Judaism for the Thinking Person
Religion & Spirituality:Judaism
In this sermon -- playing on the Rabbinic commentary that the name of the Torah portion that mentions Sarah's death is called "The Life [or Lives] of Sarah" because we should celebrate the lives she lead rather than think of her death-- I discuss Dara Horn's new book People Love Dead Jews, which argues that the non-Jewish world loves books about Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel because the stories of these dead Jews teaches us something universal and moralistic about ourselves, rather than challenging us to think of what Jewish lives are like, how they are different, how they might challenge us. How is it that Wiesel's Night went from its original form, a scathing accusation against the Euopean bystanders who let the Holocaust happen to a book about God's hiding? Because God's hiding happens in each of our lives, like a universalistic lesson about life's tragedies, and allows us to avoid the deep questions of Jewish difference and anti-Semitism. In this teaching, I also ask whether we Jews are guilty of this: inviting in our own Romantic visions of our ancestors --which allows us to live a two dimensional moralizing vision of them-- rather than embracing their difference, and practicing our own.
Spiritual Prep during Elul: What are the "Vows" absolved on "Kol Nidrei (All Vows)?"
Are the Torah stories history, revelation, invented fantasy, morality tales, or something else?
Two Kinds of Love in the Promised Land: The Fallacy of Loving Without Institutions
From Fearful to Fearsome: Getting Out Of Your Comfort Zone to Pursue Peace
"My Rabbi is Rabbi Jesus?" A Sermon on the Danger of So-Called "Messianic Jews"
Is there a reference to Jesus in the Saturday morning service?
Did a Shabbat Prayer Predict the Solution to the Whale Mystery?
Prayer and Sacrifice: Coming Close to God through a Proper Consciousness of Nature and our Words
Free to Love: A Halakhic Teacing in Honor of LGBTQ Pride Day
From Fear to Flirtation: My View of Why We Read the Song of Songs at the end of Pesach
A Sense of Justice: The Origin of the Drops of Wine at the Seder
What is Freedom? The Four Questions as Satire
What any Non-Jew (and especially teachers) Should Know About Judaism
Satan, The Voice of Failure, and Sinning Against Yourself
Why do we sing a mystical prayer about God's light when we take out the Torah? And why does God need a Menorah?
Ki Tissa: The Sin of Building Synagogues for Others to Use; and the Irony of "Holy for YOU!"
Holiness in Time not Space: Holidays and Daily Blessings Explained
Is belief in God necessary to be good Jew?
Torah Study Feb 7: The Invisible not the Supernatural
Dreaming, Your Two Souls (nefesh & neshamah), and Do You Know Who You Are?
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