Classic Cartesian views of reality have fallen away from my sight, effervescent, oscillating glittering fireworks of divine energy pulsating so fast that, it appears to be joined up,

each gap in the in-between of coming into existence from the source of nothingness, seems to be longer than the next, where the possibility of falling through the silence between frames seems all the more possible.

who brings every minuscule of existence into being in complex shapes and constructs? into existence every moment. we do. the very essence of being co-directing my own 'reality' every moment from the absolute blank nothingness of pre-existent reality (gOD),

I choose to remember, to perceive, to be the person'ality that i seem to be, moments are disjointed, the force which brings into being, literally 'creates' existence, my existence, is my true self, not me, but me, us, you, I, my me, your you.

Our culturally conditioned worldview is...

Continue reading...

32 - 15 = 17 that's what i've been thinking (retro-introspecting) about my
life.

I was about 15 when I started to feel that I was my own person and started
becoming more religious.

17 I fell in love

17 I went to yeshiva

18 I learnt really hard

18 The Rebbe pasted away

19 I went to K’far Chabad (a Lubavitch Yeshiva near Tel-Aviv)

20 I went to Camberwell College of Art

20 I work with Shmuley Boteach for 3 months 2 of which as the Acting ‘rabbi’
of the Oxford L’Chiam Society

21 Yeshiva in 770’ Crown Heights
studying Smicha – weekends in the Village

22 Worked for ‘Friends of Mayanot’

22 Worked in Mayanot Israel
as covert sales operative

23 Went to the University of Manchester
to start an MA in Jewish Studies

23 Started xlubi.com

24 Started a BA (Hons) in Visual Art at Salford
University

24...

Continue reading...

PJG - Generation! Israel, Palistine, Bush, Obama, Hillary, Holocaust, Social Action etc... oh and some art.

Rough Draft - (work in progress) [and would apprechiate any feedback]

I've been pondering stuff to do with language, interpretation and abstraction with regards to rabbinical interpretation of biblical texts.

For Contemporary Judaism the Mishna, Talmud and more recent codifiers of Talmudic law strongly define the nature of religious thought, life and practise.

There is a culture that saturates Orthodoxy which honours and glorifies the rabbis of old. It matters only marginally how long they have been dead, it matters more how accomplished, devout and esteemed they are remembered and recognised to have been.

This culture is very selective about the nature of any criticism pointed towards any rabbi or indeed any logic, hermeneutical rule they may or may not have used to interpret the biblical or other text and its impact on actual religious observance.

There are far too many elements to describe accurately the nature of this culture and far too many...

Continue reading...

Huge amounts of information
Not at all to do with me
All this stuff speaks alienation
All I want is to be free
Sense the time has come again
To sail away to another land
To fix my sights on inner peace
To feel its beach
Walk through the sand
Rights have wronged
Again in time
That is what I am
God is my body and my mind
Waking like a Gnostic redeemer
I bring the due of salvation
It is not something that is new
But stuff you know and always did
That rhyme and reason have fallen
And being has taken it’s place
Ahh to breathe of this realisation
To taste the flesh in my heart
This is a psalm
One that has no parts

I've got no idea!! I really don't feel that there is anyone to talk to here - so even more reason to find an alternative community to ATCUALLY have real talks with.

The arty / anxed/ aternative/ bullocks/ cultural/ cynicism/ doesn't engender future happiness in me - which means once again i'm saying that JEWCY really isn't working for me.

I'm slipping away slowly, as i did with xlubi, jewschool, rishus and seven fat cows, i'm just getting board by the whole zine, it's old and tiering,

 please don't talk to brick walls because you
only do even more damage to your very sensitive head - may God Help
you! Aachoo!

also time! and also think about the edges of the
universe! and also think for a moment about where you see! think also
about who is it that is seeing - what is seeing? etc... continue till
head hurts a little -

also remeber to let go of any residual tention

also get your head around time (again)

also don't worry that people might think your mad - they thought Neitzech was too!

Blessings are metered by OUR ability to receive, not the Universes ability to give. It’s almost like, the Universe would like to give us everything but it is us that says no.

In some sense, as a friend suggested, sometimes it’s our ‘personality’ which gets in the way of blessings. And that, sometimes we need to let go of our selves, put our sense of ‘Self’ to one side to simply allow God’s blessings into our lives.

Some people ask if I believe the Rebbe (the Lubavitcher Rebbe) is the Messiah, they are obviously just trying to get a response, to get a rise out of me. Anyone with half a brain would know I don’t have a quick reply to this question, and if I do reply it is usually slightly flippant and confusing and I pretty much say that they’ve got to read my phone book of a PhD to get my honest response.

But there is a much deeper question that I’ve been pondering, not very deeply as I’m a pretty shallow bloke, and not very intelligently as it seems I’m no genius.

I got chatting to the ex-nun that lives next door (as you do) about
the benefits of going to confession. And although I’m not Catholic by
any stretch of the cosmic canvas (not even in previous incarnations it
seems) I was still attracted to the idea of coming clean about who you
really are, exposing your darkest and deepest thoughts and issues, to
someone that isn’t gonna tell your mum or dad, or broadcast it on
national TV.

MISHNAH. BETH SHAMMAI SAY: WHEN IN HIS HOUSE EVERY MAN
SHOULD RECITE [THE SHEMA] SITTING, AND WHEN WALKING BY THE ROAD EVERY MAN
SHOULD RECITE WALKING AS IT SAYS, WHEN THOU SITTEST IN THY HOUSE AND WHEN THOU
WALKEST BY THE WAY. IN THE EVENING EVERY MAN SHOULD RECLINE AND RECITE [THE
SHEMA], AND IN THE MORNING HE SHOULD STAND, AS IT SAYS, AND WHEN THOU LIEST
DOWN AND WHEN THOU RISEST UP.

“I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME!”Tradition has it that the Ten Commandments may have not been exactly like the Hollywood version by Cecil B. De Mille staring Charlton Heston as Moses and Yil Brynner (who seems to play all the baddies) as Pharaoh.

• What is your understanding of Kabbalah?

Kabbalah is Judaism’s esoteric mystical tradition, I believe it has
existed in tandem with traditional Judaism from its very start. It is
the spiritual meaning behind Judaism’s more formal religious
observance.  The soul of Judaism’s body, it animates it and gives it
meaning and purpose. Kabbalah is Jewish theology, it discusses the
nature of God, the nature of the World and the nature and purpose of
Mankind.

Are they the same ? or just a bunch of Dyslexics magicians ?

Broadly speaking there are three types of Kabbalists, first the
Quirky Quantum Qabalists, then the Crazy Cunning Cabbalists and finally
the Kick Ass Kung Fu Kabbalists.

Obviously my mind seems to drift into an eclipse! Obviously there is no mind to speak of, because I am that mind, it is all that is me. The question then again becomes more clearly muddled when you realise that that distinction between you and me is also as, as bazaar as the difference between mind and body, or my/mind. You see, these are just words we use, words for a world, separated between everything and everybody, a world, which no longer exists.

The rabbis teach us about the heated exchange of bodily fluids between pieces of meat and milk and although there are opinions that disagree, like every rabbinic discussion, the conclusion is that when it’s hot and jewcy everything gets exchanged – everything influences the taste of everything else, that is except things which are less than a sixtieth.

One of the most important theologically charged statements in the
Bible, which is recited perhaps 4-5 times a day by the Observant Jews
(and it’s something that i’m sure you’ve said yourself) is the ‘Shema’.

the first word of the Shema - is the word Shema - and it simply means LISTEN!!!

It itself is a profoundly important and potentially life altering message from the author of the Bible - Moses - God etc..

The primary theological step we are compelled by the Shema is to learn how to listen.

In Hebrew name of God is יהוה or ‘Yahway’ however, that may not be the correct pronounciation, the three main letters of the name of God are הוה

Hoe-ve - which means present-being and the additional yud means makes God’s name translate as ‘That which brings into being’ or ‘that which is continuously present’ -

Within hasidic literature the above name of God is scrambled a little in to Haviyahהויה  which actually means ‘Existence’ so according to Judaism God is Being.

Kabbalah is the mystical tradition found within Judaism, it is said to be as old as civilization itself, it is the myth of a science as old as time, an understanding of life that predates the Bible by some 3000 years.

It is a mystical understanding of the nature of the world and the nature of Self, that helps you to successfully navigate your way through life and the world.

Many people point to someone or something outside of themselves for
the answers to life’s difficult questions, as well as for love, joy,
happiness, clarity or contentment. Many of us turn to God, friends,
family, professionals, or to spiritual, political or religious leaders.

In addition we often turn to short-term escapes, quick fixes, like
shopping, sex, food, sports, exercise, entertainment, television, books
and newspapers, pastimes, power, money, alcohol, nicotine, (or other
social or anti social drugs) … However the answers and joy we seek are

I want you to imagine, if you can, a pure soul, a naive and innocent child, swept up in a hope, a dream for a better future, a child who cried for peace, deep worldwide peace, an end to suffering, an end to murder, an end to hate and war. This dream and yearning for something more, this prayer for peace, this desire for change always directed my choices in life, always motivated my rather radial life changes. I moved from one school to the next, becoming slightly more religious as I went.

The past few weeks have been fun, it started a few weeks ago (no shit) when I arrived at shul late. I turned up towards the end of the service and I asked about the health and mental wellbeing of a friend of mine – who was staying with one of my more ‘extroverted’ Lubavitch friends over the High Holidays, which is a potentially difficult situation for anyone – I’m guessing that you just can’t imagine, unless you’ve met him.

The
entire email/blog correspondence between me and Prof.Wolfson to date (except
'anonymous' comments by Wolfson on my wordpress blog - which no longer exists)

I publish this for general interest so that one day the debate between Wolfson and Kohanzad - will be as interesting as the debate between Scholem and Buber?

-

From:
Max Kohanzd

The ONLY reason why Yom Kippur is such a big 'Jewish' holy day is because most Jews have addopted the Christian culture, it is our token day of Catholicism. It, like the contemporary Jewish celebration of the Holocaust, and the state of Israel, represent a new branch of Jewish obseverance and ritual, it if filled with pain, guilt and twisted sense of nationalism, based on collective suffering and ultimately self hate.

There is a call for an overhaul of Judaism as it is today, the problem is that we all must be intimately familiar with the Torah and the Talmud and in fact the entire Oral Torah – that is every blade of glass on this football pitch of Judaism, for us to really take back our tradition from the cold clenched hand of the current Rabbinic authorities.

It seems that almost everything, thought, said or written is done so within the parameters of the personal, social and cultural boundaries of the times, the ‘thought fashion’ of the time, and this work is obviously no exception.

To my dearest max Ariel – or whatever you call yourself nowadays

Where are you at? What’s going on? What’s up? How’s it hanging?

I believe that beyond most you have been privileged to have been exposed to and continue to ruminate the actual teachings of the long awaited messiah. I know that sounds rather grandiose but putting things into perspective, this is not far from the truth of the situation. The real question is – how are you? How are you – handling it? What are you doing with it? How are you living? How are you living each moment?

My wife and I have been blessed with a baby boy, and almost from conception we chose to follow a particular baby expert’s advice.

The reason is that Wordpress has suspended my acount because i linked one of my blogs to my Lulu account.

I asked for a Second Chance, but to no avail - no human beings there it seems.

So i'm gonna be mind dumping my Jewish &*&^^% here.