Oy Vey! What if ... your Gmail Disappeared?

The Gmail blog informs us:

Imagine the sinking feeling of logging in to your Gmail account and finding it empty. That’s what happened to 0.02% of Gmail users yesterday, and we’re very sorry. The good news is that email was never lost and we’ve restored access for many of those affected...more...

OMG, the blog tells us that, "To protect your information from these unusual bugs, we also back it up to tape."

Say it ain't so! $200 billion dollar company Google uses tape backup? May we say, Oy Vey!

My Love is Blue, My World is Blue, My Religion Too

In 1968 the song by Paul Mauriat & His Orchestra - Love Is Blue - topped the pop charts for weeks. What do the lyrics mean? "Blue, blue, my world is blue. Blue is my world since I'm without you..." Blue to us in our culture is a marker of sadness.

Not so in ancient Israel. Blue there was a marker of sanctity and royalty.

Hat tip to Bernice for bringing this wonderful Times article to our attention about the new discoveries and debates over the true blue color that the Torah says we must use in the fringes of our clothing. Bernice cares about colors -- she is an artist.

Memo From Ramat Gan -
Rediscovered, Ancient Color Is Reclaiming Israeli Interest
By DINA KRAFT
RAMAT GAN, Israel — One of the mysteries that scholars have puzzled over for centuries is the exact shade of blue represented by “tekhelet,” which the Bible mentions as the color of ceremonial robes donned by high priests and ritual prayer tassels worn by the common Israelite...more...

Why do People Speak About the Talmud in Jargon?

Two widely diverse items that we read this weekend made us ask, Why do people speak about the Talmud in jargon?

The question, in greater detail, in two parts, is first, Why do American Yeshiva trained Jews speak about Talmudic matters in a private dialect of English that some call "Yeshivish" and others call "Frumspeak"? (The similar question may be raised for Hebrew discourse about the Talmud. It too is in a dialect separate and apart from the secular modern Hebrew that is spoken in the marketplace in Israel today.)  And second, Why do some university scholars speak about the Talmud in inaccessible learned terms?

Times Magazine (Preview): NJ Governor Christie Declares War on Teachers

It's beyond belief. The Times Magazine reports that NJ Governor Christie has declared war on teachers, as he cuts taxes on the high earning upper class.

Christie's program: Take from the poor and give to the rich. 

Read it here.

CNN Update on Media Matters: Glenn Beck says Reform Rabbis are like Radicalized Islam

Update: An early Yom Kippur -- Glenn apologizes and rabbis forgive. 
 
See over 1000 comments on CNN.

Glenn Beck says that Reform rabbis are like radicalized Islam because they took out an ad asking for his termination.

(a) Glenn Beck, come to my local synagogue where an Orthodox rabbi talks radical right wing politics every week.
(b) Have you lost your mind making such comparisons? No wait, obviously you have.

Here is the recording, check it out at minute 3:00, and the transcript, courtesy of Media Matters. Thanks guys, for trying to keep them honest.



STU BURGUIERE (executive producer): And now remember, this is all fueled by an organization that Soros funds, that has a bunch of progressive rabbis that came out against Glenn and said --

BECK: OK, you have to -- hang on just a second. When you talk about rabbis, understand that most -- most people who are not Jewish don't understand that there are the Orthodox rabbis, and then there are the Reformed rabbis. Reformed rabbis are generally political in nature. It's almost like Islam, radicalized Islam in a way, to where it is just -- radicalized Islam is less about religion than it is about politics. When you look at the Reform Judaism, it is more about politics. I'm not saying that they're the same on --

BURGUIERE: No, obviously not.

BECK: -- and they're going to take it at that, but -- stand in line.

BURGUIERE: "Glenn Beck says --"

BECK: It's not about terror or anything else, it's about politics, and so it becomes more about politics than it does about faith. Orthodox rabbis -- that is about faith. There's not a single Orthodox rabbi on this list. This is all Reformed rabbis that were -- that made this list.

BURGUIERE: Yeah, I don't know that for a fact. I know that certainly this organization is a progressive political organization. And that's fine.

Is Rahm Emanuel Jewish?

Yes, Rahm Emanuel is a Jew. He was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1959. In Hebrew the name Rahm means "lofty" and the name Emanuel means "God is with us."

Emanuel, the former chief of staff to President Barack Obama, won the Chicago mayoral election over five other challengers Tuesday 2/22/2011, topping the 50% threshold to avoid a runoff vote. He is the first Jewish mayor elected in Chicago.

The Times Sunday Magazine had a profile of him (3/14/2010), "The Limits of Rahmism," By PETER BAKER, "He was chosen as White House chief of staff because he could make things happen. What happened?"

Rahm's father Benjamin M. Emanuel was born in Jerusalem. He was a member of the Zionist group the Irgun during the British Mandate of Palestine. He is a pediatrician.

His mother, Martha Smulevitz, worked as an X-ray technician. She was the daughter of a local union organizer and herself was a civil rights activist.

Rahm attended Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Jewish Day School when his family lived in Chicago. He and his family are members of Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel, a modern Orthodox Jewish congregation in Chicago.

Is Drake Jewish?

Yes, hip hop artist Drake is a Jew. The Canadian, former child actor with the number one (rap) album appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel show where he discussed his Jewishness and compared it with Jewish reggae hip hop artist Matisyahu.

Now, Drake is not as good a Jew as Matisyahu, according to Matisyahu as reported by the HipHopWired blog which reported (Jewish Rapper Matisyahu Calls Drake Out and Says His Jewish Is "Just A By-Product") that Matis told "The Jewish Daily:

"Drake is a pretty good man. He's got his thing, but it's different than what I do." Continuing, he says of Drake: "He's Jewish, but he's not representing Judaism.

"He happens to be Jewish just like Bob Dylan happened to be Jewish, but what I'm doing is really tapping into my roots and culture, and trying to blend that with the mainstream...Drake's being Jewish is just a by-product."

Putting aside the debate over who is a better Jew, or more analytically, who is Jewish and who is Judaic, the funny Kimmel video clip is over at HipHopWired, we are not able to embed it here.

And yes for those who wonder, we are fans of rap music, because to study religions you must know about both the sacred and the profane.

Is Harry Potter Jewish?

No, Harry Potter is not a Jew. He is a fictional character.

A real Harry Potter is dead and buried in Israel.

YouTube: "A grave in the Holy Land is now an unlikely tourist attraction, because the person buried there is one very real Harry Potter, a forgotten soldier of a forgotten war. Although it is the final resting place of a teenage British soldier killed decades ago, that has not stopped wizard fans from flocking to visit."

A Glowing Review of "A Passover Haggadah: Go Forth and Learn" by David Silber with Rachel Furst

We were classmates with David Silber at Yeshiva University's High School, College and Rabbinical School. We studied Talmud together as chavrusas in High School in the shiur of Rabbi Gershon Yankelewitz (who is now 100 years old, may he live to 120). Silber went on the found the remarkable Drisha Institute on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and has spent his career in Torah education.

Rabbi Silber is an Orthodox Jewish scholar of major significance with the broad and deep knowledge of a first rate Talmid Chacham. While in high school, we recall that he placed among the highest finalists in the world Bible contest. Silber knew the entire Tanakh by heart and could cite it with great facility on any topic. He is known now as an expert in the entire range of Jewish learning and as a master teacher of our tradition.

Silber's new book will appear in time for Passover this year,  A Passover Haggadah: Go Forth and Learn. His collaborator in writing this book is Rachel Furst, an accomplished scholar and teacher in her own right. Although we single out Rabbi Silber here, all of our comments and compliments ought to be allocated between both authors.

Forward Recognizes the Challenge to Established Synagogues from Independent Jewish Prayer Groups

The Forward recognizes in an editorial and story this week (finally) that Jews do not need synagogues. Jews may pray anywhere that they gather. Judaism in its essence is not an institutional religion.

...Josh Nathan-Kazis reports this week, many independent minyanim have no interest in affiliating with this or any other denomination. “We don’t need the movement,” one minyan leader boasted. Perhaps not the “movement” as it is now structured, but engaged Jews — from establishment and upstart congregations — need to find a way to work together to shape a common future, especially if committed, egalitarian, non-Orthodox Judaism is going to survive. To do that, they must stop talking past one another and recognize some central truths....

And we add for those who will understand to what we allude, independent prayer groups have nothing to do with barefoot jogging, no how no way. They are the essential expressions of the primary modes of praying as articulated in the Mishnah and the Talmud, the rishonim and acharonim. Institutionalized synagogues as they are today are not the authentic representations of the preferred modes of prayer in classical Judaism.