Limmud NY

(While Tamar's at Jewish learning conference Limmud NY, she's bringing us regular updates.)

Robert Sugarman, who chairs the Religious Freedom Task Force of the Anti-Defamation League, gave a session discussing how religion is taking a bigger and bigger role in elections and on the Supreme Court. This isn’t news to most of us, and I’m getting to the point where I nod and sigh when I hear another story about how Huckabee told everyone how much he loves Jesus. But Sugarman pointed out that religion is becoming so central to political campaigns and personas that candidates have to make statements saying that they’re all for religious freedom for all faiths. No one seems to be standing up for the rights of those who don’t believe in God, though. Sugarman brought examples of both Romney and Huckabee saying things that seemed to in some way condemn atheists.
God (any God): is the only option

It took a few hours for this to sink in, but when I really thought about it, it was terrifying. Of course it’s imperative to me that I always be allowed to keep Shabbat and observe various mitzvoth, but I think my Jewish atheist friends deserve to have their rights protected, too. If they want to go to a mall on Saturday mornings, or eat ham all day long, even if I’m not crazy about it, they need to always have the right to do that.

Continue reading...

(While Tamar's at Jewish learning conference Limmud NY, she's bringing us regular updates.)

After lighting Shabbat candles on Friday night I opened the door to the “traditional egalitarian” service, saw a guy in the front saying, “Everybody!” and making a grand gesture, and turned right back around. Songleading is not my thing. I went to the Orthodox services instead, and after dinner I went to an amazing session about the story of David and Batsheva, lead by Everett Fox. Fox is an incredible teacher—then kind of guy who makes you see things in the text that you would never have seen on your own, but who somehow never makes you feel stupid.

Batsheba Bathing: Rembrandt's interpretationAnd he did a great job of steering the discussion away from the typical woe-to-Batsheva stuff that you might expect to hear, and instead kept us focused on thinking about why the story is where it is, and what it’s trying to do. He also pointed us towards some great artistic interpretations of the text, like this Rembrandt painting. Sweet!

On Saturday I went to an amazing session about using instruments on Shabbat let by Rabbi Ethan Tucker, who I know from my summer at Yeshivat Hadar. Tucker also went a kind of unconventional route, and instead of the whole, “Well they played instruments in the Temple…” song and dance, he took us through laws against making noise on Shabbat, and helped look at how various halachic stratum tried to distinguish between musical noise and other kinds of noise, and which (if either) are permitted on Shabbat, and why. It was, as is normal with an Ethan Tucker session, incredibly intense and great.
Hodel: middle daughter and her beau
After Shabbat I sat in on an awesome session about Tevye’s daughters in The Fiddler on the Roof, and how they’re representative of the three main branches away from “Tradition.” It was a really interesting discussion, and we got to watch clips from Fiddler on the Roof, so what’s not to love, really?

Then I drank a lot of whiskey with my friends and flirted with various cute Jewish guys.

So far today I went to davening (finally there are a few women at morning services) and then to a session lead by Rabbi Elie Kaunfer about how to deal with prayers that you don’t connect with, or find troubling or offensive. Basically, we took apart a short section of the Amidah and looked at the all of the places that it references in Tanach and the Talmud. It helped give a much wider context to the prayer, and gave a nicer option for interpretation than I’d ever really considered.
Unsettling: but really good
Then I sat in on a slightly boring session on how to bridge faith and modernity (the solution is just to not see them as at all separate, apparently), got to hold the cutest baby in the world, and just saw Unsettled an amazing documentary about the pullout from Gaza. I cried through the whole thing, but I think it’s a really important film. If you can get your hands on a copy, I highly recommend it.

(While Tamar's at Jewish learning conference Limmud, she'll be bringing us regular updates.)

This morning at Limmud I went to shacharit (one of about four women at the egal service, and the only chick under forty, which again makes my blood boil) and then saw another amazing movie, “Out of Faith” about a Holocaust survivor, and her struggle to deal with her grandchildren marrying non-Jews. Weirdly, I know the grandmother and one of the grandchildren in question and much of the film was shot in the neighborhood where I grew up. It was a fascinating and gut wrenching film, and I of course got all teary at the end (deep down, I’m a total marshmellow). Definitely a must watch for anyone with survivor grandparents.
Elaine Welbel: of 'Out of Faith'

After lunch I went to Niles Goldstein’s session about “Gonzo” Judaism. I was all excited about this session, because it was billed as a look at how to return to the counter-cultural, rebel roots of Judaism, but honestly, I walked away fairly disappointed. As far as I can tell Goldstein doesn’t have much of a concrete message or instructions for people who sign on to his thinking. The one thing he told us to do was to turn Judaism back into an
“open tent” religion, so that when we see new people in our community we welcome them, encourage them to participate more and feel like they’re a part of the group. I’m all for welcoming people (inviting people over for Shabbat meals is one of my favorite pastimes) but I just don’t think that’s enough. We need more than just hospitality, and Goldstein didn’t seem willing to call out specific organizations or groups that are causing problems and need to be given some punk attitude. I agree with his general ideals, but I’d like a little more specificity, I think.

In addition to going to sessions I’ve done plenty of schmoozing and networking (the check-in table is the best place to pick up guys and Shabbat lunch invitations, in case you were wondering), and last night did some whiskey drinking with my friends from Yeshivat Hadar. Shabbat promises to be more of the same. Have a Shabbat shalom!

So it’s the end of the first evening of Limmud, the Jewish learning festival, and not much happened so far except the buses from Manhattan getting fantastically lost on the way here. I went to Maariv (I will restrain myself from letting loose a major diatribe on why it unacceptable that I was the only woman at Maariv), grabbed a bag lunch and went to a showing of a documentary called Jericho’s Echo about the punk scene in Israel. Not the best documentary I’ve ever seen on a technical level, but it was fascinating all the same.

How Awesome/Scary: is this?They had tons of teenage punks talking about being politically active, and getting involved in the peace movement, and then they had all of the people who had gone through the army, and were almost inevitably more right wing and jaded. Depressing, and so interesting. Also, now I really want to go to Israel just to see Useless ID and Ha Pussy Shel Lucy.

So, I’m leaving for Limmud NY in a few short hours (yay!) and as preparation, I spent some time yesterday leafing through Tamar Ross’s Expanding the Palace of Torah which is one of the densest and most amazing books I’ve ever read. I can’t get through more than about ten pages before having to put the book down and just process for a while, but frankly, I think that’s amazing, and a great statement of endorsement.
Torah Expands: you know, because it's so hot

As far as I know, Tamar Ross won’t be at Limmud NY, but lots of other deep thinkers and strong writers will be there having discussions that will require lots of processing later on.

If you’re looking for something a little less heavy, but still Jewish and feminist and somewhat traditional in outlook, try Biblical Women Unbound by Norma Rosen. Basically, Rosen takes a look at women in the Bible and gives midrashic readings of their lives in a fiction-y kind of way. Will make you think, but feels more like listening to a good story than examining feminist history even though it’s doing that, too.


I’ll post more tonight after I’ve gone to some sessions, but if you’ll be at Limmud definitely come say hi. I’ll be the girl with the purple hair and the bottle of Jameson.

I’ve already told you to make your reservations for Limmud NY because it’s going to be off the hook, but if you’ve waited you’ve got until December 28th to get the reduced rate.  Limmud NY has sold out every year in the past, so make sure to make your reservations before you’re shut out of all the rocking and rolling (and learning).

Limmud NY Rocks So Hard: It will blow your purple hair/fauxhawk/payis/sheitl back, for sure.

Hey, if you want to register for Limmud NY (and trust me on this, you do) you’d best be pointing and clicking your way over to their registration page by December 28th before the price goes up $50.

And if you’re thinking that Limmud is not so much your thing, and you’d rather just chill with some friends that weekend, allow me to give you a couple of reasons to change your mind.
Limmud NY Rocks So Hard: It will blow your purple hair/fauxhawk/payis/sheitl back, for sure.
Rabbi Niles Goldstein will be there, he of the “gonzo” Judaism, and The New Shul in the Village. He’s leading a session on “reclaim[ing] our rebel, counter-cultural roots, and revitalizing our spiritual lives in the process.” And he’s also doing an Ask the Rabbi session that’s billed as “No Holds Barred.” Now’s your chance to ask how the hell we got from ‘Don’t Boil A Kid In It’s Mother’s Milk’ to two separate sets of dishes.

Aaron Freeman will be there, he of the “All Things Considered” commentaries, and the Israeli/Palestinian Comedy Tour. He’s doing a bunch of comedy themed sessions, and sitting on a panel with a few other Jewish comedians. I’ve been lucky enough to see him perform a few times and he’s awesome in a way that’s completely unexpected.

Heather Altman will be there, teaching a bunch of awesome Jewish infused yoga classes. If davening bores you, check out the yoga, yo. Both Amy and I swear by it.

Noam Dolgin will be there, he of the Green Zionist Alliance that promotes envrionmental sustainability in Israel, and formerly of the Teva Learning Center.

Gregg Drinkwater will be there, he of the Jewish Mosaic: The National Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity, an organization dedicated to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender inclusion in the Jewish world. He also edited "Torah Queeries", inspired by the online Torah commentary project he co-launched in 2006. Also, I met Gregg last year and he’s really cool and lives in Colorado, which made me happy because it was exciting to meet someone else who wasn’t from the East Coast.

And there will be tons of other cool people, too!

And I’ll be there! With a bottle of whiskey! And purple hair! And you can tell me in person why you think I’m wrong, so wrong about everything I’ve written on the blog. Or, you can tell me I’m awesome. But I won’t really believe you if you say that.

Anyway, register now!

If you’re under 30, chances are you have either a facebook profile, a MySpace page, or both. And if you’re on facebook or MySpace, you’ve probably had some of those sick to your stomach moments. Maybe it was when you saw pictures posted of a party you weren’t invited to, or found out from the newsfeed that your ex has got a blond leggy new girlfriend. Or maybe you were moved out of your best friend’s Top Eight. Either you heard something you didn’t really want to know, or you broadcast something you kind of wish you hadn’t. It’s happened to all of us, and it really sucks.

Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with facebook (thus far I’ve kept myself from developing any relatioship with MySpace). On the one hand, I love that it reminds me about birthdays and helps me keep track of which of my friends are where, and what their latest contact information is. I think of it like a rolodex that my friends update for me. BUT I’ve had some seriously upsetting facebook experiences. Turns out there are some people who I really don’t want to find me, and some things I’d really rather not know about my friends.

I hadn’t thought about these issues in a Jewish context, but then at Limmud NY there was a session called ‘What does Judaism have to say about Facebook and MySpace?’ led by Rabbi Joan Glazer Farber. Rabbi Glazer-Farber presented a bunch of texts having to do with lashon hara (gossip) and publicly humiliating people, which are definitely issues that arise on social networking sites. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think these are more prevalent problems with younger users. I keep reading articles about teenagers bullying each other via MySpace and facebook, but the sense I get is that it’s the same kind of stuff we used to do in real life back when I was 14. I’m not saying it’s okay, but I’m not sure it’s any worse than other kinds of bullying.

My experience is that social networking is all about proving yourself. These sites are built on the principle of “If you’ve got it, flaunt it.” I don’t necessarily have a problem with that, but I think most of the time other people don’t really care about whatever you’re flaunting. And when they do? Well, then you’re screwed. Being held to something you posted on facebook at four in the morning? Not fun. Somebody will ask you about it. Somebody could tell your mom about it (that seriously happened to a friend of mine). There’s a pretty huge potential for it to bite you in the ass.

The Shulchan Aruch, (Hoshen Mishpat 154:7) says that it’s prohibited to stand at your window and look into your neighbor’s courtyard, even if your neighbor helped you build the window and knows that you can see onto his property. The implication is that your neighbor might have forfeited his right to privacy, but that still doesn’t make it okay to snoop. And that’s why facebook makes me nervous. It feels too much like snooping sometimes, and even though I know my friends are aware that the stuff they wrote and posted is available to everyone to see, I still think it’s sketchy. I think most of us aren’t aware of how much privacy we actually want until it’s too late.

What about you guys? Is anyone else a little freaked out about all this?

Jewcy is proud to introduce a second regular Hacker of the Faith: Our Hanukkah blogger Tamar Fox.  

"Little Rebbe": Lior Liebling

Last weekend, at Limmud NY, I attended a session about the “Technology of Prayer” led by a med/rabbinical student named Yonah Feldman.  Together we looked at a bunch of texts about methods of praying that are and aren’t allowed according to various rabbinic sources.  I was shocked to read in two different Talmudic sources that the prayers of a rabbi are more effective than the prayers of a layperson. 

Maybe I’ve been naïve, but I always had a kind of communist view of prayer.  I respect rabbis and everything, but I have a hard time believing that getting smicha (rabbinical ordination) means a direct line to the Big Guy.  And I mean, what about all those stories about the Baal Shem Tov telling little boys they could pray by playing the flute?  Isn’t the whole message of Hasidism that you don’t have to be learned to have a connection with God? 

Also at Limmud NY, I saw a preview of a fantastic documentary called Praying With Lior about a Philadelphia kid with Down Syndrome who is known for his passionate and enthusiastic prayers.  The woman who made the film, Ilana Trachtman, talked about how impressed she was with Lior because she has such a hard time davening and he’s so good at it.  In fact, the film shows various members of Lior’s community talking about how amazing he is at davening.  Watching him daven on screen, it’s hard to disagree.  But the contrast between the message of "Praying With Lior" and the message of the "Technology of Prayer" session was pretty extreme.  I mean, either there’s a hierarchy of prayer or there isn’t.

 Personally, I think there isn’t.  For one thing, I know plenty of rabbis who don’t seem particularly confident about the quality of the connection they have with God, and so I can’t imagine asking them to put in a good word for me.  Plus, I just don’t like the idea that the time I set aside for God is less important to him because I never finished learning Bava Kama. 

All things being equal, I see no reason why God should prefer one person’s prayers over another.  But I have to admit, most of the time, all things aren’t equal.  I pray every morning; I use all the accessories and everything.  But usually I’m praying because it’s the first thing on my to do list every day, and I’m in a hurry to get to the second thing.  And if I tried to claim that I’m able to stay focused for even the twenty minutes that I spend davening, well, that’d be a big lie.  So yeah, some people are definitely better at it than I am.  Lior, for one.  And any number of rabbis who have longer attention spans than I do.  I’m operating under the assumption that I’ll get better with time.  And I’m hoping that my prayers don’t get knocked too far back in line because I have a Modest Mouse song stuck in my head all the way through Alenu.