Friends

As it says in Pirkei Avot, get yourself some friends!

In the weeks and months to come, we'll be hearing from two additional voices on this blog. Mr. Shore and Mr. Leave, of Shore Leave Media are both seekers of truth and knowledge, who study with me regularly. Their perspectives on prayer, meditation, self improvement, and Divine Connection are invaluable for me, and I hope they are for you too.

Bruchim haba'im - ברוכים הבאים

Welcome Mssrs Leave and Shore to UnKosher Rabbi. May you do something beautiful.

90,000 orthodox men walk into a stadium...

The Siyum HaShas is one of those long-form counting traditions in Judaism that makes me think we are somehow related to cicadas.

This photo is of MetLife stadium last night where New York's Frummest gathered to celebrate the end of the universal 7.5 year (2,711 day) cycle of daily (daf yomi - or daily page) Talmud study.

Here's some fluffy local reporting:

For 7½ years, day in and day out, Jews in New Jersey and around the world have studied a new double-sided page of the Talmud, the biblical commentary that, written over centuries, serves as a guide to spirituality and practical life.

Wednesday night, in what was billed as the largest celebration of shared Jewish learning in history, some 90,000 people crowded into MetLife Stadium to read portions of the Talmud’s 2,711th — and final — page.

Being raised in the reform tradition, I have not participated in any Daf Yomi study. We were aware of the Talmud, what it was and when it was compiled. We knew it consisted of many many volumes and that we considered its contents NOT binding (so why study it, right?).

The first time I'd even heard of Daf Yomi was after I'd begun to have contact with the orthodox world. I'd never heard of counting the omer either. Much like Birkhat HaChamah, a quirky practice filled with meaning and significance that my home tradition decided would be too weird to continue doing, Siyum HaShas was not available to me, nor was it a tradition anyone of my elders was personally acquainted with, nor theirs.

I will not, at least not this cycle, be able to study a daf every yom - something about having attainable goals. I will seek out a few resources, though, and I will keep you, my lovely readers, up to speed with what I learn. Maybe at the next Siyum HaShas we'll all be singing and dancing (just promise I don't have to go to Jersey to do it).

Why God Kills Innocents...

I got an inquiry today from a student. He is not Jewish; he comes from a Catholic background. Though unlike many devout Catholics, he is not immediately hostile to Jewish thought. (please send your objections to my overgeneralization to unkosherrabbi - at - gmail - dot - com)

Here was what he wrote:

Dear Unkosher Rabbi,

I've been reading a book called "Laying Down the sword: why we can't ignore the Bible's Violent Verses" by Philip Jenkins ( The Economist called him America's best schoolar on religion). I just started Chapter 1. And in this chapter, Philip jenkins describes are the wars and slaughters that the Anceint Hebrews perfromed on the Anceint Tribes such as the Cannanites, almokeites, Menitites etc.

It also seems that after egypt, moses was not as peaceful as i thought he was. he comanded the hewbrew warriors to kill all the men, women, and children of anceint tribes. Also the word Harem came up which means "Utter destriction". that means if the other people surrender or plead for a treaty, they couldn't and the Hewbrews would annihilate them anyway.

I don't like how the Hebrews would kill innocent people and how G-D commanded them to kill.

How could G-D and his Prophets allow the massacres of innocent people?

how do people interperet the violent passages?

Sincerely, WTFG-D?!

My response:

Dear WhatThe,
These are very good questions you raise. In fact, this is a big part of what Jewish people and others who take the Bible seriously have been struggling with since the books were compiled.

I don't have a definitive answer, but here's my take: The Bible gives us a snapshot of the world. It tells us about flawed people who are very weak and selfish - but even so, they do incredible things. It tells us about a world that is full of suffering, but even so, there is unequalled kindness and love.

The Bible assumes a world-view - namely that there is One God, and that God is in charge of EVERYTHING - including the bad things. The book of Job is the quintessential expression of this. So in the Biblical narative, we see God pursuing goodness and mercy, but we also see God destroying - even innocent people. (be sure to read Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People)

After all, innocent people actually do die in this world - quite frequently. It is really the exception to the rule that someone 'deserves' to die (though I don't really know what that word means in this context, I use it in lieu of a better one...).

The Bible must reflect the real world and offer us explanations and examples (or counter-examples) of good behavior. It says in Dueteronomy that God gave human beings a choice - to pursue goodness and life, or evil and death. It is this choice that places us firmly within the image and likeness of God. We can choose to create or we can choose to destroy. Getting at this choice, and how we make it, is one of the deeper meanings behind the violent passages you mention. Also don't forget that the Torah is also a chronicle. It is the Jewish peoples' journey. Just because parts of it are ugly does not free us from the history - that would be biblicaly wishful thinking or a spiritually selective memory.

We are in control of what we make of these things. After all - violence is neither good nor evil - but it may be wielded for both. Violence can be employed to cause utter mayhem and destruction, or it can be used to save lives. The Bible is asking us to find the most moral outcome - to choose life over destruction.

I hope this helps broaden the conversation,

The UnKosher Rabbi

Playlist Judaism - Fragmented identities

Shalom readers!

An interesting article in JTA today gives us a glimpse at how the mainstream Jewish community reaches (or doesn't reach) unaffiliated Jews. The article begins with comments from Rabbi Kerri Olitzky, on what he calls Playlist Judaism:

“I no longer have to buy the entire package in order to have the [Jewish] service I want,” says Olitzy, the New York-based Jewish Outreach Institute’s executive director, referring to how iTunes and Napster broke the stranglehold on a music industry that once forced consumers to buy entire albums to hear one preferred song on demand."

Anyone who works in communal outreach, especially with millenials, will recognize this scenerio imediately. Instead of joining groups, individuals now join aspects of group identity to themselves.

How does an ordained Rabbi, affiliated with one movement or another, reach these 'just Jews'? Read the whole article, as they bring in some other voices.

One side-note, R. Olitzky authored a series of 12-step mediation and workbooks through a Jewish lens. If you feel disconnected from yourself and your connection with God, these could be a great resource for you.

People v Faith Community

Daniel Gordis takes on the schism in American Judaism between peoplehood and faith communities.


Having experienced the best of American values and culture and the best of Jewish values and culture, I think it's difficult to agree wholeheartedly that what Gordis observes is good or bad. It's a new phenominon, for better or worse.

There's an obligation to continue struggling with this. Peoplehood neccesitates the group trumping the individual from time to time. Sometimes that means doing irrational things, like doubling your silverware and skipping the milkshake with your steak, for example.

But connection to a people and a community can enrich one's life in ways that no one can document or analyze. In entirely subjective ways, interweaving your life with others exponentially expands the meaning and implications of each moment. Being conscious of others brings us closer to that part of the Divine that binds us all together. Sometimes it's only by surrendering to the unreason of following milenia-old rules for eating and cooking that we can experience full membership in this funky little people.

In any case, Gordis fiercly defends the concept of peoplehood, and lifts its value up for us to see. Roll around in his ideas for a half-hour or so, see what sticks and see what stabs.

Stereo Sinai: The Revelation Will Not Be Televised

Who doesn't love a little Biblegum Pop now and again? In honor of Shavuot:

Let me do something beautiful...

Reb Shlomo



pt. 2