently supported the incursion into Gaza (despite the horrific consequences, which I blame on Hamas). This...

From 2010 (slightly edited): There are voices that assert that we should no longer fast on Tisha B'Av, that if we wanted to rebuild the temple, we could simply do so, and that with a rebuilt Israel and a rebuilt Jerusalem, Tisha B'Av should be obsolete. These people certainly have a point. It’s ironic to see people who live in fancy houses in Flatbush, travel to Israel on El Al several times a year, and have full religious freedoms in America begging Hashem to “end the terrible golus!” But there’s another way of looking at it, and it’s the way I choose to look at many of our traditions. What we commemorate on Tisha B’Av isn’t just the loss of the Temple. It isn’t just a yearning for the Beit HaMikdash to be rebuilt and for sacrifices and a monarchy to be reinstituted. To tell the truth, how likely, practical, or even desirable does that really seem? Instead, it's about something much bigger. We fast because we’ve fasted for 2,000 years. We mourn for the very real ...

When you hear or see a report on the radio or TV about the suffering and death in Gaza, please don't reflexively shut it off, thinking that it's "anti-Israel". Yes, we can, and should, stand with Israel during this fight. Yes, Israel is in the right here. But that doesn't negate the tremendous human suffering on the other side. It doesn't change the fact that children are being killed by our bombs, even if Hamas did put them in harm's way. It doesn't mean that innocent people aren't being killed, wounded, and displaced in massive numbers. We should continue to cheer on our side, but we should also remember that war is hell, and there's nothing good about it. Israel is doing what she has to. But there are ugly consequences to the actions she has been forced to take, and we cannot diminish our humanity by ignoring that. As Jews and human beings, our empathy should extend across enemy lines. So next time a report from Gaza comes on, forc...