Divine Misconceptions • הַגֹּרֶן

The Fast of Ṭeveth

2012-01-05T13:45:00.002+02:00

Jewish date: 10 Ṭeveth 5772 (Parashath Wayyeḥi).

Today’s holidays: The Fast of Ṭeveth (Judaism), Feast Day of John Neumann (Roman Catholicism), Eve of Epiphany (Greek Orthodox Christianity), Feast Day of St. Ludwig II (Church of the SubGenius), Mungday (Discordianism).

Greetings.

I finished Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, and I have started her The Virtue of Selfishness, which very early on makes it crystal clear that Atlas Shrugged is not mere fiction but an expression of her philosophy. Please bear with me while I get through The Virtue of Selfishness. The resulting review will probably almost exclusively show how both books are a textbook example of the trope “Artistic License - Religion”, also known as “You Fail Religious Studies Forever” and a subtrope of “Did Not Do the Research”. (And it should go without saying that artistic license is not acceptable at any time one is supposed to be propounding the truth.)

In the meantime, today is the Fast of Ṭeveth. In the interests of popular religious education, I present you with a number of relevant articles: “Three Days in Tevet: The 10th: Breaching the Walls of Jerusalem”, “The Tenth of Tevet”, and “The Fast of the Tenth of Tevet on OU.ORG”.

Peace, and have an easy fast.

’Aharon/Aaron

Ḥanukkah, “Jesus Responds to Rick Perry's "Strong" Ad”, and “Uh Oh! The Dirty Truth About Santa's Carbon Footprint”

2011-12-25T11:43:00.002+02:00

Jewish date: 29 Kislew 5772 (Parashath Wayyiggash).

Today’s holidays: Ḥanukkah (Judaism), Christmas (Christianity), Feast of Robert “Bob” Leroy Ripley/Festival of Fish-Fighting, Fisting and Felching (Church of the SubGenius), Feast of the Greater Mysteries (Thelema).

Greetings.

I have gotten very bad about posting regularly. I still have not finished reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, which at 1,080 pages, much of it lengthy monologues and lectures, takes quite a while to get through, though I am getting close to the end. Due to the philosophical nature of the work—reportedly it is not a mere work of fiction, but something of a lengthy morality play—I may go on to read her (much shorter) The Virtue of Selfishness as well to get a more solid idea of what her philosophy really is before writing a review. So please bear with me on this. Like it or not, a number of Republican politicians—who seem intent on having a big effect on the United States and by extension the rest of the planet—are reportedly Ayn Rand fans, and as Rand’s philosophy falls into the category of “religious fallacies and misinformation”, this is something I have to tackle. (I am thinking about going back and reading about LaVeyan Satanism, which reportedly is derived from Ayn Rand’s moral code, afterwards. This should take less time to produce a review, as I have an unpublished review of some of the books already written and Anton Szandor LaVey is a much more fun writer once one realizes how much he is writing really is projecting an image.)

In the meantime, you are getting miscellany.

1) This is Ḥanukkah, and so I present a number of relevant articles: “The Triumph of Chanukah”, “Hanukka, extremism and religious freedom”, Hanukkah and How War Should Be Celebrated”, “Chanukah: The Fight for What’s Right!”, and for a bit of irony, “Hanukkia lit in spot Hitler decreed Final Solution”.

2) “Jesus Responds to Rick Perry's "Strong" Ad”, submitted by Barry.

Jesus Responds to Rick Perry's "Strong" Ad from DC Pierson

This is totally fair and gets what Jesus claims in the Gospels right.

3) And something more or less in the way of religious humor, but with a serious point, for our Christian friends: “Uh Oh! The Dirty Truth About Santa's Carbon Footprint”.

Peace, happy Ḥannukah, merry Christmas, and happy whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year.

’Aharon/Aaron

An open letter of complaint to the Israeli Police

2011-12-14T18:45:00.000+02:00

Jewish date: 19 Kislew 5772 (evening) (Parashath Wayyeshev).

Today’s holidays: New Year for Ḥasidhuth (Judaism), Feast Day of John of the Cross (Roman Catholicism), Whiny Victimization/Co-Dependency Day (Church of the SubGenius).

NOTE: This letter has not been sent to the police, because they do not seem to have any publicly listed E-mail address, and their complaint-submission software will not run on a Macintosh. It is being sent, however, to the Prime Minister’s office, the Ministry of Public Security, several political parties, and the Jerusalem Post, as well as being posted on my blog, Divine Misconceptions (http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/).

I write this letter with great sadness, but it is necessary to do so.

On Tuesday, 6 December 2011, I tried to visit the Temple Mount. Most people were waived through with little scrutiny. I was not. Not only did the police object to me taking Jewish religious items up on the Temple Mount, which I expected, but they opposed to me taking a pad of paper with me to take notes on. They did not even want me taking notes at the entrance building. They wanted to know why I was visiting the Temple Mount. I had to be stubborn to avoid being turned away immediately, and I was forced to wait for half an hour while they considered whether to admit me. They ultimately refused, and they best I managed was to guilt-trip a handful of change out of them for wasting the money I spent on bus fare.

Israel has obvious security concerns. Had the police given me reason to believe that anything I was bringing with me was dangerous or that my presence was somehow dangerous, I could accept their refusing me admission. However, they refused to give me any reason other than “Because”. To make things worse, one of the officers suggested I was crazy and that the Western Wall might be a more relevant site to me. It is very difficult not to interpret this as discrimination against me for being an observant Jew.

Sadly this is not an isolated case. The second time I visited the Temple Mount, I had to go through the same security procedure. I was told a list of things I could and could not do on the Temple Mount, and I was followed the entire time I was up there by a police officer and a Waqf official. Contrast this with the first time I visited the Temple Mount, when I disguised myself as a tourist; the police admitted me without scrutiny and permitted to go practically anywhere and do anything without interference or supervision. Discrimination similar to what I have experienced has been reported by other observant Jews, too.

This may be more than just anti-Semitism or bowing to Islamic supremacism. I am also aware of a recent incident in Me’ah She‘arim in which the Seriqriqim, a group of Ḥaredhi thugs, terrorized the owner of a bookstore into acceding to their demands. In both cases, the police failed to stop people who were willing to use violence to get what they wanted rather than enforce tolerance. Giving the violent what they say they want may stop the violence in the short run, but it also teaches that violence works, thus making it more likely that they will use violence again. The policy of appeasement failed long ago; Muslims have rioted repeatedly on the Temple Mount ever since Mosheh Dayyan decided to place it in the hands of the Waqf. Even if appeasement did work, it is inherently unjust to the victims of appeasement and thus has no place in a just society. In most of Yerushalayim, the police do their jobs and anyone can go anywhere in safety. Surely they can do the same on the Temple Mount (and in Me’ah She‘arim) as well.

Dr. Aaron Solomon Adelman

Further reading:

Description of my first trip to the Temple Mount: http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2011/05/temple-mount-infiltration-and-vandalism.html

Description of my second trip to the Temple Mount: http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2011/08/visit-to-temple-mount-2-waqf-still.html

Description of a failed trip to the Temple Mount: http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2011/11/yishaq-rabbin-memorial-day-and-would-be.html

Discrimination against Jews visiting the Temple Mount: http://www.templeinstitute.org/police_business.htm , http://www.templeinstitute.org/guide_to_ascending_the_mount.htm

The Seriqriqim incident: http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=247516&R=R2

The heresy of Paul in Acts and Romans 1-4

2011-12-02T12:02:00.001+02:00

Jewish date: 6 Kislew 5772 (Parashath Wayyeṣe’).

Today’s holidays: Nativity Fast (Christianity), Friday of the First Week of Advent (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Rodan (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

I am still reading the New Testament in Koinē Greek, and I am not enjoying it one bit.
The Acts of the Apostles is nothing less than propaganda for Paul. Once Paul has his famous vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus, he is depicted as perfect and his Jewish opponents as nothing less than hypocritical scum. Paul engages in preaching and faith-healing like Jesus, only with less personality. His opponents are depicted as trying to kill him, legally or extralegally on ill-defined charges of heresy. If there is any historical basis for this, the writer certainly glossed over what anyone found wrong with Paul and probably fabricated any attempts on his life. Whatever was wrong with Paul, heresy is not sufficient reason for assassination.

Why Jews would hate Paul is made extremely clear in The Epistle to the Romans, in which he explains his belief system, which is nothing less than heresy and worthy of excommunication. Here are the notes I have written on the first four chapters, which are getting increasingly detailed:

Romans 1—Paul introduces his thesis that faith is all that really matters and cites Habakuk 2:4 to rationalize it, as if any of the prophets ever preached faith without works. Paul claims that humanity is morally corrupt.

Romans 2—Paul cites Psalms 62:13 and Proverbs 24:12, confirming that YHWH treats humans according to their actions, illogically trying to introduce Jesus into the process. Paul then accuses Jews of hypocrisy, creating a nonexistent quote by botching Isaiah 52:5 and Ezekiel 36:22—ignoring that the complaints brought in those days may no longer be relevant to those living in later times—and devalues physical circumcision in favor of “circumcision of the spirit”. This is blatantly illogical. Since YHWH in the Hebrew Bible puts heavy emphasis on obedience to the Torah, the “circumcision of the heart” mentioned in the Hebrew Bible is dedicating oneself to doing what YHWH commanded, including physical circumcision.

Romans 3—Paul assumes everyone is sinful and should be doomed. That the Hebrew Bible preaches repentance and the willingness of YHWH to forgive the repentant is utterly ignored. Psalms 51:6 is torn from context as if it were a pronouncement of doom rather than part of a prayer. Paul also cites in quick succession, as if they were a continuous passage, a botched version of Ecclesiastes 7:20, a botched version of Psalms 14:1-3/Psalms 53:1-3, Psalms 5:10, Psalms 140:3, a botched version of Psalms 10:7, a botched version of Isaiah 59:7-8, and Psalms 36:2. None of these passages makes any claim of universal unrighteousness, and many refer directly to the wicked. (Do note that Psalms is poetry; it is great source material on feelings and prayers, but it is not really useful for statements of fact, as Paul is trying to use it. Not to mention botching quotes and getting them out of context makes for invalid arguments.) On this flimsy basis, Paul dishonestly and illogically claims that one cannot be righteous by keeping the Torah and proclaims that justification, for both Jews and non-Jews, is only through faith.

Romans 4—Paul tries to bolster his argument that salvation is only through faith by trying to work it into the case of ’Avraham. Paul hinges this on Genesis 15:6, which he cannot even quote correctly, which says (in the original Hebrew), “And he [’Avram] believed in YHWH, and he thought it for him [as] righteousness.” The word I have translated as “righteousness”, ṣedhaqhah, also can mean “justice”, and it is commonly used to denote something akin to charity, only with connotations that helping the needy is done not out of compassion, but because it is the right thing to do. ’Avraham had had multiple prophetic encounters with YHWH. Furthermore, YHWH had kept him alive on a journey across the Middle East, giving him some reason to believe that he was not hallucinating. To believe in YHWH was the sensible thing for ’Avraham to do; it is a matter of intellectual honesty, not special piety. The Hebrew is also ambiguous as to who considered ’Avraham’s belief righteousness, ’Avraham or YHWH. Nowhere does YHWH claim that ’Avraham is righteous merely due to belief. In contradiction to Paul’s thesis, ’Avraham doubts that he will have children and later on that he will have an heir through Sarah, yet YHWH never holds his doubts against him. Paul tries to bolster his faulty claim with Psalms 32:1-2, which deals with YHWH’s forgiveness, not belief, before returning to ’Avraham and spouting antinomianism, wrongly implying that all nations are descended from ’Avraham by misinterpreting Genesis 17:4 and Genesis 15:5, ignoring that ’Avraham was not so unwavering in his faith. Paul still does nothing to explain the blatantly obvious problem that it makes no sense whatsoever for YHWH to give the Torah and demand adherence to it over and over again—a matter of action—if what He really is interested in is faith.

To sum up my reading of Romans so far: Paul is grossly intellectually dishonest and engages in rhetorical fraud to try to prove his points. Follow him and anyone like him at your own peril.

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

’Aharon/Aaron

Yiṣḥaq Rabbin Memorial Day and a would-be visit to the Temple Mount

2011-11-13T11:18:00.001+02:00

Jewish date: 16 Marḥeshwan 5772 (Parashath Ḥayye Sarah).

Today’s holidays: Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Otis Campbell (Church of the SubGenius), Feast of Osiris (Thelema).

Greetings.

I know I am doing a bad job about blogging lately. I am absorbed in reading Atlas Shrugged, I am feeling guilty about not writing about some of the stuff I have been reading in the New Testament, and I have started to watch Mahabharat, a dramatization of the great Indian epic Mahabharata. Not to mention I am getting distracted by the need for me to do job-hunting.

Last Wednesday I planned to go to the Temple Mount again. I had actually planned to go during Sukkoth, but I got sick and had to postpone the trip. I decided to go on Yiṣḥaq Rabbin Memorial Day, the anniversary of his assassination. Why? Because it is a quasi-holiday which has no positive significance for observant Jews and no direct connection with the Temple Mount; to be blunt, it strikes me as nothing less than an abomination due to the all-too predictable disaster of Oslo. This video should give a good idea what I am talking about. Given this deliberately mismatched symbolism, I presumed it would be a great opportunity to catch the Waqf and police off-guard and engage in my creative interpretation of civil disobedience more easily. (I intended to try to get the police officer and Waqf official who would follow me around over piles of rubble.)

There was a snag in my plans. When I got there, I found these signs posted:

These signs say that from November 6 to 9 the Temple Mount would be closed to visitors because of the Muslim holiday, namely ‘Īd al-’Aḍḥá. That’s right: someone in the government or the police thought a Muslim holiday was a valid reason to close the Temple Mount to non-Muslims, as if non-Muslims particularly cared if it was a Muslim holiday or not or Muslim intolerance was any more excusable on a Muslim holiday.

I also went to the Chain Gate, which Jews are not supposed to use to visit the Temple Mount.

I did not expect to be admitted—and I was not—but I decided to try anyway as part of my campaign to let the police and government know that the Temple Mount does matter to observant Jews. The guards had nothing useful to tell me about the closure: “It’s closed” and “It’s a Muslim holiday”. They could not give me any cogent reason whatsoever that the Temple Mount should be closed to non-Muslims on a Muslim holiday. All I can infer is that the police would rather give in to Muslim delusions of grandeur rather that do their job and enforce tolerance. That is pathetic.

Oh, for the record, whoever is responsible now owes me 32.50 sheqels for bus fare, 5 sheqels for use of a miqweh (yes, they charge), and 7,777 US dollars in wasted time and suffering.

Now I have to go reschedule my trip again, which is not going to be this week due to rain. And get around to writing about Acts and Romans. And a bunch of other stuff…

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

Harold Camping, Shemini ‘Aṣereth, and heretics who do do not know enough to copy a text straight

2011-10-23T17:22:00.001+02:00

Jewish date: 26 Tishri 5772 (evening) (Parashath Noaḥ).

Today’s holidays: Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Bobby London (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

This is going to be a variety of things.

1) You may remember that Protestant minister Harold Camping predicted that the world as we know it would end on May 21, 2011 (noted in “Mark your calendars for the Rapture, but don’t hold your breath”, “The Rapture and soft maṣṣah”, and “The Rapture and Pesaḥ preparation”), which of course failed to happen. Well, Camping came up with a new prediction after that that the world as we know it would end on October 21, 2011. Unless this blog post is a figment of your imagination, this did not happen. Details can be found at “Oct. 21 'Doomsday' So Far Pretty Quiet” and “Radio prophet gone from airwaves on new Judgment Day eve”. I hope he will figure out his system does not have good predictive power and quit, but I am not that optimistic.

2) Shemini ‘Aṣereth/Simḥath Torah: I spent a lot of Sukkoth sick and under self-imposed quarantine in my apartment. This naturally limited what I could see people do. I did get out before Shemini ‘Aṣereth/Simḥath Torah (I went to see a doctor and found I was not infectious), so I can report what happened then. Simḥath Torah is distinguished by the haqqafoth ritual, in which the Torah scrolls are carried around the reading table seven times (nominally, practically much more than this) with singing and dancing to celebrate the end of the annual reading cycle and the start of the new one. Unhappily for me, the disease I have is a respiratory infection, which made singing for me unrealistic. Good thing that there were a lot of other people there to take care of that. Dancing was somewhat more limited than what I am used to. The synagogue I currently attend for Shabbath and holidays meets in trailers, as their permanent location is currently under construction; this results in crowding even under ordinary conditions. On Simḥath Torah, this resulted in slower dancing and fewer fancy moves than there might have otherwise been in order to avoid collisions. Haqqafofth also have a tendency to go on for extended periods of time, which prompted my synagogue to do some creative scheduling. At night, dinner was served at the synagogue right after services, thus avoiding any delay from people having to go home and get everything ready. In the morning, qiddush was held at the synagogue between the Torah reading and yizkor (the memorial prayer for the dead), avoiding the need for anyone to wait until a few hours into the afternoon to eat. There is also the practice of calling up all men to read from the Torah on Simḥath Torah; at first I thought they were skipping this practice entirely, but they placed it at the very end of the services. This is the first time I have ever heard of such a practice. I heard mention of secondary haqqafoth being done elsewhere; even though I had not heard of that practice, due to my condition, I declined to investigate it. Maybe next year.

I have put my willow and myrtle branches into a vase with water in the hopes of growing them. The willow seem to have grown the beginnings of roots. I also hope to grow trees from the seeds in my citron, but I plan to wait for it to fully ripen first. I have no hope for growing anything from the palm frond.

This wraps it up for the Tishri holidays. The next holiday, other than the monthly Ro’sh Ḥodhesh (new moon) is the very recent Yiṣḥaq Rabbin Memorial Day, which I am eager to find out if anyone really pays any attention to and why. (Really. The man committed treason by enabling the enemies of Israel and ignoring that said enemies had no real interest in making peace. That, if anything is a reason not to dedicate a holiday to him, even if he did get assassinated.)

3) Every year, observant Jews are expected to read through the entire Torah three times, twice in the original Hebrew and once in a language they understand, usually Aramaic. They also commonly read commentaries on the Torah as well; this year I have chosen to read the classic Hertz’s Ḥummash (Hertz, J. H., ed. The Pentateuch and Haftorahs: Hebrew Text, English Translation and Commentary. London: Defus d’universitah Oxford, 1929-1936. 2nd ed. London: Soncino Press, 1961. Print.) and, since I have this thing about religious fallacies and misinformation, a heretical (“Conservative”) commentary (Lieber, David L., and Jules. Harlow. Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary. Travel-size ed. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2004. Print.). To be sure, reading a “Conservative” commentary which makes it clear in the introductions that the people who put it together do not believe in Judaism in the traditional sense of the term is annoying. But what is more annoying than the commentary is the text of the Torah printed above the commentary. Why? Because they dared change the text. I am well aware that annotations have been added to the printed text of the Torah due to the script being defective. But the heretics decided that certain passages (Genesis 2:23; 3:14-16; 3:17-19; 4:6-7; 4:23-24; 7:11 in my reading so far, not to mention the entire hafṭarah for Parashath Bere’shith) are poetry, and so they took the liberty of taking liberties with the spacing of the text to show off the poetriness. This is a direct violation of a great unwritten rule:

YOU WILL NOT TAMPER WITH TRADITION.

Because these idiots have reformatted the text as poetry, some reader who is not so well-informed on the history of the formatting of the Hebrew Bible may get the wrong impression that the poetic formatting is actually part of the text and impose an interpretation which may not be correct. Good going, heretics.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

Yom Kippur and Sukkoth

2011-10-18T15:07:00.003+02:00

Jewish date: 20 Tishri 5772 (Parashath Bere’shith).

Today’s holidays: Sukkoth (Judaism), Feast Day of Luke the Evangalist (Christianity), Feast Day of St. Richelieu (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

This is not the best of times for me to be posting. I have been noticeably sick (fever, coughing, questionable temperature sensations, lethargy, lack of appetite) since Saturday night. For the sake of avoiding passing on the disease to someone else, I have stayed inside my apartment since then. The only reason I was able to post anything on my other blog on Sunday was that I had written the post already. I am doing better now, though still not fully recovered yet. Being sick not been good for my Divine Misconceptions-related activities. I had hoped to visit the Temple Mount as far back as Sunday—and have fun leading the police officer and Waqf official following me over big piles of rubble in the name of creative interpretation of civil disobedience—and at this point I do not realistically expect to be able to do so until next Sunday. My condition has also made writing unrealistic. (There is recent material by creationists I have felt needs criticism, and my writing the criticism is going to have to wait a while longer.) At the moment, I do feel up to reporting a bit about Yom Kippur and Sukkoth in Israel.

Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement): Largely the same as Ro’sh hashShanah, except a lot of fasting. Unlike other fast days, spending all day at home is usually not an option. Since no one (except minors and those medically unable to fast) has any meals to go to, there is no push to keep the services short, and thus they can stretch to fill the entire day. We only got about an hour’s break between musaf and minḥah. It also can be very tiring.

Sukkoth (Tabernacles): I have heard mention of the practice of starting to build the sukkah (a ritually prescribed booth to dwell in during Sukkoth) at night right after Yom Kippur. My landlord actually did so. There is also an older practice of using actual fruit to decorate the sukkah. (Most people these days use plastic fruit.) My landlord has bunches of real dates hanging in and outside of his.

Sukkah decorations vary a lot, depending on the tastes of the owners of the sukkah. Two I have seen so far have had mirrored balls in them, ones that would look quite normal on a Christmas tree. These made me think rather of some pictures by M. C. Escher, such as this one:

I rather like the idea an Escher-inspired sukkah and based on this may eventually make a go at it myself. Though reproducing certain aspects of his work may prove challenging. I do think this image may be somewhat doable if executed correctly:

OK, off the creative goofiness and on to other things.

In the United States, one normally acquires the ’arba‘ minim (four species: palm, willow, myrtle, and citron, which get ritually waved) through a synagogue, except maybe in New York City. I expected to get them from someone sitting out front of the synagogue, as people had done before for other religious purposes, such as selling scrolls of Esther and checking tefillin. I ended up buying mine from a group who had a kid hand out advertisements. There were other such advertisements posted, and the alternative would have been to walk into Bene Beraq, where I had already seen some people trying to sell ’ethroghim (citrons) for outrageous prices. (See the Israeli movie Ha’Ushpizin, which features a 1,000 NIS ’ethrogh. None of the ones I saw were quite that expensive, but there is some truth to the premise.) The set of ’arba‘ minim I got was actually good quality, but with one flaw: usually one also receives a holder for the palm, myrtle, and willow woven out of pieces of palm frond to make the assemblage easier to handle—and somehow I did not realize I had not gotten one until too late. This does not invalidate the ritual waving in any way, but it is not ideal, and I have been practically paranoid about trying not to accidentally strip leaves off the willow and myrtle. Also, waving the four species in an apartment dominated by bookshelves (such as mine) without hitting anything is rather tricky.

In the old days, new moons were declared by a special committee, and people in the Diaspora often had to wait for days to find out when the new moon had been. As a result, many critical holidays were celebrated for an extra day due to doubt on when they actually were. When the fixed calendar was instituted—thanks to the Roman persecutions making it necessary—the extra days continued to be observed except for Yom Kippur. (The reason I was told was that people liked having an extra day off and refused to give up the extra days.) For liturgical purposes, observing the extra days can make a mess of things, as the original doubt is not implemented uniformly. Pesaḥ (Passover) and Sukkoth are divided into two parts, yom ṭov (the festival proper, on the first and last days) and ḥol hammo‘edh (intermediate days of lesser holiness). In the Diaspora, the second days of Pesaḥ and Sukkoth are treated as if they were yom ṭov in every respect, which means the technically correct prayers for ḥol hammo‘edh are not said at all. On Sukkoth specifically, things are worse. In the musaf prayer, the special sacrifices for that day are recounted, and since different sacrifices are to be brought on every single day of Sukkoth, not only are the wrong sacrifices specified for the second day, but an attempt to compensate by doubling up the sacrificial readings is made on the following days. It gets even weirder on the eighth day, the semi-independent festival of Shemini ‘Aṣereth (Eighth Day of Assembly). Unlike the last day of Pesaḥ, it does get treated a bit as doubtfully ḥol hammo‘edh, with (some) people eating and sleeping in the sukkah. However, due to the extra day added on to the holiday, there is an awkward second eighth day, which to make things a bit less confusing gets dubbed Simḥath Torah (“the joy of the Torah”) and which marks the completion of the annual cycle of reading the Torah. Here in Israel, we have none of this weirdness of extra doubtful days, and the liturgy makes a lot more sense.

I think that will be all for now. Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

Seliḥoth, Ro’sh hashShanah, and Fast of Gedhalyah

2011-10-04T20:13:00.001+02:00

Jewish date: 7 Tishri 5772 (evening).

Today’s holidays: The Ten Days of Repentance (Judaism), Feast Day of Francis of Assisi (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Buster Keaton (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

It has been too long since I last posted. For one thing, I have been busy with work, trying to get a paper to first draft stage, which helped tire me out. For another, the previous month on the Jewish calendar, ’Elul, and the current one, Tishri, are themselves very good for tiring people out. ’Elul is the season to prepare for Tishri and hence given over for repentance. ’Elul also has a set of penitential prayers known as seliḥoth which are said either late at night or early in the morning. How long selihḥoth are said varies by ethnic group; Sefaradhim (Jews whose ancestors lived in Spain and Portugal) and ‘Edhuth hamMizraḥ (Middle Eastern Jews) say seliḥoth all of ’Elul, while ’Ashkenazim (Mid- and Eastern European Jews) (such as myself) begin the week before Ro’sh hashShanah. Even though, seliḥoth do not do a lot of good for getting a good night’s sleep. And this problem has not ended yet, since seliḥoth are said until Yom Kippur. So I am feeling somewhat zombie-like and expect to be this way for the rest of the week. (Yom Kippur is this Saturday.)

OK, let’s try to say something meaningful about ’Elul and Tishri in Israel. I hope this turns out somewhat intelligible, but considering my condition, if anyone needs translation or further explanation, feel free to ask.

Seliḥoth: I pray according to the Lithuanian rite, or more precisely, (largely) according to the rite of the Ga’on Rav ’Eliyyahu of Vilna. The synagogue I pray morning services at during the week does seliḥoth according to the Polish rite. Ordinarily variations in ’Ashkenazi rites are not large, but the people in Poland included a somewhat different set of liturgical poetry among the seliḥoth, enough that I have found myself losing track of where we were in those early morning prayers.

Advertising: Muted, as all the Jewish holiday advertising I have seen already.

Ro’sh hashShanah: On Shabbath and major holidays, I pray in a synagogue known for two things: 1) a musical style of prayer pioneered by Rav Shelomoh Carlebach, taken to the point where I have compared praying there to being in a musical, and 2) being crowded on Shabbath and major holidays. (People who come late have to stand for the entire service). Ro’sh hashShanah prayers everywhere tend to be more musical than normal, so there the difference was not so great. The level of crowding, which everywhere tends to be bad on Ro’sh hashShanah, was worse than normal, with extremely little space available even for people willing to stand the entire service. I sat in the back next to the partition between the men and women’s sections, and I was pressed for space enough that my left shoulder hurt. During the musaf service, when we are supposed to prostrate ourselves on the floor, I only had room to crouch.

There are a lot of nice people in the community, and a local rav usually arranges for places for me to eat on Shabbath and major holidays. (I am relatively new here, single, and without family in the area. Eating alone on holy days is not ideal or fun.) At dinner on Ro’sh hashShanah symbolic foods are eaten; this is a sort of prayer through action, though the symbolism is often based on puns which are quite untranslatable. One of the more translatable symbolic foods is the eating of the head of a fish or mammal. (“May it be Your will, YHWH our god and god of our ancestors, that we be to the head and not to the tail.”) Among various other symbolic foods, on the first night we were actually served a fish head. I found it too repulsive to eat any of it. (And I watched a sheep get slaughtered without fainting or reverse peristalsis. Go figure.) Though I have often heard about the custom of eating a head on Ro’sh hashShanah, this is only the second time I have actually seen it practiced. (The first time was years ago at Yeshiva University, where someone in the cafeteria had somehow gotten his hands on half of a sheep skull with some meat still on it.)

Another symbolic food, one much more commonly consumed, is pomegranate seeds. (“May it be Your will, YHWH our god and god of our ancestors, that we be as full of miṣwoth as a pomegranate.”) On the second night of Ro’sh hashShanah, I was at a communal dinner, and a number of the participants brought pomegranate seeds. While many of these came from pomegranates purchased intact, there was also there a packet of pomegranate seeds without the rest of pomegranate around them. This, I presume, was an attempt by someone to make a quick buck (or in this case, a quick sheqel) from people who are too lazy to remove the seeds from a pomegranate themselves. I would like to note that as far as harnessing laziness for profit goes, this was a failure. The pomegranate seeds which came packaged inside a pomegranate tasted better than the ones packaged in plastic. The inclusion on a small black plastic spork with the pomegranateless pomegranate seeds, presumably to get them out of the package, did absolutely nothing to improve the taste or their convenience.

The Fast of Gedhalyah: Nothing particularly unusual. Then again, I spent most of the day in my apartment to avoid overheating.

Rain: The Jewish liturgy includes praying for rain in the winter, but not in the summer. This accurately reflects the climate in Israel. We have not had rain all summer, and only recently did we get any again.

I think that’s about all I can produce right now. Oh, and in the spirit of the season, I extend forgiveness for all those who have inadvertently sinned against me.

May you all be written for a sweet year.

’Aharon/Aaron

“Reversing the Moral Decay Behind the London Riots”

2011-09-09T13:35:00.000+03:00

Jewish date: 10 ’Elul 5771 (Parashath Ki Theṣe’).

Today’s holidays: Feast Day of Peter Claver (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Dean Corll (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

Recently Harold sent me a link to an article worth mentioning, “Reversing the Moral Decay Behind the London Riots” by Rav Jonathan Sacks, which deals with the decline of morality (as an extension of religion) starting in the 1960s in the United Kingdom and the West in general as a factor leading to the recent London riots. And I do think that he has a point. Human societies are governed by rules, and a what we do is influenced by what we see others do. When people jettison rules which exist for perfectly good reasons (like rules against selfishness), bad consequences are unsurprising.

Clearly things have changed since the 1960s. Very apparent is that there have been changes in what is considered acceptable in the media. For a humorous example, if you will recall the 1960s sit-com Gilligan’s Island, it was followed up in 1978 with Rescue from Gilligan’s Island, which brings the castaways back to civilization after 15 years of isolation; of all the characters, it is Ginger, the sex symbol of the series, who criticizes many of the movies of that time for gratuitous sex and foul language. I am well aware that things have not gotten better in this regard since 1978. In fact, a lot of stuff I watch these days (over the Internet) is decades old, not merely out of curiosity of things I have only heard about or nostalgia, but also because of content. If Gilligan’s Island were made today—and there have been repeated threats of a movie version from time to time—it would almost certainly be a very different show; there is a high probability there would be a good deal of that gratuitous sex that Ginger complained about (certainly something beyond the teasing and manipulation that Ginger actually did), quite likely some foul language, probably more infighting and a good deal less of a sense of community, and probably more violence than the Skipper hitting Gilligan with his hat.

On the other hand, I find myself wondering how much of a trend of moral decay there really is. Human society consists of billions of people, and thus lots of different trends can happen simultaneously in all sorts of directions. And I do not think things have been going down uniformly. For example, there has been a lot of emphasis placed on eliminating racism and creating a more just world starting in the 1960s. I have also heard that Judaism was largely dying out in the United States until 1948, after which there has been an increasing ba‘al teshuvah movement (to put it in Christian terms, Jews “getting religion”). To Rav Sacks’s credit, he avoids the clichéd falsehood that moral decline is inevitable and even notes that in the 1820s that the United States and Britain became more religious.

Paradoxically, you can even get things going both ways at the same time in the same group of people. The United States has a large population of religious Christians—many of which politically take positions which are difficult or impossible to reconcile with anything Jesus taught. (Republicans, take heed. This means you. I am no fan of Jesus, but I know full well that “kick the poor when they’re down” is the exact opposite of what he preached.) Go figure.

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

’Aharon/Aaron

Only in Israel: a public sheḥiṭah demonstration

2011-08-30T15:34:00.000+03:00

Jewish date: 30 ’Av 5771 (Parashath Shofeṭim).

Today’s holidays: Ro’sh Ḥodhesh ’Elul (Judaism), Tuesday of the Twenty-Second Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Chaand Raat (Islam), Feast Day of St. Thor (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

Yesterday, thanks to a friend, I attended a demonstration of sheḥiṭah (AKA kasher ritual slaughter) in Petaḥ Tiqwah (the next town east of here). Two chickens and a sheep were killed, and a few tens of people got to see what the inside of a sheep looks like. This was very educational for anyone who wants to know about sheḥiṭah and related ritual phenomena, such as what fat counts as ḥelev (which is forbidden for consumption) and shumman (which is permitted), what portions should be given to a kohen (priest), and gidh hannasheh (the sciatic nerve, which is forbidden for consumption). I did not take pictures, and if I did, I probably would not post them anyway. The demonstration was worthwhile attending, but it was only for people with strong stomachs.

What I found very interesting was not so much the demonstration itself, but the circumstances:

Attending were not just men, but also women and children, neither of which normally perform sheḥiṭah.
No one fainted or vomited. My friend told me that some children cried, though I did not notice them at all. In fact, many children stood close to better see the sheep cut up.
The demonstration was performed in the front yard of a synagogue, in easy view of the street.
There were no protesters, despite the demonstration being publicly advertised in advance.

Now, try to imagine what would have happened had anyone tried holding such a demonstration in the United States. In the United States, animal slaughter in public is practically taboo and almost never heard of. I have heard of Santeríans being harassed, in violation of the US Constitution, for performing animal sacrifice. Had this demonstration been done in the United States, I would have expected People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to complain bitterly. Here in Israel, it was an inoffensive curiosity. I am not clear why this cultural difference exists. I have to remember to start asking about attitudes to animal slaughter in Israel and how common public animal slaughter is over here.

While I am posting, a few other items of interest:

“VIDEO SATIRE: HonestReporting Looks at the Light Side of Life”:
“Rabbis Of Yesteryear: What Jewish Europe Really Looked Like 80 Years Ago”: No, they were not dressing like Men in Black. They looked a lot like everyone else.
“Want to Understand Israel?”: A little explanation of the situation over here.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

Dishonest reporting

2011-08-25T21:39:00.000+03:00

Jewish date: 26 ’Av 5771 (evening) (Parashath Re’eh).

Today’s holidays: Feast Day of Louis of France and Joseph Calasanz (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Heliogabulus (Church of the SubGenius), Feast Day of Friederich Nietzsche (Thelema).

Greetings.

Recently I came across a short article which struck me as off, and Barry independently asked me to comment on it. The article is “Rabbis Help Gays Find Sexless Marriages To Procreate For God”.

It starts with this:

Ever wish that you could have a sexless marriage, lots of affairs, and still have the approval of God? Well, now you can, if you are a homosexual Jew — as long as you promise to procreate in the name of the Lord as well.

It was immediately obvious that something was wrong. Judaism does not condone affairs by anyone, whether they are heterosexual or homosexual, and making children does not excuse such misbehavior. The rest of the article was also suspicious:

Via Think Progress:
A new Orthodox Jewish service “seeks to help religious homosexuals and lesbians find a partner for procreation purposes – as long as they promise to try to change their sexual orientation,” YNet News reports. An orthodox interpretation of Jewish law forbids homosexual relations, but the match-making website hopes to connect men and women “seeking to start a family in Israel, even without sexual attraction, in order to bring religious children into the world and provide them with traditional education. Thus, a religious gay man will be able to meet a religious lesbian woman through the website and have children with her.”
It’s assumed, of course, that any gay person involved in this sort of arrangement will be having affairs, and according to the service that’s just fine — it’s not cheating if you’re both doing it and your partner knows and approves. After all, it’s all worth it if it makes more children of the faith. And the Rabbis themselves believe they are acting under the best of intentions. “Almost everyone understands that there are those who simply cannot change,” [Orthodox Rabbi Arale] Harel admits. “This initiative was designed for them.”

Still, it’s funny to think, so many religious people are worried that same sex marriage is destroying the “traditional” definition of marriage.

Now, I had already heard about Rav Har’el matchmaking homosexuals (of the opposite sex). (See “Orthodox Gay Marriage” and “Israeli rabbis launch initiative to marry gay men to lesbian women”.) However, I had not heard anything about him approving affairs, and when one also takes into account the flippant tone of this article, my suspicions were raised that whoever wrote it did not bother to do any research.

So let us follow the links. This article refers back to another article in ThinkProgress, “RABBIS MATCH GAYS AND LESBIANS ‘TO BRING RELIGIOUS CHILDREN INTO THE WORLD’”, which was quoted almost in its entirety. The only part which was not quoted is:

“We are aware of the fact that the man and woman may have extramarital relations according to their sexual inclination, but at least they won’t be cheating on their partners, as it will be done with their consent,” one Orthodox rabbi explained

So far we are still in the midst of suspicious content. The second article links to a third article on Ynetnews, “Rabbis to match homosexuals, lesbians”:

A new Web initiative seeks to help religious homosexuals and lesbians find a partner for procreation purposes – as long as they promise to try to change their sexual orientation.

Currently, religious gay people are not entitled to use the sector's regular matchmaking service. In the coming days, the Kamoha website for Orthodox homosexuals will introduce a new page resembling leading dating websites. But unlike similar initiatives which have failed in the past, this one enjoys the support of senior Religious Zionism rabbis.

As Jewish Halacha forbids homosexual relations, the initiative will connect between men and women seeking to start a family in Israel, even without sexual attraction, in order to bring religious children into the world and provide them with traditional education. Thus, a religious gay man will be able to meet a religious lesbian woman through the website and have children with her.

The initiative is being led by Orthodox Rabbi Arale Harel, former head of the Shilo hesder yeshiva. According to Harel, the program has the support of additional Religious Zionism rabbis, including Haim Drukman, Yaakov Ariel and Elyakim Levanon.

Harel says he has so far matched more than 10 gay-lesbian couples, and is now seeking to institutionalize the issue.

"There is no rabbi who will approve such a marriage," he explains. "We are aware of the fact that the man and woman may have extramarital relations according to their sexual inclination, but at least they won't be cheating on their partners, as it will be done with their consent."

Nonetheless, Harel has added a condition for the match, which may deter religious homosexuals and lesbians. According to the rabbi, the couple will first have to undergo "psychological conversion therapy aimed at helping the patients change their sexual inclination."

Those seeking to use the website's services will undergo a screening process, and after paying NIS 150 (about $42) in order to prove that they are serious about the issue, they will be able to go out with members of the opposite sex while receiving psychological and rabbinical advice.

"Almost everyone understands that there are those who simply cannot change," Harel admits. "This initiative was designed for them."

This article adds new, unusual details. First of all, there is the listed requirement of conversion therapy. Conversion therapy, which aims to change homosexuals into heterosexuals, is not scientifically recognized as actually working and may be harmful. This requirement is paradoxical, considering that Rav Harel claims that some people cannot change their sexual orientation. Secondly, there is the obvious contradiction between this matchmaking having rabbinical approval and the claim that no rabbi would approve of such a match. Also unusual is what is omitted: a link to this “new Web initiative”.

Given the difficult nature of these three articles, I decided to find Rav Har’el and company and see what they have to say for themselves. And I did find them. Their site is Kamokha and their new initiative is ’Anaḥnu. From the three questionable articles, one might think that rabbis, especially Rav Har’el, were going out their way to get homosexuals to marry people of the opposite sex. They are not. Kamokha is an organization of Orthodox Jewish homosexual men who wish to live by Orthodox Judaism. This includes the prohibition on the practice of homosexuality. If this seems strange to anyone, do note that just because one has a desire to do something does not mean one will actually do it or even wants to have this desire. ’Anaḥnu is also their initiative; please note that homosexuals, like heterosexuals, often want to get married and have children. Kamokha approached Rav Har’el to establish this program. This is something they want, not something anyone is trying to foist upon anyone else. They also make it clear that this program is experimental, that it is only for those who have come to terms with not being able to change their sexual orientation, and that this is not a program meant to change sexual orientation. There is no requirement of conversion therapy whatsoever. Neither is there any permission for affairs. To put it bluntly, the people behind the questionable articles lied. At the most generous, one might think they confounded ’Anaḥnu with another Kamokha initiative, one to provide conversion therapy for free for those who want it—with full recognition that it is controversial—but that would be difficult to do accidentally without being amazingly stupid.

As for the whole business of affairs being allegedly OK for married homosexuals, that may be a perversion of something that Rav Har’el said in an interview pulled out of context:

"Most of the couples agree not to have relationships with members of their own sex, but if there are 'lapses' once every few years, they don't see this as a betrayal," he said. "Generally, it's between them and their Creator."

This is not permission to have an affair by any means, only a statement on the psychology and theology.

Sadly, this display of dishonesty is precedented. (E.g., see my reviews of His Dark Materials, The God Delusion, Religulous, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, and Godless: The Church of Liberalism.) If one wishes to argue that homosexuals should never marry anyone of the opposite sex, fine. If one wishes to argue that homosexuals should not resist their sexual desires but instead rejoice in them, fine. If one wishes to argue that homosexuals should never have children, fine. If one wishes to argue that no one should ever aid and abet a homosexual in marrying someone of the opposite sex and producing children, even if that is what the homosexual wants, fine. Argue any position you want, but do it on the basis of the actual facts. If someone has to lie or quote out of context to “prove” that someone is doing something wrong, then that person has given the perfect reason to believe that nothing wrong is being done. And this goes double when the result is mockery and not even a pathetic excuse for an argument. Practically anyone can do better than this.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

Ezekiel 4:9 is not about health food

2011-08-23T14:31:00.000+03:00

Jewish date: 23 ’Av 5771 (Parashath Re’eh).

Today’s holidays: Feast Day of Rose of Lima (Roman Catholicism), Nuclear Accident Day (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

A while ago, Barry sent me some pictures of some unusual bread and asked me to post on it. Unfortunately, Blogger is not being cooperative about loading pictures, so instead I am going to direct you towards the Web-site for the bread: Ezekiel 4:9® | Food For Life. Thus is it written in Ezekiel 4:9 (my translation):

And you, take for yourself wheat and barley and beans and lentils and millet and spelt, and you will put them in one vessel, and you will make them for yourself into bread; [for] the number of days that you are lying on your side, 390 days, you will eat it.

The people making bread based on this seem to be taking it as a recipe for health food, claiming “This Biblical Bread is Truly the Staff of Life”.

Now, as an epidemiologist and thus someone who has been exposed to a good deal of health-related information, I am all for variety in one’s diet. However, healthy eating is not what this verse is about. Let us consider the context of this verse. Yeḥezqe’l (Ezekiel) was living at the end of the First Temple Period. When he prophesied, he was on the shore of the Kevar in Babylonia, as he had already been exiled. Yeḥezqe’l’s prophecies deal with the transgressions (severe enough to cause major social problems) that ultimately led to the destruction of the First Temple, the 70 years of exile, and the eventual return of the Jewish people and rebuilding of the Temple. In publicizing these prophecies, YHWH instructed Yeḥezqe’el to act in some truly bizarre ways, thus getting people’s attention. Ezekiel 4:9 is part of a set of instructions that Yeḥezqe’l is to lay siege on a brick and spend over a year lying on his side. The recipe is representative of what people eat in times of siege; not being able to freely import food, they eat whatever they have available, even if it turns out to be unusual mixture. Please note that Yeḥezqe’l is supposed to ration his food and water during this time (Ezekiel 4:10-11), and what he is supposed to use as fuel for cooking his food is something that no one with any sense (of hygiene, at least) would use unless they had no other choice (Ezekiel 4:12, 4:16). (I presume the Food and Drug Administration does not permit that level of authenticity.) Taking the recipe as being meant as health food is nothing less than a gross violation of context.

Even more far-fetched is their Genesis 1:29® sprouted grain and seed bread. Thus is it written in Genesis 1:29 (my translation):

’Elohim said, “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing see that is on the face of all the Earth and every tree that on it is the fruit of the tree bearing seed; for you it will be for food.”

This verse is talking about plants in general as food, but somehow the Food for Life people have taken it as inspiring bread made with 19 different plant-based items from around the planet. Note that at no point does this verse talk about any form of cooking or even of mixing different ingredients. I have no idea what these people are thinking.

Theological rating for these products: F.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

Ramāḍan has nothing to offer non-Muslims

2011-08-14T11:58:00.000+03:00

Jewish date: 14 ’Av 5771 (Parashath ‘Eqev).

Today’s holidays: Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Forefeast of the Dormition (Greek Orthodox Christianity), Feast Day of St. Buck Dharma (Church of the SubGenius).

Worthy cause of the day: “Jewish Rights on the Temple Mount”. Please sign and tell the government of Israel that Jewish civil rights matter. Thank you.

Greetings.

An article that recently appeared in the Jerusalem Post, “Ramadan has something to offer all faiths” by Kaled Diab, disturbs me. This is an article by a secular Muslim on the famous ’Islāmic month-long fast. The author is clearly dazzled by the holiday, but not in the way someone religious would think of it. For comparison, when thinking about Christmas in the United States, a serious Christian thinks about the birth of Jesus, while a secularist who enjoys the holiday thinks about Santa Claus, presents, and Christmas trees. This article is close to the “Santa Claus” level; the rituals, both formal and informal, and the aura get all the attention, while how Ramāḍan relates to ’Allāh is ignored. While such an article may be useful for understanding how secularists understand Ramāḍan, it is not so useful for understanding how observant Muslims view it.

Fairly disturbing is the ecumenical approach the author takes towards Ramāḍan. As the title of the article implies, the author does not see Ramāḍan as just for Muslims. He cites recent interfaith ’ifṭārs (meals eaten to break the fast during Ramāḍan) and the case of (extremely rare) Ṣūfī Jews, one historical (Rav ’Avraham ben Mosheh ben Maymon) and at least one actually living whom he can actually name as having at one point fasted during Ramāḍan. While the author may see great potential for Ramāḍan as a bridge between different religions, what is glossed over is why these huge gaps between religions exist in the first place and why Jews and Christians for the most part do not observe Ramāḍan at all.

Anyone who has read the New Testament and Qur’ān knows (or should know) that Christianity has deep elements of rejection of Judaism, and ’Islām has deep elements of rejection of Judaism and Christianity. Historically these have been acted on, and in the case of ’Islām, they are very much acted upon. Only recently has Christianity taken serious steps to bridge the divide and come to peace with Judaism. ’Islām, on the other hand, to a large degree is still at war with the rest of the planet, including Israel. Individual Muslims, especially secularists, mystics, and heretical groups, may shed anti-Semitism and anti-Christianity, but when the hatred is embraced all too prominently by observant Sunnīs and Shī‘īs, not to mention the leaders of Muslim countries, the gap is too wide to reasonably bridge. The author of this article unpromisingly displays the anti-Semitic attitude of blaming Israel for the problems of the “Palestinians”, completely ignoring “Palestinian” terrorism and anti-Semitism as the reason for how Israel treats them. A man like this is not one your humble blogger would bother trying to bridge the gap with.

Also ignored is that Judaism looks coldly on borrowing from other religions. Any serious religion is believed by its followers to be the truth; if so, why bother borrowing from a false religion? There are religions which do grant some sort of validity to other religions as ways to the truth or getting closer to whatever god exists or at least becoming better people. But ’Islām is a heresy to Judaism, not the worst heresy, but a heresy nevertheless and certainly one in direct conflict with Judaism—not a promising source. Also, one cannot simply graft any practice onto any religion. Full observance of Ramāḍan is impossible in Judaism. There is a long list of days in the Jewish calendar in which fasting during the day, the most famous practice of Ramāḍan, is expressly forbidden, and one of these, Shabbath, happens every week. It is forbidden to fast on Shabbath with very few exceptions (Yom Kippur, emergency conditions, lack of choice, and being scared so badly by a dream which one suspects is a premonition that one seriously feels better off fasting). That Jews should adopt Ramāḍan simply is unthinkable.

Furthermore, your humble blogger has no idea what Ramāḍan has which is worthwhile that Judaism does not already have. Fast days we already have, and those who feel the need can always fast a few more. Some fast on every Monday and Thursday or the day before Ro’sh Ḥodhesh. “Soul-searching” and “reflection” are handled by the month of ’Elul and the Ten Days of Repentance. “Bridge-building” and “solidarity, camaraderie, unison and communalism” are handled by Purim. Communal eating is common in practically every synagogue on Shabbath. Unless one wants to claim something especially worthwhile about Ramāḍan television shows, there does not seem to be anything useful in Ramāḍan that Judaism needs.

And do Jews really need or want another holiday? The Jewish calendar is already saturated with holidays, especially after the recent additions since the formation of the State of Israel. Every month has holidays. Some of the old holidays, such as Ṭu biShvaṭ and Ṭu be’Av, have gained new meanings. The State of Israel added a number, many of which seem to be observed based on one’s politics, and a few others, e.g., Jabotinsky Day and Herzl Day, which seem to be ignored. Unofficial holidays seem to have little attention or popularity over here. Family Day seems observed only in schools. Silvester is limited to Russian immigrants. American immigrants brought Thanksgiving with them, but it does not seem to have caught on. There is an unofficial holiday, besides the official one, in honor of Yiṣḥaq Rabbin (I have no idea why), and that one’s observance is very politically limited. Jews (and other non-Muslims) in Israel have had plenty of exposure to Ramāḍan, and I have seen no interest over here in adopting it in any way, even from secularists.

In conclusion: Jews observing Ramāḍan? You’ve got to be kidding.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

PS: Expect me this fall to be promoting Yarov‘am ben Nevaṭ Day (15 Marḥeshwan) as a parody holiday alternative to Yiṣḥaq Rabbin Memorial Day (12 Marḥeshwan). I find it baffling that Yiṣḥaq Rabbin is celebrated at all, considering he committed treason by aiding and abetting the terrorist Yāsir ‘Arafāt (may his name be erased). If Rabbin deserves a holiday, then why not honor Yarov‘am ben Nevaṭ, an even bigger traitor and promoter of idolatry? Why honor someone who tried to make peace is an obviously idiotic way when we can honor someone who betrayed the god who made him ruler of an entire kingdom?

Musings on freedom

2011-08-09T10:47:00.001+03:00

Jewish date: 9 ’Av 5771 (Parashath Wa’Ethḥannan).

Today’s holidays: The Fast of ’Av (Judaism)

It is 9 ’Av, the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, and I feel the need to discuss two conversations I had recently with people who shall remain anonymous. I am also not picking specifically on them, for I have heard similar arguments elsewhere.

One of the conversations was with someone who reacted in alarm to me protesting for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount. In this conversation, it was questioned whether the majority of Israelis really felt as I did and whether I should be promoting an idea that might be strongly against what they think. There was also a fear of what other countries might do if I was actually successful.

The other conversation was with someone who was shocked I went up on the Temple Mount. The person I was talking with was concerned of how the Arabs would react to me being there, presumably negatively.

Both of these conversations disturb me, because there is something in each of them which is fundamentally against the ideals of freedom of religion and a democratic, civil society. Freedom includes being able to promote ideas that other people disagree with. Freedom includes being able to do things that other people disagree with. And everyone is supposed to have these freedoms, not just a few. It should not matter if someone believes something that everyone else on the planet thinks is wrong; in a democratic society, that person is legally entitled to advocate and live by his/her belief, just as everyone else is entitled to advocate and live by their own belief. This is especially true when no one is advocating anything out of bounds for a civil society, such as incitement to murder.

There is also the implicit notion that one should not try to challenge the status quo. I have no idea where the idea that the status quo is sacred and inviolable comes from. Considering that our lives and beliefs are radically different from our ancestors thousands of years ago, not to mention we are currently living in an era of rapid change, I would say the status quo has been challenged and changed, over and over again. Now, one could conceivably argue that some aspect of the way things are now should not be changed, but no one is going to say outright “Violation of freedom of religion is the way things are supposed to be, and we should continue violating freedom of religion”, because that is never going to fly.

The conversation on visiting the Temple Mount is also disturbing, because the other person was putting the blame for anything which goes wrong on the wrong party. If a Jew goes up on the Temple Mount and prays, that is an exercise in freedom of religion. If a Muslim reacts to that in a way unacceptable in a civil society, such as by throwing rocks, the fault is entirely the Muslim’s. Blaming and persecuting the victim only gives the perpetrator of the crime the message that committing the crime was acceptable in the first place and encourages further crimes. There is a very simple solution to this: do not let them get away with this. Ever. This is what the police and the military are for. In America, the government managed to enforce integration. If the government here is not willing to enforce religious tolerance, I am going to start looking for a different party to vote for that will.

Both conversations also contain an element of fear. Appealing to fear is an emotional argument, not a rational argument. Neither person actually told me that I was actually wrong with regard to freedoms and legal rights. But is there anything to really fear? I would be lying if I claimed certain thoughts had never crossed my mind, but on the whole I feel very safe. Muslim antagonism has goaded Israel into becoming an extremely well-armed and secure country. Security personnel are everywhere. Even on the Temple Mount, I did not feel particularly scared. Yes, being followed around by a policeman is annoying, but only an idiot attacks when a policeman with a big gun is around. (And, yes, I am presuming that Muslims in general are not idiots. Just because people believe in something I think is wrong or are my enemy does not make them stupid.) There are also police with big guns in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, ensuring that the Arab shopkeepers behave themselves. (Not to mention attacking Jews would be a horrible business decision for anyone trying to sell to Jewish tourists.) And do remember my trip to Silwan, in which there were police and guards with guns; I was much more scared of the roads, which were so bad that I found myself praying.

I am also not scared of other countries who are hostile to Israel. According to Wikipedia, there are 1,410,000,000 Muslims on Earth (low estimate) and 5,818,200 Jewish Israelis. That means that we Jewish Israelis are outnumbered by Muslims over 242 to 1. If they really wanted to destroy us, they could invade en masse and overwhelm us. Yes, there would likely be a huge loss of life, but for one person to fight off 242 is extremely difficult and unlikely to occur outside of a video game. For one person to fight off much smaller numbers that 242 (say, 12) is itself extremely difficult. If the Muslims have not hit upon this simple strategy after all this time, they either are too stupid to live or they do not really care enough to wipe out Israel. I consider the latter vastly more probable. The Muslims already tried to wipe out Israel a few times, and obviously they failed. The low-level jihad going on now simply does not cut it fighting a war and is more of an annoyance than anything else; to be sure, it is an annoyance that kills a few people from time to time, but there is no way it is going to destroy the country. So long as the low-level jihad keeps going, the Muslims have an enemy they can blame for all their troubles and they can claim to be fighting against. If they were to ever succeed, they would not be able to blame Israel for all the evils of the world anymore, which would be very inconvenient. And as long as Israel does not wipe out the terrorists, the situation remains more or less stable. To put it in Orwellian terms, jihad is peace.

The person in the latter conversation tried equating modern violent Muslims with the Jews who fought against the British. I am not proud of some of the things those who fought against the British did, but that was a war, the goal of which was Jewish survival. Please keep in mind that the Arab-Israeli War started in 1929, and the British in Mandatory Palestine were doing everything they could to get out of the original intent of Palestine as a homeland for the Jews, including caving in to Arab violence. There never was any intent to wipe out the British or take over the United Kingdom. Not to mention the war against the British has long been over. What Muslims are fighting today against Israel is not a war in the Western sense of the term; it is a jihad, the goal of which is the destruction of Israel and the domination of all non-Muslims by Muslims. These are not comparable situations.

The person in the latter conversation also tried claiming that the more extreme Jewish groups are just as bad as violent Muslims. Poppycock. Judaism, unlike Islam, has no sanctions for terrorism or jihad built in. There have been Jewish terrorists, but these are rare. Think about it. When was the last time you heard about Kahana’ Ḥay killing anyone? Can you ever remember hearing about them killing anyone? Contrast these with Islamic terrorists, who are in the news regularly killing innocent people. I have also heard of Ḥaredhim rioting from time to time, but burning tires and clashing with police is not the same thing as terrorism. You are never, ever going to hear about Ḥaredhim setting off bombs and murdering people. Nor are you going to ever hear about them trying to engage in conquest, starting wars, or committing genocide. I have heard plenty of criticism of Ḥaredhim being paranoid and antagonistic towards outsiders, but that does not qualify as terrorism, and it is not morally equivalent to terrorism. Claiming that they would be the same is attacking them for something they have not actually done and might well never do; this is not morally justified, since one could make the same claim about anyone else.

In short, I have been given no reason to cease and desist from Temple Mount activism. I also know the situation is not hopeless. People can and do act to change the world. I am living in a country which is unprecedented in the history of Earth. Already the movement is growing and the issue of Jewish rights on the Temple Mount is gaining government interest. May it be the will of YHWH that this movement reach its logical conclusion, the rebuilding of the Temple, in our days.

’Aharon/Aaron

Visit to the Temple Mount #2: The Waqf still sucks

2011-08-01T18:43:00.000+03:00

Jewish date: 1 ’Av 5771 (Parashath Devarim).

Today’s holidays: Ro’sh Ḥodhesh (Judaism), the Three Weeks/the Nine Days (Judaism), Feast Day of Alphonsus Liguori (Roman Catholicism), Ramāḍan (Islam), Lammas/Festival of Love (Ritual of the Elements) (Thelema), Lughnasadh (Neopaganism), Feast Day of Drug Side-effects Day (St. Lobster Boy’s Day) (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

You will remember I went up on the Temple Mount on Israeli Independence Day (6 ’Iyyar 5771/10 May 2011). I went up to the Temple Mount again today (following a call for Jews to ascend today), and I want to get what happened down on paper (so to speak) while the experience is still fresh in my memory. I have posted every photograph I took (all 117, including two really bad ones) on Facebook. I apologize that you have to view all the photographs on Facebook; Blogger is not being cooperative about pictures today.

Unlike my first ascent, in which I pretended to be a tourist, I went openly as an Orthodox Jew. The point off this was to send the message to politicians and the police that the Temple Mount matters to Orthodox Jews. On my first ascent, I was waved through quickly and was allowed to act with little interference. On this trip, the discrimination against Orthodox Jews on the Temple Mount which I heard so much about reared its ugly head. Muslims reportedly often have an inferiority complex and need to suppress the religious activities of non-Muslims in order to feel superior. (People who act like this in other contexts are conventionally called “bullies” or worse things.) In this case, they try to suppress Jewish religious activity on the Temple Mount, so they can feel superior to Jews and dissociate the Temple Mount from Judaism. I was not at the receiving end of the worst abuses I have heard of (such as being dragged off), but what I suffered was blatant discrimination. I was not allowed to take any Jewish ritual materials up on the Temple Mount; they had a box where these could be left. I was told that I could not bring water up on the Temple Mount. I noted that other people were permitted to take water with them, I was told that they were to drink it before they ascended. (All who believe this, stand on your heads.) I had to show my identity document and answer questions on what I intended to do up there (looking around and photographing things). They did not approve of my plan to ask the Waqf official who was to follow me around questions about Islam. I was also told not to pray up on the Temple Mount. (All who believe I actually obeyed this directive, also stand on your heads.)

By the way, do not try to photograph the police. They do not like it.

On the Temple Mount, I was followed around by a policeman and a Waqf official. I was not allowed to walk as fast as I would have liked. I was told not to photograph people and to keep away from a certain mosque. Over the course of about 40 minutes, I circumnavigated the entire Temple Mount clockwise, leading my followers across terrain that was not always the nicest to traverse. To be frank about it, this was fun, because I could drag two people getting in the way of my free practice of religion all over the place; as long as they wanted to keep up the pretense that I was somehow not to be trusted on my own, they were going to have to go wherever I went. (Next time I go up, I may deliberately choose an unpleasant route.)

Conversation was made difficult, because the policeman spoke to me in a rapid version of Hebrew. In the United States there is a cliché of people speaking to non-English speakers loudly and slowly. Over here, I see the wisdom of this, because this is the way you want a language you have trouble understanding spoken to you.

If you were expecting much different physically up there, think again. There was not much new up there other than more Islamic prayer rugs scattered about. I concentrated my photographic efforts on graffiti, which my entourage found odd. (On the other hand, I never have heard of anyone else deliberately looking for religious graffiti, so maybe it is odd.) Most of it was in Arabic. (Those who read about my first visit to the Temple Mount will find no surprise there.) And there was a huge amount of it. A little of it was in English, one was in Hebrew, and one was an E-mail address. I am still disgusted at the amount of graffiti up there. I also noted up there many plants growing between blocks where they could easily be removed. The amount of rubble and blocks lying around has not changed. If the Muslims treat what is purportedly their third holiest site this way, I hate to think of what a dump Mecca is.

In summary, the Waqf, aided and abetted by the police, is a pain in the neck when it comes to Orthodox Jewish visitors, and the Temple Mount is still in a state of disgrace. I encourage all Jews to visit the Temple Mount and be a reciprocal pain in the neck to the Waqf and the police; this is the only way that politicians can be expected to learn anything.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

The Gospel According to the Pharisees, Part 5, or, The Acts of Ya‘aqov, Man of Kefar Sekhanya’

2011-07-28T15:11:00.005+03:00

Jewish date: 26 Tammuz 5771 (Parashath Mas‘e).

Today’s holidays: The Three Weeks (Judaism), Thursday of the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Marty Feldman (Church of the SubGenius).

Upcoming events:

The group protesting for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount and against the Waqf’s destruction of everything Jewish up there (myself included, I hope) will be at the Shuq in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) today (28 July 2011), probably around 7:00 PM, in an educational capacity. NOTE: I am still waiting to get final details on this.

One of the people at the last protest (this past Thursday) was handing out pamphlets promoting Jews visiting the Temple Mounton Ro’sh Ḥodhesh ’Av (1 August 2011). Visiting hours for Jews are 7:30 AM to 11:00 AM and 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM. One should visit a miqweh, wear non-leather shoes, and bring a one’s identity card. See “The Temple Mount: Bird's Eye Guide to the Temple Mount” and “Ascending the Temple Mount: An Introduction and Brief Guide” and consult a competent Orthodox rav for more information. Remember: The more Jews who show up, the more the police and the politicians know that the Temple Mount matters to Jews and will be less likely to pander to Muslim discrimination.

Greetings.

And now for the final planned installment on Jesus-related material in the Talmudh. (See also “The Gospel According to the Pharisees”, “The Gospel According to the Pharisees, part 2”, “The Gospel According to the Pharisees, Part 3”, and “The Gospel According to the Pharisees, Part 4, or, The Gospel of Ben Seṭadha’”.) This last passage, which occurs in two versions, deals with a disciple of Yeshu the Noṣri.

Talmudh Bavil, ‘Avodhah Zara’ 16b-17a:

Our Masters taught: When Rabbi ’El‘azar was arrested for sectarianism, they brought him up to the scaffold for judgement.

That governor said to him, “An old [man] like you should keep busy in these empty matters?”

[Rabbi ’El‘azar] said to him, “Trustworthy on me is the judge.”

As that governor thinks on him he says, “And he does not speak but concerning his Father that is in Heaven.”

[The governor] said to him, “Since I believed you, [by] Dimos [= Deimos, a Greek god whose name means “dread”], you are exempt.”

When [Rabbi ’El‘azar] came to his house, his students entered near him to comfort him, and he did not accept upon himself their condolences.

Rabbi ‘Aqiva’ said to him, “Rabbi, will you permit me to say one thing from what you taught me?”

[Rabbi ’El‘azar] said to him, “Say [it].”

[Rabbi ‘Aqiva’] said to him, “Rabbi, perhaps sectarianism came to your hand and it pleased you, and because of it you were arrested?”

[Rabbi ’El‘azar] said to him, “‘Aqiva’, you reminded me [that] one time I was walking around in the upper market of Ṣippori [Sepphoris, a city in the Galilee], and I found one human from the students of Yeshu the Noṣri, and Ya‘aqov, man of Kefar Sekhanya’, [was] his name.

“He said to me, ‘It is written in your Torah, ‘You will not bring a prostitute’s fee (etc.) [or the price of a dog [to] the house of YHWH your god for any vow, for an abomination [to] YHWH your god are also these two]’ (Deuteronomy 23:19). What about to make from it a toilet for the Chief Priest?’

“And I said to him nothing.

“He said to me, ‘Thus taught me Yeshu the Noṣri: ‘For from a prostitute’s fee she gathered, and until a prostitute’s they will return’ (Micah 1:7)—from the place of filth they came; to the place of filth they will go.’

“And the thing pleased me, and because of this I was arrested for sectarianism, and I transgressed that which is written in the Torah: ‘Keep far from her your way’—this is sectarianism—‘and do not approach the entrance of her house’ (Proverbs 5:8)—this is the [Roman] government.”

And there are those that say: “Keep far from her your way”—this is sectarianism and the [Roman] government—“and do not approach the entrance of her house”—this is prostitution.

Qoheleth [Ecclesiastes] Rabbah 1:8:

[NOTE: Qoheleth Rabbah is not part of either Talmudh, but rather is a collection of midhrash (exegesis and legends passed down about the Hebrew Bible and which have grown up around it). This passage is included here, because it is clearly a version of the previous passage.]

Another thing: “All words are weary” (Ecclesiastes 1:8)—words of sectarianism weary humanity.

A deed of Rabbi ’El‘azar, who was arrested for sectarianism: They took him [to] the governor and brought him up on the platform to judge him.

[The governor] said to him, “A great human like you should busy himself in these empty matters?”

[Rabbi ’El‘azar] said to him, “Trustworthy on me is the judge.”

And he [the governor] thought that he spoke about him, but he did not speak but concerning Heaven.

[The governor] said to him, “Since you believed me about you, even I am thinking and say: it is possible that these academies err in these empty matters. [By] Dimos, you are exempt.”

After Rabbi ’El‘azar was dismissed from the platform, he was distressed that he was he was arrested on matters of sectarianism. His students entered near him to comfort him, and he did not accept [their condolences].

Rabbi ‘Aqiva’ entered near him. He said to him, “Perhaps one of the sectarians spoke in front of you something, and it was pleasing before you.”

[Rabbi ’El‘azar] said to him, “Behold, the heavens! You have reminded me: one time I was going up into the court in Ṣippori, and came to me one human from the students of Yeshu the Noṣri, and Ya‘aqov, man of Kefar Sekhanya’, [was] his name.

“And he said to me one thing, and it pleased me, and this thing was: ‘It is written in your Torah, ‘You will not bring a prostitute’s fee or the price of a dog [to the house of YHWH your god for any vow, for an abomination to YHWH your god are also these two]’ (Deuteronomy 23:19). What are they?’

“I said to him, ‘Prohibited.’

“He said to him [should be: to me], ‘For a sacrifice, [they are] prohibited; for ruin, it is permitted.’

“I said to him, ‘And if so, what will one do with them?’

“He said to me, ‘Let one make with them bathhouses and toilets.’

“I said to him, ‘Beautifully have you spoken.’

“And hidden from me was the halakhah [how one rules in Jewish law] for a moment.

“Since he saw that I acknowledged his words, he said to me, ‘From excrement they came, and to excrement they will go out, as it is said, ‘For from a prostitute’s fee she gathered, and until a prostitute’s they will return’ (Micah 1:7). Let them make thrones [probably a euphemism for toilets] for the masses.’

“And it pleased me.

“And because of this I was arrested for sectarianism. Moreover I transgressed that which is written in the Torah: ‘Keep far from her your way, and do not approach the entrance of her house” (Proverbs 5:8). ‘Keep far from her your way’—this is sectarianism—‘and do not approach the entrance of her house’—this is prostitution.

“Why? ‘For many slain has she caused to fall, and tremendous are all those killed by her’ (Proverbs 7:26).”

How much [should one remove oneself]? Rav Ḥisda’ said, “Until four cubits.”

From here died Rabbi ’El‘azar ben Dama’, son of the sister of Rabbi Yishma‘e’l, whom a snake bit. And Ya‘aqov, Man of Kefar Sekhanya’ came to heal him, and Rabbi Yishma‘e’l did not let him.

[Rabbi Yishma‘e’l] said, “You are not allowed, Ben Dama’”.

[Rabbi ’El‘azar ben Dama’] said to him, “Allow me, and I will bring you proof from the Torah that it is permitted.” But he did not bring him enough proof before he died.

And Rabbi Yishma‘e’l rejoiced and said, “Happy are you, Ben Dama’, that your soul went out in purity and you did not breach the fence of the Sages [to submit to the ministrations of one such as Ya‘aqov, Man of Kefar Sekhanya’]. For all who breach the fence of the Sages [his] end is that calamities come upon him, as it is written, ‘And one who breaches a fence, a snake will bite him’ (Ecclesiastes 1:8).”

And he was not bitten except that a snake should not bite him in the future to come [in the afterlife as a punishment].

And what was to him [Rabbi ’El‘azar ben Dama’] in it [that he should submit to the ministrations of Ya‘aqov, Man of Kefar Sekhanya’]? “That the human will do them and live by them” (Leviticus 11:5)—and not that he should die by them.

I find the timing of these passages rather difficult. The king of Yehudhah (Judea) at the time of Yeshu the Noṣri was Yanna’y (Alexander Jannaeus), who died in 76 BCE. Rabbi ‘Aqiva’, however, lived at the time of the Bar Kokhba’ revolt in 132 CE. Rabbi ‘Aqiva’ is said to have lived 120 years, but even if we place this incident at the beginning of his teaching career, 40 years before he was executed by the Romans, that still leaves us with a gap of about 168 years between Yeshu the Noṣri in Egypt and this incident with Ya‘aqov, Man of Kefar Sekhanya’. Perhaps Ya‘aqov, Man of Kefar Sekhanya’ was not being literal about having been taught by Yeshu the Noṣri, but rather is claiming to have received traditions which go back to him. Alternatively, there could have been multiple people named “Yeshu the Noṣri”.

There is also the question of what Ya‘aqov, Man of Kefar Sekhanya’ would have done in treating Rabbi ’El‘azar ben Dama’ that would have been in violation of Jewish law. Medical treatment is not prohibited, so it had to be known or at least suspected that Ya‘aqov, Man of Kefar Sekhanya’ was doing something forbidden. Since Yeshu the Noṣri is depicted as a magician, Ya‘aqov, Man of Kefar Sekhanya’ may have followed in his footsteps and used magic for healing. This may be related to many incidents in the Gospels where Jesus is depicted as faith-healing. (What one person views as a legitimate religious practice may be easily viewed by others as magic. The term “magic” comes from magus, the Latin term for a Zoroastrian priest.) Considering that Yeshu the Noṣri committed idolatry, the magic of Ya‘aqov, Man of Kefar Sekhanya’ may have also contained an idolatrous component. If so, Rabbi Yishma‘e’l was completely right in prohibiting it even to save a life; one is obligated to die rather than commit idolatry.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

The Gospel According to the Pharisees, Part 4, or, The Gospel of Ben Seṭadha’:

2011-07-26T17:03:00.005+03:00

Jewish date: 24 Tammuz 5771 (Parashath Mas‘e).

Today’s holidays: The Three Weeks (Judaism), Feast Day of Joachim and Ann (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Stanley Kubrick (Church of the SubGenius).

Upcoming events:

The group protesting for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount and against the Waqf’s destruction of everything Jewish up there (myself included) will be at the Shuq in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) this Thursday (28 July 2011), probably around 7:00 PM, in an educational capacity.
One of the people at the last protest (this past Thursday) was handing out pamphlets promoting Jews visiting the Temple Mount on Ro’sh Ḥodhesh ’Av (1 August 2011). Visiting hours for Jews are 7:30 AM to 11:00 AM and 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM. One should visit a miqweh, wear non-leather shoes, and bring a one’s identity card. See “The Temple Mount: Bird's Eye Guide to the Temple Mount” and “Ascending the Temple Mount: An Introduction and Brief Guide” and consult a competent Orthodox rav for more information. Remember: The more Jews who show up, the more the police and the politicians know that the Temple Mount matters to Jews and will be less likely to pander to Muslim discrimination.

Greetings.

And now for the fourth in my series on Jesus in the Talmudh. (See also “The Gospel According to the Pharisees”, “The Gospel According to the Pharisees, part 2”, and “The Gospel According to the Pharisees, Part 3”.) The Wikipedia article I got a lot of the references from (thanks to Stephen), “Jesus in the Talmud”, lists some references to one Ben Seṭadha’ who sounds a bit like Jesus and Yeshu the Noṣri.

Talmudh Yerushalmi, Shabbath 12:4:

[Mishnah:] One who writes on his flesh [on Shabbath] is liable [to bring a sin offering if unintentionally and to death if deliberately]. And one who scratches [letters] on his flesh [on Shabbath], Rabbi ’Eli‘ezer declares him liable to bring a sin offering, and Rabbi Yehoshua‘ exempts [him].

[Expositing on the Mishnah:] The one who draws like the form of writing on the skin [on Shabbath] is exempt.

Rabbi ’Eli‘ezer said to them, “And did not Ben Seṭadha’ bring out sorcery from Miṣrayim [Egypt] just this way?

They said to him, “Because of one incompetent, do we lose many smart [people]?”

Talmudh Bavil, Shabbath 104b:

[Expositing on the Mishnah:] “One who scratches [letters] on his flesh [on Shabbath—Rabbi ’Eli‘ezer declares him guilty to bring a sin offering, and the Sages exempt [him].]”: It was taught: Rabbi ’Eli‘ezer said to the Sages, “And did not Ben Seṭadha’ bring out sorcery from Miṣrayim in a scratch that [was] on his flesh [i.e., scratched into his flesh]?”

They said to him, “He was an incompetent, and one does not bring a proof [of how people normally behave] from incompetents.”

The term which I translate as “incompetent” in both passages, shoṭeh, is frequently grouped together with ḥeresh (“deaf-mute”) and qaṭan (“minor”, someone under age 13 if male and 12 if female) as part of the canonical group of people who are not legally responsible for their actions; someone has to have severe mental problems to be considered a shoṭeh. The term also is part of the compound term ḥasidh shoṭeh (“incompetent pietist”), which refers to someone whose priorities are severely wrong, such as a man who declines to save a woman drowning in a river because if he does so, he will have to see her naked. It is no stretch to interpret this passage as meaning that the Sages thought Ben Seṭadha’ was some sort of idiot or lunatic.

Do note that Ben Seṭadha’, like Yeshu the Noṣri and the Jesus of the Gospels spent time in Egypt. And like Yeshu the Noṣri, Ben Seṭadha’ was a magician. Also note that while the passages about Yeshu the Noṣri do not approve of his behavior, none of them suggest that he was mentally defective. Keep in mind: doing wrong is not the same thing as being stupid.

Talmudh Bavil, Sanhedhrin 67a:

[[In a discussion of the trial of inciters:]]

And if he said, “Thus are our obligations and thus is beautiful for us [to worship idols]”, the witnesses that hear from outside bring him to court and stone him. And thus they did to Ben Seṭadha’ in Ludh [Lod, a city near Tel ’Aviv and site of the Ben Guryon Airport], and they hung him on the eve of Pesaḥ [Passover].

Ben [= son of] Seṭadha’? He [was the] son of Pandera’!

Rav Ḥisda’ said, “The husband [was] Seṭadha’. The one who had intercourse [with his mother was] Pandera’.”

The husband [was] Pappos ben Yehudhah!

[Yes, ] but his mother was Seṭadha’.

His mother was Miryam the braider of women[’s hair = Miryam meghadela’ neshaya’]!

As they said in Pumbedhitha’ [a center of Jewish learning in Babylonia]: This one turned [seṭath da’] from her husband.

Like Yeshu the Noṣri and the Jesus of the Gospel According to John, Ben Seṭadha’ is executed on the eve of Pesaḥ. Like Yeshu the Noṣri, Ben Seṭadha’ is stoned and hung by Jews, not crucified by Romans. That this specifically happens in Ludh is unlike the Gospels, in which Jesus is executed in Yerushalayim.

Note there is some confusion over who were Ben Seṭadha’’s parents, with the resolution being that his father was Pandera’, his mother’s husband was Pappos ben Yehudhah, and his mother was Miryam [= Mary]. Only the last agrees to any degree with the Gospels and the Aramaic suggests an identification of Mary the mother of Jesus with Mary Magdalene. (Digest that, Dan Brown and Lady Gaga!) Miryam was an adulteress, which fits well with the Gospel claim that Jesus was literally the Son of God and with the Christian tradition that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute or adulteress. (And, yes, I am aware the Gospels are silent on Mary Magdalene’s sex life and I have heard that such an identification may be late, but the parallel is still there.)

Though there was a bit of similarity of Ben Seṭadha’ to Yeshu the Noṣri and Jesus of the Gospels, there is not a lot to go on in the first place. That a scholar such as Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah could have at one point voluntarily associated with Yeshu the Noṣri suggests Yeshu was probably at least somewhat intelligent. This is confirmed by Yeshu being able to disgrace his learning—he had to be able to acquire the learning in order to be able to disgrace it. Ben Seṭadha’ seems to have not been mentally all there, suggesting that he was a different person.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

The Gospel According to the Pharisees, Part 3

2011-07-24T17:21:00.016+03:00

Jewish date: 22 Tammuz 5771 (Parashath Mas‘e).

Today’s holidays: The Three Weeks (Judaism), Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Sylvester Graham (Church of the SubGenius).

Upcoming events:

The group protesting for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount and against the Waqf’s destruction of everything Jewish up there (myself included) will be at the Shuq in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) this Thursday (28 July 2011), probably around 7:00 PM, in an educational capacity.
One of the people at the last protest (this past Thursday) was handing out pamphlets promoting Jews visiting the Temple Mount on Ro’sh Ḥodhesh ’Av (1 August 2011). Visiting hours for Jews are 7:30 AM to 11:00 AM and 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM. One should visit a miqweh, wear non-leather shoes, and bring a one’s identity card. See “The Temple Mount: Bird's Eye Guide to the Temple Mount” and “Ascending the Temple Mount: An Introduction and Brief Guide” and consult a competent Orthodox rav for more information. Remember: The more Jews who show up, the more the police and the politicians know that the Temple Mount matters to Jews and will be less likely to pander to Muslim discrimination.

Greetings.

Image of Jesus making himself look like an ignoramus in front of Pharisees via Wikipedia

As intended, I am continuing my series on Jesus in the Talmudh. (See “The Gospel According to the Pharisees” and “The Gospel According to the Pharisees, part 2”.) Today’s installment (in what looks like it is going to drag out to at least five installments) deals with what the Rabbis thought about Yeshu the Noṣri, who may well be Jesus of Nazareth.

Talmudh Bavli, Berakhoth 17b:

[In a discussion of the eulogies of great scholars which ends up as exegesis of Psalms 144:14, giving examples of bad students:] “In our streets”—that we should not have a son or student that spoils his dish [i.e., disgraces his learning] in public, e.g., Yeshu the Noṣri.

This passage indicates that the Pharisees thought about as highly of Yeshu’s learning as he did of theirs.

Talmudh Bavli, Giṭṭin 56b-57a:

’Unqelos bar Qaloniqos [author of the canonical translation of the Torah into Aramaic] was the son of the sister of Ṭiṭus [Titus, emperor of Rome]; he wanted to convert.

[[’Unqelos raises up Titus and Bil‘am and questions them about who is important in the World to Come.]]

[’Unqelos] went [and] raised up with necromancy Yeshu the Noṣri. He said to him, “Who is important in that world?”

[Yeshu] said to him, “Yisra’el [Israel].”

[’Unqelos asked,] “What about to be joined to them?”

[Yeshu] said to him, “Inquire about their grace; do not inquire about their tragedy. Whoever touches them, it is as if he touches the pupil [better: cornea] of his eye.”

[’Unqelos] said to him, “The judgement of ‘that man’ [i.e., Yeshu] is in what?”

[Yeshu] said to him, “In boiling excrement.”

Your humble blogger finds it difficult to see this as an actual historical event. At best, it could reflect some meditative or drug-induced experience. What is obvious what whoever wrote it thought about Yeshu the Noṣri.

Both of these passages demonstrate a very negative view of Yeshu the Noṣri, which is in complete agreement with the passages I have already written about. They also reflect the negative attitudes of the Pharisees towards Jesus depicted in the New Testament, the big difference being that here Jesus is the bad guy. Note that while Jesus in the Gospels gets the upper hand in arguments (probably through omission of the Pharisees’ rebuttals of anything Jesus has to say, if these arguments ever took place at all), here he is not even given the opportunity to make a case.

Thus ends what I have managed to find on Yeshu the Noṣri in the Talmudh. Up next are passages on Ben Seṭadha’, which resemble the stories of Jesus and Yeshu and may—or may not—be the same person.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

Temple Mount protest #1 and Silwan

2011-07-19T12:12:00.006+03:00

Jewish date: 17 Tammuz 5771 (Parashath Maṭṭoth).

Today’s holidays: The Fast of Tammuz (Judaism), Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Dr. Doom/St. Thulsa Doom (Church of the SubGenius), Feast Day of the Magi: Krishna (Thelema).

Greetings.

Topic 1: Today is the 17th of Tammuz, a fast day commemorating the breaching of the walls of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem), leading to the destruction of the Second Temple. You can find out more about it on the Orthodox Union’s Web-site.

Note: I am fasting, and it may show in the quality of my writing today.

Topic 2: A month ago, I wrote about my visit to the Temple Mount, which I was upset about, both in terms of what I had to do to get up there without being harassed and what I saw up there. This was not the end of the matter. As documented in “Protest: Stop Temple Mount Discrimination, Desecration”, last Thursday I took part in a demonstration against discrimination against Jews on the Temple Mount and of the Waqf’s treatment of the place. I am the guy with the sign saying אנחנו לא ד׳ימיים (“We are not dhimmis”), a refusal to accept Islamic domination. The protest took place at Gesher hamMesharim (the Strings Bridge) in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). I asked the obvious question why the protest was not taking place somewhere more relevant to the Temple Mount. According to the organizer, holding the protest at the Western Wall would likely get us arrested. Instead, we (something like ten people) stood at the side of a major road with signs, chanting and talking with interested passersby in Hebrew and English. The number of protesters may have been small, but at least we got news coverage. Another protest is planned this Thursday.

Topic 3: I spent Shabbath in Kefar hatTemanim/Silwan, an illegally built neighborhood in Yerushalayim. The place I was at was Beth Yonathan, one of the few Jewish-owned and -occupied structures in the neighborhood; it contains several apartments and a synagogue/kolel (a sort of organization for Torah study). The rest of the neighborhood was built by Muslim Arabs, and much of the building was done in a national park—land which belongs to the state. The lack of legality shows. Many of the buildings are in bad condition. The roads are too narrow, too steep, frequently missing sidewalks, and blatantly unsafe. I whole-heartedly support government plans to bulldoze the structures built in the national park.

There is the graffiti everywhere, predominantly in Arabic.

This picture was taken on Saturday night on the way out of Silwan. See that Arabic graffiti? That is Allāhu akbar (الله أكبر, “Allah is great”), a phrase made infamous for its use by Islamic terrorists. I also saw a circled swastika graffiti on Shabbath afternoon. (Sorry, no photographs from during Shabbath.)

The anti-Semitism was not limited to graffiti. The Jews in Silwan live under the constant protection of guards and police, and it is needed, even just to take a walk. A stupid kid actually threw a rock at the army vehicle which took me and some other Jews from a parking lot to Beth Yonathan. Beth Yonathan’s multi-layered windows have cracks and bullet holes.

So why are Jews voluntarily living in such a hostile place? Jews and Muslims are fighting a low-level war over Israel. One of the tactics Muslims are using in the West for expanding the dominion of Islam is the creation of no-go zones, places where only Muslims can enter safely. (See “The 751 No-Go Zones of France” and “Muslim Autonomous Zones in the West?” for examples.) Israel is no exception, with the short-term, self-professed goal of the Palestinian Authority being the creation of a State of Palestine, essentially a very large no-go zone, since Jews in “Palestine” is somehow anathema. Silwan is just a smaller-scale attempt. Since Zionist Jews hold they have a duty to settle the land, no-go zones are anathema to them. Their living in such a hostile place is a concrete denial of Islamic domination.

Also: One can tell that there a sizable number of Muslims in Silwan due to the regular calls to prayer from minarets, such as this one near the parking lot:

The call to prayer was easily hearable within Beth Yonathan. There were also a lot of fireworks set off on Shabbath night, which was explained to me—I hope I am getting this right—as that Ramaḍān is coming soon, and unmarried Muslims are trying to get married ahead of then due to a prohibition of marrying then; the fireworks are part of the celebration. (Anyone sufficiently knowledgeable about Islam, please let me know if this is correct or not.)

Peace and have an easy fast.

’Aharon/Aaron

Review of The Gospel According to St. Matthew

2011-07-10T14:03:00.000+03:00

Jewish date: 8 Tammuz 5771 (Parashath Pineḥas).

Today’s holidays: Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Mel Blanc (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

Yes, I am reviewing The Gospel According to St. Matthew, yet another Gospel-based film, one specifically based on Matthew and currently watchable on Hulu. Happily (or unhappily, depending on your point of view), there is not much to say. Other than ṣara‘ath (often mistranslated as “leprosy”) being confounded with a facial deformity, it follows Matthew closely, warts and all, especially the warts. While authenticity is good, absolutely nothing is done to fill in the gaps in the original text and make it more understandable. You will find nothing to explain why anyone did anything which is not in the Gospels. Everything I complained about the Gospels being anti-Semitic is there, without the least sign of reflection on the part of those who made this film on what Jesus’s opponents actually believed or why they were opposed to him; Jesus is depicted as obviously right without question. Pilate and the rest of the Romans get off easy here, too. Only two things are particularly unusual:

1) The visual style is bad, even taking into consideration that this movie was made back in the 1960s, when video was often still in black-and-white and special effects were crude. The scenery is dull. The clothing is dull. The headgear looks especially stupid, and none of it looks like anything your humble blogger has seen in any depiction of Second Temple Period Israel. Anyone who has opened up Ezekiel knows that angels do not look like young women, but no one who made this movie seems to have considered having the angel at least dress differently from everyone else.

2) To the credit of the lead actor, Jesus is unusually lively for a Gospel film. Jesus in the Gospels is frequently angry, and in this movie, it actually shows. It is a controlled anger, a disgust for everything he complains about, which underlies all his speeches. Jesus also comes off as a bit crazy.

Recommendation: If you need to review Matthew and have a strong stomach, this is a good film to watch. Otherwise just skip it; you will not miss anything.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

Satan's Island?

2011-07-05T21:13:00.000+03:00

Jewish date: 4 Tammuz 5771 (evening) (Parashath Balaq).

Today’s holidays: Feast Day of Anthony Zaccaria (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius Day (Christianity), X-Day (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

I must confess I am a bit stuck right now. I am working on an essay on The Addams Family and managed to get writer’s block. And thanks to Stephen, I have been looking up material in the Talmudh Bavli which might refer to Jesus, but I am not ready to publish on it yet. I am therefore going to comment briefly on a short article Barry sent me word of recently which seems to be of the type of thing that I will never be able to get out of my head unless I write something about it.

The article is “Your Turn: Gilligan”, which deals with Gilligan’s Island, the famous sit-com from the 1960s. Sherwood Schwartz, who created the show, reportedly claimed afterwards that the seven castaways represented the Seven Deadly Sins of Christianity. This article claims instead:

But a closer viewing indicates that the island may well have been Hell — and the red-clad Gilligan the devil who kept them on his island.

The greatest part of the metaphor, though, is that if the others ever wanted to get off the island, what they needed to do was kill Gilligan — and that each of us has our own inner Gilligan, that sweet-natured, well-meaning part of us that always sabotages us from getting what we really want.

Maybe if we truly want to succeed in life, we need to kill our own inner Gilligan.

I can see the business of the Seven Deadly Sins. Each of the castaways has weaknesses in their character which they must strive to overcome (like the rest of the human race). But Gilligan as Satan is more of a stretch than the basic premise of the show that the castaways can never get off the island. Satan, in Christianity, is a rebel against God, the very personification of evil. Being deliberately evil for a being who knows full well that God exists and will ultimately prevail is arguably supremely stupid, but Gilligan is merely stupid. He is not evil. The only reason his screw-ups keep the other castaways on the island is that if they ever did get off, the show would end. Satan is also not known for being “sweet-natured” or “well-meaning”; his main interest is getting humans to sin, which often involves getting them to do what they want, as opposed to what is right.

Likewise, the castaways’ time on the island can hardly be considered Hell. They may sometimes miss things available back in Hawaii but not on the island, but they quickly grow into a family. This is despite them getting angry with each other from time to time, but such is completely normal for families. In the first movie after the series, Rescue from Gilligan’s Island, the castaways, after being separated following their rescue, are stressed over reintegrating into society and are ultimately glad to see each other at their Christmas reunion; if anything, civilization is Hell for them. In the second movie, The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island, upon being rescued again, the castaways decide not to leave and set up a resort on the island instead. In the third movie, The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island, the plot centers around saving the island. None of this is consistent with Hell; it is fully consistent with home.

Conclusion: Whoever wrote this article was probably being at least as silly as the writers for Gilligan’s Island.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

The Gospel According to the Pharisees, part 2

2011-06-26T15:00:00.000+03:00

Jewish date: 24 Siwan 5771 (Parashath Ḥuqqath).

Today’s holidays: Corpus Christi (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Archie McPhee (Church of the SubGenius).

I post this now in an effort to get caught up. There are things going on religiously which are unlikely to be discussed by me, but at least I hope to make progress on what one might call “original content”.

About ten months ago I reported on a passage in Sanhedhrin 43a in the Talmudh Bavli dealing with one Yeshu the Noṣri (Jesus the Nazarene). It is not clear if this Yeshu is the same as the subject of the Gospels, though there are suggestive similarities.

Around Shavu‘oth I was at a lecture which brought up another (commonly censored out) passage in Sanhedhrin which deals with Yeshu the Noṣri. When I looked it up, I discovered it appears slightly differently in Soṭah, too. Here are both versions, my translation (with apologies for any inaccuracies there may be, as the language is difficult):

Soṭah 47a:

Our Masters taught: Always the left [hand] should push away and the right bring near. [This is] not like [the prophet] ’Elisha‘, who pushed away [his assistant] Geḥazi with his two hands, and not like Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah, who pushed away Yeshu the Noṣri with his two hands.

Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah—what is this? When King Yanna’y [one of the Maccabean kings] was killing Our Masters, Shim‘on ben Sheṭaḥ’s sister [wife of King Yanna’y] hid him. Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah went [and] fled to ’Aleksanderiyya’ of Miṣrayim [Alexandria, Egypt].

When there was peace, Shim‘on ben Sheṭaḥ sent to him: “From me [in] Yerushalayim [Jerusalem] the Holy City to you [in] ’Aleksanderiyya’ of Miṣrayim: My sister [says], ‘My husband dwells in your midst, and I sit desolate.’”

He [Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah] said, “Hear from this he [Shim‘on ben Sheṭaḥ] had peace.”

When he came [and] reached a certain inn, he [the innkeeper] stood before him with much honor; they did for him great honor. He [Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah] sat and praised, “How pleasant/beautiful is this hostess!”

Yeshu the Noṣri said to him, “Rabbi, her eyes are ṭeruṭoth [oval? long? narrow? tearful? at any rate, probably not intended as a complement].

He [Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah] said to him, “Evil [one]! In this do you busy yourself?” He brought out 400 shofaroth [for the sake of publicity] and excommunicated him.

Every day he [Yeshu the Noṣri] went before him [Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah], and he did not receive him.

One day he [Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah] was reading Qeriyyath Shema‘ [a basic Jewish prayer]. He [Yeshu the Noṣri] came before him. It was on his mind to receive him. He showed him with his hand [i.e., made a sign to avoid interrupting his prayers]. He [Yeshu the Noṣri] thought that he [Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah] had pushed him away; he went [and] set up a brick [as] a worshipper.

He [Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah] said to him, “Return yourself!”

He [Yeshu the Noṣri] said to him, “Thus I received from you: All sinners and those who cause the masses to sin cannot succeed in doing repentance. For Mar [Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah] said, ‘Yeshu the Noṣri performed magic and incited [to transgression] and tempted [to commit transgressions] and caused Yisra’el [Israel] to sin.’”

Sanhedhrin 107b:

Our Masters taught: Always the left [hand] should push away and the right bring near. [This is] not like ’Elisha‘, who pushed away Geḥazi with his two hands, and not like Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah, who pushed away Yeshu the Noṣri with his two hands.

Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah—what is this? When King Yanna’y was killing Our Masters, Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah and Yeshu went to ’Aleksanderiyya’ of Miṣrayim.

When there was peace, Shim‘on ben Sheṭaḥ sent to him: “From me [in] Yerushalayim the Holy City to you [in] ’Aleksanderiyya’ of Miṣrayim: My sister [says], ‘My husband dwells in your midst, and I sit desolate.’”

He [Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah] stood [and] came [and] arrived by chance at a certain inn. They did for him great honor. He [Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah] said, “How pleasant/beautiful is this hostess!”

He [Yeshu the Noṣri] said to him, “Rabbi, her eyes are ṭeruṭoth.

He [Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah] said to him, “Evil [one]! In this do you busy yourself?” He brought out 400 shofaroth and excommunicated him.

He [Yeshu the Noṣri] came before him [Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah] several times [and] said to him, “Receive me!” He would not look at him.

One day he [Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah] was reading Qeriyyath Shema‘. He [Yeshu the Noṣri] came before him. He thought to receive [him]. He showed him with his hand [i.e., made a sign]. He [Yeshu the Noṣri] thought, “He [Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah] has pushed me away.” He went [and] set up a brick and prostrated himself before it.

He [Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah] said to him, “Return yourself!”

He [Yeshu the Noṣri] said to him, “Thus I received from you: All sinners and those who cause the masses to sin cannot succeed in doing repentance. And Mar [Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah] said, ‘Yeshu the Noṣri performed magic and incited [to transgression] and tempted [to commit transgressions] and caused Yisra’el [Israel] to sin.’”

Like the Sanhedhrin 43a passage, this passage takes place at a time of Jewish rule, not Roman; Herod the Great ruled after the Maccabean kings. Like in the Gospels, this Yeshu spent time in Egypt due to persecution from the government; however, the Gospels blame Herod the Great for trying to kill Jesus as a small child, while here Yeshu is presumably an adult.

Clearly there is a lot left out of these passages.

1) The cause of Yeshu’s excommunication, that he was criticizing the appearance of a married woman’s eyes, is odd. That he noticed there was something unusual about a married woman’s eyes is nothing unusual; since he was presumably not blind, it is to be expected. Talking about it, however, is rude and improper, as it is completely irrelevant to how the inn staff were treating Rabbi Yehoshua‘ ben Peraḥyah and Yeshu—people who are physically unusual can be just as nice as anyone else—but this would be the first time your humble blogger is aware of anyone being excommunicated for being rude.

2) Like in the Sanhedhrin 43a passage, this Yeshu also goes horribly wrong. Idolatry is strictly forbidden in Judaism, but why he fell that far is never stated. Many people screw up horribly without becoming idolators.

3) What Yeshu was doing to cause others to transgress or what he did magically is not stated. Why he did either is never stated.

Humans, even when they go bad, have reasons for what they do. These reasons may be anything from excellent to idiotic, but they do not happen arbitrarily or suddenly. Is Yeshu’s comment on a woman’s eyes part of a series of other misbehaviors which together justify his excommuication? What happened to Yeshu which gave him the idea of practicing idolatry or magic? Why would he make other people do wrong, too? I have no idea. But I find myself wondering if there are other passages in the Talmudh about Yeshu the Noṣri. I hope further searching will turn up more information on him which will fill in the gaps in his life.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

The Coyote Ugly sermon

2011-06-24T12:29:00.001+03:00

Jewish date: 22 Siwan 5771 (Parashath Qoraḥ).

Today’s holidays: Birth of John the Baptist (Christianity); Feast Day of Elizabeth, Mother of the Forerunner (Greek Orthodox Christianity); Feast of the Lesser Mysteries (Thelema); Feast Day of St. Anton LaVey (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

Given that I recently posted a review of the utterly dreadful song “Judas” by the utterly tasteless performer Lady Gaga, one may now assume that anything which I can stand to read or watch without losing my lunch or going insane is now a legitimate target for review and commentary. And so, after six years, I am going to finally publish what may be first and last sermon ever written on Coyote Ugly, here and now. I have chosen this time because the sermon is directly relevant to this week’s Torah portion.

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

’Aharon/Aaron

I have boasted that I give sermons stranger than anyone else’s, and to this end I will attempt to tie together Qoraḥ, the exoteric and esoteric meanings of Song of Songs, and (of all things) the movie Coyote Ugly. (I know it sounds like a circus stunt, but please, bear with me.)

One evening at a joint CSEB-SER conference in Toronto (28 June 2005), the guy I was sharing a hotel room with decided to watch television, and after flipping through channels, he settled on Coyote Ugly. From what I saw of the movie, it was mainly about conventionally beautiful, immodestly dressed women who dance on top of bars. The point of this is to attract customers to the bar, and these have to purchase alcoholic beverages to stay there. Though there were clear attempts at a plot and character development, my intuition insists these were not the point of this film or why anyone would deliberately see it; indeed, what little I can remember of how it was marketed was “women dancing on bars” and not “the struggles of an aspiring songwriter”.

Being a religious Jew, I naturally was soon mentally contrasting this tasteless movie with something vaguely similar in any respect out of the world of Judaism, namely the exoteric meaning of Song of Songs. Song of Songs on the simple level also deals largely with sexuality, but in a vastly different manner than Coyote Ugly. Sexuality in Song of Songs is all about love between a husband and wife, with the goal being that through appreciation of each other the lovers become closer. This socially functional sexuality is private, shared by them alone and not with other people. In contrast, the sexuality of Coyote Ugly is public and exploitative. It is out there for anyone to see—as long as they are paying customers. Sexuality is turned into a tool to hawk a product, perverting its whole point. Sex evolved as a means for reproduction and was later adapted as a means to keep couples together for their mutual benefit for long periods of time. In contrast with this, in Coyote Ugly men come to the bar, lured by sexuality, but they are never ever allowed to progress past looking. Instead, they are coerced into buying drinks of questionable hygiene and a deleterious effect on judgement, and ultimately they leave alone, cheated of sexuality’s promise. This exploitation occurs on a higher level, too. Men go to see the movie, lured by sexuality, but it is a sham. They see the pretty sights, but two hours later the movie is over. There are no beautiful women—in fact, they never were any, so there is no chance of a relationship, and the movie-goers have to go home with nothing but ticket stubs and $5.50 less in each of their wallets.

The real fun happens when we move from the exoteric to the esoteric. The esoteric meaning of Song of Songs is about the relationship between YHWH and Yisra’el; He loves us, and we love Him. The practice of Judaism is how we express our love for YHWH. If we apply this symbolism to Coyote Ugly, we end up with a situation straight out of the Torah, namely the story of Qoraḥ (Numbers 15:1-17:28). Qoraḥ, like most evil people, depicted himself as righteous. He stood in public for all to see, calling for everyone to gather around him and see how righteous he was; in fact, he claimed to be even more righteous that Mosheh. In the text of the Torah alone he accuses Mosheh of ignoring that all of Yisra’el is holy and instead resorting to nepotism in appointing the priesthood. In midhrash, he argues that Mosheh’s teachings are inconsistent and biased against the most vulnerable people in society. Like sexuality in Coyote Ugly, Qoraḥ’s righteousness is a sham. He puts on a big show, but it has nothing to do with expressing his love for YHWH; he is just trying to exploit people. He promises the great religious concepts of holiness and equality, but he never intends to do anything but grab power and send his followers home no better off than they were previously. In short, Qoraḥ is the esoteric meaning of Coyote Ugly.

I do realize that the connection between Qoraḥ and Coyote Ugly was almost certainly never intended by the creators of the latter, but the phenomenon of exploitative superficiality which underlies both of them has, so far as I know, been common throughout human history, and it is still common today, to the point where we often expect it. In movies, we expect great special effects and sex rather than good plots or believable characters. We expect overblown claims in advertising; if something is labeled “low-fat”, it is high in sugar, and if it is “low-sugar”, it is high in fat—and we expect this. In the domain of religion, there are cults, the whole purpose of which is to let the clergy exploit the laity. In science, there are “junk science” and “creationism/intelligent design”, the point of which is to create doubt where none exists and obscure truths rather than reveal them. In politics, we expect politicians to lie whenever they open their mouths and make promises they never intend to keep, yet we still vote for them. In short, the World is filled with Qoraḥs, and the question before us is whether we will continue to fall for their lies, thereby perpetuating exploitative superficiality.

Holidays between Pesaḥ and Shavu‘oth

2011-06-17T15:18:00.000+03:00

Jewish date: 15 Siwan 5771 (Parashath Shelaḥ Lekha).

Today’s holidays: Friday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast of Marvel “Jack” Parsons (Thelema), Feast Day of St. Zontar of Venus (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

To get completely caught up, I should put in a few words on Jewish/Israeli holidays which occur between Pesaḥ (Passover) and Shavu‘oth (Pentecost). I am sorry I did not get around to writing about them earlier; my memory of them seems to have faded further than I should have allowed it.

Yom hashSho’ah (Israeli Holocaust Day) and Yom hazZikkaron (Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day): These are naturally solemn days. The first does not seem to be taken off from work, while the second everyone left early from. Both I remember being marked by the lighting of memorial candles, such as this one:

I also remember a national minute of silence on both days.

Yom ha‘Aṣma’uth (Israeli Independence Day): This holiday celebrates the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. My activities on that day on the Temple Mount have already received the attention of an entire blog post. Yom ha‘Aṣma’uth is celebrated as a national holiday, with everyone getting off of work, and here in Giv‘ath Shemu’el we celebrated it as a religious holiday, too. Our synagogue had an evening assembly with prayer services, speakers, and music to celebrate, and in the morning the synagogue I prayed out said Hallel (celebratory psalms) with blessings—something done in recognition of the arguably miraculous nature of Israel’s surviving the attack of the surrounding Arab countries intent on preventing there being a non-Muslim state in the region. This was not only a day off from work, but the country really meant it. As I walked from the Jerusalem Central Bus Station to the Old City, I saw barely any store of any kind open. People also tend to have barbecues, and there were a lot of blue and white decorations around. (Actually, a lot of them are still up, come to think of it.)

Day 33 of the ‘Omer/Lagh ba‘Omer: I have already posted a link to commentary on the questionable origins of this holiday. This holiday is infamous for people making bonfires. Unfortunately, I somehow managed to avoid seeing any.

Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day): This holiday celebrates the reunion of Jerusalem in 1967 when the Arabs attacked again, intent on wiping Israel off the map again, and not only lost the war, but territory as well. This was not a day off, but we had another assembly, and Hallel with blessings was said in the morning. I assumed that there was no way that the Waqf was going to let an observant Jew visit the Temple Mount this day, so I did not arrange my schedule for such a visit. To my surprise, I afterward learned that Rav ’Ari’el of the Temple Institute did ascend on Yom Yerushalayim, lectured up there, and even laid a stone towards the rebuilding of the Temple.

OK, that is it for the moment. I have other writing projects in the works. I have learned of another passage in the Talmudh on Jesus (found in two places) and translated both versions; I now need to get around to writing commentary on it. There is also a Jesus movie on Hulu which I ought to comment on. Furthermore, Barry has alerted me to Ayn Rand becoming popular among the Republican Party lately. Ayn Rand’s quasi-religion, Objectivism (a misnomer if there ever was one), is openly pro-selfishness—something rare in moral systems—leading to an obvious contradiction with Christianity. I have started reading Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, and it definitely merits moral commentary. This may also lead me to reread material on LaVeyan Satanism, another pro-selfishness quasi-religion. (Now somebody remind me to get back to reading The Golden Bough, which I am stuck in the middle of and need to get around to finishing. Come to think of it, I am still in the middle of the Mahabharata, too. So much material, so little time to review it…)

I would like to end with a bit of religious humor before it eats my brain. I have finished unpacking all the books I had shipped to me here in Israel. The last box contained the entire Scientology public canon. The cover of one of the books struck me as shocking:

I realize that the Church of Scientology loves to recruit celebrities and have them promote Scientology, but HOW COULD THING (OF THE ADDAMS FAMILY) EVER BECOME A SCIENTOLOGIST? SAY IT ISN'T SO! SAY IT ISN'T SO!

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

’Aharon/Aaron

Pesaḥ and Shavu‘oth

2011-06-10T11:24:00.000+03:00

Jewish date: 8 Siwan 5771 (Parashath BeHa‘alothekha).

Today’s holidays: Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of Basilides, (Thelema), Feast Day of St. Wacky Wall Walker (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

I hope to finish up Pesaḥ (Passover) and also discuss Shavu‘oth (Pentecost) today. (Working on that got delayed by the whole Lady Gaga business and other things I have been working on.) Let’s see what we can do…

Yom ṭov sheni (second day of festivals): Before Rav Hillel II enacted the current version of the Jewish calendar, the start of months was determined by empirical sighting of the new moon. This was long before modern communications, and so places far from the court declaring the new moon might not hear about it for some time. Thus communities in the Diaspora often had a real doubt what day it was, and thus they kept an extra day of the holidays in the Torah just to be sure. When the current calendar was enacted, the practice remained despite the lack of a doubt; the reason I heard is that people liked having an extra day off. It has been retained to this day except for Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement); apparently no one liked fasting for two days in a row. In Israel, the practice is (and apparently always has been) not to add an extra day. Nothing felt wrong about it, though it did make both Pesaḥ and Shavu‘oth noticeably shorter. I also ended up doing things on days I previous had treated as festivals that I would never have considered doing before. E.g., yesterday was the second day of Shavu‘oth in America but an ordinary day here in Israel. And I went to work and did laundry, both of which are simply not to be done on a festival.

Also: It is not quite correct that yom ṭov sheni is observed in the Diaspora and is not in Israel; how one practices is actually dependent on where one lives. I knew some Israelis back in Charleston who did not keep yom ṭov sheni, though they were very private about it. I have also heard of Jews from America visiting Israel keeping yom ṭov sheni to various degrees.

The sedher: I attended a sedher (only one) by a mixed Middle Eastern-’Ashkenazi family. Liturgically there was not really anything unusual, though the tunes used for singing were not the ones I was used to. This was the place I first ate soft maṣṣah. They also had multiple sedher plates, and the man of the house gave some Qabbalistic explanations of details of the sedher. I was very impressed with the handling of the children, which encouraged their participation and involved handing out prizes to them.

Qiṭniyyoth: ’Ashkenazim (such as myself) have the practice of not eating qiṭniyyoth during Pesaḥ. This group formally consists of legumes and grain-like seeds, e.g., rice, corn, peas, and beans. There is a good deal of controversy over what the boundaries of this prohibition, e.g., whether peanuts and quinoa included. There is even controversy over where the practice came from, and some ’Ashkenazim have dropped it altogether (“A New Explanation for Eschewing Qitniyoth”, “The Prohibition Against Qitniyoth on Pesah: Anatomy of an Error”, “The Road Map from Qitniyoth to Qorban Pesah”). I did not go to such an extreme, but buying food for Pesaḥ in Israel is complicated that much of what is available contains qiṭniyyoth (as opposed to Pesaḥ food in the United States, which never does). I did, however, keep three cans of kasher for Pesaḥ corn on my coffee table as a demonstration of my lack of paranoia.

Restaurants: In the United States, I never heard of restaurants open for Pesaḥ. Having a restaurant open on Pesaḥ requires a lot of preparation and cost, and the turnout has to be large enough for just a few days to make it worthwhile. Previously, I had only heard about it being done at McDonald’s here in Israel, something about “matzoburgers”. This Pesaḥ I found lots of restaurants open on Pesaḥ with their food certified as being kasher for Pesaḥ. And on a date in Yerushalayim I ate pizza with a potato-based crust at one such restaurant.

Shavu‘oth: This holiday is largely ignored and unknown in the United States outside of observant circles. Here in Israel, it is a national holiday, and everyone takes it off. It is so well-known over here that I even saw a relevant advertisement:

Pardon the perspective, but sometimes one does not find a good place to stand while taking a photograph. This one is for cheesecake, which is commonly eaten on Shavu‘oth.

I did not notice anything particularly unusual about the observance of Shavu‘oth, other than everything was compressed into one day rather than two. I did find out that Sefaradhim/Middle Eastern Jews read the Book of Ruth at night rather than during the day, but this did not strike me as more than a mere variation.

OK, someone remind me to blog soon on the holidays which occur during the counting of the ‘Omer.

Shabbath shalom.

’Aharon/Aaron

The Gospel According to Lady Gaga

2011-05-24T14:12:00.000+03:00

Greetings.

Jewish date: 20 ’Iyyar 5771 (Parashath BeMidhbar).

Today’s holidays: Day 35 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius Day (Christianity), Feast of Hermes (Thelema).

Unfortunately, Malcolm NC-17 sent me a link to Lady Gaga’s “Judas” with a request to review it. At 2:30 AM, unable to sleep, I had this dreadful song stuck in my head with a sizable amount of my neural circuitry analyzing it, and the only thing I could really do with it was write about it. (This is not the only time this has happened. I have an unpublished sermon I wrote after catching part of Coyote Ugly and finding myself awake for hours afterwards dissecting it. I am so glad that I do not have work today, because otherwise I would be in really big trouble.) I hope Malcolm NC-17 comes to regret this.

The video, for the suicidally curious with strong stomachs, can be found here. I strongly recommend this video be watched only on an empty stomach, and those not used to watching such material should not watch it at all. Really. I mean it. Absolutely not kidding. This could give people nightmares. Do not say I did not warn you.

The first thing which comes to mind on watching this video is Proverbs 11:22: “A gold ring in the nose of a pig is a beautiful woman deviating from taste.” While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Lady Gaga periodically is criticized for her choice of costumes and makeup such that even people who do not follow popular music (such as myself) hear about it. This video is no exception, and she rather resembles a gold truck tire in the nose of a hippopotamus, if for nothing other than her atrocious eye makeup.

The word ṭa‘am, which I translate as “taste”, can also be translated as “meaning”, which also fits. What is happening in the video is unclear, as it is plagued by abrupt changes in costume and setting. It does make use of recognized Christian religious symbols (to be detailed below), but not consistently using them with anything resembling conventional Christianity; this does not help clarifying the plot. Even after checking the description on Wikipedia and way too many viewings, the video still comes off somewhat incoherent. Part of it is that the music is too loud to understand all of the lyrics. (E.g., is Lady Gaga claiming to be a “holy fool” or a “horny fool”?) But even the lyrics read alone prove poorly written and partly nonsensical. (Suddenly Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell seem wonderful.)

I discussed the video with Malcolm, and he claimed the confusion is deliberate:

Look at her carefully. She’s short, small-breasted, has a big nose, and her face is shaped a little funny. She’s not abnormal or even terribly unattractive but she’s no supermodel. For marketing purposes, it’s not atypical to glamour-up performers. Lady Gaga does this and then goes overboard on top of this. Like Madonna before kept changing costumes and personas, Lady Gaga attracts constant interest by wearing outrageous outfits. The outfits and other stunts are shocking and create curiosity, but they are ultimately meaningless. The same can be said about the videos, the tenth of which you have not seen. In this context, “Judas” is just a variation on this previous attention-getting behavior. Both the song and video are a bunch of inane blasphemies. They shock and get a lot of attention (I hear the pope objected to it), but ultimately it’s meaningless. All it does it get her attention, create interest, and get people to want to hear the next song and see the next video. That’s it.

This does make sense in an egotistical sort of way. However I did note that the video also rather resembles a nightmare, being full of nonsense and discontinuity—not to mention it has a dark tone. Malcolm admitted, “Her other videos have a nightmarish or surreal quality to them”, which I will take as a sign that interpreting “Judas” as a bad dream is not overthinking it (or at least not overthinking it too much).

The plot (if it can be called that) of the video seems to be the strangest variation on the Gospel story of which your humble blogger is aware. Jesus (wearing his crown of thorns, anachronistically well before the Crucifixion) and the Apostles are recast as a motorcycle gang(!), and Lady Gaga plays Mary Magdalene (at least according to Wikipedia), who is caught in a love triangle between Jesus (“my virtue”) and Judas (“the demon I cling to”). The lyrics seem to be Mary Magdalene addressing Jesus on how she is in love with Judas. Such a complex relationship is not attested in the Gospels, despite anything The Da Vinci Code claims. The idea of a Mary Magdalene-Judas relationship may have been inspired by Color of the Cross, in which Mary Magdalene sleeps with Judas in order to distract him. Taken from the Gospels in plot points are a woman (here Mary/Gaga) washing Jesus’s feet with her hair—here in a tub with not just Jesus but Judas as well, both fully dressed!—and Judas kissing Jesus. The Gospels depict Jesus and Judas confronting each other, but in this video Mary/Gaga is caught in the middle of the confrontation. The best your humble blogger can interpret her actions and lyrics, she has probably been ordered by Jesus to shoot Judas—and she may even want to do it to some degree—but she cannot bring herself to do anything more than mark his face with lipstick. The lipstick, incoherently, is extruded from the gun. For her failure, Mary/Gaga is stoned to death. I am unaware of anything like this in the New Testament.

If “Judas” is meant to actually mean anything, it is a dismal failure, being a huge piece of nonsense and obviously untenable interpretation of the Gospels. If, like the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, it is meant as a nightmare, it may actually work. If it is meant to manipulate others into giving her attention, do not bother. Anyone who makes videos like this arguably is mentally ill and is in need of attention from psychologists, not music-lovers. I, for one, do not intend to watch anything by Lady Gaga ever again, I was so offended.

Theological rating: F (with demotion to peasant)

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

The Rapture and Pesaḥ preparation

2011-05-22T17:09:00.000+03:00

Greetings.

Jewish date: 18 ’Iyyar 5771 (Parashath BeMidhbar).

Today’s holidays: Day 33 of the ‘Omer/Lagh ba‘Omer (Judaism), Fifth Sunday of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Elphinstone (Church of the SubGenius).

Topic 1: This is a followup to the last post, in which your humble blogger noted that Saturday (21 May 2011) was supposed to be the Rapture according to Harold Camping. (This is actually the second time he has predicted the Rapture; the first was 1994.) As should be obvious to anyone, he was wrong—as everyone who has predicted the end of the world as we know it has been before. Other people have felt inclined to comment on this whole incident, both on when the Rapture was supposed to occur and the silence from Harold Camping afterwards (“Predictor of May 21 doomsday to watch it on TV”, “Broadcaster silent as "Judgment Day" hours tick by”, “The Rapture Is Not Saturday -- It's Tonight”, “As hours tick by, "Judgment Day" looks a dud”). At least one atheist has taken advantage of it for profit by agreeing to take care of people’s pets after the Rapture if paid in advance (“After The Rapture, Who Will Walk Your Dog?”). Some people downright made fun of it:

Personally I do not find the failure of the Rapture to appear so funny. Some people actually believed that Camping was right and spend their life savings. Now these people look like a bunch of idiots, are broke, and are going to have to deal with the social and economic consequences. Great going, Camping.

Topic 2: More on Pesaḥ (Passover) in Israel. Preparation for Pesaḥ was largely unremarkable, though made somewhat easier because I have a small apartment and thus not much to clean. Having a small apartment also makes it a lot easier to search for ḥameṣ (leavened grain products, which are forbidden on Pesaḥ), as there was less area to search.

Getting rid of ḥameṣ was accomplished by making sure I ate it all before Pesaḥ. The common practice of selling one’s ḥameṣ to a non-Jew before Pesaḥ was totally irrelevant to me. Some, such as the Ga’on of Vilna, have decried the practice as not being a real sale, at least as normally performed; in my case, if I had any ḥameṣ left, it was in the form of individual crumbs or grains hidden in inaccessible parts of my apartment. In practical terms, such ḥameṣ is worthless and unsellable. No one in their right mind is going to buy isolated crumbs, and if they really wanted to buy such crumbs (maybe due to insanity), one cannot really take possession of and exercise the authority of ownership on something one has no real access to. Such a sale would therefore be, to say the least, absurd. I therefore relied on disowning any such ḥameṣ, which is pretty easy since it was nothing anyone would want anyway.

There is a common practice of burning any ḥameṣ left over on the morning before Pesaḥ, and this was practiced very publicly over here. There is a field next to the local mall, and there were large piles of and barrels filled with ḥameṣ being burned.

That is my shadow you see in front. I personally would have preferred that a lot of this ḥameṣ would have been given to non-Jews (no point in wasting edible food), but there are very few people who are visibly non-Jewish here in Giv‘ath Shemu’el.

Now somebody prod me to talk about the sedher, qiṭniyyoth, and yom ṭov sheni on Tuesday. If I pick up the pace, I may actually get caught up with discussing the Jewish holidays before Shavu‘oth…

Peace and enjoy burning stuff this Lagh ba‘Omer.

’Aharon/Aaron

The Rapture and soft maṣṣah

2011-05-20T12:10:00.000+03:00

Greetings.

Jewish date: 16 ’Iyyar 5771 (Parashath Beḥuqqothay).

Today’s holidays: Day 31 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Feast Day of Bernardine of Siena (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Edward II (Church of the SubGenius).

Note: I am working my way through An Episode of Flatland, so there is another theological review coming up, though with the other things I am trying to do, this will take some time before it gets written and published.

Topic 1: The Rapture according to Harold Camping is tomorrow (21 May 2011). See “May 21: Is the end near?”, “May 21 End of the World: Harold Camping's $72M business”, and his farewell letter. Please note that though the end of the world as we know it has been predicted many times before, all of these predictions have been wrong. If the Rapture actually happens tomorrow, I will be nothing less than shocked.

Topic 2: Back to discussing Pesaḥ. One thing they have over here which I only heard about in the United States is soft maṣṣah. The maṣṣah available in the United States is hard and brittle, more of a cracker than a proper bread. But maṣṣah in the old days was softer. E.g., korekh literally means that one wraps the maṣṣah around the qorban Pesaḥ (paschal sacrifice, which would be lamb or baby goat) and maror (bitter herbs). (See “Soft Massa: It’s the Real Thing”.) I was delighted to find soft maṣṣah commercially available in Israel, and so I bought a three-pack to examine them myself. These were not the first that I ate; at the sedher I attended they had soft maṣṣah. The following pictures are of the maṣṣah I bought myself.

This is the box the maṣṣah came in. Do note that according to the instructions on the box indicate it should be kept frozen, unlike brittle maṣṣah, which requires no refrigeration. The box was kept in my freezer until Pesaḥ. I put the box in the refrigerator and let it defrost.

This is what a soft maṣṣah looks like. I thought it would look more like a pita than this.

It is also fairly thick.

A soft maṣṣah compared with a brittle maṣṣah.

Comparative maṣṣah thickness. The soft maṣṣah is noticeably thicker.

Not visible in the photographs are the physical properties. It is much less bendable than pita, though (expectedly) a lot more than brittle maṣṣah. It still is flexible enough to wrap lamb and romaine lettuce in it. The taste is fairly doughy, even though it is thoroughly baked; it takes getting used to.

Topic 3: Sunday is Lagh ba‘Omer. “Lagh Ba’Omer - A Gratuitous Holiday” claims that the holiday is not what it is commonly claimed to be.

Topic 4: For today’s religious humor (something I have not done in a while: “The LOLcat Passover story”.

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

’Aharon/Aaron

Temple Mount infiltration and vandalism

2011-05-17T10:13:00.000+03:00

Greetings.

Jewish date: 13 ’Iyyar 5771 (Parashath Beḥuqqothay).

Today’s holidays: Day 28 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Laval homeboy (Church of the SubGenius).

I am painfully aware that I still have a backlog of things to say about Pesaḥ, but there is something else which is more important to discuss sooner.

On Israeli Independence Day (6 ’Iyyar 5771 AM, 10 May 2011 CE), I had the opportunity to visit the Temple Mount for the first time. This is the place YHWH, God of Israel, designated for His Temple where the First and Second Temples actually stood, and the most important place in Judaism. The experience was such that my emotions are still going strong. What I am writing is not just a report for Divine Misconceptions, but an attempt to deal with what I experienced. Some of the crimes perpetuated by Muslims up there, such as the wanton destruction of anything of Jewish origin and dumping of artifacts as if they were trash, have been discussed by others. But not all aspects of Muslim behavior up there are well publicized.

I have heard much about observant Jews being treated shabbily when visiting the Temple Mount, not being allowed to bring Jewish ritual objects with them or pray on the Temple Mount; they are also subject to arbitrary restrictions on visiting hours and harassment from the Waqf and police to keep them from praying. And yes, people, this is a blatant violation of freedom of religion. I therefore disguised myself as a tourist, tucking my ṣiṣiyyoth into my pants, not wearing a kippah (but still wearing a hat), and carrying my American passport instead of my Israeli identity document. I also spoke with a more exaggerated Southernish accent.

The disguise was more of a success than I expected. Nobody asked to see any identification. Nobody stopped me from going anywhere or doing anything. A few guards spoke to me a bit, mostly to ask where I was from, which I quite honestly answered as Charleston, South Carolina. One man did ask if I was a Muslim, to which I replied, “Is it required?” The worst I got was that I was asked to leave when visiting hours for non-Muslims were about over. For the most part, I was ignored.

When I say that nobody stopped me from going anywhere or doing anything, I really mean it. I avoided doing any “forbidden” activities in front of other people, but no one made any effort to follow me or stop me from doing anything. The first of these “forbidden” activities was prayer, which I did rather a lot. While I was there, someone who will only be referred to here as “Oscar” felt emboldened to take further action. Given that the Torah prohibits trees on the Temple Mount, Oscar tore twigs off of trees—four times. Oscar even took a rock and scratched “THE DOME OF THE ROCK WILL FALL” on a green electrical box. No one noticed. No one stopped him. And he left without anyone realizing what he did. Oscar feels tempted to cause even greater damage the next time he goes.

Oscar’s faint handiwork

Now, one may argue that Oscar really should not have committed five counts of vandalism. But the fact he got away with it is very revealing. The Temple Mount is the holiest place on Earth for Jews, and the Waqf cannot be (or at least should not be) so stupid as to not consider the possibility that some observant Jew, being angry at being discriminated against and over the maltreatment of his/her holy place, might disguise him/herself as an ordinary tourist and take action against them. And yet Oscar committed vandalism without being detected. For people trying to lord it over and intimidate Jews, they failed miserably, and they ought to be ashamed of themselves. What they created is a false appearance that nothing Jewish is going on on the Temple Mount, an absurd lie, considering that every Jew I have discussed visiting the Temple Mount with who has been there has reported praying there. All they have done is to lead Jews to be subversive, and I would be shocked if no one has done anything far worse than I have.

The Waqf should also be ashamed of themselves for how they treat the Temple Mount. One often sees pretty pictures of their prize structures up there, the Dome of the Rock and the Dome of the Chain. But being ritually impure from the dead, I am severely restricted to where I can go up there. I thus stayed to the edges of the Temple Mount which were added on by Herod the Great, and what I saw there was not so pretty. In many places there are blocks, rubble, and pieces of columns lying around. (I will have to defer to historians and archaeologists on how ancient any of them are.) Many of the staircases on the edges are completely lacking in guardrails, making them very dangerous to anyone who dares ascend them. Boys play ball all over the place, and no one suggests to them that this is in any way inappropriate.

And then there is the graffiti. Oscar should have not bothered vandalizing that electrical box. (Or he should have at least written something true yet disgraceful about Muḥammad’s sex life.) I discovered rather a lot of graffiti along the edges (much more than I took pictures of)— and most of it in Arabic and in areas more favored by Muslim visitors.

If a recurring scribble in there looks at all familiar to you, that is because it is Allah (الله‎), the name of the God of Islam. The most likely scenario is that Muslims did this, and if they did not, the perpetrators were braver than Oscar and still got away with it. In any case, the Waqf has done nothing to remove such blemishes.

But, wait! One might object that the amount of graffiti is not so unusual for such a holy site. Which is why I deliberately went looking for graffiti at the Western Wall compound afterwards for comparison. I had to deliberately look for it to find it at all.

There was some assorted Hebrew graffiti on the pay phones and an electrical box next to them. In one of the arched-over areas which has been turned into an area for study and prayer, someone scratched his name in Hebrew. And on a pole about as far as one can get from the Western Wall in the compound as one can get, someone attached a sticker in support of Gil‘adh Shalliṭ. That was it. The vast majority of the Western Wall compound was graffiti-free. If there are people attempting vandalism at the Western Wall, they are doing a crummy job, at least at keeping the vandalism visible and lasting. As opposed to the Temple Mount, on which one can find graffiti without even trying, and the Waqf does not care enough to remove it.

So the situation is that the Waqf is doing a miserable job at preserving the sanctity of the Temple Mount and treating visibly observant Jews badly. I am angry, and I need to fight back. One thing I probably ought to avoid doing is to commit vandalism; that is immature and not likely to make anything better. I also want to avoid doing anything violent; the goals are proper treatment of the Temple Mount and Jewish religious freedom, not hurting Muslims. What I want, as a first step towards rebuilding the Temple, is an end to discrimination against observant Jews on the Temple Mount. For too long the government has attempted to appease Muslims by turning a blind eye to the destruction of historical evidence and letting Jews be treated as second-class citizens in their own holiest place, and this has never worked. Please notice the Arab-Israeli War is nowhere near a close. The only way politicians can be expected to do the right thing is if the people demand it from them. And so now I have to figure out how to create a grassroots civil rights movement. In the meantime, I encourage every Jew possible to visit the Temple Mount to let the politicians and police know that this site is important to Jews. Thank you.

WARNING: Information in this essay on how to infiltrate the Temple Mount is presented so that observant Jews can visit without being harassed. Under no circumstances should it be taken as an endorsement to act foolishly. A visit to the Temple Mount is not a game one plays with the Muslims, but rather a very serious matter. Muslims may be the enemy, but they have feelings and have been known at times to act violently in response to real or imagined provocations. Oscar and I may have gotten away with what we did only by the protection of YHWH. I cannot guarantee that other visitors will be similarly ignored, so do not assume you can simply do what you want up there. Be very, very careful and make sure you do not get caught!

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

UPDATE: You can now see every photo I have taken on the Temple Mount on my Facebook account. See Temple Mount graffiti 2011-05-10, Kids playing ball on the Temple Mount 2011-05-10, Temple Mount desolation 2011-05-10, and Temple Mount anything else 2011-05-10. And, yes, I know the photo of Oscar’s graffiti is poor. My camera’s battery ran out, and I had to use my cell phone to take pictures. Consider it an incentive to visit the Temple Mount yourself.

Pesaḥ advertising

2011-05-06T16:29:00.000+03:00

Greetings.

Jewish date: 2 ’Iyyar 5771 (Parashath ’Emor).

Today’s holidays: Day 17 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Feast Day of St. Guiness (The Stout) (Church of the SubGenius), Friday of the Second Week of Easter (Roman Catholicism).

It has been quite a while since I posted. I have experienced my first Pesaḥ (Passover) in Israel, and there is a lot to comment on. (And I had better get cracking if I want to comment on it. There are other things coming up that will definitely merit discussion. Not to mention I am very busy these days. E.g., I have now received my shipment from the United States, and parts of my apartment look a lot like Tetris and need desperately to be reordered.) Given my series on holiday advertising in Israel, something one expects to start well before the actual holiday (at least it does in the USA), we will start there. The holiday advertising I saw did pick up a bit for Pesaḥ, but one would often be unaware of it. For example:

The former is a fashion advertisement. The latter is for perfume. Neither of them gives any impression that these stores are trying to show off their Pesaḥ spirit. A bit closer is this one:

This one actually shows (and is for) relevant food, though it is not ostentatious. The closest anyone got to ostentation is this one:

At this place they were actually selling silver utensils which might be used during Pesaḥ.

In the USA, there are not just advertisements seeking to cash in on major holidays, but public decorations for several of them as well. I did not see any Pesaḥ decorations, and the nearest thing I saw to them were a few signs like this one:

This does not go much further than wishing everyone a happy Pesaḥ. So far the USA is still beating Israel on commercialization and overdoing of holidays.

I hate to stop here, but my Internet connection has been very unreliable recently, and I would rather get out something than nothing. I hope to write about preparing for Pesaḥ and Pesaḥ itself soon.

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

’Aharon/Aaron

Did A. Square go to prison for your sins?: a theological review of Edwin A. Abbott’s Flatland

2011-04-08T10:36:00.000+03:00

Greetings.

Jewish date: 4 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Meṣora‘).

Today’s holidays: Great Lent and Lent (Christianity), Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Geronimo (Church of the Sub Genius), Feast for the Three Days of the Writing of the Book of the Law (Thelema).

For today’s posting I present my theological review of Flatland, included below. An excellent edition of the original book as a PDF file/E-book from Garlic Press (AKA my brother Barry) can be found on-line here.

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

’Aharon/Aaron

Image via Wikipedia

Did A. Square go to prison for your sins?: a theological review of Edwin A. Abbott’s Flatland

by Aaron Solomon Adelman

I review a lot of material with poor theology, and there is more than one reason why theology can be bad in fiction. Sometimes, such as in the horror stories of H. P. Lovecraft and Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel, the theology is deliberately bad and meant to support the plot; maltheism (gods being uncaring or evil) makes for a hostile environment in which the hero or heroes have to work hard to succeed. In some cases, such as in His Dark Materials, the writer has a grudge against religion and writes the theology in the way he sees it or whatever way is conveniently insulting, regardless of how religious people actually see it. In some, such as many films based on the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament, the people writing the story do not pay enough attention to the original material or do not care. In some, such as Caprica, the writers are aiming for something highly theological but are theologically incompetent. And then there is Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott.

Part I (§ 1-12) of the book is a description of a two-dimensional world, a vicious satire of some of the worst attitudes of Victorian England. This world is colorless, conformist, bound by a rigid class system, and sexist. The rulers of this society are priests or “Circles”, actually corrupt and Machiavellian polygons with huge numbers of sides. All of the plot in this section is backstory, much of it dealing with a time in which color was discovered, how it destabilized society, and how the Circles suppressed it and any hope of democracy. Part II (§ 13-22) is mathematical fiction. While effective in teaching about dimensions—Flatland is a classic for good reasons—anything other than mathematics in this section is a secondary consideration.

The general impression of the “modern-day” plot and theology of Flatland is a variant on the story of a prophet or Jesus of Nazareth. The central character and narrator is A. Square, a mathematically inclined square living in the two-dimensional world of Flatland. A. Square’s journey begins quite suddenly with a nocturnal vision of the one-dimensional world of Lineland, in which he vainly tries to convince the King of Lineland of the existence of a second physical dimension. The following evening—the last evening of the second millennium—A. Square’s grandson jokingly suggests the notion of a third dimension. While the square rejects it, soon he is soon visited by a sphere. The Sphere tries to convince A. Square of the existence of a third dimension, but he does not succeed until he lifts the polygon out of Flatland and teaches him about the third dimension. A. Square is to be “the Apostle of the Gospel of Three Dimensions”, to spread this great truth, even though it will doom him. The Sphere takes A. Square to visit the Circles’ Grand Council. The Sphere preaches to the Circles once every thousand years, and the Circles always cover up the revelation, destroying or imprisoning anyone who might reveal what happens. Nothing different happens this time, and A. Square from above Flatland helplessly watches his own brother, the chief clerk of the Grand Council, being led away to prison. A. Square nevertheless seeks to learn of higher dimensions from the Sphere, eventually being rewarded after returning to Flatland with a vision of the zero-dimensional realm of Pointland and of dimensions beyond the third. A. Square then spends much of his time writing, arguing for the existence of the third dimension, and becomes increasingly “seditious”, leading to his arrest and imprisonment. Thus ends the story.

As mentioned before, anything other than mathematics in Part II is a secondary consideration, and in theology and plot it really shows. In a typical religion in the real world, there is something to be gained from accepting the religion’s message, such as salvation or release from the cycle of reincarnation. Thus the message must be kept going at all times and spread to everyone relevant. Furthermore, the message often includes instructions on how to behave, so there are visible effects from keeping it. But the point of the Gospel of Three Dimensions is not clear. What practical benefit there is to belief in the third dimension, beyond it being true, is never stated. The message has no moral aspect, only a mathematical one, and has no practical impact on any Flatlander.

One may object that the only reason for believing anything is that it is true, regardless of benefit or effects, and this is correct. But it only makes sense to believe something is true when one has some reason to think it is true. A. Square cannot demonstrate the existence of a third physical dimension on his own, and the Sphere never backs him up with what would effectively be an open miracle. Thus, except for whoever is at the Grand Council, none of the Flatlanders have any real reason to believe in the truth of A. Square’s claims. Furthermore, why does the Sphere recruit A. Square if his new apostle is doomed to be thrown in jail? Why put him through the trauma for nothing? Also, the Sphere claims he is “allowed to preach once only in a thousand years” without giving the least reason for such a restriction; why does he then not at least try to set up a proper organization to keep the message going during his absence? And why do the Circles ruthlessly hide the truth? How does anyone believing in something with no practical effect on life threaten their power? These are major holes in the plot and theology, and when one goes beyond the satire and mathematics, they stick out like a neon sign. There are a few sequels to Flatland (Sphereland by Dionys Burger; Geometry, Relativity, and the Fourth Dimension by Rudolf v. B. Rucker; Flatterland by Ian Stewart) and multiple movie versions of the original book. I hope further exploration will find these works deal with these problems.

Other theological aspects of Flatland:

The classist, sexist organization of society is believed to have “divine origin” (§ 3). No details of whatever revelation may have led to the founding of Flatlander society are given. Neither are any details of their theology given, even something as basic as how many gods they worship.
Physically irregularity is believed to cause immoral behavior (§ 7), a doctrine first propounded by the high priest Pantocyclus (§ 12). Thus those who deviate from regularity are sent to hospitals for plastic surgery, imprisoned, or destroyed. This belief in “configuration” is difficult to maintain at times, such as when dealing with a child who blames a change in the weather distorting his perimeter for his misbehavior (§ 11).
Ordinary Flatlanders recognize each other by touch. Priests rely instead on sight-recognition (no mean feat without color) and consider it a “Sacred Art” (§ 9).
One of the Flatlanders’ moral principles is to honor one’s grandchildren, i.e., to put their interests before one’s own (§ 11).
A. Square entertains the suggestion that what he has seen is the work of a devil (§ 16), though he obviously changes his mind, since maintaining this belief would kill the plot completely.
“Omnividence” (being able to see everything) is taken as an attribute of God by the Flatlanders (§ 18). A. Square gets to experience this, after a fashion, as from the third dimension the insides of everything in Flatland are completely visible. The Sphere does not see omnividence as godlike, given that it does not make one a better person; even the worst of the Sphere’s people could see all the secrets of Flatland. Note that A. Square and the Sphere are using two different definitions of godhood, one in terms of abilities, the other in terms of morality.
A. Square is religiously reverent of the Sphere (§ 19), which would explain why he becomes the Apostle of the Gospel of Three Dimensions even though he knows he will end up in jail.
The King of Pointland is essentially identical with his world and speaks of himself in the terminology of immanent theism or monism. The Sphere is implied as recognizing this, as he refers to the King wryly as “this God of Pointland” (§ 20).

Theological rating: I (insufficient work). Flatland is recommended for its satire and mathematical teaching, but those looking for good theology should look elsewhere.

The 2nd Annual International Temple Mount Awareness Day, 5771/2011

2011-04-04T21:55:00.000+03:00

Image via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date: 1 Nisan 5771 (evening) (Parashath Meṣora‘).

Today’s holidays: Biblical New Year (Judaism), Ro’sh Ḥodhesh/New Month (Judaism), Great Lent (Christianity), Lent (Christianity), Feast Day of St. Porfirio Diaz (Church of the SubGenius), Feast Day of Isidore (Roman Catholicism), Ugadi (Hinduism), Gudi Padwa (Hinduism).

Normally I would not post right now. I am working on a theological review of Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott—thank Barry for diverting me into this by having me look for errata in the version which he eventually published on Scribd—and I do not consider it realistic to finish it tonight. However, I do want to mention something happening tomorrow (5 April): The 2nd Annual International Temple Mount Awareness Day, 5771/2011, a worthy idea, considering that the Temple Mount is an extremely important and holy place in Judaism and the criminal neglect and abuse it has received over the years. Here is the official promotional video on what is planned:

I do not plan on being there in person, as my current situation does not make it realistic. (I have other things I need to work on. That’s life.) But I do plan on spending as much time as I can spare watching the live feed for the sake of education and edification. I also hope to personally visit the Western Wall and Temple Mount over Pesaḥ (Passover). (I also suspect I will get banned from the Temple Mount for violating the illegal ban on praying there, but at least that will be as an act of civil disobedience towards promoting Jewish religious rights.) So if you can, please watch tomorrow and learn something. Thank you.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

Purim has not been commercialized either

2011-03-25T12:40:00.000+02:00

Greetings.

Jewish date: 19 ’Adhar Sheni 5771 (Parashath Shemini).

Today’s holidays: Great Lent (Christianity), Lent (Christianity), Annunciation of the Theotokos (Christianity), Feast Day of St. Brian Michael Bendis (Church of the SubGenius).

I really need to post more often. There is a lot going on relevant to religion, and I cannot cover it all. This includes the Islamist terrorist attacks Israel has experienced recently, which really add nothing new to anything I have already written or reported before other than to show that too many Muslims still have no interest in peace with Israel. It cannot be stated enough that the terrorists themselves are a bunch of pathetic losers who go for easy targets, such as sleeping babies, rather than tackling heavily armed military targets like real men and women.

Holiday report: This past Sunday was Purim, the events leading to its founding being described in the Book of Esther. I went out looking again for the holiday commercialization found in the United States, and I found none of it here in Giv’ath Shemu’el. There were a few signs advertising Purim parties:

(The clowns come up due to the custom of dressing up in costumes on Purim, and clowns are a common costume choice.) However, I found little evidence of stores trying to get into the Purim spirit. On the left side of the lower picture, one may notice a drug store, and in there I met two employees in costume, one in a witch hat and the other wearing a cape. That was it. So far Israel is in the lead in avoiding corrupting holidays into commercial monstrosities.

The celebration of Purim itself was fairly standard, though with some twists not necessarily experienced in the United States. There were the readings of the Book of Esther (Meghillah) in synagogue; the noise-making when the name of Haman was read was regulated by red and green light bulbs instead of the manual signs I have seen before. Costumes, as expected, were more common among children than adults. (Sorry. No pictures. I normally try to avoid photographing people.) A beggar actually showed up in synagogue, making it very convenient to give the required gifts to the destitute (mattanoth la’evyonim). I received a number of gifts of food (mishloaḥ manoth) myself, and the contents, as in the United States, tended heavily towards baked goods and junk food, though I did end up with some alcoholic beverages. (My personal practice is to give out produce, mostly to whomever is around in synagogue or even on the streets. Many people find this confusing.) The festive meal (se‘udhah) I had with a friend and company in a Ḥaredhi town. The inhabitants widely broke the stereotype of stodginess, with a lot wearing costumes (including a number of the adults), including one confusing, shiny costume which included a sign saying something in Hebrew to the tune of “Don’t ask me what I am. I don’t know.” A lot of little girls for some reason were dressed as brides. Now, there is an old and controversial tradition of getting drunk on Purim, and at the se‘udhah a number of people who had had too much to drink wandered by. I have seen people not used to drinking getting drunk on Purim and acting strangely before, but this was the first time one of them tried collecting money for a yeshivah. Fortunately, none of these people who were having trouble holding their alcohol did anything worse than get happy and uncoordinated.

And, for the guy in the back row asking if I got intoxicated at the se‘udhah, the answer is “no”. I prefer to do my drinking on Purim early and to try to take a nap.

I have been told that the stores in the United States are already selling food specially for Pesaḥ (Passover). You can find valuable information about the holiday at OU Kosher for Passover. Like all the holidays over here, the stores here in Israel have been very low-key on Pesaḥ, too, but I did see this book for sale the other day:

The title translates as “The Story of ’Afiqo-Man: A Pesaḥ Haggadhah for Children”. This would be a good time to groan at the pun.

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

’Aharon/Aaron

Siyyum for ‘Eruvin

2011-03-11T12:40:00.000+02:00

Image of part of an ‘eruv, the focal topic of ‘Eruvin, via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date: 5 ’Adhar Sheni 5771 (Parashath Wayyiqra’).

Today’s holidays: Great Lent (Christianity), Lent (Christianity), Bahá’í Month of Fasting (Bahá’í Faith), Friday after Ash Wednesday (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Bela Lugosi (Church of the SubGenius).

I started work recently, and I am trying to fit things, including blogging, into my new schedule. One of the other things I am also struggling to find a right time slot for is the study of the Babylonian Talmudh. I recently completed study of the tractate ‘Eruvin, and this Shabbath afternoon I should be having a siyyum, which is a festive meal in celebration of the completion of a tractate. (We Jews are a rather academic people and like to celebrate Torah study.) Often at a siyyum the person who has completed the tractate gives a speech on it, but I will not be giving such a speech then because 1) I will not have the time for it and 2) my Hebrew speaking abilities are probably not equal to the task (yet). However, this is my blog, and I can write anything here I want with impunity, so I am going to write here a little bit on ‘Eruvin.

‘Eruvin ends discussing cases which many today cannot relate to easily, things like what one can or cannot do if a string breaks on a lyre in the Temple on Shabbath or whether or not a wart discovered on a kohen (priest) can be removed on Shabbath so he can perform the Temple service. In such cases there are technical matters of whether fixing the string or removing the wart count as mela’khah (actions prohibited on Shabbath from the Torah) and if they do, whether or not the requirement that the Temple service be performed overrides the prohibition. These technical questions will not be discussed here. Instead, I will discuss another matter which is not discussed in the Talmudh or its standard commentaries of Rashi and Tosafoth.

One could easily ask, “Why do these cases matter? The Temple is not some tiny rinky-dink institution. They had lots of lyres and lots of kohanim. If a string breaks on a lyre, so what? They can just put the instrument aside, use a different one, and fix the broken string tomorrow. And if a kohen has a wart, they can give him the day off and have a doctor remove it tomorrow. What’s so important about this lyre and this kohen that they need them this particular day?” Indeed, if a lyre had a broken string or a kohen had a wart on Shabbath, they probably did just take the day off.

Nevertheless, asking such questions does have a point. Strings break periodically on string instruments, and it is statistically inevitable that given enough time, one Shabbath every single lyre on the Temple Mount will have a broken string. If the chances of every lyre in the Temple having a broken string on any given Shabbath, is one in 1,000,000, over 10,000 years there is about a 40 percent chance that this problem will actually occur, and during 90,000 years, the chances that it will happen top 99 percent. Considering the Temple service is supposed to resume and last indefinitely, perhaps till the end of our universe, even highly unlikely events are likely to happen at some point.

And should anyone think this discussion is purely hypothetical, consider this: As a graduate student, I studied rare diseases. Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia has an incidence measured in terms of per hundred thousand. This is a rate so low that one does not need to worry about one’s children getting this disease—and this is the most common childhood cancer. A cancer which one’s chances of getting are one in 1,000,000 may be nothing for an individual to worry about, but given that there are about 7,000,000,000 humans on this planet, that means there are about 7,000 people getting this disease, suffering from it, dealing with its consequences, seeking treatment for it, and perhaps dying from it. One in 1,000,000 may be trivial for an individual, but given enough individuals, even something so unlikely becomes something that happens to someone. Rare events not only happen, but given enough opportunities to happen, they become practically inevitable. It is thus no wonder that the Babylonian Talmudh discusses cases which at any instant are improbable: it is simply a matter of being prepared for when they inevitably happen.

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Caprica is religiously unrealistic

2011-02-24T09:14:00.000+02:00

Greetings.

Jewish date: 20 ’Adhar Ri’shon 5771 (Parashath Wayyaqhel).

Today’s holidays: Feast Day of St. Huey Newton (Church of the Subgenius), Thursday of the Seventh Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of Charles Stansfeld Jones (Thelema), 1st and 2nd finding of the Head of the Forerunner (Greek Orthodox Christianity).

Please forgive me for taking forever to post again. I do not begin working until next Wednesday, and being unemployed while trying to adapt to a new country (including ’ulpan, which is Hebrew language classes) does not make for the most regular schedule. I expect to be very busy starting Wednesday, trying to adapt to the new job on top of twice-weekly ’ulpan, but at least I should have a better idea where I can fit things into my schedule.

Another reason for the delay is that I have been working slowly on yet another review, which I present below without delay.

Peace.

Aaron

Image via Wikipedia

Caprica ended a while back, with the last episode broadcast in January, and the series being formally cancelled months earlier in October. Still, considering the popularity of Battlestar Galactica (the reimagined series, its parent show), coupled with its constant religious themes, I feel the need to comment on Caprica one last time, this time as a whole rather than on a per-episode basis. (Somehow it feels like I am going to be haunted by it if I do not.) Though I will admit a lot of emphasis on the last episode, in which is the conclusion of most of the major plot threads. Here goes nothing...

One thing first: BEWARE OF SPOILERS!

Caprica is religiously unrealistic.

The Twelve Colonies have billions of human inhabitants. No two humans believe or behave in quite the same way, so one would expect a great deal of religious diversity. Here on (the real) Earth, with around seven billion humans, we have everything from atheism to deism to monotheism to polytheism with emphases being placed on everything from morality to sexuality to ritual to doing drugs. Even what are conventionally considered single religions often display considerable internal variation.

How many different religions are depicted in Caprica? A mere two or three. The Capricans and the Taurons seem to believe in variations on a polytheistic religion, and the Soldiers of the One believe in a monotheistic religion. Obviously in 18 episodes one cannot see the full range of religious diversity of billions of people. But there are not even hints that there might be more religions in the Twelve Colonies. Even taking into account non-belief and weak belief, I find this lack of diversity disturbing.

Also disturbing is what two or three religions the writers did depict. Practically nothing of what Caprican religion is like other than a never-explained polytheism with some of the trappings of the ancient Greek religion is given, period. The Tauron religion seems to have a mafia-style moral code with notions of retributive vengeance and planned suicide. Violating this code can also (and in fact do) get a Tauron killed by other Taurons. Do note that most of the Taurons who appear on screen are part of the Tauron mafia or closely related to those who are. Whether their beliefs and practices are representative of normal Taurons or just a twisted version adhered to by criminals is anyone’s guess. Likewise horrible are the Soldiers of the One, which are nothing less than a cult in the pejorative sense of the term. This terrorist group has a base on Gemenon for training (not always willing) conscripts to be soldiers, and they think nothing of executing those who fall short of their standards. And these are the nice ones. Granted, there are religions which have gone down horribly wrong paths, but when the choices presented for religions are something extremely muted to the point of being almost absent or something demanding an intervention (or a prison term or execution), a disaster has occurred in the process of writing.

Another thing gone horribly wrong in the writing is Sister Clarice Willow, the main antagonist. Clarice is a self-centered psychopath. If the writers knew what they were doing, they would have made her the center of a personality cult, as then they could have drawn on the behaviors of real-life psychopaths who form personality cults around themselves. Instead, Clarice is trying to climb her way up through the ranks of the Soldiers of the One. For someone without a cadre of followers who obey her without question, she behaves openly (so far as her superiors are concerned) very dangerously, pursuing an agenda which many of the Soldiers of the One do not subscribe to. Clarice displays no real empathy with other humans and behaves with a complete lack of morality (even according to very lenient moral codes) or concern for anyone else. Add in her propensity towards violence and murder, and it is little wonder that others among the Soldiers of the One try to kill her as an act of self-preservation. As a long-term villain, she is unappealing; her lack of conscience makes her practically inhuman and something that ordinary people cannot identify with. As a religious character, she has long-ago crossed into a dangerous fanaticism utterly lacking in self-criticism. She thinks she knows what God wants (without ever giving any real reason) and will do anything to fulfill it, even murder. Everyone knows that there are religious people who go horribly wrong like Clarice (Islam these days produces a lot of them), but the writers have created a yawning plot-hole by failing to depict in any way, shape, or form how she became such an abomination.

Making Clarice even worse and driving much of the plot of Caprica is her lack of wisdom. She is highly intelligent and ambitious, but she somehow lacks the good sense to make sure she can deliver before making promises. (She is not alone in this. Daniel Graystone, another important highly intelligent and ambitious character, also makes the same error. He acts immorally to accomplish his goals, too, come to think of it. But I digress.) Clarice intends to create an artificial afterlife so that the faithful may live on digitally after death (incorrectly called “apotheosis”). Zoe Graystone’s creation of a virtual duplicate of herself proves this is possible, and Clarice spends much of the series working towards creating and promoting her virtual Heaven—and the promotion starts well before she has what she needs to even begin to keep her promises. To say the least, this is an extremely stupid thing to do.

Putting this blunder aside, as an afterlife, Virtual Heaven is at best a stopgap. Yes, it may be wonderful and allow a form of survival after biological death. But it is really only an extension of this life, not the fulfillment of the promise of another life. Virtual Heaven takes place within a computer system. Computers are composed of matter, and they are subject to all the weakness of material objects. If enough goes wrong with the Virtual Heaven system, Virtual Heaven comes to an end. Computers can be repaired, and Virtual Heaven could be transferred to a different system. But entropy ensures that everything breaks down in the end. Even if the chances of things going catastrophically wrong at any step are tiny, let enough chances occur and statistics makes it virtually certain that eventually something will go wrong which will bring Virtual Heaven to a very real end. Even if Virtual Heaven does beat the odds, sooner or later the Universe as we know it comes to a real or effective end. As long as life occurs in the Universe, so does death, too.

Noteworthily wrong is the objection given to Virtual Heaven by Zoe II in the last episode (thus ending Caprica with a major religious blunder, just as the rebooted Battlestar Galactica ended with a major religious blunder). Much of the action in Caprica takes place in the virtual world (or “V-World” for short). A big deal is made of the lack of morality in V-World by multiple characters, including Zoe II. Since V-World is not considered reality (at least in the same way as physical reality), in it people often act in ways that would never be allowed (or should never be allowed) in physical reality. The pilot episode features a virtual club where anything goes, and a sizable fraction of the rest of the series occurs in the criminally-themed game New Cap City. Zoe II is worried that Virtual Heaven would turn physical reality into a game. Since everyone would be guaranteed to go to Heaven, all motivation for good behavior would be removed. There would thus be nothing to keep people’s behavior in line, and physical reality would degenerate into a game where people behaved as they wished with impunity. Because of this, Zoe II destroys Virtual Heaven.

Zoe II’s objection is problematic because it assumes that going to Heaven is the major factor behind morality. There is no question that Heaven and Hell in one form or another have been frequently used as motivation to get people to behave. But clearly they are not enough, as believers do their fair share of stumbling and being hypocrites. Furthermore, not believing in Heaven and Hell does not automatically make one an immoral person; atheists have done their fair share of crimes (including oppressive communist governments), but they are not noted for crowding our jails.

But what Zoe II is really missing is what would likely happen if there were a Virtual Heaven. Do note that in the real world there is a constant struggle for free and open systems to remain free and open. Under ideal circumstances, a Virtual Heaven would be made available to everyone unconditionally. But whenever there is a new technology, someone inevitable wants to make money from it or gain power from it. The real threat is actually the situation in the last episode of Caprica. Claire Willow stands as the gatekeeper to Virtual Heaven; to get in, one has to satisfy her. The people who get to go to Virtual Heaven in the final episode are suicide bombers, carrying out Claire’s plan. Clarie has discovered a new form of blackmail: people often hate death, and if they want to continue living after a fashion, they have to do what she wants—no matter what she wants. In effect Claire threatens to usurp the divine prerogative of dictating how people should behave. Now, one might object that since Claire proves that a virtual afterlife is feasible, other characters will be inspired to reinvent it—and such an objection would indeed be valid. But the threat would still exist; unless it were mandated that everyone gets a virtual afterlife or there were virtual afterlife providers who let everyone in, one would still have to satisfy gatekeepers. Considering that businesses are conventionally profit-driven, the possibilities for abuse are huge, not just in overcharging the living but even in forcing the quasi-dead to do one’s bidding. After all, if one can easily deactivate a simulated person or turn Virtual Heaven into Virtual Hell, one has the power of blackmail over him/her. The writers should be ashamed that they did not deal with this at all.

Another topic which gets insufficient attention is the status of artificial people, whether simulated people or robots. Zoe II and Tamara Amanda II are by default treated as equals to physical people. They act independently and answer to no one, not to mention they look and act human. Not to mention that Zoe I and Tamara I are both dead, allowing their virtual copies to be treated as their continuations. But Daniel Graystone, during a period of separation, creates a simulation of his wife Amanda. (He has issues and problems.) While the goal of Amanda II is to replicate the original, he never truly treats her as his equal. (And to be explicit, your humble blogger does think husbands and wives should be equals.) Even worse is the treatment of the Cylons, who never get treated as anything more than glorified tools, even though they save the day in the final episode. Even though Cylons are (supposed to be) intelligent beings, why Zoe II is eventually treated by Daniel and Amanda as practically their own daughter while Cylons have to be slaves is never explained, even illogically, by anyone. Though this failure may simply be due to the series being cancelled.

The last episode ends with a series of previews of an intended second season. (Or perhaps these “previews” are meant to stir up enough interest and demand so that Syfy changes its mind about the cancellation.) Daniel is giving an interview, talking about the quick adoption of Cylons in the Twelve Colonies, but emphasizing that Cylons are tools and nothing more. Contrasted with Daniel is Clarice, who is in a vast chapel preaching to Cylons. Not only does she recognize them as the equals of humans and children of God, but she prophesies that they will one day rebel against humanity. Whether or not Clairice has any communication from angels or is just fooling herself, she may well give the Cylons the idea of genocide. Clarice also visits Gemenon to see the Blessed Mother (the head of the Soldiers of the One), only to find the position usurped by Lacy Rand, a friend of Zoe I who joined the Soldiers of the One to help Zoe II and got shipped off to Gemenon; this clears up a plot thread left hanging in the final episode. Finally, Daniel and his wife Amanada succeed in giving Zoe II an apparently flesh-and-blood body—resurrection of the dead, after a fashion. Arguably Daniel Graystone is appropriately named, since resurrection in some fashion is mentioned in Daniel 12:2.

In summary, the writers screwed up royally with respect to religion. Out of the vast multitude of religions that would be believed in and practiced by billions of humans, the only ones that get much attention are a religion of gangsters and a cult of terrorists. The chief antagonist belongs to the terrorist cult and is probably the most psychopathic and quite possibly insane member thereof, working on a scheme which is not what she purports it to be and which is objected to for the wrong reason. Your humble blogger is disappointed with this series and relieved that it has come to and end.

WARNING: All this has happened before, and all this will happen again! Reportedly yet another series, Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome is in the works. I pray that the writers handle religion better this time.

A theological review of Tron Legacy

2011-02-06T19:41:00.000+02:00

Greetings.

Jewish date: 3 ’Adhar Ri’shon (evening) (Parashath Teṣawweh).

Today’s holidays: Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Tlaloc (Church of the SubGenius), Feast Day of St. Photios (Greek Orthodox Christianity).

Tron Cat is saddened by the writing quality of Tron Legacy

This is my first post on this blog in about two months. During this time I have moved out of the absorption center in Ra‘ananah to an apartment in Giv‘ath Shemu’el. This took a lot of time and effort, as I had to not only find the apartment, but also get everything properly set up. Also taking up time is that Tron Legacy came out, and besides seeing it twice in theaters, I spent a lot of time working on a review which is somewhat different from any I've done before. In retrospect I should have actually done a joint review of both Tron and Tron Legacy, considering the large overlap between the two films (and I might actual do something like that when Tron 3 comes out), but I want to actually get this out of the door, so to speak. Those of you who do not know Hebrew, please scroll (way) down to the English text after all the Hebrew.

Peace.

Aaron

ביקורת תאולוגית של טְרוֹן: המורשת

מאת אַהֲרֹן שְׁלֹמֹה אֵדֶלְמָן

אזהרה: הרבה ספוילרים! גם אולי הביקורת הזאת תהיה קשה להבין לאלה שלא ראו את טרון.

לפני שלוש שנים כתבתי ביקורת תאולוגית של טְרוֹן, הסרט מדע־הבדיוני המפורסם והטיפשי מדִּיסְנִי. התאולוגיה שלו תאולוגיה מעולה לסרט כל כך גרוע. עכשיו יש המשך לטרון, טרון: המורשת, אני חייב לכתוב ביקורת תאולוגית עליו. לשם למידת עברית אני כותב את הביקורת הזאת בעברית—ולגרסה שראיתי יש כתוביות בעברית—ומתרגם הביקורת שלי לאנגלית.

ההבדל הגדול בין טרון: המורשת ובין טרון הוא כי הגרפיקה של טרון: המורשת טובה מהגרפיקה של טרון. העלילה של טרון: המורשת דומה לעלילה של טרון יותר מדי. גם כטרון, טרון: המורשת הוא סרט טיפשי מאד והרבה מהאנשים בו עלולים להתנהג טיפשית מדי. גם הכותבים של סיפור טרון: המורשת לא ידעו די אודות מחשבים, ואילו רציתי לכוח־ידי להיות אכזרי וסדיסטי בלי צורך בתאר איך הוסיפו טעויות חדשות לטעויות של טרון. אבל זאת ביקורת תאולוגית; לכן אכתוב על תאולוגיה.

אלוהות וטוב ורע: התאולוגיה של טרון: המורשת ממשיכה ישיר מהתאולוגיה של טרון, אבל יש בחינות חדשות. עוד ה״משתמשים״ למתוכנתים כאלים, והטוב והרע למתוכנתים הם הטוב והרע בעיני ה״משתמשים״. קֶוִין פְלִין (הגיבור האנושי של טרון) במיוחד נקרא ״הבורא״.

(שימו לב, בבקשה, שהכתוביות העבריות מבדילות בדרך שהדיבור האנגלי לא מבדיל. התרגום הרגיל של ״program״ הוא ״תכנית״. אבל התרגום לפי הכתוביות הוא ״מתוכנת״. אולי המתרגם רצה לומר שהמתוכנתים לא תכניות רגילות. או אולי הסיבה היא ש״תכנית״ היא גם התרגום של ״plan״ והוא רצה להפחית מבוכה.)

אחר טרון, קווין פלין, כאל, ברא את ״עולם הרשת״, עולם וירטואלי, במחשב חדש עם המתוכנתים טְרוֹן וקְלוּ 2. (נראה שקווין פלין, כאל טוב, אומנם החיה לפחות אחד מהמתוכנתים הנהרגים על ידי המתוכנתים הרשעים ה־MCP וסָארְק. או לפחות קווין פלין כתב גרסה חדשה של קלו.) הבורא ירד לתוך עולמו החדש וראה כי טוב. קווין פלין ציווה את קלו ליצור מערכת מושלמת בעולם הרשת ואת טרון לשמור אותו. הבורא ירד בכל לילה בעולם שברא ליצור אותו.

בטרון, ה־MCP הוריד קווין פלין לתוך מחשב נגד רצונו. לעולם לא היה כמוהו בעולם הדיגיטלי, וכשהמתוכנתים שם הכירו שהוא היה ״משתמש״, יראו ממנו. אבל כשקווין פלין ברא את עולם הרשת, ירד בו בכל לילה, אפילו בלילה הראשון. והוא היה שם כמשותף עם טרון וקלו. אנחנו צופים שאלים הם גדולים וחזקים ונשגבים מאיתנו, והנה ברור לכל מתוכנת שעיניו בראשו שקווין פלין (לא כבתאולוגיה נורמלית) היה רק איש. לכן קלו ראה כי היה לבורא פגמים והוא לא היה מושלם. קלו היה מתוכנת ולא אדם, והוא, כתכנית, עשה כדבר מצוות הבורא ולא ככוונתו. לכן הוא עשה הרע בעיני האל שלו, אף רע מה־MCP, ומרד בבורא, ותקף בטרון. הבורא ברח מפני קלו. קווין פלין לא יכל לחזור לעולם הפיזי, כי קלו שמר את השער לעולם ההוא עד שנסגר ואי־אפשר לפתוח אותו מפנים. קלו מלך בעולם הרשת עשרים שנה, והבורא גר בשולי העולם.

בטרון, ה־MCP מרד ב״משתמש״ שלו, אֶדְוָארְד דִּילִינְגֶּ׳ר, וסחט אותו, ולחץ במתוכנתים הרבה במחשבים הרבה. אבל בטרון: המורשת, הבורא הגביל את עולם הרשת למחשב אחד. כשקלו מרד בבורא, לחץ את כל המתוכנתים בעולם הרשת ורצח את כל האלגוריתמים האיזומורפיים (איזואים) שמצא קווין פלין בעולם הרשת ואין מישהו שברא אותם, כי קלו לא חשב שהם מושלמים. קלו לא יכל להרחיב את המלכות שלו למחשבים אחרים. לכן לא רצה למלוך במחשבים אחרים, אבל לעלות לעולם הפיזי ולכבוש אותו ולטהר אותו מכל הפגמים שלו. אבל קלו לא יכל למצוא את קווין פלין וכעס כי הצטרך את דיסק הזהות שלו כדי שילמוד איך לעלות לעלום הפיזי.

בכל דת, אלים הם חשובים מהיצורים הנבראים על ידיהם. קווין פלין יכל לעצור את קלו ב״התמזגות״, אבל אם יעשה כן, שניהם ימותו. קווין פלין היה חשוב מכל שבעולם הרשת, לכן יש לומר שטוב שיחיה ורע יקרה לכל שהוא ברא משהוא ימות וטוב יהיה לעולם הרשת. אבל יצר הטוב שלו הפריע לו, כי באמת לא האמין שהוא כל כך עליון על כל שברא, והתאמץ למצוא שלום אישי במדיטציה (״זֶן״) ולא הצליח. וקווין פלין שנא מה שקלו עשה לאיזואים, והחביא ממנו את האיזואית האחרונה, קְווֹרָה, ולימדה והיה לה כאב.

קלו עשה עוד רע ועבר לא רק ב״משתמש״ שלו, אבל גם בבן־אדם אחר. קלו שלח הודעה במרמה לביפר של אָלָן בְּרַדְלִי, חבר של קווין פלין, למען ירד לעולם הרשת וקלו ילמוד ממנו איך לעלות לעולם הפיזי. ואלן היה נבוך, כי לא היה בעולם הפיזי שידע מה קרה לקווין פלין לפני עשרים שנה, והכול חשב שהוא בהסתברות מת.

בן היה לקווין פלין, ושמו סָאם. סאם כעס תמיד כי הוא לא ידע מה קרה לאב שלו. אלן הלך אל סאם ודיבר לו על ההודעה שקיבל ממשרד קווין פלין, אף על פי שהמספר נתוק לפני עשרים שנה. אלן שכנע את סאם לחקר, וסאם הלך אל ״פלין״ אולם משחקי וידאו של האב שלו. סאם מצא שם את המחשב של עולם הרשת וירד בו מקרית. בכמעט כל שאר הסרט, קלו והעבדים שלו נלחמו בסאם ובקוורה והתאמצו לגנוב דיסק הזהות של קווין פלין.

לא רק קלו והעבדים שלו בגדו ב״משתמשים״. המתוכנתים גֶּ׳ם וקַסְטוֹר/זוּס (יש לו שני שמות) גנבו את הלב של סאם והתאמצו למסור אותו לקלו. אילו קוורה וקווין פלין לא באו להציל אותו, בהסתברות נפל לידי האויב הגדול שלו.

״צלם אלוקים״: כבטרון, בטרון: המורשת כל מתוכנת נברא בצלם ה״משתמש״ שלו. (עיין בראשית א,כז.) הצלם לא רק בתואר הפנים ובקול. קווין פלין כתב את קלו ורצה אותו להיות גרסה דיגיטלי של עצמו, כי היה אי־אפשר לו להיות בעולם הרשת כל הזמן. לכן קלו הקביל את קווין פלין. שניהם יצרו את עולם הרשת. קווין פלין מלך בחברת אֶנְקוֹם, וקלו מלך בעולם הרשת. קווין פלין שמר הסודות של התכניות שלו מכל אדם, אפילו החברים שלו, וקלו שמר הסודות של התכניות שלו מכל מתוכנת, אפילו המשנה שלו. קווין פלין אמר לבני־אדם בנאום שהעתיד שלהם במחשבים, וקלו אמר למתוכנתים בנאום שהעתיד שלהם בעולם הפיזי. אומנם, קווין פלין אמר לסאם וקוורה שקלו ועצמו כאיש אחד, וכשסאם נפגש לקלו בפעם הראשון, הוא חשב לו לאב שלו.

ההגדרה של ״מושלם״: אין מישהו שהגדיר מהו ״מושלם״ בטרון: המורשת. זאת טעות גדולה לקווין פלין, כי אנשים שונים משתמשים בהגדרות שונות של ״מושלם״. למשל, יש חושבים שהמשמעות שלו ״אין לו צורך לדבר אחר״, ואחרים חושבים שהיא ״אין לו שום פגם״. זאת בעיה גדולה, כי יש הרבה סברות תאולוגיות כוללות ״מושלם״ (״ה׳ הוא מושלם״, ״העולם הוא מושלם״, ״גוף האדם הוא מושלם״), ולעתים קרובות לא ברור מה ההגדרה הנכונה בסברה. לכן קל מאוד לא להבין מה המשמעות הנכונה לכל סברה מבוססת על ״מושלם״ ולא לדעת אם סברה בת־תוקף או לא. לעולם קלו לא שאל את הבורא מהו ״מושלם״, ולכן עבר בו.

נסים: ״נס״ הוא התרגום העברי של המילה האנגלית ״miracle״ לפי הכתוביות, אבל ״נס״ רק כערך תרגום. המשמעות הבסיסית של ״miracle״ היא ״פלא״; זה דבר שאנחנו מתפלאים עליו, ואולי נאמין שזה מעשה אל. המשמעות הבסיסית של ״נס״ היא ״דגל״, דבר שנראה ממרחק גדול; עצם הדבר הוא שאנחנו רואים שהוא אות מאל. קווין פלין קרא את האיזואים ״miracle״ וודאי התפלא עליהם. אבל לעולם לא אמר שהוא מאמין באל גדול מבני־אדם; לכן ״נס״ הוא לא תרגום טוב שם.

כיבוד אב והכרת הטוב: חדש בטרון: המורשת נראה כיבוד אב, מצווה נמצאה בדתות ממשיות (למשל יהדות (שמות כ,יא; דברים ה,טו) וקונפוציאניזם). בחלק גדול מהסרט, סאם נלחם להוציא את האב שלו מעולם הרשת. אף על פי שקוורה ממש לא היתה הבת של קווין פלין ולא עובד אותו כאילו הוא אל, היא כיבדה אותו כאב ונלחמה להציל אותו ואת הבן שלו. אולי הסיבה היא הכרת הטוב, כי הוא הציל אותה. או אולי הסיבה היא כי היא אלגוריתם, והמהות של אלגוריתמים לפתור בעיות.

תשובה: גם חדש, נראה תשובה בטרון: המורשת. רִינְזְלֶר, אחד מהעבדים של קלו, כמעט בסוף הסרט שב מהדרך הרע שלו ורב בקלו. אף על פי שקלו ניצח, רינזלר מת נלחם לשם ה״משתמשים״ בזהות הישנה שלו: טרון. גם קווין פלין שב והתנצל לקלו, מודה שעשה הרע לצווה אותו לעשות דבר אי־אפשר. כשקלו מיאן לקבל את ההתנצלות, עשה ״התמזגות״ ומת עם קלו כדי שסאם וקוורה יוכלו לעלות העולם הפיזי.

שכר ועונש וקרמה: אין ספק שיש שכר בטרון: המורשת, לפחות על ידי קווין פלין. אלן ברדלי עזר לקווין פלין בטרון, ואחר זה קווין עשה את אלן לחבר הדירקטוריון של אנקום. והמתוכנתים הנאמנים טרון וקלו, קווין פלין נתן להם את הכבוד שיעזרו אותו ליצור את עולם הרשת.

כבטרון, נראה לי שיש סוג קרמה בטרון: המורשת. קלו עשה את הרע בעיני האל שלו, וקווין פלין ברח מהחובות של אלים. ואף על פי שקווין פלין עשה תשובה כמעט בסוף הסרט, הוא וקלו מתו יחד. ג׳ם וזוס/קסטור בגדו בסאם והתאמצו לתת לו בידי קלו, וקלו המתו את שניהם. סאם וקוורה רצו להציל את קווין פלין ונלחמו בקלו. הם עשו את הטוב לבורא, ושניהם עלו לעולם הפיזי. שם סאם כיוון למלוך באנקום, ויש רמזים שיתאהבו סאם וקוורה (סוף טוב). גם כטרון, אין מסבירים את המנגנון של קרמה.

מקור חיים נבונים במחשבים: כבטרון, בטרון: המורשת אין מסבירים איך מתוכנתים היו לחיים נבונים. וטרון: המורשת גם לא מסביר מקור האיזואים.

האלהה: בטרון, האדם קווין פלין ירד לתוך מחשב להיות כמתוכנת. ההפך קרה בטרון: המורשת: האלגורתם קוורה עלתה מתוך מחשב לעולם הפיזי להיות כאדם. אף על פי שאני לא יודע אם יש דת טוענת גנבת אל, יש מהם (למשל, דת היוונים העתיקים ומורמוניזם) טוענים שאדם יכול להיות לאל.

מיתה של אלים: קווין פלין מת (או לפחות נראה לסאם ולקוורה שהוא מת). לא ידוע לי דת מצויה שלפיה אל מת. אבל קראתי שיש אתאיסטים נוצריים(!) שמאמינים שהיה אל והוא מת.

בעיות אחרות: 1) אנחנו לא יודעים ממי קווין פלין ציווה את טרון לשמור את עולם הרשת. ההוא פחד מ״משתמשים״ אחרים? ההוא פחד ממתוכנתים רעים? 2) קווין פלין האמין לפני המרד של קלו שהאיזואים יעשו מהפכה בכול, אפילו בדת. לעולם לא הסביר את האמונה הזאת. הנה האיזואית קוורה נראה מסוגלת (אם אפשר לומר שיש מסוגל בסרט הזה), אבל היא לא היתה כל כך חריפה לעשות מהפכה בשום שדה. ולעולם קוורה לא הראה שהיא ידעה שום דבר אודות הדת. 3) כשקווין פלין ברא את עולם הרשת, למה לא שם שמירות במערכת כדי שלעולם לא מתוכנת חזקה ממנו? ולמה לא עשה את המערכת בדרך שאפשר לפתוח שער לצאת אפילו מתוכה? למה לא למד ממה שעשה לו ה־MCP?

גלוי לכול שעושי טרון: המורשת חשבו ועבדו הרבה למען תהיה גרפיקה מדהימה, אבל גם שלא חשבו ועבדו הרבה בכתיבה. התאולוגיה של טרון: המורשת מעתיק את התאולוגיה של טרון. בחינות חדשות (יותר ב״צלם אלוקים״, ההגדרה של ״מושלם״, נסים, כיבוד אב, הכרת הטוב, תשובה, האלהה, מיתה של אלים, שכר ועונש) נוספות לתאולוגיה הישנה. אבל יש בעיות לטרון שטרון: המורשת לא פותר אותן. עוד אנחנו לא יודעים אם יש באמת קרמה או איך מתוכנתים הם נבונים—ועכשיו גם איך היו האיזואים. ואני מאוכזב שלא התאמצו לפתור את הבסיסיות האלה. אני קווה שאם יהיה טרון 3 הכותבים יפנו אל הנושאים האלה.

סיווג תאולוגי: C+ (מפני האכזבה).

A theological review of Tron Legacy

by Aaron Solomon Adelman

Warning: Lots of spoilers! This review might also be difficult to understand for those who have not seen Tron.

Three years ago I wrote a theological review of Tron, the famous stupid science-fiction movie from Disney. Its theology is excellent for such a bad movie. Now there is a sequel to Tron, Tron Legacy, I am obligated to write a theological review. For the sake of learning Hebrew I am writing this review in Hebrew—and the version I saw has subtitles in Hebrew—and I translating it into English.

The biggest difference between Tron and Tron Legacy is that the graphics of Tron Legacy are better than the graphics of Tron. The plot of Tron Legacy resembles the plot of Tron too much. Also like Tron, Tron Legacy is a very stupid film, and many of the people in it are liable to act too stupid. Also the writers of the story of Tron Legacy did not know enough about computers, and if I wanted to, I could have been brutal and needlessly sadistic in describing how they added new errors to errors of Tron. But this a theological review; thus I shall write about theology.

Godhood and good and evil: The theology of Tron Legacy follows directly from the theology of Tron, but there are new aspects. The “Users” are still like gods to programs, and and what is good and evil for programs is what is good and evil in the eyes of the “Users”. Kevin Flynn (the human hero of Tron) in particular is called “the Creator.”

(Note, please, that the Hebrew subtitles make a distinction which the English speech does not. The usual translation of “program” is tokhnith. But the translation according to the subtitles is methukhnath (“programmed”). Perhaps the translator wanted to say that the “programs” of the Tron universe are not ordinary computer programs. Or maybe the reason is that tokhnith is also the translation of “plan” and he/she wanted to reduce confusion.)

After Tron, Kevin Flynn, like a god, created the Grid, a virtual world, in a new computer with the programs Tron and Clu 2. (It seems that Kevin Flynn, like a good god, indeed resurrected at least one of the program programs killed by the wicked programs MCP and Sark. Or at least Kevin Flynn wrote a new version of Clu.) The Creator descended into his new world and saw that it was good. Kevin Flynn ordered Clu to create a perfect system in the Grid and Tron guard it. The Creator descended every night into the world which he created to form it.

In Tron, the MCP brought Kevin Flynn down into a computer against his will. Never was there anyone like him in the digital world, and when the programs there recognized that he was a “User”, they were in awe of him. But when Kevin Flynn created the Grid, he descended into it every night, even the first night. And he was there like a partner with Tron and Clu. We expect that gods are greater, more powerful, and more sublime than us, and behold, it was clear to every program who was not blind that Kevin Flynn (not as in normal theology) was only a man. Therefore Clu saw that the Creator had flaws and was not perfect. Clu was a computer program and not a man, and, as a computer program, he did according to the word of the command of the Creator and not according to his intention. There he did evil in the eyes of his god, even worse than the MCP, and rebelled against the Creator, and attacked Tron. The Creator fled from Clu. Kevin Flynn was unable to return to the physical world, for Clu guarded the gate to that world until it closed, and it is impossible to open it from within. Clu ruled in the Grid twenty years, and the Creator dwelled at the edge of the world.

In Tron, the MCP rebelled against his “User”, Edward Dillinger, and blackmailed him, and oppressed many programs in many computers. But in Tron Legacy, the Creator limited the Grid to one computer. When Clu rebelled against the Creator, he oppressed every program in the Grid and murdered all the isomorphic algorithms (ISOs) Kevin Flynn found in the Grid without anyone creating them, for Clu did not think they were perfect. Clu was not able to expand his kingdom to other computers. Therefore he did not want to rule in other computers, but to ascend to the physical world and conquer it and purge it of all its flaws. But Clu could not find Kevin Flynn and was angry, for he needed his identity disc so he would learn how to ascend to the physical world.

In every religion, gods are more important than the creatures created by them. Kevin Flynn was able to stop Clu by “reintegration”, but if he would so, both of them would die. Kevin Flynn was more important than anything in the Grid; therefore thus one may say that it would be better that he should live and evil should happen to everything which he created than he should die and there will be good to the Grid. But his conscience bothered him, for he really did not believe himself superior to all created, and he tried to find personal peace through meditation (“Zen”) and failed. Kevin Flynn hated what Clu did to the ISOs, and he hid from him the last ISO, Quorra, and taught her, and was like a father to her.

Clu did further evil and transgressed not only against his “User”, but also against another human. Clu deceptively sent a page to the beeper of Alan Bradley, a friend of Kevin Flynn, so that he would descend into the Grid and Clu would learn from him how to ascend to the physical world. Alan was puzzled, because no one in the physical world knew what happened to Kevin Flynn twenty years earlier, and everyone thought he probably died.

Kevin Flynn had a son named Sam. Sam was always angry because he did not know what happened to his father. Alan went to Sam and spoke to him about the message he received from Kevin Flynn’s office, even though the number was disconnected twenty years previously. Alan persuaded Sam to investigate, and Sam went to the Flynn’s, his father’s video arcade. Sam found there the computer of the Grid and descended into it accidentally. In almost all of the rest of the film, Clu and his servants fought against Sam and Quorra and tried to steal the identity disk of Kevin Flynn.

Clu and his servants were not the only ones to commit treachery against the “Users”. The programs programs Gem and Castor/Zuse (he has two names) tricked Sam and tried to hand him over to Clu. If Quorra and Kevin Flynn had not come to save him, he would have probably fallen into the hands of his greatest enemy.

“The image of ’Elohim”: As in Tron, in Tron Legacy every program is created in the image of his/her “Users”. (See Genesis 1:27.) This image is not just in the form of the face and the voice. Kevin Flynn wrote Clu and wanted him to be a digital version of himself, for it was impossible for him to be in the Grid all the time. Therefore Clu parallels Kevin Flynn. Both have formed the Grid. Kevin Flynn ruled over the company Encom, and Clu ruled over the Grid. Kevin Flynn kept secrets of his plans from all humans, even his friends, and Clu kept his secrets of his plans from all programs, even his lieutenant. Kevin Flynn said to humans in a speech that their future was in computers, and Clu said to programs in a speech that their future was in the physical world. Indeed, Kevin Flynn said to Sam and Quorra that considered himself and Clu like one person, and when Sam met Clu the first time, he thought he was his father.

The definition of “perfect”: No one defined what is “perfect” Tron Legacy. This is a big mistake on the part of Kevin Flynn, because different people use different definitions of “perfect.” For example, there are those who think that its meaning is “it has no need for something else”, while others think it means “it has no flaws”. This is a big problem, because there are many theological arguments which include “perfect” (“HashShem is perfect”, “The world is perfect,” “the human body is perfect”), and often it is not clear what is the correct meaning in an argument. Therefore it is very easy to not understand what is the correct meaning of any argument based on “perfect” and to not know if the argument is valid or not. Clu never asked the Creator what is “perfect”, and therefore he transgressed against him.

Miracles: Nes is the Hebrew translation of the English word “miracle” according to the subtitles, but nes is only an approximate translation. The basic meaning of “miracle” is “wonder”; this is something we wonder about, and perhaps we believe that this is the work of a god. The basic meaning of nes is “flag”, something which is seen from a great distance; the essence of the thing is that we see is a sign from a god. Kevin Flynn called the ISOs a “miracle” and he definitely wondered over them. But he never said that he believes in a god greater than humans; therefore nes is not a good translation there.

Honoring one’s father and gratitude: New in Tron Legacy is honoring one’s father, a command in real religions (e.g., Judaism (Exodus 20:11, Deuteronomy 5:15) and Confucianism). In much of the movie, Sam fought to bring his father out of the Grid. Although Quorrah was not really Kevin Flynn’s daughter and did not worship him as if he were a god, she honored him like a father and fought to save him and his son. Perhaps the reason is gratitude that he saved her. Or maybe the reason is that she is an algorithm, and the nature of algorithms is to solve problems.

Repentance: Also new in Tron Legacy is repentance. Rinzler, one of the servants of Clu, almost at the end of the film turned from his evil ways and fought with Clu. Although Clu won, Rinzler died fighting for the “Users” and with his old identity: Tron. Kevin Flynn also repented and apologized to Clu, admitting he did wrong to command him to do something impossible. When Clu refused to accept the apology, he “reintegrated” and died with Clu in order that Sam and Quorra would be able to ascend to the physical world.

ֳReward and punishment and karma: There is no doubt that there is reward in Tron Legacy, at least by Kevin Flynn. Alan Bradley helped Kevin Flynn in Tron, and afterwards Kevin made Alan a member of the board of Encom. And Kevin Flynn gave the loyal programs Tron and Clu the honor of helping him create the Grid.

As in Tron, it appears to me that there is a kind of karma Tron Legacy. Clu did evil in the eyes of his god, and Kevin Flynn fled from the obligations of gods. Even though Kevin Flynn did repent almost at the end of the film, he and Clu died together. Gem and Zuse/Castor betrayed Sam and tried to give him into the hands of Clu, and Clu killed both of them. Sam and Quorra wanted to save Kevin Flynn and fought with Clu. They did good to the Creator, and both ascended to the physical world. Sam there intended to rule over Enron, and there are hints that Sam and Quorra will fall in love (a happy ending). Also like Tron, no one explains the mechanism of karma.

The origin of intelligent life in computers: As in Tron, Tron Legacy does not explain how programs became intelligent. And Tron Legacy also does not explain the origin of the ISOs.

Apotheosis: In Tron, the human Kevin Flynn descended into a computer to become like a program. The opposite happened in Tron Legacy: the algorithm Quorra ascended from out of a computer to the physical world to become like a human. Although I do not know if there is any religion which claims the kidnapping of a god, there are those (for example, the ancient Greek religion and Mormonism) which claim that a human can become a god.

The death of gods: Kevin Flynn died (or at least it seemed to Sam and Quorra that he died). No common religion is known to me according to which a god died. But I have read that there are Christian atheists(!) who believe that there was a god and He died.

Other problems: 1) We do not know from whom Kevin Flynn ordered Tron to guard the Grid. Did he fear other “Users”? Did he fear evil programs? 2) Kevin Flynn believed that before the rebellion of Clu that the ISOs will revolutionize everything, even religion. He never explained this belief. The ISO Quorra appeared competent (if one can say that there is anyone competent in this film), but she was not so brilliant so as to make a revolution in any field. And Quorra never showed she knew anything about religion. 3) When Kevin Flynn created the Grid, why did he not put safeguards in the system so that no program could ever be more powerful that him? And did he not make the system in such a way that it is possible to open a portal to leave even from the inside? Why did he not learn from what the MCP did to him?

It is obvious to all that the makers of Tron Legacy thought and labored much so that there would be astounding graphics, but also they did not think or labor much in the writing. The theology of Tron Legacy copies the theology of Tron. New aspects (more on “the image of ’Elohim”, the definition of “perfect”, miracles, honoring one’s father, gratitude, repentance, apotheosis, death of gods, reward and punishment) are added to the old theology. But there are problems of Tron which Tron Legacy does not solve. We still do not know if there is really karma or how programs became sentient—and now also how the ISOs came into existence. And I am disappointed that they did not try to solve these basic problems. I hope that if there will be a Tron 3 the writers will address these topics.

Theological rating: C+ (due to the disappointment).