Israel is a real place

Greetings.

Jewish date:  26 ’Elul 5770 (Parashath Ha’azinu).

Today’s holidays:  Ramadan (Islam), Laylat-al-Qadr (Lailat ul Qadr, Lailat-ul Qadr, Night of Power) (Islam), Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Henry Louis Mencken (Church of the SubGenius).

Topic 1:  A big backlog on anti-Semitism and the Arab-Israeli War:  “Selective Outrage: Israeli Facebook Photos Spark Media Circus”, “Action Alert: CBC Drags a False Equivalence”, “EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Dramatic Reunion Ten Years After The Photo That Started It All”, “Iranian youth athlete withdraws from fight with Israel competitor” (translation:  Iran would rather force its taekwondo fighters to chicken out like wimps rather than let them lose with honor), “Lancet Editor "Responds" to HR Critique”, “Ha'aretz Journalist's Speaking Tour: Sponsored by Anti-Zionists”, “BBC Panorama Shocker: Balanced Review of Gaza Flotilla Incident”, “Incitement is not one-sided”, “Dead Jews and living trees” (some people have completely missed what the Holocaust is supposed to teach us), “The Root of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Classic Islamic View of Jews”, “The Despair of Zion” by Walter Reich, and “Egyptian minister calls on Muslims to flood J’lem” (completely forgetting that any Islamic identity of Yerushalayim is completely forged and that Muslim pilgrims there will be giving money to Jews, directly or indirectly, if they want to eat, sleep, or travel).

Topic 2:  I need to start writing about my pilot trip to Israel, my future home, and I still do not know where to start.  So let us start with something basic which at first sounds ridiculously obvious:  Israel is a real place.  Rationality requires us to try to recognize things as they are, for what they are.  The Israel I visited is not a religious fantasy of a Jewish or ecumenical utopia.  Neither is it a successor to Nazi Germany, as anti-Semites would have us believe.  In many respects, Israel is a lot like the United States, being a fully modern, Western country.  This includes the general rule of law and familiar products and technologies.

So how does Israel differ from the United States?  The most obvious (and relevant to this blog) is that while most of the West is predominantly Christian, Israel is predominantly Jewish.  There is a sizeable Muslim minority, and there are Christians, Bahá’ís, and members of other religions as well; but I stayed within areas with Jewish majorities, and this was reflected even within the secular culture.  (I do plan to go into this further as I discuss my trip.)  And while in the United States people are often not so visibly demonstrative of their religion, people who look religious are everywhere in Israel.  Even in Tel ’Aviv, the great bastion of Israeli secularism, there were some people who were visibly observant Jews, including one woman I talked with at a company at which I interviewed.  To be sure, there are enclaves, and whole neighborhoods are set up with particular religious groups in mind.  But in many places, people of different religious strains mix freely and without incident.  This includes on buses; despite what you may have heard about Ḥaredhim (sometimes derisively called “ultra-Orthodox”) holding by segregated buses, I saw plenty riding ordinary, mixed buses.

Israel is also a visibly multilingual society.  In the United States, government-issue signs (such as for traffic and street names) are usually only in English.  In Israel, they are typically in Hebrew, the international language English, and Arabic.  And while the most common language spoken on the street and found in non-governmental signs is indeed Hebrew, I also encountered a fair share of English, Arabic, Russian, Spanish, French, Yiddish, and what was probably Amharic.  One may also easily end up talking to people in languages other than Hebrew.  Someone at one synagogue did try speaking to me in Yiddish, which I do not know.  (I got a C in Yiddish in college and have made no attempts to study it since.)  Several people, upon hearing my American accent even when speaking Hebrew, switched to addressing me in English.  (I myself must admit guilt at switching too frequently from Hebrew to English when I had trouble making myself understood in Hebrew.  Hebrew is not my native language, and it requires more mental effort for me to speak or understand.  And I am under the impression that my accent is not the easiest for Israelis to understand either.)

I need to move on to other things today.  I hope to write about the Old City of Yerushalayim tomorrow.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor: “The transition”:

And again, if anyone knows anything about where this notion of black cats being evil comes from, please let me know.

Peace.

Aaron

Beware of pygargs

Greetings.

Jewish date:  28 ’Av 5770 (Parashath Shofeṭim).

Today’s holidays:  Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Britishthermalunit, inventor of AC (Church of the SubGenius).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Ban New Offshore Drilling - Take Action Today @ The Rainforest Site”, “ColorOfChange.org:  Tell Google: "Don't be evil" / And to stop dealing away the Internet”, “MoveOn.org Political Action: Google: Don't Be Evil”, and “Alliance for Justice:  Congress: Repair the Damage Caused by the Corporate Court”.

Topic 1:  It has occurred to me that there is an irony in the terminology of the Arab-Israeli War.  The Muslims call Israel “Palestine” in an effort to dissociate it from Judaism.  Now, where does this term come from?  After the Romans finally crushed the Bar Kokhba’ Revolution (with much difficulty), they adapted the name of traditional rival state about where now the Gaza Strip is, the Pelesheth (= “low-country”) and started calling Israel Syria Palestina.  This was later shortened to “Palestine”.  Thus the Muslims are implicitly identifying with Israel’s oppressors and occupiers from the Roman Empire.  The irony comes in that the “Palestinians” claim to be oppressed and occupied.  They could have gone with “Canaan” instead, given that the Kena‘anim lost out to the Children of Yisra’el, but no one has any nostalgia for the Kena‘anim.

More anti-Semitism:  “Canadian Media Bark up the Wrong Tree in Lebanon Ambush (August 4, 2010)”, “Dead Photojournalist Waiting To Happen” and “Border Clash: A Case Study in Reuters Photography” deal with reporter bias, participation in an international incident, and stupidity.  (I am aware “stupidity” is a strong and undiplomatic word, but putting oneself in a position where one could easily be mistaken for an enemy soldier and get shot is pretty stupid.)  “Photo Bias Rampant In the Media” deals with the photographic equivalent of quoting out of context:

“Sky News Discovers Gaza's Middle Class” reveals that not all Gazans are suffering.

Related:  “Taqiyya - Lying For Islam” deals with lying in the name of Islam.

Image of “pygargs” via Wikipedia

Topic 2:  Some strangeness from the King James Version (KJV):  The KJV renders dishon in Deuteronomy 14:5 as “pygarg”, which is not an English word at all.  “Pygarg” is an adaptation of the Greek pygargos, meaning “white-rumped”, which is used in the Septuagint.  Why they did this, I am not really clear.  “Addax” is a perfectly good English word, though maybe they really did not know anything about addaxes in England at that point.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor: “Basement kitteh tabulates quarterly figures.”:


Peace.

Aaron

We must stop the enemy from cutting down trees in their own territory!

Greetings.

Jewish date:  Jewish date:  24 ’Av 5770 (Parashath Re’eh).

Today’s holidays:  Feast Day of John Vianney (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Charles Addams (Church of the SubGenius).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Tell Mott's: get the scabs out of your applesauce!”.

Topic 1:  More anti-Semitism:  Lebanon’s unprovoked attack on Israel yesterday is covered in “Special Alert: Media Collusion in Lebanon Ambush” and “Border Clash: Confirmations on the Day After”.  One would think that the Lebanese could come up with a better excuse to attack Israeli soldiers and get five people killed than the Israelis doing border maintenance by cutting down a tree in Israeli territory.  “Shimon Peres versus the Brits” deals with just how long and how deep British anti-Semitism towards Mandatory Palestine and Israel has been; apparently the British have been stabbing Israel in the back at least far back as 1921 by violating their commitments in Mandatory Palestine by giving all of it east of the Jordan River to the emir of Mecca.  “Demonizing Israel is bad for the Palestinians” argues that media focus on alleged atrocities against stateless Arabs in Israel keeps the focus off real atrocities against “Palestinians“ in Arab countries.

Topic 2:  Also about Muslim misbehavior:  “How a Tolerant Country Can Avoid Being a Doormat for Intolerant Countries” suggests that freedom of religion should not be unconditional but should instead be conditioned on respect for the freedom of religion of others.  “Treat others as they treat you” or “tit for tat” may sound downright selfish (and like something right out of LaVeyan Satanism), but Muslims abusing freedom of religion in the West is well-documented, and self-defense is a commonly recognized moral behavior.  (Exception:  Jesus in Matthew 5:38-42 and Luke 6:27-31, the whole business of “turning the other cheek”, which at least on the surface seems to value not resisting one’s enemies, which Jesus is reported as doing to the point of allowing himself to be crucified when he easily could have escaped.)  Do note that if we are tolerant of intolerance, then the intolerant win and there is no longer any tolerance.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor: “We guard the gates of HELL!”:


Peace.

Aaron

Cold showers and The Miracle Maker

Greetings.

Jewish date:  1 ’Av 5770 (Parashath Devarim).

Today’s holidays:  Ro’sh Ḥodhesh (Judaism), The Nine Days (Judaism), Monday of the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Pam Grier (Church of the SubGenius), Feast of Grady Louis McMurtry (Thelema).

Topic 1:  Today begins the Nine Days, an intense part of the Three Weeks culminating in the Ninth of ’Av, which commemorates the destruction of both Temples and many other tragedies in Jewish history.  The level of mourning is increased.  No meat, no wine, no fresh clothes, no anointing for pleasure, and no bathing for pleasure.  The last one, while probably not onerous in ancient times, when they did not have so much indoor plumbing and did not bathe as frequently, is a big pain in the neck for a modern human used to showering every single day.  (It was clearly not an epidemiologist who came up with this idea, as an epidemiologist would have objected to any enactment that worked against good hygiene.)  While bathing itself is not forbidden during the Nine Days except for 9 ’Av, one is expected to keep the temperature of the water as low as possible, which makes showering rather unpleasant, especially since it is difficult to step into cold water in the first place.  (While a cold is not so bad if one is feeling overheated, the air conditioning has been working splendidly over here, so this is not the case.)  I am tempted to ask the local rav if there is any way to trade decently warm showers for fasting two days straight, I will not bother because I know full well the answer will be “no”.

Image of unfun morality via Wikipedia

Now, some may be asking why I would ever consider putting myself through ritual mourning and eight days of cold showers.  Is not religion supposed to be about fun activities?  Or if not fun, at least about spiritual highs?  And the answer to these questions is “no”.  Because religion is ultimately about truth, not just theological truth, but the truth about what one is supposed to do.  A lot of morality is anything but fun.  Sure, one may enjoy even sharing and being selfless with friends.  But admitting one has done something wrong and trying to correct one’s mistakes is anything but fun.  Returning lost property is not fun.  Not hitting some jerk who keeps annoying you is not fun.  Self-control and moderation are not fun.  Letting someone jab you in the arm with a needle as part of blood donation is not fun.  And so on.  And why should ritual be any different?  The dark parts of life are to some degree inevitable?  Why should they, too, not be addressed?

Topic 2:  The latest in this series on Gospel-based films, The Miracle Maker (2000):

(Yes, they have it on Hulu.)  Most of the originality in this movie goes into animation and presentation, with an emphasis on miracles and parables.  Theologically, there is little new here.  The usual suspects, depicted as mean-spirited, are after Jesus the Annoyingly Perfect, claiming to fear Pilate’s and Caesar’s wrath.  Pilate is a little craftier and more evil than usual.  Unless you want to see the animation, do not bother with this one.

Topic 3:  More on Islamic stunts:  The Dry Bones cartoon “the Name Game”, which notes correctly that it makes no sense to try to pretend that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam, even though this contradicts what terrorists themselves claim.  “The humanitarian show” notes that the “poor” people of Gaza are better off that a lot of the rest of the people on this planet, including having a higher life expectancy that part of Britain, while no aid is sent to far worse off people in Turkey, Lebanon, and Iran.  “Abbas to Arabs: We'd Support a War Against Israel” shows that Mahmoud Abbas is no partner for peace.  And finally, we have the video “WHAT ISLAM IS NOT”, based on the article “What Islam Isn't”, which describes how Islamization works:


Note:  There will be no religious humor during the Nine Days because it is not really appropriate during mourning.

Peace and consolation.

Aaron

Perversity in jihad

Greetings.

Jewish date:  14 Kislew 5770 (Parashath Wayyishlaḥ).

Today’s holidays:  Tuesday of the First Week of Advent (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of Sir Aleister Crowley (Thelema).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Save Africa's Great Cats and Rare Canids - The Petition Site” and “Tell Harry Reid: Don't let them filibuster the public option.”  Also, please note this interesting publicity video:  “Pink Gloves Dance to Jay Sean's Down for Breast Cancer Awareness”.

I am still working on my review of The Matrix Triology.  Hopefully you should get that tomorrow.  In the meantime, I give you two items on the sheer perversity of the Israeli-Arab War, “Nasrallah Throws A Bone to the Refugees” and The Dry Bones cartoon “Delivery Systems (1994)”.

Peace.

Aaron