Dear Gang,
Sorry to have been so preoccupied and behind these weeks. No excuses, here, but an explanation. Too scattered and busy.
The reading for this week is somewhat light, so see if you can get up for this shabbat by doing the following:
SOS - Chapter 6 (Jewish Worship);
O and J - Chapter 5- Daily Prayer;
Wolfson –Chapter 7-8.
See you soon!
The Rabbi Guy
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
Thanks Doc. Glad to see you are back in action. Hopefully I will get a D- on this next test...
jc
Err..I did not mean to delete my post.
Glad to see the gears moving again. I am logging in very quickly according to request. I will be on again later to post all my current readings insights (more like mental wanderings)
Rabbi - Is there a way to take the test that I missed, if only to see what questions you want us to think about. I like tests if nothing more to give me a guide to the thoughts of the test giver.
T~
Yo, Rabbi Man. Iz coo'. We un'erstaaaaaan.
Since when do Jews espeak da latin? hehehehe
I tink my son havin a bad influen on me. Shud I be teachin English? Be back with a pack of ?? to aks, so gimme no flack.
I really enjoyed the chapter in O & J on prayer. I wish people outside our class who think non-Yeshua believing Jews have no relationship with Hashem could read some of those comments. The chapter in Wylen was too brief of an overview.
My questions are:
1. Has anyone in MJ taken a position on saying the Shema by a certain time each morning? I find it highly admirable and wonderful that many observant Jews in a given time zone are reciting the Shema within approximately the same time frame. At the same time, it is a difficult practice for a night person such as myself to emulate.
2. I would like to know about examples of liturgical innovation and borrowing. Have the Orthodox ever borrowed from the Reform? In the initial development of Reform Judaism how did they decide what to keep? How are Reform Jews currently deciding what to put back in the service and in their practice?
Rabbi, would you provide us at some point with your recommendations for further reading on the topics being discussed in class?
Hi, everyone! Thank you for the responses to my question about women and worship. I have to correct something that I said, though. I didn’t mean to say that women “were less privileged spiritually than men.” I now understand the reasons behind the separation in the shul. What I really meant to stress, was if the whole idea involving women and worship might have been influenced by the surrounding culture. Kind of like the idea of sacrificing animals. I understand the spiritual redemptive purposes in the Jewish meaning of it, but the cultures around them also sacrificed animals—just to idols—not God. Did God allow the use of other cultural practices to give new meaning into understanding Him? Also, Yeshua taught in parables always referring to the culture around Him so that the people could find the relation to the spiritual. I was wondering if women and worship might not have been similar in that other cultures “put down” women, but that Judaism might have incorporated the cultural aspect of women using it in relation to God.
Dierdra,
I love your questions! One could write a PhD dissertation in cultural anthropology or Jewish studies on this general topic of the degree to which the Jewish view of women has been influenced by the broader culture.
I will give you another short answer BUT I have no particular expertise in the area. Also, I think we might be veering a bit too far from the readings for this week's class.
So just in short I think first of all that it is extremely difficult to say exactly what the surrounding cultures views of women were in the biblical time period because of a lack of adequate source materials.( If you think about it which sources would you have to consider just to think about the view of women in our culture at this point in history?) Using the Bible as a source we can probably argue that women had a low legal status but there also many references warning the Israelites not to be drawn into the worship of the fertility cults and the "queen of heaven" worshipped by the surrounding culture. So I am pretty unsure to what degree and in what ways the surrounding cultures did "put down" women.
Maybe since you brought this up you would be willing to do some research on this and report to the rest of the class sometime in the future!! I think it would be fun if each of us did something like that (researching those topics we are especially interested in) - more work for all of us but fun at the same time.
Anyhow, for the time being, maybe we should return to questions more germaine to our immediate topics of prayer and liturgy?
Dierdre:
I agree with Debbie -- you have great questions. This isn't an area where I'm an expert, not by a long shot. But I've skimmed enough stuff on the subject to know that there is skads of stuff on all sides. We could have an entire semester course just on this question.
One safe generalization is that yes, Israel had commonalities with surrounding cultures, and the treatment of women certainly would have to be included. However, another safe generalization would be that Israel rose above the surrounding cultures, including in the treatment of women.
Now that I've said absolutely nothing of value.... lol Let me add something tasty. This is from AskMoses.com:
According to Kabbalah G-d's divine attributes contain both male and female elements. The male elements (or "ZA") are showy benefactors. The female element (or "Malchut" -- royalty) is a discreet beneficiary which contains intense powers.
Dierdre, you will hear over and over, "Women are on a higher spiritual plane than men." It comes from Judaism.
I always thought if I were I guy, I'd find that pretty insulting!
GracieRuth
In SOS, Wylen points out that the various Berakhot blessing Hashem rather than the candles or the food or what have you. I know the Rabbi has said similar things before, but it didn't really hit me til Wylen worded it just that way. My mind did a quick flip through all the various Catholic blessings, you know, weddings and holy water and all. The ONLY standard blessing I could think of that blessed G-d was the blessing after meals. I was like... wow. It's a significant change in POV, from "I bless you, HaShem," to "Lord, bless me and them and this and that." So my question is.... how in the world did this change happen?
Next question. In a synagogue, what is meant by "front wall"????
Next question: We don't do hand-washing in the synagogue before the Hamotzi. Is this because hand-washing is only for the Friday evening meal? Is it because the Oneg isn't considered a real meal?
Next question: this is regarding previous readings, but it came up in a discussion last week. Donin talked about the Mitzvah of procreation. He made a point to state that marriage in and of itself is more than procreation -- that it is not good for man to be alone. However, he makes it a point to state while there is no sin is not having children (as in those who cannot have children due to infertility or being past the age of being able to), that it is wrong for couples to willingly choose to forgo having children period. My question then is this: if a person does not wish to have children and INTENDS NOT to have children, is it wrong for them to marry?
I have another question regarding Shabbat.
Our books have talked about doing things on Shabbat that set our minds on HaShem. In Isaiah 58:13 it says "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, [from] doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking [thine own] words..."
How strict does this need to be, especially with regards to caring for our children? Can you address the specific example of a father playing catch with his son?
Thanks.
Oh, someone said to me today, Kol ha'Kvod. Can anyone here tell me what this means? I tried googling it, but can't find a translation.
Sorry, gang, that I missed class and service last Sat. but I had a killer migraine that got to the vomiting stage. I'm sure that's more information than you want to know. I really wanted to come but I was just too sick.
Love you all and see you next week.
Post a Comment