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I just came across this short youtube clip and it made me think of BB's recent comparison of Reconstructionism to Jewish humanism: YouTube - RRC & Kaplan: Rabbi Jacob J. Staub On God as "the Power that makes for salvation" Staub quotes Kaplan as saying that "[it is not a] rational...

Hello all. I thought this might be of interest to some other people on this site. I've been teaching myself Biblical Hebrew using The First Hebrew Primer. It's an excellent introduction intended for adults. Before the 30 chapters are up you're working directly with the Hebrew text. It teaches...

From the news page (via my RSS feed) Jewish school loses discrimination appeal : Interfaith . I've been following this case since the charges were first brought against JFS. I, as a Jew who doesn't hold to Orthodox halachah, have considered this a terribly misguided ruling by the British...

I'm following along this shiur from Yeshivat Hadar. If anyone decides to follow along as well I thought it might provide some good discussion points: Mechon Hadar - How Can I Pray What I Don't Believe? A Case Study - Liturgy 28 minutes in the primary point that seems worth discussing is the...

BB made a comment in another about rabbis: It got me thinking that it might be interesting to discuss the role of a rabbi. Clearly there's some distinction to be made between a rabbi as a halachist vs a rabbi in any other role, where the needs of the community have shifted over time. What I'd...

I hope you don't mind, Shawn, I've moved our discussion here where it won't get in the way of talk about pantheism, panentheism and related idea. I don't disagree! And I'm glad you're willing to admit that you're displaying entrenched biases. But your biases were going against the direction of...

How do you understand the argument between God and Abraham in Genesis 17-33? But you are suggesting that it, an extremely late text relative to Abraham's life, alludes to something that is historically accurate. Because your evidence for Abraham's beliefs begins with a midrash, begins with...

I suggested the book Moral Clarity by Susan Neiman to Avi in his comments. He responded that it looks like Renewal for liberals. I thought it would be good to continue that conversation here. For those of you who aren't familiar with Susan Neiman, she's a moral philosopher who embraces...

I just came across this video of a talk between Fr. Thomas Keating and Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. It's about 45 minutes long. I'm currently about 10 minutes in and liking it so far. I thought some folks here might be interested in listening in on their dialogue as well. Jewish Tv Network...

Hello peoplez. I'm trying to strengthen my Hebrew language skillz between semesters by using Rosetta Stone in conjunction with DikDuk. My primary interest is sefer comprehension, not conversational hebrew. I'm looking for Hebrew language broadcasts/shiurim for listening between study. Shiurim...

Hey. Thought this might be a handy resource. I know that BB is fond of this translation. I was googling Aryeh Kaplan to see if I could find how much of an influence Breslov Hasidism had on him. On his wikipedia page there was a link to an online version of Living Torah...

I've been getting occasional latency when pages load, sometimes leading to inability to connect. I've also seen one 404 error. It's not something that's effected my ability to use the site but it's noticeable. Anyone else been having issues with the site lately? Brian? Beuler?

This is mostly directed at BB because I'm not sure anyone else will follow very well or have the resources to direct me where I'm looking. Over the past couple of weeks I've worked my way through Adin Steinsaltz' 3-volume commentary on Tanya and I was wondering about something. In Chapter 36...

Oh, something else I wanted to ask and perhaps it warrants a new thread: What is it that defines Judaism for you? Is there anything that you feel should remain constant and if so, why? How do you determine what is unimportant in shaping your Judaism and what is important? What are the most...

Hello. Do any of you know of any decent English-language sources that deal thoroughly with Ibn Arabi's epistemology? I'm currently planning on looking at Chittick's ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets and a translation by al-Jerrahi al-Halveti entitled  Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom...

I just read this article about a NASA workshop (Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe - space - 23 March 2009 - New Scientist) that suggests a massive solar storm that could disrupt the world's power grid is hitting us in September of 2012. The original report can be found here: Severe...

I went to check out a new shul on Friday night and while the traditional egal service was happening in the sanctuary, there was a partnership minyan in the vestry (Partnership minyan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.) I'd never heard of one and read a little into it. It seems like an...

It's coming up. Will be the first in my lifetime. Bless the Sun : Bless the Sun http://www.coejl.org/blessthesun/Massechet_HaHammah.pdf (PDF) I'm gonna bless the crap out of that sun.

Anyone familiar with him? He recently won the Templeton Prize (Concept of 'hypercosmic God' wins Templeton Prize - opinion - 16 March 2009 - New Scientist) for his work attempting to assess philosophy based on quantum physics.

Anyone watching it? I just saw the pilot episode on Hulu.