Click above on the cover to preview my book.
Updated now with my columns
through February, 2016.
5/26/15
My Book has nearly three years of my Dear Rabbi Advice Columns from the Jewish Standard
Click above on the cover to preview my book.
Updated now with my columns
through February, 2016.
5/19/15
Is Bob Dylan Jewish?
Dylan turned 74 on his birthday, May 24, 2015.
Dylan was born a Jew named Robert Allen Zimmerman (Hebrew - Shabtai Zisel (or Zushe) ben Avraham) in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota, and raised there and in Hibbing, Minnesota. His paternal grandparents, Zigman and Anna Zimmerman, emigrated from Odessa, Russia around 1905. His mother's grandparents, Benjamin and Lybba Edelstein, were Lithuanian Jews who arrived in America in 1902. His paternal grandmother's maiden name was Kyrgyz and her family originated from Istanbul.
Dylan’s parents were Abram Zimmerman and Beatrice "Beatty" Stone. When Dylan was six, his father was stricken with polio. The family returned to Hibbing, where Zimmerman grew up.
A few years back Dylan recorded a Christmas album. Ryan McDuff, from the blog Bully! Pulpit reported:
LOS ANGELES, Calif -- Bob Dylan is recording his first Christmas album, Bullypulpit.com has exclusively learned and has been quietly compiling a collection that includes both Christmas carols and modern songs. At least four songs have reportedly been recorded for the album including, “Must Be Santa,” “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “I’ll Be Home For Christmas" and “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”Dylan's spiritual pendulum swings back and forth. In 2007 Dylan went to Chabad Lubavitch for Yom Kippur, where he got an aliyah to the Torah. JTA Reported back then:
The recording sessions have been taking place at fellow recording artist Jackson Browne's Groove Master’s Studios in Santa Monica, California, where Browne produced his album, "I’m Alive."
Prominent media expert and best-selling author Michael Levine said the move by Dylan was "completely consistent with his longstanding tradition of doing the unexpected. Concerning Bob Dylan literally nothing would surprise me which of course is part of his lasting appeal. He confounds like no other pop artist ever."
The inclusion of “O Little Town of Bethlehem," written by an Episcopal priest named Phillips Brooks in 1867 after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, is likely to fuel speculation about Dylan's religious beliefs that have swirled ever since he publicly converted to Christianity in 1979, recorded explicitly religious material on three subsequent albums and for a time refused to play his old songs. Religious references on subsequent recordings became less overt after 1981's "Shot of Love."
The other three songs, “Must Be Santa” by Hal Moore and Bill Fredricks, “Here Comes Santa Claus” by Gene Autry and Oakley Haldeman and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” by Buck Ram, Kim Gannon and Walter Kent were all written between 1943 and 1960.
"A Christmas album by Bob Dylan in the pipeline doesn't really shock me," said Scott Marshall, author of a forthcoming book on the singer, "God and Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life". "At first glance it may sound bizarre, but I don't think Dylan cares much about what his detractors might make of it. Dylan still sings songs from "Slow Train Coming" to this day and he's both never renounced being Jewish or renounced his experience with Jesus some three decades ago. He remains enigmatic and this will probably be talked about for years to come."
Bob Dylan's religious odyssey took a turn home on Yom Kippur.As always be sure to see my friend Larry Yudelson's Tangled Up In Jews site for more background on the Jews and Jewishness connected with Bob Dylan.
The folk legend attended services at the Chabad-Lubavitch of Atlanta... Dylan was born Jewish but has dabbled in several faiths.
He arrived at morning services wearing a ski cap and a tallit, and stayed for the duration, the Web site said. Dylan was called to the Torah for an aliyah by his Hebrew name, Zushe ben Avraham, according to the Chabad outpost's rabbi, Yossi Lew.
Dylan was in Atlanta for a concert following the holiday.
5/18/15
The Right Way to Teach the Talmud
There is a right way to teach Talmud. All Yeshivas essentially teach Talmud the same way - select the Tractate to teach -- open it and start reading. That is not the right way.
Here is a link to a short article that I wrote a while back, "Teaching Mishnah, Midrash and Talmud at the University."
I outline some of the course methods I have used in university courses and I make some generalizations, such as:
Here is a link to a short article that I wrote a while back, "Teaching Mishnah, Midrash and Talmud at the University."
...I do not use the traditional Yeshiva approach to designing a "syllabus", i.e., start on page 2A and learn as much as time permits in the tractate. I also do not emphasize the notion of the texts as part of "the Halakhah." This concept is a relatively modern construct, composed of many strata of texts, commentaries and codes. Some would argue it is a tool of those who foster rabbinic authority rather than a purely intellectual asset of our rabbinic heritage.Please see my article for more details. /repost from 8/5/06/
5/16/15
Mindful Meditation Makes You Three Times More Compassionate
Ever since I studied and practiced meditation in the early nineties, I knew the connection between meditation and compassion was the basic premise of the practice. Yet I did not expect that science would "prove" a causal link.
I wrote about mindfulness and the practice of reciting Jewish blessings and about the expressions of compassion in the Jewish grace after meals in my 2011 book, "God's Favorite Prayers."
I've also written about how the search for compassion defines the Yom Kippur services in the synagogue.
The essay described one breathtaking study - where the incredible conclusion was that mindful meditators are three times more compassionate than non-meditators.
Here is the article.
The Morality of Meditation
By DAVID DeSTENO
MEDITATION is fast becoming a fashionable tool for improving your mind. With mounting scientific evidence that the practice can enhance creativity, memory and scores on standardized intelligence tests, interest in its practical benefits is growing. A number of “mindfulness” training programs, like that developed by the engineer Chade-Meng Tan at Google, and conferences like Wisdom 2.0 for business and tech leaders, promise attendees insight into how meditation can be used to augment individual performance, leadership and productivity.
5/11/15
The Surprising Essences of Halakhah
Commonly Halakhah refers now to the body of Jewish law which governs the way of life of Orthodox Jews. They speak of the halakhah as if it was a unitary source of sacred guidance for what Jews ought to do or not do.
But it's not so simple.
I did some research a while ago into the use of the term in early rabbinic literature. I found that the term halakhah is not commonly used in the Mishnah, Tosefta, or the Tannaitic Midrashim as a primary theological category or as a main descriptor of an entire realm of content.
But it's not so simple.
I did some research a while ago into the use of the term in early rabbinic literature. I found that the term halakhah is not commonly used in the Mishnah, Tosefta, or the Tannaitic Midrashim as a primary theological category or as a main descriptor of an entire realm of content.
The word halakhah or its plural form appears 31 times in Mishnah, 105 times in Tosefta and in 59 instances in the early midrashic compilations: Sifra (20), Sifre Numbers (6), Sifre Deuteronomy (18), Mekhilta (10) and Mekhilta of R. Simeon Bar Yohai (5). There is one usage in the Dead Sea Scrolls. I based this on the concordance of the Academy for the Hebrew Language, microfilm version, searches conducted in 1995. Other search methods may provide different results.
By my reckoning there are at least 17 usages of the rabbinic term and concept halakhah in the early literature. I list them below.
Note well: Only categories V, IX and XII suggest that the rabbis referred to a body of knowledge called halakhah. The other categories of usage do not support that idea.
Note well: Only categories V, IX and XII suggest that the rabbis referred to a body of knowledge called halakhah. The other categories of usage do not support that idea.
Briefly the categories of the term are as follows.
5/10/15
Try out these New Talmud Internet domain links
I recommend that you click and try out these new Talmud Internet domain links:
- www.talmud.website = Halakhah.com
- www.talmud.link = Kindle Talmud
- www.talmud.space = Talmud @ Blogger
5/3/15
5/1/15
Get the Complete Babylonian Talmud in English on your Kindle
Featured for Kindle Talmud Tractate Hullin, translated by Tzvee Zahavy (=me)
Kindle Babylonian Talmud Hullin
To know what food is kosher, that is, fit to eat according to rabbinic Judaism, you must study the principles set forth in this volume, the Babylonian Talmud Tractate Hullin. This translation, adheres closely to the text so that the reader has a sense of the structure and balance of the original. Yet at the same time it conveys the flow of the legal arguments and debates, the dramatic unfolding of events in stories, and the sensitivities to words and language in the exegetical texts. Its aim is to facilitate a smooth conversation between readers and the text so that, without consulting the original Hebrew and Aramaic version, they can appreciate the substantive meaning and recognize some major aspects of the style of the Talmudic text.
Kindle from Amazon: the complete Babylonian Talmud in English (published by me)