What are the four forms of Jewish meditation?

Rabbinic Judaism is a thoroughly meditative religion. In a recently completed paper we show how the Jewish meditator’s kavvanah takes at least four forms. Here are some excerpts…

In the first form of kavvanah, blessings are formulaic texts that appear liberally around the landscape of prescribed rabbinic practice. Blessings demand mindful meditative awareness of the physical world. The blessings for deriving benefit and for the performance of the commandments are mini-mindful meditative experiences for the meditator, interspersed throughout the waking day.

Judaism articulates a system of blessings for food, the meal, other ritual performances and natural events. Though frequent and repetitive, those brief, even momentary, performances are habituated spiritual pauses for meditation. This manner of meditation that we describe in the liturgical personality approximates what we typically call “mindfulness.”...

Rabbis, Pirates and Goldman Sachs

Three respected rabbis spoke out on the issue of copyright piracy at a conclave in Israel, reports the IP Factor blog. Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, Rav Shlomo Dzialowski and Rav Yitzhak HaLevi Clab made presentations:

...All three authorities accepted that since Halacha considers Civil Law on monetary matters as binding anyway, Copyright and Contract Law were sufficient to obligate parties not to make illegal downloads or installations. The ... discussion is, therefore, theoretical, in the sense that Talmudic or halakhic sources are not strictly speaking required...

We applaud this effort at leadership, even if it means that rabbis just provide Judaic support for existing civil law. That's welcome, it's good citizenship, we need more of it....more on the meeting here ...

And while we are on the subject of pirates, the Borowitz Report, hilariously rips into Goldman Sachs with this take down (hat tip to Mimi):

Somali Pirates Say They Are Subsidiary of Goldman Sachs

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA (The Borowitz Report) - Eleven indicted Somali pirates dropped a bombshell in a U.S. court today, revealing that their entire piracy operation is a subsidiary of banking giant Goldman Sachs.

There was an audible gasp in court when the leader of the pirates announced, "We are doing God's work. We work for Lloyd Blankfein."

The pirate, who said he earned a bonus of $48 million in dubloons last year, elaborated on the nature of the Somalis' work for Goldman, explaining that the pirates forcibly attacked ships that Goldman had already shorted.

"We were functioning as investment bankers, only every day was casual Friday," the pirate said.

The pirate acknowledged that they merged their operations with Goldman in late 2008 to take advantage of the more relaxed regulations governing bankers as opposed to pirates, "plus to get our share of the bailout money."

In the aftermath of the shocking revelations, government prosecutors were scrambling to see if they still had a case against the Somali pirates, who would now be treated as bankers in the eyes of the law.

"There are lots of laws that could bring these guys down if they were, in fact, pirates," one government source said. "But if they're bankers, our hands are tied." 

Israel Decides iPad is Kosher and it is not the Biblical Ephod

Israeli authorities determined that the iPad is Kosher and may be imported into the country.

Officially the government had circulated a dubious explanation for the three week ban based on claims that the iPad's wifi conflicted with bands used by the IDF.

Big cynics had come up with another explanation, summarized by Fortune's Brainstorm Tech:

Meanwhile a different, far more cynical explanation was gaining traction. Time magazine on Tuesday picked up a line of reasoning floated five days earlier in TG Daily by Aharon Etengoff, an Israeli-born journalist who spent a year doing public relations for the Israeli Defense Force:

"It is worth noting," Etengoff wrote, "that Apple's Israeli distributor, iDigital, is run by Chemi Peres, the hyper-entrepreneurial son of Israeli President Shimon Peres.

"Clearly, iDigital wants its lucrative cut of every iPad brought into the country — which it will undoubtedly receive when a modified European version of the iPad is approved for import over the next two or three months.

"But in the meantime, iDigital can't make money off the slow trickle of iPads entering the country via private citizens, tourists and international businessmen. (link)

The idea that the money and power at stake would be sufficient to influence Ben-Gurion custom officials seems a stretch.

We cannot resist offering our own (tongue-in-cheek) explanation.

At first religious authorities believed that the device was the sacred Biblical Ephod and would not permit it into the country fearing its power. In Exodus the bible describes the Ephod as a garment worn by the high priest upon which rested the Hoshen breastplate containing Urim and Thummim.

We note the close lexicographic similarity between the labels iPad and Ephod. And beyond that we note the eerie resemblance in appearance between the  Urim and Thummim on the priestly vestment and the way the app icons or photos display on the new Apple device.

We assume the authorities consulted with rabbinic experts and university scholars and decided that there was no biblical danger.

So bottom line the iPad is kosher for import into Israel.

We bring you the theories - you decide.

Our iPad addiction and our Review of the Crosswords app for puzzles

iPad strengths and weaknesses. Yes there are many. No question that for us the device has become addictive. Step-by-step we are figuring out what it's good for.

Reading. Yes. Everything digital - books, web sites, blogs, newspapers, stock market news, portfolio tracking... and we don't play games, so who knows what the device offers in that department? Music, for sure. Videos, yes. Pictures, once you get them onto the thing, it's great. Use it as a phone, yep, even without 3G, you can use Skype. We spoke to a colleague in India last week. Audio only, but hey, no complaints.

What is doesn't do so well: print (see humor on the topic). Multi-task, no and can you believe that? Word processing. Not tested yet. Using Notes and Evernote, input works. But no fancy stuff. This is too rambling. So let me shift gears.

Review of the Crosswords app for iPad from Stand Alone
We wanted a way to access and solve the NY Times puzzle on our iPad. We first tried another program from Magmic that worked reasonably well with a free trial that lasted a week. Then poof it stopped and asked us to renew. But we pay for the daily NY Times so we have access to the puzzles included. Now we needed to pay again $16.99 for a year. That's double billing in our book. Boo.

Luckily we found the app from Stand Alone. Yay. It is $9.99 and gives you a means to tap into your existing subscription to the Times puzzles. It also has a neat interface, ways to get hints if you get stuck and access to puzzles galore. We give this app 4 stars.

The Crosswords App is currently available for the iPhone and iPod touch for $9.99 on the iTunes App Store at: http://itunes.com/apps/Crosswords. A free version of Crosswords, with a catalogue of sample puzzles, is also available at: http://itunes.com/apps/CrosswordLight. Crosswords website: http://standalone.com/iphone/crosswords/

Next we bought the BeautifulPlanet App to see the photo quality. It rocks.

More iPad apps that we like - Free Edition:
NYC Traffic - many cams to choose from, not such an intuitive interface
NY Times - Editor's Choice is a sample of the paper - nice format
WSJ - Gives you sample content - they clearly want your money
Bloomberg - great graphic charts and gobs of news, a gorgeous app.
QFolio HD - Nasdaq OMX - market tracking, charts with overlays, another winner
Reuters News Pro and Marketboard - both superlative
Skygrid - news browsing, not bad.

Books
Kindle - without the Kindle, you have a Kindle!
iBooks - a nice start towards competition for Kindle
Free Books - not bad for free
Bible - Yep it is the word
Pocket Siddur - just the text sir
Hebrew PB - allows input in Hebrew - yes that is a big problem.

Fun things
iSigns HD - just signs
iBanner HD - iPad becomes a scrolling banner
Newton Free - a cute clock
Adobe Ideas - freehand notes and much more when we have the time (look for that little arrow in the top left to get the menu back out!)

Music - Pandora is good
Skype - it works...

What a great device.

All Religions Lose When Priests, Imams, Ministers or Rabbis Behave Badly

AP reports that an Irish Bishop has resigned from his position saying,

"The truth is that the long struggle of survivors to be heard and respected by church authorities has revealed a culture within the Church that many would simply describe as unchristian," Moriarty said in a statement Thursday. "This has been profoundly dispiriting for all who care about the church."

How about what it means for all of us who care about any organized religion?

And then we have reports of people purporting to defend Islam by threatening death to Matt Stone and Trey Parker (pictured), the creators of the cartoon South Park, for lampooning Muhammed.

We often mentioned on this blog instances of Jewish Rabbis and Protestant ministers behaving badly too, although not for abuse of children or death threats to heretics.

Religion is a voluntary association in most of the world. It's bad for all religions when the leaders of any one of them make it distasteful for good wholesome people to associate with their organizations.

Israel's Malaise and the Talmud's Blasphemy?

Two instances of the sad state of journalism in the United States.

1. The Times reports, based on anecdote and oddball opinion alone, that the 7.5 million Israelis are in a funk - a bad mood - a malaise. Shades of Jimmy Carter.

Memo From Jerusalem
Mood Is Dark as Israel Marks 62nd Year as a Nation By ETHAN BRONNER
Both left and right in Israel are troubled, largely about the same things, especially the Iranian nuclear program and tensions with the Obama administration.

Meanwhile back in Teaneck NJ we saw record numbers of Jews celebrating Israel Independence Day in synagogues with prayers and dancing and no visible malaise. Go figure.

2. The Wall Street Journal publishes a list called "Five Best" with Diarmaid MacCulloch selecting books distinguished by blasphemous pasts. And guess which "book" is number one.

1. The Talmud, Edited by Isidore Epstein, Soncino Press, 1952

Is it offensive to include the Talmud on this list? Of course— but the point about blasphemy is that one person's revered sacred book is another one's blasphemous text, precisely because of its solemn claims about ultimate matters. This huge collection of rabbinic sayings and commentary was accumulated over at least four centuries after the final destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in A.D. 70. (I recommend the 35-volume first English translation of the most commonly used Talmud, known as the Babylonian version, edited by the British rabbinical scholar Isidore Epstein.) Medieval European Christians frequently burned the Talmud in public, decrying its supposed abuse of Jesus, but the real reason was that these volumes captured the rich variety of Jewish identity—the laughter of the wise as well as their most profound meditations.

The Talmud is not a book and it is not blasphemous. It is a massive collection of religious thoughts (he says that) about Jews, by Jews, for Jews. I never met a Jew who thought the Talmud was blasphemous. Isn't that the measure? That the insider judges a book by a fellow insider to be outside the line of acceptability? MacCulloch invents another scenario to explain and justify the blatant unwarranted anti-Semitism of the Catholic Church. He doesn't say the church was wrong. Oops. We are not surprised.

For Israel Independence Day -- Theodore Herzl's "A Jewish State"

For Israel Independence Day a free download of Theodore Herzl's "A Jewish State" -- perhaps one of the most influential publications in modern history.

Thanks to Google Books for the Digitization. Download: PDF - EPUB

When will the iPad be Kosher for Israel?

When will the high tech rabbis in Israel declare the iPad kosher for Israeli consumption?

It's been several days and still no solution to Israel's ban on the new device.  Apparently the issue has something to do with the  wifi bands used by the military there.

The LA Times Babylon and Beyond blog explains:

Legislator Robert Ilatov, of the Knesset's high-tech lobby, sent the communications minister a letter asking the ministry to soften its position on the matter. And if the problem is that the device's frequencies might interfere with those used by the Israeli army, according to the financial publication Calcalist (in Hebrew), Ilatov said the army could give up those frequencies. Other legislators have brought it up too.

Presumably, all this will be sorted out in coming weeks, and before long, the iPad too will be koshered for Israel.

Calcalist indeed does make the point that the IDF ought to adapt and permit the iPad to be imported:

אנשי מקצוע קבעו כי הבעיה היא שתדרי השידור של המכשיר עלולים להתנגש בתדרים הנמצאים בשימוש צה"ל, אולם אילטוב טוען כי הצבא יכול לוותר בנקל על התדרים הללו ולאפשר לישראל להיות בקו אחד יחד עם המדינות המתקדמות בעולם.

Weeks? That seems a bit slow. But then again, Microsoft has a lot of clout in Israel.

Is Oracle founder Lawrence Ellison Jewish?

Yes, Lawrence Larry Ellison is a Jew. He is the world's richest Jew according to the article, Who are the world's richest Jews? by Ronit Dumka and Dafna Maor in TheMarker.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Businessman Sheldon Adelson, Russian mogul Roman Abramovich and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg rank among the world's richest Jews, according a new survey published by TheMarker.

The financial newspaper on Wednesday published an analysis of the world's richest Jews, ranking them by sector and industry and based on their standing on Forbes' list of the world's richest people.

Most of the people included on TheMarker's list have business ties with Israel and are also involved in philanthropy for Jewish causes.

Contrary to Forbes' list, a number of the Jewish billionaires listed have not inherited their fortunes, but rather earned them through entrepreneurial initiatives or political changes, such as the dissolution of the former Soviet Union.

So who ranks number one? According to TheMarker, Oracle founder Lawrence Ellison is the richest Jew in the world, with a net worth of $28 billion (Forbes No. 6).

Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg News service, ranks as the richest Jew in the media industry, with a net worth of $18 billion (Forbes No. 23). Isaac Perlmutter, CEO of Marvel Comics, ranked second on TheMarker's list, with a net worth of $1.6 billion (Forbes No. 616).

In the technology sector, Ellison came in first place again, followed by Facebook's Zuckerberg, the youngest member of TheMarker's list, with a net worth of $4 billion (Forbes No. 212).

Energy companies and Chelsea football club owner Abramovich led the way in the oil and commodities section, with $11.2 billion (Forbes No. 50), followed by Viktor Vekelsberg, the owner of Renova Group, a large Russian conglomerate (Forbes No. 113). His net worth stands at $6.4 billion.

Other categories ranked by TheMarker include real estate, finance and gambling and tourism, with Australian property developer Harry Triguboff (Forbes No. 316), entrepreneur George Soros (Forbes No. 258) and Adelson (Forbes No. 73), topping those categories, respectively.

Our iPad is Our Kindle

What a great device!

The Kindle app (free) on our iPad is now better than our 3 Kindles ever were.

Other people think so too.

...Consumers dumping Kindles for iPads

To keep pace with consumers' heightened expectations about what a tablet-style computer should do, Amazon may need to lower the Kindle's price or introduce such new features as a color screen to make the device more compelling, analysts say.

Many iPad buyers seem poised to use them as e-reader replacements. On Apr. 3, the day the tablet went on sale, Piper Jaffray surveyed 448 customers in line at Apple's New York and Minneapolis stores. Ten percent of prospective buyers said they had considered a Kindle but decided instead to buy an iPad. And 58% of the respondents who already owned Kindles said they planned to stop using them in light of their iPad purchase...more...