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RECENT POSTS:
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To Katherine:
Posted on: Monday, October 24, 2005
Have a safe journey--I don't envy you going back to that island...hehe
...--and good luck with the resumption of your studies. Thank you for sharing your time with me; we really had great fun. 
... 
You're a super girl. 
I'll miss you.
As for the rest of you, you get nothing because it's late and I'm going to sleep. I have finally made that update below with photographs of the preparations for Kol Nidrey at Pinchas as well as some pics from Plzeň.
Shavua tov!
Posted on: Monday, October 24, 2005
ב''ה
Have a safe journey--I don't envy you going back to that island...hehe
...--and good luck with the resumption of your studies. Thank you for sharing your time with me; we really had great fun. ... You're a super girl. I'll miss you.
As for the rest of you, you get nothing because it's late and I'm going to sleep. I have finally made that update below with photographs of the preparations for Kol Nidrey at Pinchas as well as some pics from Plzeň.
Shavua tov!
RE: The Day of Atonement Farce
Posted on: Saturday, October 15, 2005
I have to take issue with Shimon as I found his article quite distressing. Firstly let me explain a bit about my view of Yom Kipur and religion. I'm not religious in the spiritual sense. Ritually I am conservadox but spiritually I am agnostic. Why? Because I see religion as a means, not an end. Like it or not, Judaism (yes, the Orthodox kind) has been the mortar that has kept us together as a people throughout centuries of unremitting persecution. It has given us a sense of purpose, our identity and the stubbornness to survive. I do not think one's heart and mind have to be spiritually atuned in order for one's motions or words during t'filah to have meaning. I go to shul regularly and keep many mitzvot; not because I believe I'm pleasing or displeasing a supernatural entity but because that is what my family (I don't mean my biological family here--who are atheists--but b'ney Yisrael) does and has been doing for millennia. Does my not believing in the religio-spiritual side of it make it any less meaningful or valuable? What is Xmas? What is Ramadan? What is Divali? Do you think any of these is celebrated as it "should be"? Does it detract from their impact on the society or nominal followers of the relevant religion if they're not so celebrated? The spirit may be important on a personal level but the act is important on the national level: to fortify Am Yisrael. It testifies to the continuity and endurance of the Jewish soul and of Yidishkeit, and is as such not at all devoid of meaning and there certainly IS a point in observing it.
Do I wish that more Israelis and Jews were more sensitive toward the plight of the Palestinians? Do I wish the datim ceded or were forced to cede power proportionally to other Israeli religious strata? Does the hypocrisy of the datim oftentimes infuriate me? Yes, on every count. But this is one day of the year that is for us alone. Leave the Palestinians, and our quirks and proclivities and flaws out of it. Sure, it's supposed to make us better people and all the rest of it. But I'm more than happy if it only reaffirms our identity, if it only strengthens our cohesion and sense of belonging to one nation. We can fight for peace in the Middle East other 364 days of the year. I have to say I find your derision of the customs (be it bicycles on the streets or the "outmoded rituals" jibe) very petty. If you don't want to ride a bike or fast or go to shul, don't. Millions of Jews throughout the centuries could not do these things on the pain of death; you don't do it out of what comes across as cynicism or disillusion or estrangement. I personally think it makes you isolated and sad but it's your choice; just as has been the choice of many Jews (including my family for at least three generations but excluding me) to dissociate themselves from Klal Yisrael.
My kehilah held the Yom Kipur t'filot at the Pinchas shul in Prague. This was extremely poignant because in this beit kneset the walls are lined with 90,000 names of Czech Jews murdered by the natzim. Round the street is the Altneushul (Old New Synagogue) whose walls are still splashed with the (now whitewashed) blood of the Prague Jews murdered several centuries ago in that selfsame building. And in that shul Kol Nidrey starts with a special piyut--not recited anywhere else in the world--which was composed by a boy who survived that massacre. Do you think you have nothing to do with those Jews? How can one recite the Eleh Ezkarah and not cry over the millions of Jews murdered at various times in history only for being Jews? They were not some other people--they were a part of you and your being; it is because of them that you are now in a place called Israel and not a place called South Africa. How can one sing "Anu amekha v'atah Eloheynu" and not have the eyes fill with tears as one feels this ineffable bond with and an inseparable sense of belonging to a people that has survived against all odds for almost six thousand years? It may be sentimentality but it gives us the resolve and solidity to keep going for centuries more to come.
To use the Xians' motto (which I normally detest in the way they use it): there are no atheists in foxholes. Let me recount to you a story from Yugoslavia at the end of WWII. A group of liberated Jews from a makhane rikuz across the border in Hungary were meandering in the countryside of Yugoslavia when they were intercepted by a partisan brigade, who thought the group was a bunch of disoriented Nazis. They challenged them to prove they were Jewish. With the partisans' machine guns pointed at them, every last one of them--atheist, liberal, conservative, orthodox, shmorthodox--exclaimed at the top of their voice: SH'MA YISRAEL, " ELOHEYNU, " EKHAD.
Kol tuv.
Posted on: Saturday, October 15, 2005
ב''ה
I have to take issue with Shimon as I found his article quite distressing. Firstly let me explain a bit about my view of Yom Kipur and religion. I'm not religious in the spiritual sense. Ritually I am conservadox but spiritually I am agnostic. Why? Because I see religion as a means, not an end. Like it or not, Judaism (yes, the Orthodox kind) has been the mortar that has kept us together as a people throughout centuries of unremitting persecution. It has given us a sense of purpose, our identity and the stubbornness to survive. I do not think one's heart and mind have to be spiritually atuned in order for one's motions or words during t'filah to have meaning. I go to shul regularly and keep many mitzvot; not because I believe I'm pleasing or displeasing a supernatural entity but because that is what my family (I don't mean my biological family here--who are atheists--but b'ney Yisrael) does and has been doing for millennia. Does my not believing in the religio-spiritual side of it make it any less meaningful or valuable? What is Xmas? What is Ramadan? What is Divali? Do you think any of these is celebrated as it "should be"? Does it detract from their impact on the society or nominal followers of the relevant religion if they're not so celebrated? The spirit may be important on a personal level but the act is important on the national level: to fortify Am Yisrael. It testifies to the continuity and endurance of the Jewish soul and of Yidishkeit, and is as such not at all devoid of meaning and there certainly IS a point in observing it.
Do I wish that more Israelis and Jews were more sensitive toward the plight of the Palestinians? Do I wish the datim ceded or were forced to cede power proportionally to other Israeli religious strata? Does the hypocrisy of the datim oftentimes infuriate me? Yes, on every count. But this is one day of the year that is for us alone. Leave the Palestinians, and our quirks and proclivities and flaws out of it. Sure, it's supposed to make us better people and all the rest of it. But I'm more than happy if it only reaffirms our identity, if it only strengthens our cohesion and sense of belonging to one nation. We can fight for peace in the Middle East other 364 days of the year. I have to say I find your derision of the customs (be it bicycles on the streets or the "outmoded rituals" jibe) very petty. If you don't want to ride a bike or fast or go to shul, don't. Millions of Jews throughout the centuries could not do these things on the pain of death; you don't do it out of what comes across as cynicism or disillusion or estrangement. I personally think it makes you isolated and sad but it's your choice; just as has been the choice of many Jews (including my family for at least three generations but excluding me) to dissociate themselves from Klal Yisrael.
My kehilah held the Yom Kipur t'filot at the Pinchas shul in Prague. This was extremely poignant because in this beit kneset the walls are lined with 90,000 names of Czech Jews murdered by the natzim. Round the street is the Altneushul (Old New Synagogue) whose walls are still splashed with the (now whitewashed) blood of the Prague Jews murdered several centuries ago in that selfsame building. And in that shul Kol Nidrey starts with a special piyut--not recited anywhere else in the world--which was composed by a boy who survived that massacre. Do you think you have nothing to do with those Jews? How can one recite the Eleh Ezkarah and not cry over the millions of Jews murdered at various times in history only for being Jews? They were not some other people--they were a part of you and your being; it is because of them that you are now in a place called Israel and not a place called South Africa. How can one sing "Anu amekha v'atah Eloheynu" and not have the eyes fill with tears as one feels this ineffable bond with and an inseparable sense of belonging to a people that has survived against all odds for almost six thousand years? It may be sentimentality but it gives us the resolve and solidity to keep going for centuries more to come.
To use the Xians' motto (which I normally detest in the way they use it): there are no atheists in foxholes. Let me recount to you a story from Yugoslavia at the end of WWII. A group of liberated Jews from a makhane rikuz across the border in Hungary were meandering in the countryside of Yugoslavia when they were intercepted by a partisan brigade, who thought the group was a bunch of disoriented Nazis. They challenged them to prove they were Jewish. With the partisans' machine guns pointed at them, every last one of them--atheist, liberal, conservative, orthodox, shmorthodox--exclaimed at the top of their voice: SH'MA YISRAEL, " ELOHEYNU, " EKHAD.
Kol tuv.
Bush's Support Drops...
...to 39 per-cent. Wanna bet there'll be another al-Qu'ida attack on the US soon?
And in another snippet of news Kharedim attack Tzahal Brig.-Gen. at haKotel. My disgust (rapidly turning into rage) with the duplicitous datim is swelling by the day.
Will be posting some photos from our Kol Nidrey here soon--under this post.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, someone important to me wasn't there to be included in the photos at Kol Nidrey but here they are!
Dining hall in Plzeň before the Rosh haShanah seudah (yes, that IS me on a very bad hair-day!)
And from another angle
The rabi (left) and two local functionaries
The MC! (And a nice pair of legs )
Season's foodstuff at the ŽOP restaurant
Before Kol Nidrey at the Pinchas shul
From a different perspective
The bimah and Ar"K in front of it (the far right of the photo)
From the back
Shabat shalom.
ב''ה
...to 39 per-cent. Wanna bet there'll be another al-Qu'ida attack on the US soon?
And in another snippet of news Kharedim attack Tzahal Brig.-Gen. at haKotel. My disgust (rapidly turning into rage) with the duplicitous datim is swelling by the day.
Will be posting some photos from our Kol Nidrey here soon--under this post.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, someone important to me wasn't there to be included in the photos at Kol Nidrey but here they are!
Dining hall in Plzeň before the Rosh haShanah seudah (yes, that IS me on a very bad hair-day!)
And from another angle
The rabi (left) and two local functionaries
The MC!
(And a nice pair of legs )Season's foodstuff at the ŽOP restaurant
Before Kol Nidrey at the Pinchas shul
From a different perspective
The bimah and Ar"K in front of it (the far right of the photo)
From the back
Shabat shalom.
I hate to tell you "I told you so"...
Posted on: Friday, October 07, 2005
...but--Lakhan, O'Schwartz, Rakhel, Priya and all you other professors--"I told you so." You see?
PHRASE OF THE YEAR (doesn't matter which year--ours or goyishe--because this one's unlikely to get surpassed for a long, long time):
"ive already tried to end things - it isnt serious. it was wrong anyway..."
After more than six years that's the shtuyot I get.
I should've listened to Shiri and Kala--henceforth I damn straight will. Yasher koakh, ladies.
And yes, Shiri, I'll say a Kadish at KS tonight.
Shabat shalom.
Posted on: Friday, October 07, 2005
ב''ה
...but--Lakhan, O'Schwartz, Rakhel, Priya and all you other professors--"I told you so." You see?
PHRASE OF THE YEAR (doesn't matter which year--ours or goyishe--because this one's unlikely to get surpassed for a long, long time):
After more than six years that's the shtuyot I get.
I should've listened to Shiri and Kala--henceforth I damn straight will. Yasher koakh, ladies.
And yes, Shiri, I'll say a Kadish at KS tonight.
Shabat shalom.
הימים הנוראים
Posted on: Tuesday, October 04, 2005
!!שנה טובה ומתוקה -- תיכתב ותחתם
A very happy and sweet New Year 5766!
Rosh haShanah worship in Yerushalayim: our eternal and undivided capital
Posted on: Tuesday, October 04, 2005
ב''ה
:לא היה לי מספיק זמן אבל מעולם לא מאוחר מדי, נכון? אז, על כולם
.אני מקווה שהעונה הזאת תהיה יותר טובה מהשנה שעברה
A very happy and sweet New Year 5766!
Rosh haShanah worship in Yerushalayim: our eternal and undivided capital
...שלום רב
לחן ויינה, אני לא בטוח: אני לא אוהב אותה-כי אני לא יודע אותה בכלל-אבל אני חושב שחיא נחמדה מאוד, וגם יפה... - אבל היא באמת אינטליגנטית וזהו הדבר החשוב ביותר. אם היא רוצה לדבר אתי, היא יודעת איפה אני-יש לה גם כתובת דוא"ל שלי...אתן יודעות את זה. אנחנו מדברימ על זה אחר כך
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