Kosh's Shadow 9/10/2020 5:07:37 PM

1

buzzsawmonkey 9/10/2020 5:13:06 PM

2

Kosh:  I'd like to see someone address the way that Jews have been sold out by their rabbis, and by themselves.

As I've said before, possibly in slightly-different words:  When Napoleon knocked down the ghetto walls, the Jews didn't know what to do.  Some said, "Convert!", and did; some said, "Well, not quite..." which is how Reform Judaism was born.  Some said, "No, let's hunker down and stay as we are," which is where I recommend that people read Kafka's "In the Penal Colony," which addresses precisely this dilemma.  Some said, as Marx did, "I will transform my own self-hatred and my desire to shed my own background into a messianic dream where all people are the same!" 

Meanwhile, Jews in both Europe and America still had to deal with anti-Jewish prejudice, which meant that there were problems with jobs, with housing, etc.  Most American rabbis went Leftist; some stayed "traditional."  The former betrayed their congregations by eroding the entirety of Jewish observance; the latter betrayed their congregations by re-ghettoizing them and being unable to make Judaism relevant to modern American life.

JCM 9/10/2020 5:22:16 PM

3

Kosh's Shadow 9/10/2020 5:24:21 PM

4

In #2 buzzsawmonkey said: Kosh:  I'd like to see someone address the way that Jews have been sold out by their rabbis, and by themselves.

That is a great academic project - of course, not all rabbis sold out Jews; some sold out themselves.

It is, of course, Reform, and later "Conservative" rabbis who have sold out. (But then, for Reform, what do you expect from a movement that had shellfish at their founding dinner?)

I think, though, the bigger problem is those brought up, to modify a term, as "red tallit" babies - liberal, and then leftist, politics was more important than religion. The result are those who cry "Tikkun olam" without knowing what it means, and forget an important part of the saying "If I am not for myself, who will be?"

When we moved out to the suburbs, we went to an "independent" "temple". They used the Reform prayerbook, and nothing other than the most orthodox version of the service was satisfying to me. (No Chabad there, back then; now there is.)

That rabbi retired, and they have a new one, a red tallit one, who has been involved in protests, and his husband is involved somehow. I could not go back there.

Kosh's Shadow 9/10/2020 5:28:05 PM

5

‘Broken Values’: US-Israel expert documents how the Democrat party abandoned basic American truths

t’s not a simple matter to quantify changes in values over time in a political party. Yet Gideon Israel has done just that in his excellent new book, Broken Values: How the Democratic Party Betrays its Followers and America.

In the case of the Democratic party, Israel documents how the party has abandoned basic American values, adopting a dark view of America, a country built on stolen lands and mired in systemic racism.

Kosh's Shadow 9/10/2020 5:30:31 PM

6

Some videos from this group over the weekend, and comments on the lyrics.

So here's a song with the lyrics "If you don't expect too much from me, you might not be let down"

turn 9/10/2020 5:34:42 PM

7

Reply to JCM in 3:

Thanks, we need it to wash down the smoke JCM. Burning on the left coast and flooding on the right coast. What’s next?

JCM 9/10/2020 5:37:51 PM

8

Reply to turn in 7:

Glad the machine is working out, and sorry I didn't see your post.

Working at home keeps me busy and don't have time to read a thread.

What's next?

Combine Cascadia Fault and Andreas Fault mega quake!

JUKEBOX!

Kosh's Shadow 9/10/2020 5:38:08 PM

9

In #7 turn said: Burning on the left coast and flooding on the right coast. What’s next?

Stuck in the middle with you

buzzsawmonkey 9/10/2020 5:40:38 PM

10

Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 4:

There are six synagogues within walking distance of me, more or less.  One is the nearby one I go to, where the rabbi is a clueless boob, incapable of thinking anything that has not been handed to him by Chabad Central.  Two more are run by his sons, who I assume are similarly impaired.

Two of the others are also run by Chabadniks.  I've been to one; it was...unwelcoming and unpleasant.  The other is run by a seemingly-less doctrinaire Chabadnik.  Thanks, no.

That leaves the breakaway congregation which left my local, a congregation that is as Left, or almost as Left, as the local "conservative" synagogue led by a lesbian "rabbi."  No thanks. 

This in supposedly-Jewish New York.

turn 9/10/2020 5:42:04 PM

11

In #8 JCM said: Combine Cascadia Fault and Andreas Fault mega quake!!

You had to go earthquakes on us!!!

I understand about not seeing my posts, you’ve been busy. Thanks again for the computer JCM, so nice of you.

turn 9/10/2020 5:43:10 PM

12

Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 9: +++ 

Kosh's Shadow 9/10/2020 5:54:03 PM

13

Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 10:

I understand the Chabad in the town that had the independent temple is a bit of a money grubber (from my barber). I go to either Westford (Chabad of Nashoba Valley), where the rabbi is good and welcoming, or Westborough (further from me), where the rabbi is even better (and, I believe, has contributed to the Artscroll Talmud). Chabad does vary. Some places are more welcoming than others.

Both require a drive. Westford has High Holy Day services in a tent. One year, I went for the Maariv - and stayed home for the rest. The heating system made it intolerable for me. Other times, it is the mosquitoes.

And this year, given all of what is going on, I will have my own services at home. Artscroll Machzorim. (interlinear so I can understand more.)

Can't do the Kedushah, or some other parts of the service, but it will have to do.

There is something about COVID that Trump knows but hasn't said. I have reason to believe there is more than the government is telling us.

Kosh's Shadow 9/10/2020 6:12:12 PM

14

Kosh's Shadow 9/10/2020 6:13:43 PM

15

Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 14:

Turned out Maggie had a farm - jukebox

lucius septimius 9/10/2020 6:19:30 PM

16

Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 10:

No better on the other side of the fence.  My parish, which had been until a year or so ago very conservative politically and very traditionalist liturgically has been turned over to the Wokestapo, seemingly on the order of the bishop.  The vestry, which used to be the country-club sort, has been taken over by aging/aged earth shoe and macrame liberals who prattle on about global warming.  Meanwhile our Sunday school classes -- of which I had been a major figure -- have been transformed into Maoist consciousness-raising sessions led by radicals fulminating about "reinventing policing" at a time when we need to call back from retirement the officers who presided over Bloody Sunday in 1905.

I'm not sure where I could even go at this point.  I know the Baptists are conservative, but God, they make my skin crawl.

lucius septimius 9/10/2020 6:20:20 PM

17

Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 15:

A former colleague and I used to refer to our place of employment as "Maggie's Farm."

lucius septimius 9/10/2020 6:21:59 PM

18

Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 14:

More my style of Rod

Kosh's Shadow 9/10/2020 6:37:57 PM

19

Reply to lucius septimius in 18:

Spelled differently.
The Plimsoll lines on ships

The Plimsoll line is a reference mark located on a ship’s hull that indicates the maximum depth to which the vessel may be safely immersed when loaded with cargo. This depth varies with a ship’s dimensions, type of cargo, time of year, and the water densities encountered in port and at sea. Once these factors have been accounted for, a ship’s captain can determine the appropriate Plimsoll line needed for the voyage (see above image):

@PBJ3 9/10/2020 9:45:32 PM

20