Category: Books & Resources

Arguments for the Sake of Heaven

 

Image: The logo for Sh’ma, A Journal of Jewish Ideas.

I’d like to acquaint you with another wonderful online resource: the Web-based edition of Sh’ma.  This issue “Arguments for the Sake of Heaven” is timely, and their back-issues (you can find them through the link above) are a treasure trove of Jewish perspective on the issues of the day. I love Sh’ma and am an avid reader – I encourage you to get acquainted with it as a source of sekhel [wisdom] and Torah.

Argument For The Sake Of Heaven. How do we participate in constructive argumentation? Page 6 features art by JAS member Beth Grossman: https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.forward.com/downloads/jan2017argumentationmachlochetdigital-1485367569.pdf Sh’ma Now editor Susan Berrin: “The election is over; the inauguration has passed. We face four years of an administration that will challenge us in extraordinary ways. One of the responses I thought might […]

via Sh’ma Now – February Issue MACHLOCHET L’SHEM SHAMAYIM — Jewish Art Salon

HasidicStories.com: An Internet Resource

Europe in the 18th century saw the rise of a new, influential movement in Judaism. It rose out of a situation in which Talmud learning became not only the pinnacle of Jewish study but also a measure of Jewish masculinity. A great man in the Jewish communities of that era was a man who was a virtuoso at Talmud study. This was also a measure of the holiness of a man: only a scholar could aspire to holiness.

While every young Jewish boy learned a little bit in cheder [basic religious school,]  only a few moved on to yeshiva learning, and even fewer would excel at it. For many poorer boys, unless they were highly talented and their talent came to the attention of someone influential, they were locked out of any aspiration to holiness as it was defined at the time.

According to the Virtual Jewish Library:

Although contemporary Jews often use the word “Hasid” as a synonym for ultra-Orthodox, Hasidism, a religious movement that arose in eighteenth century Eastern Europe, was originally regarded as revolutionary and religiously liberal.

Hasidism was a movement that grew up to challenge the notion of holiness that held up scholarship as the only avenue to holiness. It focused on the emotional side of Judaism and on a mystical, emotional reaching towards God. Its founder, Israel Ben Eliezer, also know as the Ba’al Shem Tov [Master of the Good Name] was a healer and a leader who taught that God was all around us, and that the proper way to respond to the presence of God is joy. Much of his teaching took the form of stories.

I have just lately discovered a wonderful resource online for Hasidic stories. HasidicStories.com offers many stories as well as articles that provide a context in which to understand the stories. It includes stories from a number of teachers, including the Ba’al Shem Tov, Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev and others. The website makes for some delightful reading and points towards other resources as well.

(In case you are wondering, the scholarly Jews who opposed Hasidism in the early days were known as Mitnagdim or “Opponents.” Later, the two groups reunited. For more about that, I recommend the article in the Virtual Jewish Library. Today, many students from all movements of Judaism study old Hasidic stories for insights into Torah.)

Image: The synagogue of the Ba’al Shem Tov in Medzhibozh, Ukraine. Public Domain.

More Blogs I Follow

Image: Me and my dog, Gabi. Photo by Linda Burnett.

Chanukah sameach, all!

I’m not all that happy myself, at the moment – a persistent chronic medical problem is with me yet again. I’m tired of it, and annoyed with it, and it makes it hard for me to sit at the computer and write.

In the meantime, here are some blogs you may enjoy. I am a regular reader of these blogs. Here they are for your reading pleasure:

Rabbi Sharon Sobel’s blog is following a synagogue group on a Chanukah trip to Israel right now. You can follow them, beginning with the first travel entry.

Jen’s Jewish Journey is a blog I love. Jen chooses to be “out” about her conversion to Judaism, and has a very interesting point of view.

The Bloggess, aka Jenny Lawson, is one of the most distinctive voices on the Internet. She says herself that “if you are easily offended, you are in the wrong place.” She does a nice job of speaking up for herself and for others with mental illness: she describes the blog as “mainly dark humor mixed with brutally honest periods of mental illness.” I love her. You’ve been warned.

I began following Dan Rockwell’s Leadership Freak blog when Rabbi Paul Kipnes quoted him once. If your life regularly puts you up at the front of the room, I recommend this blog very highly.

John Scalzi is a science fiction writer. I like his books. I like his blog even better. I got most of my rules for managing the comments section by watching Scalzi wield his Mallet.

That should keep you busy for a while. Happy Chanukah!

My Favorite Jewish Fiction

Image: An open book. Photo by unsplash/pixabay.com.

I recommend LadyMeritaten’s blog, Jewish Books are Awesome. It’s one of my sources for new reading. This past week she re-posted a list of 100 Must-Read Works of Jewish Fiction from BookRiot.com, and I’m happy to say it gave me some leads on books I haven’t read. It also gave me the idea for this post.

My favorite Jewish fiction includes some books from the BookRiot list, and some that I guess they don’t think are “must-read.” Anyhow, here they are for your enjoyment, in a completely random order. All are available in English.

If there’s a book you love that isn’t here, I hope you’ll share it in the comments.

The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon – An alternative history and murder mystery that is the best argument for the existence of the State of Israel that you’ll ever read.

The Trial of God by Elie Wiesel – Where is God when terrible things happen?

The Saturday Morning Murder by Batya Gur – This is the first in a series of mystery novels set in Israel. Even though they were written back in the 1990’s, they will do more to give you a feeling of ordinary Israeli life than anything else I know.

Rashi’s Daughters by Maggie Anton – A trilogy of historical novels by scholar Maggie Anton. Engaging and learned, in that order.

The Book of Daniel by E.L. Doctorow – A story about the Red Scare and the Cold War. Has chilling resonance today.

As A Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg – A story based on Talmudic texts about a privileged young man who studies Torah and loses his way. It’s great for getting a feel for the world of the Talmud, but know that in the texts, the story ends differently.

The Last of the Just by André Schwarz-Bart – my candidate for Best Holocaust Novel ever.

Kaaterskill Falls by Allegra Goodman – A story about a small community in upstate New York, where year-round residents and summer people live in tension.

Enemies: A Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer – I love movies, but there is more nuance in one page of this novel than in the movie. A wry and funny story from the great Ashkenazi storyteller.

The Chosen by Chaim Potok – A book about Orthodox life in Brooklyn. If you use the phrase “the Orthodox…” in your speech as if Orthodoxy were a monolith, you must read this.

Septimania by Jonathan Levi – A novel of time and place and being. Not everyone will like it, but I loved it.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka – A weird little book about inadequacy and self-loathing, one of the most influential books of the 20th century. Also very, very Jewish.

The Natural by Bernard Malamud – A Baseball Novel! And no, seeing the movie doesn’t count. Read the book.

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran – Dark, funny, a travelogue, a journey without and within. A true post-Holocaust novel.

I am sure I’ve forgotten some wonderful books. I’m also sure that you have some wonderful books to suggest. Comments, please!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What the World Needs Now


I am reading up on compassion because there’s such a shortage at the moment.

Books about God & Judaism

Image: Sombrero Fog Galaxy, photo by the Hubble Telescope, via Wikimedia. Public Domain.

Tomorrow night I’m going to be teaching “God, Covenant & Mitzvah,” in Intro to Judaism class. It’s a challenging topic for many, because it’s one of the areas where Judaism is quite different from many other religions.

There are no creeds in Judaism. As a rule, Judaism is much more concerned with speech and behavior than it is with belief. Judaism is a religion of doing: making the world better through actions and the careful use of language.

There are two books I recommend to students who are interested in exploring the topic of God & Judaism further:

Finding God: Selected Responses by Rifat Sonsino and Daniel B. Syme is a very succinct introduction to Jewish ideas about God over the centuries.

God? Jewish Choices for Struggling with the Ultimate edited by Josh Barkin is a wonderful little book written for adolescents. It addresses questions such as “Who created God?”  and “Does prayer work?” and “Where do people go when they die?” The answers are short answers from rabbinical students and young Jewish teachers, and they provide a nice feel for the variety of voices and opinions in the Jewish world.

These two are the best books I know for approaching the questions most people want to ask about Jewish belief. Beyond them, we move very quickly into much deeper water and heavy duty theological language. I recommend you read these two, and if you are interested in going further, ask your rabbi for suggestions!

 

Science and Religion, Another View

Image: Photo of Rosalind Ellis Franklin. I have been unable to obtain rights information for this photo; if any reader is aware of the owner, I would appreciate that information.

Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. Science, for me, gives a partial explanation of life. In so far as it goes, it is based on fact, experience, and experiment. . . . I agree that faith is essential to success in life, but I do not accept your definition of faith, i.e., belief in life after death. In my view, all that is necessary for faith is the belief that by doing our best we shall come nearer to success and that success in our aims (the improvement of the lot of mankind, present and future) is worth attaining. –Rosalind Franklin in a letter to her father, 1940.

These words were written by one of the discoverers of DNA. I’ve been reading her biography, Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox. It is a well-researched and highly readable account of the tragically short life of a scientist whose work in the 1950’s has changed all our lives.

If you are thinking, “Didn’t Watson and Crick discover the structure of DNA?” you are partly correct. However their work would have been impossible without the data and the images produced by Franklin’s methodical experiments. Some scientists today feel that she was unfairly robbed of credit she should have been given at the time. (Read the book or follow the links for more information about Franklin and DNA.)

I was fascinated by this young woman. She was the daughter of one of the most influential Jewish families in Britain, a descendant of King David, no less. She was a brilliant scientist known not only for her work with DNA but also for work on RNA and viruses, and one of the leading experts on the structure of coal in her day – all before her death at 38!

I can see in her words above that she had done some serious thinking about an issue that troubles many of my students, who find most of their childhood notions of God completely blown up by science. If science is true, then religion is … what? Bunk?

This young Jew (she was about 20 when she wrote those words) must have felt the tension between the religious language she learned as a child and scientific truth. I find her statement above impressive.

Since the scientific revolution it became difficult to talk with a straight face using  much of the language that we traditionally used to talk about topics of ultimate meaning. There is no big man in the sky. Life evolved on earth, it did not appear neatly organized over six days. No angels. No heaven in the sky. No hell under the earth. No “book of life,” not really. So why not just throw out all that religion stuff, all the fairy tales?

Rosalind recognized that real religion is the recognition of something greater than one’s self. For her, that Greater One is “the improvement of the lot of mankind, present and future.” She knew that she was not the center of the universe, no matter how brilliant she was, no matter how fancy her pedigree. She was not distracted (and in fact, she seems mildly annoyed) that others cling to impossibilities.

If you find her and her ideas interesting, I recommend the book. I felt that every moment of reading it was well-spent.

Scholars Engage with “Torah of Truth”

Image: Study partners examine a Torah together. Photo by Linda Burnett.

I learned tonight about a marvelous study resource online that I’d like to share with you. Torah.com has organized a symposium of 25 major Torah scholars to write meditations on “Torat Emet” [Torah of Truth].  Their articles on the subject are available online for all of us to read.

I have only begun to delve into the articles myself, but the introduction is well worth your time. I decided to rush ahead and share it because this is a time of year when many Jews are looking for serious reading as we prepare for the High Holy Days.

The scholars grapple with the notion of truth, of being a “Torah true Jew,” and of the problems an ancient text can present to a modern reader. There are many ways to read Torah, and it is difficult for all of us. Still, the rewards are mighty.

Enjoy.

 

Books to Help Us Prepare for the High Holy Days

Image: Man blowing a shofar. Photo by jonathunder via wikimedia. Some rights reserved.

Do you hear the sound of that distant horn?

The High Holy Days are on their way sooner than we realize.

In other words, school begins in the Northern Hemisphere and then “bam!” it will be time to welcome the Jewish New Year.

Are you reading anything to prepare for the season this year? Doing anything else to prepare?

Here are some books I’ve found useful for High Holy Days preparation. Don’t try to read them all! Spending quality time with one good book can be an excellent help.

There are lots of places to find Jewish books online, but if you have a local Jewish bookstore, be sure to take your business to them!

Lawrence Plus Three in Arabia

Anderson.LawrenceCurrently I’m reading Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson. The title is a little misleading; this book is not just a book about T.E. Lawrence, although his is the most completely fleshed out story. The book also deals with three other Europeans who shape the story of the Middle East in the early 20th century. By drawing back to focus on more than just the romantic figure of Lawrence, Anderson offers us a better understanding of the history and its consequences.

Anderson’s four figures:

T.E. Lawrence needs no introduction (surely) – Lawrence of Arabia? Peter O’Toole on a camel? He was a British archaeologist, military officer, and diplomat in the Middle East during WWI.

Aaron Aaronsohn was a Jewish agronomist and Zionist. He was born in Romania but moved at age 6 with his family to Ottoman Palestine. His father was one of the founders of Zichron Ya’acov, now a thriving city in Northern Israel. He would have been among the Founders of the State of Israel had he not been killed in an air crash over the English Channel in 1919.

William Yale was an American civil engineer and executive with the Standard Oil Company of New York, which sent him to Istanbul and then Cairo to explore for oil. In 1917, he was appointed special agent in Cairo for the U.S. Department of State, and the next year he was given a commission as Captain in the U.S. Army and was assigned as an advisor to British General Allenby in Palestine.

Curt Prüfer was a German diplomat from 1907 until 1945. He served primarily in the Middle East although he finished his career in WWII in Brazil. He was one of the architects of German policy towards the British in the Middle East, and thoroughgoing antisemite.

 

This history is mostly about the Great Powers of Europe, not the Turks or the Arabs or the Palestinians. I might argue for a different subtitle: How the European Powers Laid Waste to the Middle East with Some Help from Standard Oil.

I confess to reading about Aaronsohn with some special interest: only he, among the four, regarded the Middle East as his home. I was also curious because, frankly, I’d never heard of the guy and he’s important both as a Zionist and as an agronomist. He was one of the people who “made the desert bloom;” without his work, Israel today would look very different.

Another thing that interests me about this book is its account of the Armenian genocide. I had heard of it, of course, but now I can see how it happened. I now understand its connection to the Nazi Final Solution: Germans like Prüfer were watching very closely to the Turkish policies and to the inattention of the world.

I’m only about half way through the book, and I already feel that I understand more about the modern Middle East. If you have read it, or in future read it, I hope you’ll leave your impressions in the comments here.