tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post3216936998149241183..comments2024-01-30T12:26:03.019-05:00Comments on The Blog of Garnel Ironheart: Putting Tanach Back Into The CurriculumMighty Garnel Ironhearthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09571194550300367249noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post-68138272970831599232012-12-30T22:52:16.993-05:002012-12-30T22:52:16.993-05:00to be honest the tanach really is a great book btw...to be honest the tanach really is a great book btw one of the judges was a woman Deborah indicating that God is ok with female political leaders someone go tell the toyrah scholars that shit. XDSJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10704885840004960450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post-18722228323987418452012-12-28T06:41:43.975-05:002012-12-28T06:41:43.975-05:00"We seem to have severed this text from its c..."We seem to have severed this text from its context."<br />Right. I have also noticed this problem.I have in particular noticed the difference between the world view of the Talmud and many rabbis. Outside of some rituals there seems to be no point<br /> of intersectionAvraham https://www.blogger.com/profile/07822433921393627746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post-6331236890591125252012-12-27T15:14:47.673-05:002012-12-27T15:14:47.673-05:00@Adam Zur
Of course I would not "blame" ...@Adam Zur<br />Of course I would not "blame" the Talmud. The Talmud is effectively the foundation of our religion and way of life. But the Talmud was not written in a vacuum. Almost everything is hung somehow on a pasuk. Where a ruling derives only from sevarah (a decisor's own logic and intuition) it is clear that such is the case. Often, a ruling is stated based on general practice, perticularly in areas relating to Choshen Mishpat/Nezikin law. There is always some context without which one cannot hope to apply Talmudic law to any actual case.<br /><br />We seem to have severed this text from its context. This gives rise to twisted, monstrous rulings, based on extreme applications of misunderstood principles.JTnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post-14806670444110365862012-12-27T08:41:00.552-05:002012-12-27T08:41:00.552-05:00I would not blame the Talmud for the problems of O...I would not blame the Talmud for the problems of Orthodox rabbis today. I have rarely come across a book of the depth and power of the Talmud. I think it would be simpler to blame the evil inclination-and the fact that any system can be abused.Avraham https://www.blogger.com/profile/07822433921393627746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post-19590352433195433952012-12-26T22:50:50.585-05:002012-12-26T22:50:50.585-05:00Thanks.
Would you consider writing a "clinic...Thanks.<br /><br />Would you consider writing a "clinical" follow-on post based, say, on the haftarot of Yom Kippur or Tisha B'Av?Just a Civilianhttp://bit.ly/JaCh5b44noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post-48459438182598348722012-12-26T13:21:02.956-05:002012-12-26T13:21:02.956-05:00I once attended a halachah shiur in which the ba&#...I once attended a halachah shiur in which the ba'al darshan took a stand that many found difficult to reconcile with their innate sense of fairness. One listener defended the Rav: "This is halachah! What's yosher go to do with it?" This is the attitude that is engendered by exclusive abstract Talmud study without a solid grounding in Tanach and actual Jewish history to provide context to the discussion. Even reading sha'alos and teshuvos to see how Rabbanim over the years applied Talmudic principles would help. Talmud unconstrained can - and does - produce monstrosities.JTnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post-86555121917552950822012-12-26T11:46:08.349-05:002012-12-26T11:46:08.349-05:00Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabba, Chapter 11, Paragraph 3...<b><i>Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabba</i>, Chapter 11, Paragraph 3:</b><br />The Holy One Blessed Be He said: <br />I only gave you the Land of Israel so you could read [<i>Tanach</i>] and study [Oral Torah] and labor in each Torah in its proper time, and learn proper conduct.Mr. Cohenhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/DerechEmet/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post-19490837377231687902012-12-26T04:37:51.535-05:002012-12-26T04:37:51.535-05:00Why do Orthodox Jews not learn the Old Testament?
...Why do Orthodox Jews not learn the Old Testament?<br /><br />One obvious reason is that some people will eventually reach the end of shoftim [the book of Judges] where the tribes of Israel took a count of who and who did not join the Army. [That case was not in the category of a milchemet mitvah but rather milchemet reshut.] They saw that one specific group of people decided not to join the army.[I am hinting something about the charedim] So Klal Israel decided to go and to exterminate that entire group.. After they had exterminated all the men and women they saw a small number of virgins were left which they decide to give the the tribe of Benyamin. [Of course the reason they decide to exterminate the tribe of Benyamin with Approval of G-d was that this wicked tribe has killed someone's girl friend whom he was living with even though they were not married. In the frum world today it is also highly questionable how such an arrangement would be viewed.]Avraham https://www.blogger.com/profile/07822433921393627746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post-62860449905569480532012-12-25T22:52:40.076-05:002012-12-25T22:52:40.076-05:00Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Raba, Chapter 18, Paragraph 55...<b><i>Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Raba</i>, Chapter 18, Paragraph 55:</b><br />When a Jew learns the entire <i>Tanach</i> (Torah, <i>Neviim</i> and <i>Cetubim</i>), he is granted two angels [to guard him]...<br />Mr. Cohenhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/DerechEmet/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post-46979905765068040132012-12-25T13:28:18.362-05:002012-12-25T13:28:18.362-05:00I really liked what you wrote. I also feel there i...I really liked what you wrote. I also feel there is too much amiss in the way Yiddishkeit is being practiced. Too many Jews realize there are great big problems in their community, some complain daily and other look the other way. No one really knows how to get a handle on things, to straighten the crooked branches on the Jewish Tree. Each individual has to examine his/her own life and deal with the issues, and make changes. What will it take to get it done?<br /><br />It might just be the <a href="http://keitzmeguleh.blogspot.co.il/2008/01/erev-rav-summary.html" rel="nofollow">Erev Zeir</a> that are the ones running the asylum.Neshamahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06326762185596512130noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post-55083892254197682012012-12-25T12:18:45.901-05:002012-12-25T12:18:45.901-05:00I’m not religious, but I agree with what you say i...I’m not religious, but I agree with what you say in this post. I think it is possible that large swaths of Orthodox Jews have ceded common morality to the secular world and consider it goyishe.<br /><br />I used to be more religious – and it created some weird feelings in me about common morality. Common morality seemed simplistic, naïve, and did not feel like it came out of my training in Yiddishkeit, or my exposure to Yiddishkeit. I let common morality go a bit, take second place to my Yiddishkop thinking.<br /><br />I knew it was troubling to me as a secular Jew – but I tried on a different kind of morality. <br /><br />I left Yiddishkeit for a host of reasons, but I feel generally much more morally intact without it, than when I struggled with it. I act out of an instinctive and learned common decency, instead of wringing my hands over what to do in a given situation now. And I sleep better because of it.<br /><br />I think OJ can be so self-conscious, so many rules that are examined and disputed, that common decency can truly be sacrificed on the pyre of over-analysis.<br /><br />Another thing I think is that orthodox Jews need a benefit to all the costs of living an OJ live. The benefit can be as simple as sacrificing common morality, and finding a way to do anything – so long as there is a shred of halachic or hashgafic argumentation to support it. It is actually a fun way to think, but it can lead to some indecent decisions.<br /><br />This is NOT to say that all OJers lack a commitment to what the rest of our society considers common morality – just that to get there, they may have had to work hard on their own, and with their own role models, in order to avoid the common pitfall of using loopholes and argumentation to relieve themselves of certain general moral responsibilities.<br /><br />General morality is I believe always considered a bit suspect and close to “goyishe” thinking, because it is arrived at in a “non-Jewish” way. Even the sages say that man would develop general morality without Torah – there is something about this that is true, and also, non-Torah.<br /><br />Tuvia<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com