"cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you"
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 11:47 PM
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A priceless exchange - HT: “I asked one of the "chulent" members where he plans to spend the Sedorim, since I knew that he'd want to fulfill those Mitzvos BeHiddur. He told me that he had no place, since he wouldn't be comfortable at home with his parents, nor with any other family member.”
Anonymous: “They're just not comfortable there
NO ONE IS, SO US FRUM PEOPLE HAVE TO DEAL WITH OUR FAMILIES AND THEY DON’T.”
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 3:35 PM
I wrote about this here: mentalblog.com: purim kotan. But bees are now dying in Europe as well. Celsias: European Bees Also Taking a Nosedive - Perhaps GM Crops?
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 3:03 PM
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 12:25 PM
So I am looking at this at Ariel’s grandfather’s funeral and ask myself: "Who exactly put the aliens on the planet earth? Numb, emotionally impermeable creatures bound by unearthly obsessions. Even better question, why am I standing there witnessing the intergalactic shenanigans?
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 8:56 AM
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 10:17 PM
On the subject of mentalblog.com: Esther Perel on sex her book is pop. This is all one needs to say about it. To read serious literature on this subject one should go to the late Marie Louise Von Franz for starters.
But let me say this. The following woman would prey on men again and again. She is mysterious, unpredictable, wild, deliciously immature, playful and childish. These girls have some social sophistication but they are essentially incoherent and illogical. How cute is that! But there is a flip side to this enigma. Just like small children these girls are selfish, used to people catering to their needs, self centered habitual liars and they are totally oblivious to the impact of their actions and words on others, even when they know of the impact they don’t care. Such a girl quickly turns your heartache into headache. They are mean and destructive foxes. You hunt them at your own risk.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 9:40 PM
“Perel says the modern relationship began taking shape in the late 19th century, through a series of changes: The shift from village to urban society left man lonely and alienated, and thus in need of contact to define himself; the development of the term "I"; changes in the term "intimacy," which came to express not only closeness but also meaning; and the romantic ideal that a relationship was an act of choice and love.
"In play. I do not want the same relationship in the kitchen or the office as in bed. We never expected to integrate stability and security with passion and sexuality. Now, we want stability and financial support and children and respect, and we want our husband also to be our best friend and our confidante, and our lover. Our desire to have everything with one individual is new. And, when we divorce, we don't think that perhaps, it is worth investigating the model. We think we merely chose the wrong person, and that there is someone else who could provide us with everything."
***
Perel says there is no such thing as "safe sex." Safety and stability cancel passion. Wisdom involves knowing how to live in uncertainty with one's partner.
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She quickly adds, "This does not come from a Buddhist approach, in my case. It comes from the Holocaust. I do not believe there is such a thing, security." Perel's parents lost their families in the war, and later met and established their own family. Her choice of research subject is directly related to this. "I grew up in a community of Holocaust survivors. There were two groups: Those who didn't die, and those who returned to life," she says. "Those who didn't die thought only of defense and security. The second group of survivors reconnected to life, nurtured playfulness and creativity. To my great fortune, my parents belonged to the second group, and that is another reason for their survival."
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 11:17 AM
“EVERY DIASPORA Jewish organization based on public funding must heed the important lessons to be learned from this tragic meltdown of a distinguished international Jewish organization.mentalblog.com's bookmarks tagged with "WJC" on del.icio.us
The most important is the need for organizations to ensure that senior lay leaders and professionals must at all times remain accountable to a board or executive. When, either by default or design, senior officials begin operating beyond the framework of governance, corruption becomes ingrained.”
***
“There is also the need to adopt a dramatically different moral approach to the utilization of public funds. Mr. Bronfman has undoubtedly been an extraordinarily generous donor. But approximately 90% of WJC funds were contributed not by Bronfman, but by the American Jewish public. These funds must be recognized as sacrosanct and treated accordingly. That implies that expenses should not only be reasonable but must be transparent. A situation in which one official could exploit expenses as a vehicle for leading a profligate lifestyle must never recur. Salaries and expenses must be as transparent as they are in public companies and the public sector. Above all, donors have the right to know how their funds are being applied.”
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 8:30 AM
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posted by Tzemach Atlas at 6:10 PM
Anyone who ever worked in an organization of more than two people knows about the innate capacity of people to be slaves. There are always people who know instinctively how to signal to their superiors a sense of submission. They are resigned to the role of slaves for their personal eternity. I always observed these characters with a sense of bewilderment, disgust and jealousy.
Each seder we are assume the roles of the slaves. We revel with pride about the freed distant relatives and sit full of infinite patience with God, resigned to the life sentence without parole, aka personal redemption.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 12:42 PM
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 12:17 PM
Ecopod is a revolutionary design in coffins made from naturally hardened, 100% recycled paper. Available in: Indigo Blue, Indian Red, Forest Green, White, Silver Leaf, Gold Leaf.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 11:13 AM
MOROR: I find the impersonal Jewish fixation with the past distasteful. Obsessive compulsive reenactments of the dramas of the times of yore when direct personal revelations ruled the day, juxtaposed against the embarrassing, mute God of the present. “Forget the past, move forward” but still be one with the Egyptian slaves while people around you evaporate like the droplets of mercury.
…Let it go.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 10:08 AM
What is the content that defines you as a person? Is the content fragmented? Does your content overlaps with people around you, in other words how much of your content is shared by people around you. Do you feel increasingly fragmented from the content of other people? Are we getting deconstructed, disjointed into small droplets of mercury sliding across the table?
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 8:50 PM
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posted by Tzemach Atlas at 10:11 AM
Why is the Jewish G-d so jealous? Why Jews are so prone to lust after the “other gods”? Why even forty day abstinence cased them to be aroused by an inanimate cow? Is the adherence and patient anticipation of the ultimate perfect deity a sign of the chosen or a futile stubbornness? To be Jewish does it mean to be exclusive and exquisite in love?
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 9:31 AM
Supporters of the Kremlin-backed youth organisation "Nashi" (Ours) rally to celebrate seven years of Vladimir Putin's presidency in central Moscow March 25, 2007. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin.
Riot police officer detains a demonstrator during an opposition rally in Nizhny Novgorod, about 400 km (250 miles) east of Moscow, Saturday, March 24, 2007. Russian authorities on Saturday violently dispersed an opposition rally in a central Russian city, detaining hundreds of activists, organizers said. It was the second major anti-government protest by liberal and leftist forces in recent months to be broken up by police as the country prepares for December parliamentary elections and next year's presidential vote. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 7:36 PM
Schneur Zalman of NY commenting to mentalblog.com: America's Top 50 Rabbis: No mention of the Novominsker Rebbe or Rabbi Hershel Schachter? How many of these people can learn a daf gemora with rashi unprepared. How many can read rashi script? Zalman Teitelbaum --- forward thinking, when was the last time he thought and in any direction? May I suggest we start a poll for the top 25 orthodox rabbis in the USA. I will submit my candidates here in no special order:
1. Avi Weiss
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 6:44 PM
Comments to mentalblog.com: Klimovitch:
sto pratzent: you can take r' nissan off the list. While he respected the Klimovitcher enough to marry his kids off to them, he himself was not a Klimovitcher. The principle family name would be Pevsner, which was the last name of R' Mordechai the Alter Rebbe's brother. My understanding is that this was the Alter Rebbe's family name as well as the family had come from Posen some time before.
There is one branch of the family which mostly survived the war to which your buddy, Zelig Levin belongs to. I would suggest you speak to him if you want the whole skinny on klimovitch...
Sam Szapozhnick: Zelig's mother was from klimovitch, her maiden name was Rivkin, and a descendent of the Pevzners. His father was from Nevel. R. Nissan himself was apparently from Zhlobin.
Klimovitcher: Dovid Abba Levin wasn’t from nevel. His father was and yes he was married to his first cousin Dasseh Rivkin (a sister to yblc"t r' Mordechai Rivkin).
Most of what’s known as Klimovitch today stems from two or three sisters from the Pevsner family. The strongest presence being the descendants of the four children of Masheh Maleh.
As far as Tzemach’s description of Klimovitch (harsh), there definitely is a gene the that gets spread around the tribe every so often that you can have fourth cousins with the exact complexion (dark) and temperament probably due to all the inbreeding that occurred some seventy - eighty years ago. Let’s just say this gene tends to find equal expression in women as in men. Oh and Klimovitcher prefer to think of themselves as principled rather than harsh.
Klimovitcher are a complex tribe and Zelig Levin epitomizes it. Very intellectual, honest, perceived injustices and grudges galore.... do the math. For the record there are plenty more from where he came from, but i doubt that's what you want to know when you posted.
Suffice it to say that Klimovitch produced chassidim of a very high intellectual caliber with little room for sentiment. This is commonly contrasted with Nevel which was the antithesis to this as they were very hartzige people, easy on the language etc. Klimovitcher typically like to portray Neveler for their drinking and language as uncouth. Neveler like to think that Klimovitcher have no soul.
…Klimovitcher have plenty of soul, they just wont suffer fools gladly or otherwise, have no patience for bullshit even when necessary etc. As for the klimovitcher low tolerance level of Nevel, there are plenty Neveler with a great degree of intellect (case in point: the aforementioned R. Y. Neveler, a tremendous lamdan, but he wasn’t shy about expressing himself. Same goes for r' zm hayitzchaki. Eidel betachlis, a great knowledge of dach and a mouth like a toilet bowl (here come his grandchildren, duck!))
Sam Szapozhnick: I once heard Zelig give this exact description. He then remarked, that his own complex personality is the result of being the son of a Neveler father and a Klimovitcher mother...
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 1:26 PM
Schneur Zalman of NY commenting to mentalblog.com: Can an intermarried man be counted for a minyan?
An aliyah is a Kibbud, and kibbudim should go to Jews who at least outwardly act in accordance with Jewish tradition, if not halachah. In our days people … have adopted the attitude that intermarriage is just another of the 613 Mitzvoth like shall we say Zizith or in the Lubavitch lexicon wearing a gartel. Truth be told intermarriage means the end of the family line in the Jewish sense. I am not in favor of harassing or punishing such a Jew, but am also not in favor of according him such a kibbud.
And if indeed these people should not be denied kibbudim, how about honoring such people in 770 Beth Medrash with a geshmake aliya like maftir Yonah or shishi on Shabbes. Are these aliyoth only to be given out in out of town shuls where almost everyone in the local Chabad shul is intermarried or has another issue like driving on Shabbas, or does Tony also urge that such aliyot be accorded in 770 or in the Rebbe's minyon in the office to intermarried Jews on a Sheinem Shabbas. Let me know if that’s the policy there and I'll arrange to have some intermarried men there ready to chant the haftora on Shabbes hagadol.
…By now almost every Jew in the US KNOWS that all denominations in Judaism even Reform (lechatchilah) do not look positively on marrying a non Jew. So where is the Tinok she-Nishba in this case?
Just look at Hecht's books how he stops intermarriages and other stories how similiar people stop intermarriages.(Of course this does not include Rabbi Shlomo Riskin who publicly stated that he has never stopped an intermarriage once it was decided upon) Certainly by now most Jews if not all, know that marrying a non Jew is not in accordance with the Jewish religion. Hundreds of articles on the subject have been printed, thousands of comedy skits have been preformed on the illicit urge to marry a exotic shiksha, books heve been written, position papers have been authored, the Times and other national organs have had articles on these issues, which Jew does not know that marrying a non Jew is not in line with Judaism ???? Lets not forget the powerful sichoth of the Rebbe about Mihu Yehudi translated into English on radio and cable TV and broadcast across the US. Was he talking to the wall or preaching to the choir, hopefully not. You would also admit to me that 99% of all American Jews and most non Jews know that Jews should not eat pork and Shell fish, these are the Gimmel aveiros that even secularized American Jews know about and yet violate daily.
Perhaps after the years of Lubavitch "trashk" there are still a few Jews here who have not heard of Teffilin derabbenu tam or washing 3 times before bread, and some in Boro Park are not aware of Mashiach's suda on pesach, but intermarriage, all American Jews know that marrying a shiksa is not what the Jewish religion demands (even Satmar knows that). Finally can such a guy get a sheine aliya in 770 Beth Medrash on Shabbath? I know someone who is willing to make a fine " baavur shenadar" for shishi in 770. Or is this minhog just for the Chabad house in Waco, Texas? I guess we shall have to consult the posek achron in such matters, in the state of MN.
Does everything especially Mitzvoth we do NEED to have an impact on this world that we can see. What’s the impact of insisting that the Bimah be in the middle of the shul? What impact is there in getting some random Jew in Times Sq to make a brocha ? No visible impact.
Schar Mitza be hai alma leka. What impact does putting on Teffillin with a Jew have. Yes a spiritual impact of Karfafta dlo manach, but what visible change does it have on the state of Judaism.
This is a matter of kavad haTorah and kavod ha-Am. I bet you can see evidence of this in the Rebbe's insistence that the Mi Hu Yehudi laws be fixed, he was not naive, he too knew that this secular law would only have a limited impact, but as men redt gut vet zayn gut, the same is true in this case.
Any survey of contemporary novels, magazine article and other fiction about Jews in America will quickly reveal that marrying a Shiksa is a No No to the Jewish religion, that Jews and Pork and shell fish do not mix. If Jews did not think that intermarriage is "wrong" why the plethora of books about the guilt of Jews and the mythical shiksha. It should just be a "Mitzva anushith" a normal thing, but everyone knows that a Jew and a shiksha are not supposed to mingle.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 12:58 PM
Ben Eliezer: “For those who aren't opening the links - the Shliach in Minsk has already verified, that the woman is indeed Jewish.”
Hache: “The only thing shliach in Minsk verified is that her mother was told buy her father, when she was 3 years old that her mother was Jewish. Grandmothers name was Anna Ivanova.”
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 12:04 PM
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posted by Tzemach Atlas at 2:41 PM
"Houdini's great nephew George Hardeen said the family wanted to determine whether he was poisoned by spiritualists in revenge for his debunking of their claims of contact with the dead."A good cause the the demonstrations. No exhumation for Harry Houdini AKA Erik Weisz AKA Ehrich Weiss!
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 10:55 AM
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posted by Tzemach Atlas at 5:50 PM
"Assessing and reacting to risk is one of the most important things a living creature has to deal with, and there's a very primitive part of the brain that has that job. It's the amygdala, and it sits right above the brainstem, in what's called the medial temporal lobe. The amygdala is responsible for processing base emotions that come from sensory inputs, like anger, avoidance, defensiveness and fear. It's an old part of the brain, and seems to have originated in early fishes."Loch in a kop science department. Moral mental block via chabakuk elisha: Brain Injury Said to Affect Moral Choices - New York Times.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 4:55 PM
Forward.com: Ugly Allegations Fly as Fabled WJC Duo Splits:
"In the March 14 letter to Besnainou, Bronfman said Singer “helped himself to cash from the WJC office, my cash.” Bronfman also alleged that Singer “was in violation of WJC policy and proper accounting” by “playing games with his hotel bill."Schneur Zalman of NY comments to mentalblog.com: WJC on the verge of being dissolved: Mrs. Bronfman Junior is a devout Catholic from South America. Let’s go some steps further. On the ethnic plane, let’s elect not only a man with a Catholic spouse, but a catholic or Christian himself as pres. of the WJC perhaps a Christian like Jimmy Carter or Richard Gere a fine Budhist. On the integrity plane let’s talk tachlis and elect someone like Alan Hevesi as the pres. of the WJC.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 9:39 AM
crown heights
you dismiss us as being mishugaim. but we all got lap tops now. and we learned how to write from shiksa beauties. and we are unto you.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 11:39 PM
On the subject of mentalblog.com: Can an intermarried man be counted for a minyan?
berl, crown heights comments: Here is one solution. The guy should be told to pray at home and not come to shul at all. Explain to him (nicely) that his praying in shul with other men is akin to a straight man's praying in ezras noshim. Now, if he stays at home he will not have to be refused an aliyoh AND be saved from hirhurei taavoh during tefiloh!
On a semi-serious note:
?האם מומר למישכב זכר חייב להתרחק מגברים
אבל מסתבר דאם דרוש הוא להשלים מנין מתפללים - אזי הוי שעת הדחק והכל שרי
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 11:08 PM
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 10:24 PM
Gandalin commenting to mentalblog.com: lucid death:
There are a number of sources in the Tibetan literature regarding how death should be handled. There are techniques for practicing maintaining lucidity in the dream state, for example, that are intended to be used to maintain lucidity at the moment of death, so that many of the problems associated with the immediate post-death states can be avoided. (There is also a technique [called Pho-Wa] for enabling he lucid consciousness to exit the body completely right at the moment of death; this line of thought was misused by the crazy Japanese terrorist master, who claimed that by killing innocent people with nerve gas, he was sending them to this kind of higher experience.)
The Tibetans have a detailed explanation of the different states the neshomo goes through in the 30 or 40 days following death, and they teach that certain practices, such as reading the Book of the Dead to the corpse, will improve the situation for the departed.
Remember that the Tibetan system does not rely on the concept of a Creator, and is presented as a philosophic or scientific system. Thus, the observation that a person's wicked deeds may cause the transmigration of the soul into a lower form is explained by noting that in the immediate post-death state, the soul is confronted by terrifying imagery related to those misdeeds, and in remorse and fear, seeks to escape them. One route of escape is in the energy field of copulating entities. A soul that is calm and collected can choose where to reincarnate, whereas the soul that is terrified will escape as soon as it can, even into the energy of copulating insects, for example.
Anyway, the Book of the Dead purports to be a handbook for the immediate soul stages that follow death. I haven't looked at it in some time, it may also describe the moments before death as well.
Two questions:
Have you seen "The Hebrew Book of the Dead" by Zhenya Senyak? He attempts to show that the narrative of the Exodus, the Desert, and the taking of the Land represent the post-death stages of the soul's journey. I have this book, but I have not read it carefully.
Second, are you familiar with the recording Lagrimas Negras (black tears) by Diego El Cigala and Bebo Valdes? The gypsy flamenco cantaor sings the jazz songs of Cuba, accompanied by the sophisticated pianist. The contrast between the suave pianism of Bebo Valdes and the hyper-emotional vocalizing of El Cigala is quite memorable and interesting.
Here are some additional sources that somebody might be interested in. I do not vouch for any of them.
Teachings on Phowa
Lucid dreaming – Wikipedia.
Dzogchen.
Concerning Tibetan Buddhism, undoubtedly Mahayana Buddhists were present in the Sassanid Empire, and had contact with Zoroastrians, Jews, Mandeans, and Christians. It has been claimed that the "peace ceremony" performed by the Dalai Lama around the world, the Kalachakra, is actually a promise to be reincarnated, centuries hence, in an Indo-Buddhist army that will battle against the jihad.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 5:57 PM
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 4:21 PM
Today most people die sedated, in a daze of a thought and spirit numbing cloud. The moments when the most significant communications to this side can occur are drowned in a gentle incoherence. On the other side is the fear of the violent death and the torture. Is there any lucid death left in this world?
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 10:04 AM
"Writing in early twentieth century Germany, the Seridei Esh (Orach Chaim 7 [new edition]) writes similarly, that since the community must excommunicate someone who intermarries in order to teach that it is unacceptable, even if for whatever reason they cannot excommunicate him they still may not call him to the Torah."
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 10:29 PM
Confession central at Sevenfatcow. Sholom Keller on validation and on hanging out with cool kids:
"As a child in Cheder, I was a social outcast; bullied on and taunted by most of my contemporaries, or completely ignored by them. The “cool kids” got to pick the teams at recess, and were put in charge of class plays by the teachers; I was usually given the part of “Schnorrer in the marketplace”, and would use the opportunity to ham it up on stage. One year, I think it was seventh grade, I ran around singing “I’m a fish, I’m a fish, tell the world that I’m a fish."
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 5:51 PM
Cathy's World: Remembering Cathy.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 2:53 PM
"And so, Crown Heights, the Rebbe and 770 were fictional characters growing up. My real world was American fantasy. To describe this: Yud Aleph Nissan, 1984, during the whole farbrengen, I stood fifteen feet from the Rebbe. For hours. My place was to the Rebbe’s left, and while I was leaning on the table, in clear view of my father, there was a wire attached to my watch radio, going up my sleeve and allowing me to listen to the New York Islanders in the playoffs trying to win their fifth Stanley Cup.
Outwardly, I was a Chaba
