The Evolving Jew

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