Friday, May 13, 2005
I know why the CAJEd bird sings
The Spring 2005 issue of CAJE's Jewish Education News, on "Generation X and the Millenials", is now online. Only a few of the articles are online (not including mine), but I particularly recommend Elie Kaunfer's and Rachel Jury's articles in the online edition. I'll write a longer review of the whole issue sometime in the next few days.
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Begging the question
From the New York Times:
Can someone explain to me how a budget surplus is in any way begging the question? I expect better from the public face of the city's 80,000 teachers.
Given the increases in state and city spending, as well as a projected $3.3 billion city budget surplus, Ms. Weingarten questioned why school budgets were not growing more and why the police, firefighters' and teachers' unions were all still fighting for new contracts. "The surplus begs the priority question," she said.
Can someone explain to me how a budget surplus is in any way begging the question? I expect better from the public face of the city's 80,000 teachers.
Israel at 57: the culinary side
This amazing article in Haaretz analyzes "the symbolic national spread of the Jews": chumus. (Well, they transliterate it "hummus", but bless them, they don't have to live with the hummus/chumus dichotomy.) The history of commercial chumus is discussed -- who knew that packaged chumus dates back only to 1994, and the Tzabar brand (Sabra Salads in the US) only to 1999?! There is also discussion of the deeper cultural implications of chumus: "Is the Jewish attitude toward hummus tainted by culinary colonialism, or does it rather signify integration into the region?"
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Israel at 57: the personal side
This Yom Ha'atzma'ut marks the 3rd anniversary (on the Hebrew calendar) of my decision to move to New York. No regrets.
Israel at 57: the religious side
This isn't going to be a "Why I don't observe Yom Ha'atzma'ut" post, because I do (whatever that really means). However, I do take issue with the manner in which it is observed by some.
Someone once said "I'm religious and a Zionist, but I'm not a Religious Zionist." I agree. The foundation of the State of Israel is unquestionably one of the most significant events in the last 1800 years for the Jewish people and for Judaism. However, we're not in the End Times yet. I am with R. Soloveitchik in adding a word to say "Harachaman hu yevareich et medinat Yisrael shetehi reishit tzemichat ge'ulateinu" = "May the Merciful One bless the State of Israel, so that it may be the beginning of the flowering of our redemption." Anything else is premature.
I think that if one is going to say hallel on Yom Ha'atzma'ut, it should be the abridged hallel said on Rosh Chodesh and the last 6 days of Pesach. If our joy is less than complete even on Pesach, the paradigmatic festival of past and future redemption, in recognition of the Egyptians who drowned in the sea, kal vachomer our joy is less than complete on a festival of more recent redemption that is tied to suffering that persists to this day. Let's keep the full hallel reserved for occasions that warrant unmitigated celebration.
On that note, I find the "al hanisim" for Yom Ha'atzma'ut in Siddur Sim Shalom to be entirely inappropriate. "You delivered the many into the hands of the few, the wicked into the hands of the righteous" ... and complex understanding of issues into the hands of black-and-white dichotomies. It's one thing to recite those dichotomies for Chanukah, when everyone involved in the historical event that inspired the holiday has been dead for 2000 years, and the characters in the story have become symbols for abstract ideas. It's quite another thing to do this for an event that happened a mere 57 years ago, when many of the people referred to as resha'im and tzaddikim are still alive.
As we say every day, Baruch atah Adonai, hamachazir shechinato l'Tziyon.
Someone once said "I'm religious and a Zionist, but I'm not a Religious Zionist." I agree. The foundation of the State of Israel is unquestionably one of the most significant events in the last 1800 years for the Jewish people and for Judaism. However, we're not in the End Times yet. I am with R. Soloveitchik in adding a word to say "Harachaman hu yevareich et medinat Yisrael shetehi reishit tzemichat ge'ulateinu" = "May the Merciful One bless the State of Israel, so that it may be the beginning of the flowering of our redemption." Anything else is premature.
I think that if one is going to say hallel on Yom Ha'atzma'ut, it should be the abridged hallel said on Rosh Chodesh and the last 6 days of Pesach. If our joy is less than complete even on Pesach, the paradigmatic festival of past and future redemption, in recognition of the Egyptians who drowned in the sea, kal vachomer our joy is less than complete on a festival of more recent redemption that is tied to suffering that persists to this day. Let's keep the full hallel reserved for occasions that warrant unmitigated celebration.
On that note, I find the "al hanisim" for Yom Ha'atzma'ut in Siddur Sim Shalom to be entirely inappropriate. "You delivered the many into the hands of the few, the wicked into the hands of the righteous" ... and complex understanding of issues into the hands of black-and-white dichotomies. It's one thing to recite those dichotomies for Chanukah, when everyone involved in the historical event that inspired the holiday has been dead for 2000 years, and the characters in the story have become symbols for abstract ideas. It's quite another thing to do this for an event that happened a mere 57 years ago, when many of the people referred to as resha'im and tzaddikim are still alive.
As we say every day, Baruch atah Adonai, hamachazir shechinato l'Tziyon.
Israel at 57: the political side
Mazal tov to the State of Israel for surviving 57 years amid much adversity, external and internal. It's not perfect, but it's much better than the United States in 1833, when 2 million people lived in slavery and only white males could vote. Still, that's a poor excuse. We can do better.
On the 4th of July, it has of late become poignant to read the U.S. Declaration of Independence and see how much it rings true for the United States today:
And so forth. Likewise, on this Independence Day, the Israeli Declaration of Independence reminds us how far we still have to go:
It is hard to read that paragraph with dry eyes. But this year, there is renewed optimism that we are gradually moving toward a future in which Israel will no longer rule over 3 million disenfranchised people against their consent, and will truly be a Jewish and democratic state.
Then we can start addressing all that other stuff about freedom and justice and equality. Let's have a country where all Jews have freedom of religion, to be married by the rabbi of their choice or by no rabbi. Let's address the creeping socioeconomic inequality in Israel, and work toward creating the ideal society "as envisaged by the prophets of Israel".
Then we can truly be am chofshi b'artzeinu, a free people in our land.
On the 4th of July, it has of late become poignant to read the U.S. Declaration of Independence and see how much it rings true for the United States today:
The history of the present King ... is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.
[...]
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
[...]
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
[...]
Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
And so forth. Likewise, on this Independence Day, the Israeli Declaration of Independence reminds us how far we still have to go:
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
It is hard to read that paragraph with dry eyes. But this year, there is renewed optimism that we are gradually moving toward a future in which Israel will no longer rule over 3 million disenfranchised people against their consent, and will truly be a Jewish and democratic state.
Then we can start addressing all that other stuff about freedom and justice and equality. Let's have a country where all Jews have freedom of religion, to be married by the rabbi of their choice or by no rabbi. Let's address the creeping socioeconomic inequality in Israel, and work toward creating the ideal society "as envisaged by the prophets of Israel".
Then we can truly be am chofshi b'artzeinu, a free people in our land.
Israel at 57: the geeky side
In the Hebrew calendar, an ordinary year is 12 lunar months (at 29.5 days each), for a total of about 354 days. So that the Hebrew years don't get too out of sync with the solar year, a 13th month is added to 7 out of every 19 years, viz. to years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 in each 19-year cycle.
After the leap month is added, the holidays occur later (relative to the solar calendar) than in other years. And the latest they can possibly be is in the 8th year of the cycle, because it's a leap year that occurs only 2 years (rather than 3) after the previous leap year. [Yes, the 19th year is also such a year, but it's not quite as late as the 8th year. Figuring out why is left to the reader as an exercise.]
One such 8th year was 5708 (since 5700 = 19*300), or 1947-48 on the Gregorian calendar. The State of Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948 = 5 Iyar 5708. From that point on, 5 Iyar was celebrated as Yom Ha'atzma'ut, but because the Hebrew calendar was so late that year (relative to the solar calendar), Yom Ha'atzma'ut almost always falls earlier than May 14, the secular anniversary.
57 (= 19 * 3) years later, we're back to the 8th year in the cycle! The holidays in 5765 are, of course, crazy late: Pesach went into May for those observing 8 days, Rosh Hashanah is in October, and Chanukah 2005 bleeds over into 2006. Therefore, 5 Iyar will return to May 14!!!
However, May 14 is on Shabbat this year, so the Knesset has bumped up Yom Ha'atzma'ut to Thursday, May 12 (3 Iyar), so that Israel can have a three-day weekend. Oh well.
By the way, the next crazy-late 8th year after 1948 was of course 19 years later, in 1967. So likewise, Jerusalem was reunified on 7 June 1967 / 28 Iyar 5727, but Yom Yerushalayim is almost always observed earlier than June 7.
After the leap month is added, the holidays occur later (relative to the solar calendar) than in other years. And the latest they can possibly be is in the 8th year of the cycle, because it's a leap year that occurs only 2 years (rather than 3) after the previous leap year. [Yes, the 19th year is also such a year, but it's not quite as late as the 8th year. Figuring out why is left to the reader as an exercise.]
One such 8th year was 5708 (since 5700 = 19*300), or 1947-48 on the Gregorian calendar. The State of Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948 = 5 Iyar 5708. From that point on, 5 Iyar was celebrated as Yom Ha'atzma'ut, but because the Hebrew calendar was so late that year (relative to the solar calendar), Yom Ha'atzma'ut almost always falls earlier than May 14, the secular anniversary.
57 (= 19 * 3) years later, we're back to the 8th year in the cycle! The holidays in 5765 are, of course, crazy late: Pesach went into May for those observing 8 days, Rosh Hashanah is in October, and Chanukah 2005 bleeds over into 2006. Therefore, 5 Iyar will return to May 14!!!
However, May 14 is on Shabbat this year, so the Knesset has bumped up Yom Ha'atzma'ut to Thursday, May 12 (3 Iyar), so that Israel can have a three-day weekend. Oh well.
By the way, the next crazy-late 8th year after 1948 was of course 19 years later, in 1967. So likewise, Jerusalem was reunified on 7 June 1967 / 28 Iyar 5727, but Yom Yerushalayim is almost always observed earlier than June 7.
Monday, May 09, 2005
Jubilee throng
This week in Masechet Rosh Hashanah:
From the middle of 26b to the middle of 27b.
We resume the discussion of the shofar. Even though the shofar could be the horn of any animal, we know which animal it really is. Except that we don't agree. There are several opinions about whether the shofar of Rosh Hashanah is a twisted ram's horn or a straight goat's horn, and likewise for the shofar blown on Yom Kippur of the yovel (jubilee) year, and the shofar blown to accompany the silver trumpets on public fast days. (We still haven't seen an explicit gezeirah shavah between Rosh Hashanah and yovel, but Rashi keeps dancing around it! I don't know if I can handle the tension. Is the Gemara ever going to come out and say it, or do we have to go to Sifra for that?) The shape of the shofar for each occasion is taken to represent our state of mind. In the yovel, when liberty is proclaimed throughout the land, we are standing upright, so the straight horn is most appropriate, whereas on Rosh Hashanah we are bent over in contrition. Or is it that we're standing up straight on Rosh Hashanah and we're bent over on fast days? Or is it all about the gezeirah shavah that dare not speak its name (so that Rosh Hashanah and yovel have to be the same horn, whichever it is)?
Back in the day, the shofar would be accompanied by two trumpets on Rosh Hashanah, and the trumpets on fast days would be accompanied by shofarot. However, this shofar-trumpet combo was only in the Temple. The prooftext is "bachatzotz'rot v'kol shofar hari'u lifnei hamelech Adonai" (Psalm 98) -- with trumpets and the sound of the shofar sound out, [but only when you are] in the presence of the sovereign God [understood as the Temple]. So in our day, the shofar plays solo.
The phrase "zeh hayom t'chilat ma'asecha, zikaron l'yom rishon" ("this is the day of the beginning of your creation, a remembrance of the first day") only appears in the Rosh Hashanah prayers (in the zichronot section) if you follow Rabbi Eliezer, who said that the world was created on 1 Tishrei. I guess we do. What does it mean metaphorically to say that the world was created in Tishrei rather than Nisan?
We also come to a discussion of a halachic principle that comes up a lot in "pluralism discussions" -- whether or not t'rei kalei are misht'ma'ei (whether two voices can be discerned). I've seen it come up in discussions of kol isha (whether some people's prohibition of listening to a woman's voice can be neutralized if multiple people are singing), birkat hamazon (whether more than one person can lead zimmun together), and Torah reading (whether it's a problem if people in the congregation start singing along with shirat hayam), so it was good to see one of the plural-of-locus-classicus. The idea that two voices can't be discerned is tied to the statement immortalized in Lecha Dodi: Zachor v'shamor b'dibur echad ne'emru. "Remember" and "Keep" were said in a single utterance: something that the human mouth can't say and the human ear can't hear!
The question of t'rei kalei came up apropos of the aforementioned shofar-trumpet duet: if the commandment is to hear the shofar and two simultaneous sounds can't be discerned, then how can you fulfill your obligation if there's a trumpet playing at the same time? The solution is that the shofar holds the note longer, so you can hear a solo shofar after the trumpet has stopped playing the note. But wait a second, the principle of t'rei kalei only applies when people aren't listening so carefully (like the translation of the Torah reading); in less-common things like megillah reading and hallel, people listen more carefully and therefore it's ok to have multiple voices together, and shofar (only once a year!) is definitely in this category. But in that case, why have the trumpet cut out early? To remind everyone that the mitzvah is to hear the shofar.
We got started on the next mishnah, which starts hitting actual laws of shofar. The Ein Mishpat goes nuts. A shofar that is cracked and glued back together: sorry, it goes to the rummage sale. But if it's just punctured and stopped up, it's kosher if this doesn't interfere with the sound. You have to hear the shofar itself, not an echo, but I don't know how anyone can ensure that if they're in a room with non-foam walls. And you have to have the intention to hear the shofar. Modifications to the shofar are permitted iff they don't change the sound. A shofar inside a shofar: the inner one is kosher but not the outer one (reminiscent of a sukkah on top of a sukkah!).
Chapter 3 will be finished soon. Keeping me awake at night: Before the tractate is out, will we see the thing about Hillel II sanctifying all future new moons in the Gemara itself, or is that from some other source?
From the middle of 26b to the middle of 27b.
We resume the discussion of the shofar. Even though the shofar could be the horn of any animal, we know which animal it really is. Except that we don't agree. There are several opinions about whether the shofar of Rosh Hashanah is a twisted ram's horn or a straight goat's horn, and likewise for the shofar blown on Yom Kippur of the yovel (jubilee) year, and the shofar blown to accompany the silver trumpets on public fast days. (We still haven't seen an explicit gezeirah shavah between Rosh Hashanah and yovel, but Rashi keeps dancing around it! I don't know if I can handle the tension. Is the Gemara ever going to come out and say it, or do we have to go to Sifra for that?) The shape of the shofar for each occasion is taken to represent our state of mind. In the yovel, when liberty is proclaimed throughout the land, we are standing upright, so the straight horn is most appropriate, whereas on Rosh Hashanah we are bent over in contrition. Or is it that we're standing up straight on Rosh Hashanah and we're bent over on fast days? Or is it all about the gezeirah shavah that dare not speak its name (so that Rosh Hashanah and yovel have to be the same horn, whichever it is)?
Back in the day, the shofar would be accompanied by two trumpets on Rosh Hashanah, and the trumpets on fast days would be accompanied by shofarot. However, this shofar-trumpet combo was only in the Temple. The prooftext is "bachatzotz'rot v'kol shofar hari'u lifnei hamelech Adonai" (Psalm 98) -- with trumpets and the sound of the shofar sound out, [but only when you are] in the presence of the sovereign God [understood as the Temple]. So in our day, the shofar plays solo.
The phrase "zeh hayom t'chilat ma'asecha, zikaron l'yom rishon" ("this is the day of the beginning of your creation, a remembrance of the first day") only appears in the Rosh Hashanah prayers (in the zichronot section) if you follow Rabbi Eliezer, who said that the world was created on 1 Tishrei. I guess we do. What does it mean metaphorically to say that the world was created in Tishrei rather than Nisan?
We also come to a discussion of a halachic principle that comes up a lot in "pluralism discussions" -- whether or not t'rei kalei are misht'ma'ei (whether two voices can be discerned). I've seen it come up in discussions of kol isha (whether some people's prohibition of listening to a woman's voice can be neutralized if multiple people are singing), birkat hamazon (whether more than one person can lead zimmun together), and Torah reading (whether it's a problem if people in the congregation start singing along with shirat hayam), so it was good to see one of the plural-of-locus-classicus. The idea that two voices can't be discerned is tied to the statement immortalized in Lecha Dodi: Zachor v'shamor b'dibur echad ne'emru. "Remember" and "Keep" were said in a single utterance: something that the human mouth can't say and the human ear can't hear!
The question of t'rei kalei came up apropos of the aforementioned shofar-trumpet duet: if the commandment is to hear the shofar and two simultaneous sounds can't be discerned, then how can you fulfill your obligation if there's a trumpet playing at the same time? The solution is that the shofar holds the note longer, so you can hear a solo shofar after the trumpet has stopped playing the note. But wait a second, the principle of t'rei kalei only applies when people aren't listening so carefully (like the translation of the Torah reading); in less-common things like megillah reading and hallel, people listen more carefully and therefore it's ok to have multiple voices together, and shofar (only once a year!) is definitely in this category. But in that case, why have the trumpet cut out early? To remind everyone that the mitzvah is to hear the shofar.
We got started on the next mishnah, which starts hitting actual laws of shofar. The Ein Mishpat goes nuts. A shofar that is cracked and glued back together: sorry, it goes to the rummage sale. But if it's just punctured and stopped up, it's kosher if this doesn't interfere with the sound. You have to hear the shofar itself, not an echo, but I don't know how anyone can ensure that if they're in a room with non-foam walls. And you have to have the intention to hear the shofar. Modifications to the shofar are permitted iff they don't change the sound. A shofar inside a shofar: the inner one is kosher but not the outer one (reminiscent of a sukkah on top of a sukkah!).
Chapter 3 will be finished soon. Keeping me awake at night: Before the tractate is out, will we see the thing about Hillel II sanctifying all future new moons in the Gemara itself, or is that from some other source?
Jacksonian democracy
I was in the old country this weekend because my parents were being honored at a big temple fundraising event, and the keynote speaker was Rep. Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. So I got to have dinner with him (being at the table with all the important people). I suppose this is the first time I've met a member of Congress; Mel Reynolds was in my parents' living room during the 1992 campaign (oops!), but that doesn't count since he wasn't in Congress yet.
We were worried that Rep. Jackson wasn't going to show up. He had accepted an invitation a year ago to speak at a graduation in North Carolina which was supposed to be in the morning, and turned out to be at 3 PM. Concerned that he wouldn't get back to Chicago in time, he videotaped his speech so that it could be shown if he didn't make it, but he made it onto the 5:10 flight and to the dinner! He received a hero's welcome when he arrived. From the way everyone talked to him, it was clear how close he is to his constituents; I certainly don't have that kind of relationship with my congressman.
Rep. Jackson spoke about his trip to Israel in 2003 with an entourage of leaders from the local Jewish community (including my mother), and about the importance of Israel and of achieving peace in the region. He also talked about the economic situation in the south side and south suburbs (60 people for every job in the south side/suburbs, vs. 3 jobs for every person in the northwest suburbs!) and his support for the proposed Abraham Lincoln National Airport in Peotone, which would bring economic development to the south suburbs. He said the airport would bring lower property values-- then quickly corrected himself to higher property values.
We got to talk to him afterwards and discovered that he lives just a few blocks from my sister in DC. She offered her babysitting services, and they swapped digits!
I said that I looked forward to 2006, when he would be back in the majority; my optimism was not shared.
My mother and I both mentioned the religious left and how we had had it with Bill Frist claiming to speak for "people of faith". Rep. Jackson said that this goes back to before the Civil War: white Christians in the South came up with theological justifications for slavery, which was obviously a serious sin, and in the process came up with a form of religion that was individualistic and [i forget the rest]. So this is a tradition that goes back over 150 years, and today's Republican strategists like Ralph Reed just have to tap into what is already there, and use this individualistic form of Christianity to justify any Republican policy. [I'm probably not getting this 100% correct.] Rep. Jackson said that the Democrats are failing to connect with voters because Democrats focus on the policy while Republicans focus on the individual ("this woman is going to die without her feeding tube!"). I would note that these Republican appeals are invariably cynical and manipulative, but damned if they aren't successful.
Rumor has it that Rep. Jackson is pursuing the mayor's seat (fortunately, he left before they ran the slideshow with the picture of my mother and Mayor Daley); if so, this will be Chicago's gain and the rest of the country's loss.
We were worried that Rep. Jackson wasn't going to show up. He had accepted an invitation a year ago to speak at a graduation in North Carolina which was supposed to be in the morning, and turned out to be at 3 PM. Concerned that he wouldn't get back to Chicago in time, he videotaped his speech so that it could be shown if he didn't make it, but he made it onto the 5:10 flight and to the dinner! He received a hero's welcome when he arrived. From the way everyone talked to him, it was clear how close he is to his constituents; I certainly don't have that kind of relationship with my congressman.
Rep. Jackson spoke about his trip to Israel in 2003 with an entourage of leaders from the local Jewish community (including my mother), and about the importance of Israel and of achieving peace in the region. He also talked about the economic situation in the south side and south suburbs (60 people for every job in the south side/suburbs, vs. 3 jobs for every person in the northwest suburbs!) and his support for the proposed Abraham Lincoln National Airport in Peotone, which would bring economic development to the south suburbs. He said the airport would bring lower property values-- then quickly corrected himself to higher property values.
We got to talk to him afterwards and discovered that he lives just a few blocks from my sister in DC. She offered her babysitting services, and they swapped digits!
I said that I looked forward to 2006, when he would be back in the majority; my optimism was not shared.
My mother and I both mentioned the religious left and how we had had it with Bill Frist claiming to speak for "people of faith". Rep. Jackson said that this goes back to before the Civil War: white Christians in the South came up with theological justifications for slavery, which was obviously a serious sin, and in the process came up with a form of religion that was individualistic and [i forget the rest]. So this is a tradition that goes back over 150 years, and today's Republican strategists like Ralph Reed just have to tap into what is already there, and use this individualistic form of Christianity to justify any Republican policy. [I'm probably not getting this 100% correct.] Rep. Jackson said that the Democrats are failing to connect with voters because Democrats focus on the policy while Republicans focus on the individual ("this woman is going to die without her feeding tube!"). I would note that these Republican appeals are invariably cynical and manipulative, but damned if they aren't successful.
Rumor has it that Rep. Jackson is pursuing the mayor's seat (fortunately, he left before they ran the slideshow with the picture of my mother and Mayor Daley); if so, this will be Chicago's gain and the rest of the country's loss.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Take four cups of wine and call me in the morning
For the doctors out there, from my father's remarks last night:
Two weeks ago, we celebrated the festival of Pesach, the commemoration of our people’s liberation from slavery. As we read through the Haggadah, I was struck by the fact that a number of the elements of the Passover Seder are reminiscent of the daily routine of the physician.
We wash our hands, ask a lot of questions, usually more than four, encounter a diverse group of people, including the educated, the challenging or skeptical, the simple and those unable to furnish a helpful history. We listen to a narrative, recount plagues, these days called diseases, and are sometimes up a good part of the night, like the Rabbis of B’nai Brak. We search for the hidden, and cannot complete the task until it is found. Hopefully, we free the patient from the hardship of disease, and then rejoice if and when we are successful. Dayenu.
They gathered up the CAJEs
My article "Profile of an 'Unaffiliated' Jew" appears in the Spring 2005 issue of CAJE's journal, Jewish Education News. The new issue isn't online yet, but I'll post a link if they put the article online.
Their one-sentence summary from the back page: "If the organized Jewish community wants to become truly multigenerational, it must have a plan for how to integrate educated Jews so that they can find a niche, other than becoming a Jewish professional." We'll see how that goes.
Their one-sentence summary from the back page: "If the organized Jewish community wants to become truly multigenerational, it must have a plan for how to integrate educated Jews so that they can find a niche, other than becoming a Jewish professional." We'll see how that goes.
Rosh Chodesh Iyyar
The new moon was this morning (Sunday) at 8:45 Universal Time. The molad of Iyyar is on Monday at 1 hour 8 minutes 7 parts. Rosh Chodesh is observed on Monday and Tuesday. (Rosh Chodesh can be observed after the molad, but never before.) Call your mother! And watch for a waxing crescent just after sunset!
If time were only part of the equation
Update:
No confirmed time travelers showed up to the Time Traveler Convention tonight.
I think this conclusively proves that time travel will never be invented, since the denizens of the future have literally all the time in the world to find a way to get to May 7, 2005, and they failed. But this raises interesting questions: Is it still necessary at this point to store the information about the convention in safe places where future time travelers will find it, if we know that they're not going to show up anyway? And suppose they had shown up - it was not yet determined at the time of the convention whether the records would be preserved into the future. Was the mental intent at that time of preserving the records sufficient to make time travelers from the future appear at that time? According to the scholarly work Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, apparently yes. And conversely, now that we're having all these doubts about whether it's necessary to preserve the convention info, is that sufficient to make the time travelers not have shown up?
No confirmed time travelers showed up to the Time Traveler Convention tonight.
I think this conclusively proves that time travel will never be invented, since the denizens of the future have literally all the time in the world to find a way to get to May 7, 2005, and they failed. But this raises interesting questions: Is it still necessary at this point to store the information about the convention in safe places where future time travelers will find it, if we know that they're not going to show up anyway? And suppose they had shown up - it was not yet determined at the time of the convention whether the records would be preserved into the future. Was the mental intent at that time of preserving the records sufficient to make time travelers from the future appear at that time? According to the scholarly work Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, apparently yes. And conversely, now that we're having all these doubts about whether it's necessary to preserve the convention info, is that sufficient to make the time travelers not have shown up?
Friday, May 06, 2005
On Bull____
This week's romp through Masechet Rosh Hashanah took us through most of daf 26. This was a turning point, because it was the first time (after 25 dapim) that the masechet actually addresses the observance of the holiday now known as Rosh Hashanah (though we've already hit on some themes of the holiday with the long discussion of the four new years, the question of when the world was created, the question of whether the divine decree can be overturned, etc.).
In the Mishnah, the tanna kama says that all horns can be used as the shofar except cows' horns, while Rabbi Yosei says that cows' horns are ok too. Much of the ensuing discussion in the Gemara is on a purely linguistic/semantic level -- which horns are commonly known as shofar, as opposed to keren? Or perhaps shofar is a proper subset of keren? (It is surprising that the qualification for a horn being a proper shofar is that it is called by the word shofar, given that the Torah never actually uses the word shofar in regard to Rosh Hashanah! It's just yom teru'ah! Shofar is indeed used in regard to the yovel (jubilee). Are we going to see an explicit gezeirah shavah (teru'ah teru'ah) between Rosh Hashanah and yovel? Maybe!!! Tune in next time!)
Fast forward 15 centuries, and there was similar confusion at our table. Are cows' horns larger than other horns? Smaller? And what's all this about two or three horns inside each other? I bet Steinsaltz has a picture of a cow with the Latin species name under it -- where is he when we need him?
Further confusion arose when we saw the words shor (always translated "ox") and par ("bull"). What's the difference? Are they synonyms? Are they different species? Are they different stages in the life of the same species? And the Gemara doesn't seem to have a definite answer either! We're city dwellers who know little about domesticated beasts! We have no firsthand knowledge! So we thought of verses that contained either of these words ("shor o chesev o eiz", "par ben bakar l'chatat", etc.) and, like Clark Kent and Superman, we never saw the two of them together, except when it was obvious poetic parallelism. Finally, we resorted to checking an (English) dictionary, which suggested that "ox" and "bull" generally refer to the same animal (with some nuances that escaped us).
The one substantive (language-independent) justification given for not using bulls'/cows'/oxen's horns was that it was a reminder of the sin of the golden calf; for the same reason, the High Priest changes from his gold vestments into white when he enters the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur.
The next part of the sugya involved the rabbis groping around in the dark just like us! There is a long series of examples from Tanakh and even Mishnah where the rabbis didn't know what an unusual word meant -- all those places where the JPS translation says "Meaning of Heb. uncertain", all those Jastrow jackpots where Jastrow quotes Rashi directly -- until they went to Arabia or Africa or Asia Minor and compared the Hebrew word in question to a foreign word. MAK pointed out that these rabbis were doing philological research, looking at cognates in other languages to understand the obscure Hebrew words. And some of their linguistic research involved listening to Rebbi's maidservant -- e.g. they were so cloistered in the beit midrash (just like us, with no clue about cows and bulls and oxen) that they didn't know that m'tatei (Isaiah 14:23) meant "broom"! In our day, anyone who has been to Jewish camp knows this word from the nikayon wheel. Standing on the shoulders of giants.
In the Mishnah, the tanna kama says that all horns can be used as the shofar except cows' horns, while Rabbi Yosei says that cows' horns are ok too. Much of the ensuing discussion in the Gemara is on a purely linguistic/semantic level -- which horns are commonly known as shofar, as opposed to keren? Or perhaps shofar is a proper subset of keren? (It is surprising that the qualification for a horn being a proper shofar is that it is called by the word shofar, given that the Torah never actually uses the word shofar in regard to Rosh Hashanah! It's just yom teru'ah! Shofar is indeed used in regard to the yovel (jubilee). Are we going to see an explicit gezeirah shavah (teru'ah teru'ah) between Rosh Hashanah and yovel? Maybe!!! Tune in next time!)
Fast forward 15 centuries, and there was similar confusion at our table. Are cows' horns larger than other horns? Smaller? And what's all this about two or three horns inside each other? I bet Steinsaltz has a picture of a cow with the Latin species name under it -- where is he when we need him?
Further confusion arose when we saw the words shor (always translated "ox") and par ("bull"). What's the difference? Are they synonyms? Are they different species? Are they different stages in the life of the same species? And the Gemara doesn't seem to have a definite answer either! We're city dwellers who know little about domesticated beasts! We have no firsthand knowledge! So we thought of verses that contained either of these words ("shor o chesev o eiz", "par ben bakar l'chatat", etc.) and, like Clark Kent and Superman, we never saw the two of them together, except when it was obvious poetic parallelism. Finally, we resorted to checking an (English) dictionary, which suggested that "ox" and "bull" generally refer to the same animal (with some nuances that escaped us).
The one substantive (language-independent) justification given for not using bulls'/cows'/oxen's horns was that it was a reminder of the sin of the golden calf; for the same reason, the High Priest changes from his gold vestments into white when he enters the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur.
The next part of the sugya involved the rabbis groping around in the dark just like us! There is a long series of examples from Tanakh and even Mishnah where the rabbis didn't know what an unusual word meant -- all those places where the JPS translation says "Meaning of Heb. uncertain", all those Jastrow jackpots where Jastrow quotes Rashi directly -- until they went to Arabia or Africa or Asia Minor and compared the Hebrew word in question to a foreign word. MAK pointed out that these rabbis were doing philological research, looking at cognates in other languages to understand the obscure Hebrew words. And some of their linguistic research involved listening to Rebbi's maidservant -- e.g. they were so cloistered in the beit midrash (just like us, with no clue about cows and bulls and oxen) that they didn't know that m'tatei (Isaiah 14:23) meant "broom"! In our day, anyone who has been to Jewish camp knows this word from the nikayon wheel. Standing on the shoulders of giants.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Why I don't observe Yom Hashoah
It's not because I'm opposed to mourning the Holocaust -- far from it. Nor am I opposed to the manner of mourning it. Reading the names of the millions of victims is a powerful reminder that this large-scale tragedy is composed of individual human lives, one by one. The 2-minute siren in Israel brings the entire country to a halt in respectful remembrance, not like how the Americans observe Memorial Day with barbecues.
The problem is with the Knesset's choice of 27 Nisan (26 Nisan this year to avoid Friday) as the date for the national holiday. [BTW, even though the main Knesset website is in Hebrew, Arabic, and English, the Yom Hashoah page is in only Hebrew and English. Something about that doesn't sit well.] I believe that this date (which isn't the anniversary of any particular event) fails to show proper respect to the memory of the victims and to the appropriate role of the Shoah in the evolving Jewish tradition.
This is an exceedingly rare occasion, when I see eye-to-eye with the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. (Generally I cannot abide their antidisestablishmentarianism.)
Why 27 Nisan is a bad idea:
1) [This was the Chief Rabbinate's original objection in the 1950s:] The month of Nisan, containing Passover, is the month of redemption when public mourning is traditionally forbidden. Nisan is associated with past redemption as well as the ultimate future redemption, at least according to Rabbi Yehoshua (RH 11a). I don't know or care whether the Exodus from Egpyt factually happened (ok, the Chief Rabbinate would not concur in this part), because it is more than a mere historical event. Yes, we have long incorporated into Pesach itself the idea that the joy of redemption is lessened due to suffering: we pour out ten drops of wine at the seder for the ten plagues, and we abbreviate hallel on the last six days of Pesach. However, it is one thing to say that archetypal redemption is diminished by archetypal suffering, and quite another to say that archetypal redemption is diminished by a particular instance of suffering, even a particular instance as unfathomably massive as this one. "The Holocaust changed everything" is undeniably true in regard to the historical journey of the Jewish people, but we cannot allow it to be true in regard to our mission of redeeming the world. It is myopic to think that the Holocaust is unique in history, when there have been attempts to wipe out the Jewish people for thousands of years, and genocide continues around the world to this day.
2) The full name of the day is Yom Hashoah v'Hagevurah: Day of the Holocaust and of Heroism. The Nisan date was chosen in order to place the memorial day close to the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, whose final battle began during Pesach. Rabbi Michael Strassfeld addresses this in The Jewish Holidays:
Possible alternative dates: (none of them original)
1) Commemorate the Shoah on Tisha B'Av or on one of its satellite fasts (the Chief Rabbinate originally proposed 10 Tevet). This would place Yom Hashoah in harmony with the existing liturgical calendar in just the way that putting it in Nisan doesn't. (Some may say that it is already in such harmony by being juxtaposed to Yom Ha'atzma'ut as discussed above, but perhaps the Jewish religious narrative has to diverge from the Israeli narrative.) Tisha B'Av et al. are already devoted to mourning and tragedy. Remembering the Holocaust would give 10 Tevet (or whichever day) fresh meaning, when thinking about Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem just doesn't do it for us anymore.
I acknowledge the counterargument that this would be inappropriate, because a theme of Tisha B'Av (etc.) is that the destruction was caused by our sins, and placing the Holocaust into this paradigm would be blaming the victims. However, I am not convinced, because (a) Tisha B'Av is about more than the destruction of the Temples; it has been connected to many tragedies throughout history and represents archetypal national mourning just as Pesach represents archetypal redemption, (b) though the victims were not responsible for the Shoah happening, we are responsible for ensuring that it doesn't happen again.
1a) The Fast of Esther??? Ok, it only works on paper. The story of Purim, beneath the masks, is indeed a chilling reminder of how close we can come to total annihilation. But I think in practice, a full-on Holocaust commemoration (with name readings and the siren) would be too much for the day before Purim.
2) R. Strassfeld goes on to propose 16 Cheshvan, the anniversary of Kristallnacht. (Indeed, my parents' synagogue was founded by German refugees in the 1940s, and has been commemorating the Holocaust on the closest Shabbat to November 9 since before Yom Hashoah existed.) This date has particular resonance with me since my grandmother was still in Berlin on Kristallnacht. Though the situation had been getting gradually worse for years (enough for my other grandmother and her family to leave for the US in 1936), Kristallnacht was the moment when it was clear that it would not get better. Unlike the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which represents the minority who engaged in armed resistance, Kristallnacht represents the full scope of the Shoah. And instead of the inappropriate pessimism of diminishing the joy of Nisan and the inappropriate optimism of leading into Yom Ha'atzma'ut, bitter Cheshvan (as the world (ok, the northern hemisphere) moves toward darkness and cold) is the month about nothing, the one month containing no feast or fast days. The destruction of 6 million lives served no greater purpose; it leaves behind only bitterness.
May we be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem, and may all of humanity learn from the lessons of the Shoah.
Next in this series: Why I don't observe Lag Ba'omer.
The problem is with the Knesset's choice of 27 Nisan (26 Nisan this year to avoid Friday) as the date for the national holiday. [BTW, even though the main Knesset website is in Hebrew, Arabic, and English, the Yom Hashoah page is in only Hebrew and English. Something about that doesn't sit well.] I believe that this date (which isn't the anniversary of any particular event) fails to show proper respect to the memory of the victims and to the appropriate role of the Shoah in the evolving Jewish tradition.
This is an exceedingly rare occasion, when I see eye-to-eye with the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. (Generally I cannot abide their antidisestablishmentarianism.)
Why 27 Nisan is a bad idea:
1) [This was the Chief Rabbinate's original objection in the 1950s:] The month of Nisan, containing Passover, is the month of redemption when public mourning is traditionally forbidden. Nisan is associated with past redemption as well as the ultimate future redemption, at least according to Rabbi Yehoshua (RH 11a). I don't know or care whether the Exodus from Egpyt factually happened (ok, the Chief Rabbinate would not concur in this part), because it is more than a mere historical event. Yes, we have long incorporated into Pesach itself the idea that the joy of redemption is lessened due to suffering: we pour out ten drops of wine at the seder for the ten plagues, and we abbreviate hallel on the last six days of Pesach. However, it is one thing to say that archetypal redemption is diminished by archetypal suffering, and quite another to say that archetypal redemption is diminished by a particular instance of suffering, even a particular instance as unfathomably massive as this one. "The Holocaust changed everything" is undeniably true in regard to the historical journey of the Jewish people, but we cannot allow it to be true in regard to our mission of redeeming the world. It is myopic to think that the Holocaust is unique in history, when there have been attempts to wipe out the Jewish people for thousands of years, and genocide continues around the world to this day.
2) The full name of the day is Yom Hashoah v'Hagevurah: Day of the Holocaust and of Heroism. The Nisan date was chosen in order to place the memorial day close to the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, whose final battle began during Pesach. Rabbi Michael Strassfeld addresses this in The Jewish Holidays:
Its connection with the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising seems to me to make us agree with those who would desecrate the memory of all the 6 million by emphasizing only those who engaged in armed resistance against the Nazis. It reflects a defensiveness about--and thus an acknowledgement of some truth in--the statements made by those who accuse the Jews of being led to slaughter as sheep. To emphasize the Warsaw Ghetto revolt is to accept those critics' field of discourse by trying to prove that some Jews did fight back. The Warsaw Ghetto should be remembered, but I am not willing to imply that its defenders were more heroic than any other of the 6 million, or, what is even worse, to imply even a subliminal embarrassment for those Jews who did not fight back.3) Yom Hashoah is always followed one week later by Yom Ha'atzma'ut (Israel Independence Day) , and the two days are firmly connected in the standard Zionist myth. [I am not using the word "myth" pejoratively, but simply to mean a narrative, true or false, that holds strong symbolic value. "Judaism is the myth around which I organize my life."--ER] As Yom Hashoah leads into Yom Ha'atzma'ut, the implied teleology is that the 6 million died as martyrs so that the State of Israel could be established. This is obscene. Just as the victims of September 11 did not give their lives to protect freedom, the victims of the Shoah did not give their lives for the State of Israel or any higher purpose. It is an insult to their memory to suggest that a net positive effect resulted from their deaths. They were murdered senselessly, and their deaths must be remembered in senselessness.
Possible alternative dates: (none of them original)
1) Commemorate the Shoah on Tisha B'Av or on one of its satellite fasts (the Chief Rabbinate originally proposed 10 Tevet). This would place Yom Hashoah in harmony with the existing liturgical calendar in just the way that putting it in Nisan doesn't. (Some may say that it is already in such harmony by being juxtaposed to Yom Ha'atzma'ut as discussed above, but perhaps the Jewish religious narrative has to diverge from the Israeli narrative.) Tisha B'Av et al. are already devoted to mourning and tragedy. Remembering the Holocaust would give 10 Tevet (or whichever day) fresh meaning, when thinking about Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem just doesn't do it for us anymore.
I acknowledge the counterargument that this would be inappropriate, because a theme of Tisha B'Av (etc.) is that the destruction was caused by our sins, and placing the Holocaust into this paradigm would be blaming the victims. However, I am not convinced, because (a) Tisha B'Av is about more than the destruction of the Temples; it has been connected to many tragedies throughout history and represents archetypal national mourning just as Pesach represents archetypal redemption, (b) though the victims were not responsible for the Shoah happening, we are responsible for ensuring that it doesn't happen again.
1a) The Fast of Esther??? Ok, it only works on paper. The story of Purim, beneath the masks, is indeed a chilling reminder of how close we can come to total annihilation. But I think in practice, a full-on Holocaust commemoration (with name readings and the siren) would be too much for the day before Purim.
2) R. Strassfeld goes on to propose 16 Cheshvan, the anniversary of Kristallnacht. (Indeed, my parents' synagogue was founded by German refugees in the 1940s, and has been commemorating the Holocaust on the closest Shabbat to November 9 since before Yom Hashoah existed.) This date has particular resonance with me since my grandmother was still in Berlin on Kristallnacht. Though the situation had been getting gradually worse for years (enough for my other grandmother and her family to leave for the US in 1936), Kristallnacht was the moment when it was clear that it would not get better. Unlike the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which represents the minority who engaged in armed resistance, Kristallnacht represents the full scope of the Shoah. And instead of the inappropriate pessimism of diminishing the joy of Nisan and the inappropriate optimism of leading into Yom Ha'atzma'ut, bitter Cheshvan (as the world (ok, the northern hemisphere) moves toward darkness and cold) is the month about nothing, the one month containing no feast or fast days. The destruction of 6 million lives served no greater purpose; it leaves behind only bitterness.
May we be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem, and may all of humanity learn from the lessons of the Shoah.
Next in this series: Why I don't observe Lag Ba'omer.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
The Religious Left
The Rockridge Institute, along with a coalition of religious and other organizations, is hosting an online conference on Spiritual Progressives: A Dialogue on Values and Building a Movement, from May 9-20. It's free to register! In the Jewish realm, the hosts include Rabbis Michael Lerner and David Saperstein so far.
From the conference's description:
This is long overdue.
Part of the Rockridge Institute's work is in reframing the public debate. I am planning to lead a workshop at this year's NHC Summer Institute in which we will look at the ideas in George Lakoff's book Don't Think of An Elephant and brainstorm ways that progressive Jews can apply these ideas to intra-Jewish religious discourse (in addition to political discourse).
From the conference's description:
Religious fundamentalists have become a dominant voice in American politics—so much so that the word “religion” has become synonymous with the conservative political perspective. Because of this perception the progressive movement has been reluctant to embrace religion of any stripe, seeing it as counter to values such as compassion, freedom and trust.
Progressivism, in general, has not recognized the millions of Americans who possess a strong and vibrant faith that complements their progressive political views. The voices of these Americans have yet to be heard in significant numbers. The Spiritual Progressives conference is a step towards a remedy.
This is long overdue.
Part of the Rockridge Institute's work is in reframing the public debate. I am planning to lead a workshop at this year's NHC Summer Institute in which we will look at the ideas in George Lakoff's book Don't Think of An Elephant and brainstorm ways that progressive Jews can apply these ideas to intra-Jewish religious discourse (in addition to political discourse).
When you get your own AP class, you can do what you want
So it's looking likely that next year I'll be teaching the newly wildly popular AP Physics C. This will be a chance to relive old memories.
In addition, an AP Physics B class will be offered to seniors for the first time in several years, so it will be important to clarify the distinction between the two. Some of the differences are obvious: B is all about breadth, C is about depth. B is a dizzying tour through a wide range of physics topics (though it will probably be much less dizzying for students who have already had a year of physics), while C focuses only on mechanics and E&M, going deeper into those two areas, particularly by using calculus throughout the course.
C is generally understood to be a more advanced course. However, after starting to read the Feynman Lectures (one of my projects for the summer), I have decided to frame it as a more fundamental physics course (albeit only for students with sufficient background in physics and math). In this course, students will master all the roots of classical physics. Everything in Physics B (except for the atomic physics at the end of the year) can in theory be derived from Physics C (the actual history of physics be damned!): conservation of energy and momentum in a system of particles leads to PV=nRT when averaged over 10^23 particles; Maxwell's Equations lead via some convoluted path to the simplicity of Snell's Law and the lens equation. That's how I want to introduce the course to the students on the first day.
In addition, an AP Physics B class will be offered to seniors for the first time in several years, so it will be important to clarify the distinction between the two. Some of the differences are obvious: B is all about breadth, C is about depth. B is a dizzying tour through a wide range of physics topics (though it will probably be much less dizzying for students who have already had a year of physics), while C focuses only on mechanics and E&M, going deeper into those two areas, particularly by using calculus throughout the course.
C is generally understood to be a more advanced course. However, after starting to read the Feynman Lectures (one of my projects for the summer), I have decided to frame it as a more fundamental physics course (albeit only for students with sufficient background in physics and math). In this course, students will master all the roots of classical physics. Everything in Physics B (except for the atomic physics at the end of the year) can in theory be derived from Physics C (the actual history of physics be damned!): conservation of energy and momentum in a system of particles leads to PV=nRT when averaged over 10^23 particles; Maxwell's Equations lead via some convoluted path to the simplicity of Snell's Law and the lens equation. That's how I want to introduce the course to the students on the first day.
How many
This blog is called "Mah rabu", Hebrew for "how many" (as an exclamation, not so much as a question). Ultimately the significance of this phrase is up to the reader, but the source is Psalm 104:24 - Mah rabu ma'asecha Adonai, kulam b'chochmah asita, mal'ah ha'aretz kinyanecha. JPS translates it "How many are the things you have made, [God]; You have made them all with wisdom; the earth is full of Your creations."
Psalm 104 (Bar'chi nafshi) is in the liturgy for Rosh Chodesh, each time the moon completes an orbit around the earth, and 104:24 is in the liturgy every morning, each time the earth completes a rotation on its axis.
Psalm 104 is the physicist's psalm. It describes a universe ordered by natural physical laws, with elementary constituents combining into complex systems. Where Psalm 29 expresses amazement at thunder and cataclysm, Psalm 104 expresses even greater amazement at the usual state of equilibrium and stability.
Once I saw a license plate that said "PSLM 104", and my initial reaction was that the Progressive Student Labor Movement had raised its demands to $10.4/hour from $10.25.
Psalm 104 (Bar'chi nafshi) is in the liturgy for Rosh Chodesh, each time the moon completes an orbit around the earth, and 104:24 is in the liturgy every morning, each time the earth completes a rotation on its axis.
Psalm 104 is the physicist's psalm. It describes a universe ordered by natural physical laws, with elementary constituents combining into complex systems. Where Psalm 29 expresses amazement at thunder and cataclysm, Psalm 104 expresses even greater amazement at the usual state of equilibrium and stability.
Once I saw a license plate that said "PSLM 104", and my initial reaction was that the Progressive Student Labor Movement had raised its demands to $10.4/hour from $10.25.
Last night, in the moments my thoughts were adrift
I finally started a blog. Though I didn't think I would, perhaps revisionist historians will one day conclude that it was inevitable. I have no regrets about RRRR39's format as a long approximately-monthly email to a list of subscribers, but it's just possible that if our Israeli adventure had been just one year later, when blogs had started to take off... well, there's no use speculating about what might have been.
This will be a place to post thoughts about Torah, physics, politics, the independent Jewish scene, education, music, New York, and the intersections of all those areas (e.g. physics & Torah, physics education, the resurgent Religious Left in politics, independent musical Jewish stuff in New York, etc.).
In response to everyone's identical questions: No, I'm not giving the URL to my students, but yes, I'm aware of the implications of posting something for the whole Internet to see, and therefore I'm not going to write anything deeply personal or anything that I wouldn't want my students to read. If I can find their online oeuvre, they can find mine.
This will be a place to post thoughts about Torah, physics, politics, the independent Jewish scene, education, music, New York, and the intersections of all those areas (e.g. physics & Torah, physics education, the resurgent Religious Left in politics, independent musical Jewish stuff in New York, etc.).
In response to everyone's identical questions: No, I'm not giving the URL to my students, but yes, I'm aware of the implications of posting something for the whole Internet to see, and therefore I'm not going to write anything deeply personal or anything that I wouldn't want my students to read. If I can find their online oeuvre, they can find mine.
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