TODAY’S POST COMES FROM GUEST-BLOGGER Ann Clark and concerns our weekly living-room Torah study. We begin the reading cycle anew tomorrow (technically, yesterday and today) — but do we ever really begin, or end, anything? France Street Torah Study Neal…
Tag: Being Jewishly
Living Judaism with heart, soul, and all we have.
Biblical Note: No Idiots Need Apply
IT HAS COME TO THE attention of Metaphorager.Net that certain hatebrained wink-and-gigglers are selectively quoting vv. 8-9 of Psalm 109 to express their disdain for the President With The Suspicious Middle Name (simply paraphrased, they’re calling for his death). While…
Blog: “Oy Bay”
JEWISH BLOGS CAN BE DICEY: on the one hand are individuals writing about everything from raising kids in Israel to student-rabbiing to Torah to protesting one’s Torah(1), and on the other are institutions often conducting “outreach” or fundraising. The former…
Pithyism #0
GOD BELONGS ONLY TO GOD; religion belongs only to humanity; humanity belongs together.
5 Thoughts: The Idolatry of Gay Bashing
1. READ A LETTER TO THE SF Chronicle’s editor this morning by a gentleman saying he voted for Prop 8, the anti-gay marriage initiative, because heterosexuals own the word “marriage.” 2. I’ve heard this argument before, and like the other…
Saturday Morning Live
Lay Led Torah Study & Service — 7/10/10, 9a to 10:15/10:30 to noonish Congregation Shir Shalom, 252 W. Spain St., Sonoma JOIN THE SONOMA VALLEY JEWISH community tomorrow morning at 10:30 for a laid-back, lay-led “Reform Mellow” service at Congregation…
Not Good For The Jews, Or Anyone Really
THE WORLD IS SO SMALL these days that you never know who might be reading you — including the families of those aboard the Gaza flotilla. If that’s the case, then please let me apologize in advance. I am very…
Song of the Universe
TONIGHT IS SHAVUOT, WHICH CELEBRATES the gift of Torah at Mt. Sinai some 3,322 years ago. Whether one believes the Torah’s own account is inconsequential; what we celebrate is the living text (rather, Living Text) itself and its indivisibility from…
Torah: Learn A Little!
REMEMBER THE SATURDAY MORNING TORAH study Ann started back in 2001? Well, we’re still doing it, and if you’d like to do it too — and you’re going to be in Sonoma between 10 a.m. and noon tomorrow — you…
Torah Word: Kedoshim
Torah Portion: Acharei Mot-Kedoshim Leviticus 16:1-20:27 Haftorah: Amos 9:7-15 “Kedoshim t’hyu, ki kadosh ani Adonai Eloheicha — Be holy, for I am holy, Adonai your God.” (Leviticus 19:2) The second half of this week’s double portion takes a breather from…
Talmidei Torah Considered As The Great Motorcycle Dialectic
(sans apology to and/or connection with Messrs. Jarry et Ballard) THERE ARE THE HARLEY RIDERS. They would not dream of owning any transportation they couldn’t twiddle with or hack. Every knob, every switch, every gear is known and its connection…
Minute Mitzvah: Mind That Credenza
And now, it’s time for another Monday Mitzvah. Today: Safeguard your home from accidents. IN ITS SIMPLE VERSION, THIS mitzvah calls for a roof-edge parapet to keep people from falling off. As those living outside a Mediterranean building-climate likely have…