a translation with commentary by Robert Alter
Christianity
The Spiritual Messages of Chanukah and Christmas — and Their Downsides
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Christmas and Chanukah share a spiritual message: that it is possible to bring light and hope in a world of darkness, oppression and despair.
2010
Fasting for Tom Zipper
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I sent a text to my rabbi, asking whether I would have to give up coffee for Yom Kippur — but my cell phone “corrected” my message, assuming that “Yom Kippur” was my typo-laden attempt to thumb-type “Tom Zipper.” My rabbi texted me back, asking (reasonably enough) why this Tom Zipper fellow would want me to give up coffee.
2010
Jewish Anti-Zionism
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Jewish opposition to the State of Israel arises partly from the sense that Judaism is a religion of introspection rather than political action.
2010
Strange Land, New World
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I am the first Jew to live in this cloistered Benedictine monastery. I don’t blend. I wear a kippah everywhere I go, and I observe the Sabbath and all Jewish holidays. I’m studying to become a rabbi, and I live here in this remote community of Catholic monks vowed to chastity and obedience.
Articles
The Exile of the Presence and the Presence of the Exile
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Through all this long history of the succession of nations, one nation in the world trailed in the wake, Israel by name. Time after time it was cast about and driven from one country to another. Its rucksack, always ready at hand, was filled largely with books — books for the study of the Torah.
2010
Elements of a Philosophy for Diaspora Judaism
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Why be Jewish? Why join temples? Why bother to introduce our children to Jewish ideas and practices? Answers to these questions vary from person to person and from age to age, but the questions persist. The questions seem as perpetual as the Jewish people itself.
Jewish Wisdom
The Spirit of Sukkot Contradicts Israel’s Occupation of Palestine
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Is it anything more than hypocrisy for Jews to dwell in sukkot this holiday, pretending to make ourselves vulnerable to material insecurity, when in fact we have huge material and military security but instead are imposing insecurity on the Palestinian people?
Jewish Wisdom
For Those Approaching High Holidays with a Heavy Heart
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Is there a place for the heavy of heart in the Rosh Hashanah experience?
Jewish Wisdom
America Needs Repentance: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Atonement Are Not Just for Jews
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Now that the Iraq war is supposedly winding down, America needs a period of reflection, repentance and atonement before rushing into more of the same mistakes we’ve been making globally and domestically.
2010
Yankee Doodle Faced Big Oil
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The human race — not for the first time in our history — has lost the sacred sense of self-restraint. We don’t restrain ourselves. And what’s the result? The earth will give forth thorns and thistles, not abundance, and you will have to work with the sweat pouring down your faces to get just barely enough to eat.
Articles
Love the Life–and Activism–You’re In
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“Awakening Joy: Ten Steps that Will Put You on the Road to Real Happiness” by James Baraz and Shoshana Alexander: Review by Margie Jacobs
Articles
High Holiday Workbook
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Repentance is good for the soul, and for our activism. Use this workbook—whether you’re Jewish or not—to reflect on this past year and how you can deepen your life in the next one.
2010
Ever Dying, Never Dead – That’s Life!
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On Yom Kippur we strive to be angels, but we are also reminded of our essential difference from them.