Judaism

Judaism is a way of life that challenges it's adherents to use their freewill to carry out Abraham's mission of bettering the world. Judaism insists that a person live very much in this world, and the Torah texts and the mass of rabbinic literature reflects this. So much of what they talk about is how to simply be a mentsch, take responsibility for yourself, and be kind and compassionate to others.

God gave Abraham trials that asked him to shake himself free of the world around him and take radical action that would set him apart as the ivri - the revolutionary - and at the same time make real, lasting change to the corrupt world around him. Picking up and leaving his childhood home and family estate, rejecting the pagan approaches to understanding and using nature, Abraham was building himself up to become a true leader of people, and the founder of Judaism.

Millions of words have been written about the application of the ancient wisdom of the Torah and the Talmud to modern challenges. The dynamism of Jewish scholarship and the proverbial stubbornness of the Jewish people have made Judaism remain as relevant today as it ever was.

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Latest blogosphere posts tagged “Judaism”

• Dying Man’s Daily Journal – Please Prayers for Vi’s Mum

  
  Dying mans daily journal — Authority: 128
  Yesterday, I mentioned a special prayer request, I would be making. I ask for prayers for Vi’s mum, Nellie Chevillard. Nellie is in her 80’s and was hopitalized after taking a nasty fall. Nellie is a very determined and independant soul. Needing the use of the bathroom and upon finding the one on the main floor ...
  3 hours ago

• Not Much of a Hiddush

  
  Cross-Currents — Authority: 458
  Hiddush means something new, but there is nothing new at all in Hiddush, the organization. Even the dramatis personae are just warmed-over stock characters. Hiddush is the latest in a series of attempts to bring the Orthodox community in Israel to its knees. The only thing different about this attempt seems to be ...
  5 hours ago

• What Do Shabbat and Lobster Have in Common? Abe Pollin

  
  Tikun Olam-???? ????: Make the World a Better Place — Authority: 547
  I don’t know what predominates in this appreciation of Abe Pollin written by Maureen Dowd, a sense of religious sacrilege or crazy Jewish humor: [Polins son] Bob noted: “My mother and he always celebrated Shabbat dinner on Friday night. And they always had lobster .” As strongly as Abe Pollin felt about ...
  6 hours ago

• Jewdas: Radical Diaspora Voices

  
  Tikun Olam-???? ????: Make the World a Better Place — Authority: 547
  This post will attest to the benefit of bloggers checking their referral log to see who is reading and linking to them.  Had I not done this I wouldn’t have come across one of the most interesting web sites I’d seen in months.  It is Jewdas: Radical Voices for the Alternative Diaspora .  The website name ...
  6 hours ago

• Long and Winding Roads

  
  Shirat Devorah — Authority: 478
  A Jewish family on the outskirts of a small village in Russia believed that their grandfather had buried a treasure under a tree, along the road from Bialystok to Slonim when he was fleeing from the Cossacks. One member of the family earnestly determined to find the treasure. He dug under every tree along the road, ...
  12 hours ago

• Spit on a Christian

  
  Deep Thoughts — Authority: 481
  I read an article in Haaretz.com today called Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them . A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalems Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap ...
  18 hours ago

• THE PROTOCOLS, BLOOD LIBEL, MATZO BALLS, JESUSS MURDER, ORGAN TRAFFICKING, WHITE PHOSPHORUS, IDF ORGAN HARVESTING

  
  REAL LIBERAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH — Authority: 129
  Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion was a tract purported by most Jews to have been plagiarized likely by the Russian secret service under the Czar and from a work by Joly written against Louis Napoleon of France, whom Joly and others rightly considered a dictator who ...
  19 hours ago

• PEACE OR SETTLEMENTS-WHICH WAY ISRAEL?

  
  The Impudent Observer - Global Liberal Issues — Authority: 148
  The people of Israel for half a century have sought in vain to encounter Arab groups which seek peace rather than violence. Ironically, finally, the long desired event has come true with the emergence of President Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, who has demonstrated a desire for peace. So, what ...
  23 hours ago

• Bat Mitzvah Favors To Remember

  
  Gypsy Camp Blog — Authority: 156
  You can find some really interesting Bat Mitzvah favors if you look around. In general, they tend to incorporate everything that the celebration stands for, and you can make them truly unique by having the personalized. Every girls Bat Mitzvah is special, so you need to put some extra effort into the favors to make it ...
  1 day ago

• Dying Man’s Daily Journal – Medical update

  
  Dying mans daily journal — Authority: 128
  I know I have said it hundreds of times, but I AM A LUCKY MAN. When I think of it, maybe luck doesn’t have anything to do with it. Our Heavenly Father has surrounded me with both Heavenly Angels and Earth Angels. A couple a days ago I wrote of having an appointment at the heart failure clinic. During the ...
  1 day ago

• The world wants no more settlements and Israel doesn’t give a damn

  
  Antony Loewenstein — Authority: 140
  The New York Times writes a typically soft editorial on the Middle East – Israel, the Palestinians and Washington are all at fault, it claims, ignoring the profound power imbalances in the region – and Haaretz reports on how the Israeli government really views the occupation (more, please): Defense ...
  1 day ago

• In a Home to Free Speech, a Paper Is Accused of Anti-Semitism

  
  NYT > Theater — Authority: 906
  Becky O’Malley, front, is the editor of The Berkeley Daily Planet, a California weekly that critics accuse of publishing too many letters and other commentary critical of Israel. Ms. O’Malley, 69, denies any personal or editorial bias. “I have the old-fashioned basic liberal thing of believing that the remedy ...
  1 day ago

• Hacks can’t spin away Olmert’s shameful record

  
  Antony Loewenstein — Authority: 140
  Following the news that former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert arrived in Australia , I submitted the following (unpublished) letter to the major papers: It is revealing that Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert swung into Australia virtually unannounced this week and was given a “warm welcome” by ...
  1 day ago

• Please hold and cuddle us, begs pro-settler Jew

  
  Antony Loewenstein — Authority: 140
  Australian-born Zionist Isi Leibler – a believer in ex-communicating ‘dissident” Jews – appears in the Melbourne Age to plead for poor, little Israel. The whole world hates her and it’s just not fair. We’re a thriving democracy, he claims. Oh sure, the Palestinians are “suffering” but it’s ...
  1 day ago

• Becoming Jewish Three Times

  
  Your Moral Leader — Authority: 145
  I used to go to Ohr HaTorah with this guy. We reconnected at the first LimmudLA in February 2008. He lives in Jerusalem and looks chareidi. He’s the most genial guy, funny, and easy to talk to. Yes, most Orthodox Jews do seem intimidating to those who are less religious. They make you feel less than, a familiar ...
  1 day ago

• Olmert is a Zionist legend (argues “journalist”)

  
  Antony Loewenstein — Authority: 140
  When former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visits America, he is welcomed as a war criminal . In Australia, Foreign Editor Greg Sheridan of Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian treats him like a glorious hero : Ehud Olmert is a giant of contemporary Middle East politics. As Israel’s prime minister he made ...
  1 day ago

• Shopping With Jonathan Adler: To Light the Nights

  
  NYT > Theater — Authority: 906
  CANDLESTICK MAKER Jonathan Adler browses in the Cooper Shop at the Jewish Museum.
  1 day ago

• Religion and War

  
  Dr. Claude Mariottini - Professor of Old Testament — Authority: 517
  Nicholas Kristof, an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times , wrote a column titled “The Religious Wars” in which he reviews three recent books on religion that present unfavorable views of God, Judaism, and Christianity. The following is an excerpt from his column: Just a few years ago, it seemed curious that ...
  1 day ago

• Can a Catholic Pray Like a Jew? - Part II

  
  Vivificat! — Authority: 423
  continued from Part I Themes in Jewish/Christian Divergence on Prayer Before we continue, let us check my assumptions: first, and as I stated before, I am assuming that post-Biblical, post-second Temple Judaism developed independently from, and in many instances in opposition to, Christianity: it ...
  1 day ago

• Va-Yetzei Jacobs Encounter with God Illustration Phillip Ratner

  
  IsraelSeen.com — Authority: 122
  ” He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. He has a dream; a stairway was set on the ground and its top reached the sky, [...]
  1 day ago

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