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jews on tumblr discussing parshiot and talmud

@alternativetodiscourse

This blog is a space for discussion of Jewish topics, and hopefully for debate as well. I'm Orthodox, so that's the background I'm coming from, but all backgrounds are welcomed! If you ever need translation of a word or clarification of a concept, I'd love to help out - message me, send me an ask, write on the post itself, whatever.
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I realised that in like, discussions and stuff, I've never heard him referred to as Israel/Yisroel, just Jacob/Ya'akov. Is there a reason, or is it just to distinguish between the person Israel and the people Israel?

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I’m not sure whether there’s a real theological reason. He’s not really referred to as Ya’akov at all in the text - I mean, he only gets named Yisrael in this week’s parsha (not the one we just read, the one we started reading at mincha today), and even then, the verse right after Hashem finishes talking to him about his name, it says “And Ya’akov built a monument in that place… and Ya’akov called that place Beit-El…” and so on. It’s kind of a name that Hashem calls him, but no one else.

I’ll see if I can find anything further when I read the parsha more in depth this week.

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Re-reading this, I realized I got it pretty wrong. Unlike Avraham’s name change from Avram, in which his new name became a replacement, Yaakov and Yisrael are both used throughout the rest of the Torah. As far as I’ve learned, they represent different aspects of his character. Yaakov is the “person” side, the timid torah scholar, while Yisrael is the “leader” side, the one who can wrestle an angle and walk away triumphant. You can see three different takes on the name change that focus on the difference between Yaakov and Yisrael here, here, and here

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I'm glad to see you're back. :D

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Thanks! I am in school this year which is much more intense than in previous years. (In fact, I am learning at Nishmat, an institution for women’s higher Jewish learning, this year.) This means I am not available 99% of the time. But I am trying to get back online more and be more present, since I’m spending so much time on Jewish studies/around authorities.

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also a bunch of links about latkes and other deep fried things.

I’m especially interested in  frittelle di riso (pine nut and raisin-studded rice fritters). (i’m Italian and into food history) also can you tell i’m getting very into your blog?

also from one of my favourite food bloggers, I imagine team applesauce will like https://smittenkitchen.com/2010/11/apple-latkes/ as well as all debs other Jewish recipes https://smittenkitchen.com/recipes/jewish/ because I’m making her brisket right now.

thank you for all the work you put into your posts!

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I was trying to learn Eicha trope (cantillation for the book of Lamentations, which we read on Tisha B’av), not because I will practically use it, but because it is interesting, and I stumbled across this recording of the prayer Eli Tziyon.

Now, this prayer is a kinnah, one of the poetic expressions of mourning we read. This specific kinnah is usually the last one that we read. One would expect that the tune of such a prayer would be, I don’t know, sad? For example, an inappropriate emotion to get after listening to a song whose refrain is “Wail, Zion and her cities, as a woman in her birthing pains, as a maiden donned in sackcloth for the husband of her youth,” would be “Wow, I really feel inspired to march out to war now,” right? Right? 

So then why does this kinnah sound more like a marching song than a mourning one? Why? Look, I would understand if this prayer was “עלה ציון,” or “alei tziyon,” rise up, Tzion, but it isn’t! It just isn’t! The title of the song is “אלי ציון”, “eli tziyon,” wail, Tzion, and no amount of singing this song as if it is a chant meant to inspire you for war will change that! 

And I’ll admit. As the grandchild of someone who sometimes angrily listens to “more mEANINGFUL versions” of Eli Tziyon, maybe I’m not one to talk. Maybe that’s just how congregations sing it, and there’s not much I can do, and I shouldn’t be getting this angry over one poem. But I am getting this angry. And so I decided to share it with all of you. You’re welcome. 

For more information about the meaning of Tisha B’av, I find this resource helpful. For more about this specific kinnah, try here. For those who will be fasting, here is an easy way to find times for your area, though of course asking a rabbi is preferable. And for everyone, have a meaningful Tisha B’av!

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if you were on a different planet during Yom Kippur, do you fast for the standard 25 hours or the planet's equivalent of 25 hours (sunset to sunset + one hour)?

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I researched this question for a long time, and every time I try to conceptualize how halacha-related time works in space, my brain kind of breaks. 

The key problem here, as far as I can tell, is that people don’t live on non-Earth planets, so we only have hypotheticals. One of the only practical examples comes from Ilan Ramon, an Israeli astronaut on Columbia, who asked a Chabad rabbi how he could observe Shabbat while in orbit. The rabbi ruled that he should keep Shabbat according to the timing at Cape Canaveral, the site of his launch, rather than observing it every 7 sunrise/sunset cycles, which would have worked out to every 10.5 hours for him. (Shabbat is a relevant analogy to Yom Kippur timing because in both cases there is the option of keeping your own count vs. keeping the count that’s on Earth). 

A traveler who is not sure where they are in respect to the date line (and thus doesn’t know whether they’ve jumped 24 hours in time or not), has no way of figuring out, and is not able to reach a Jewish community for Shabbat keeps Shabbat according to their own count - you can read a little about this on my Shabbat/repetition of days post. Ilan Ramon would be in a similar position - he isn’t establishing his own count, but rather using the count from before his launch. This introduces a wrinkle: in a place with a settled Jewish community, the ruling in Ramon’s case (and the extension, that you would keep 25 hours of Yom Kippur), may not apply. 

Ultimately, we have some hypothetical discussion, which you can find on sites like Mi Yodeya (judaism.stackexchange.com), but I am having a lot of trouble finding material that can stretch this far. There are too many complications that stretch far past what we have established. If you’d like my two cents, I think that you would use the analogous timing on the planet for Yom Kippur, but that’s just based on gut feeling. 

Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful! Please continue submitting questions - as always, you can submit asks to me, send me private messages, and so on. (My inbox is slightly broken! If you’re not getting a response, you may want to PM me.) 

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Anonymous asked:

May I use your kaddish-for-vampires idea in the tabletop rpg I'm currently running?

Yep! You may want to do some research as to what is disrespectful to recite outside of a prayer research first, though, since kaddish is a pretty important prayer and has more rules surrounding it. (If you’re not actually reciting it, this shouldn’t be a concern, but if you’re going to recite any sort of version, do research first). 

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Anonymous asked:

Do you think in the event of moon colonies, that Jewish people can be buried on the moon?

I … that’s a really good question. I can’t think of any immediate reason why not,  but there may be something I’m forgetting. 

Jumblr? Any  thoughts? 

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Ooh, pick me! 

Okay, I don’t know of a definitive answer, though I’m leaning towards “probably okay,” but I can definitely complicate this scenario! 

1. Background: 

Jewish burials demand that when a person is buried, they be buried in the ground in a plain wooden casket, so that they can “return to the earth” as quickly as possible. We’re pretty extra about the caskets. Wooden dowels used in place of screws so that there’s no metals, biodegradable materials only, etc. Also, in my experience, we’re not very squeamish about the caskets. I built a casket at age 13 at a synagogue event. (On second thought, that may not actually be considered normal.)

2. The question: 

The relevant question, then, is whether the burial facilities on the moon count as “the ground.” I’m thinking about the creation story: Adam is created from ״עפר מן האדמה״, afar min ha-adama, or “dust from the ground.” (Bereishit/Genesis 2:7). Rashi comments on the seeming repetition of using both afar and adama: the double language is because Adam was created out of earth from all of the world, so that in every place that a person would die, in that place they could be buried

So what does Rashi mean when he talks about the whole world?

Rashi uses the very vague term “from the four winds,” or “four directions.” (For the verse with Rashi in both Hebrew and English, see here). It is thus useful to look at the broader context of what is categorized as “the earth” vs. “the heavens.”

Generally, when the Torah or halacha wants to talk about something applicable to the whole world, they use the phrase “on the earth.” Similarly, a distinction is drawn between the “earth” and the “heavens” - the Torah is not in the heavens, for example, or see the verse in Psalms: the heavens are heavens for Hashem, and the earth was given to the children of man. There is a split between those who define the earth as literally the Earth and the heavens as anything, say, outside the atmosphere, and those who define the heavens as something spiritual, beyond our reach. In the second category, you can find older commentators such as the Ramban (Nahmanides), who defines “heavens” as the category of things that have no physical bodies, along with more modern rabbis who lived to see space travel and greater understanding of space generally. The first category contains more literalist interpretations of the world. 

As far as I can tell, the definition of “the heavens” as something spiritual, leaving “reachable space” under the category of “earth,” is the better-supported one. After all, if the Torah is not in the heavens, but we are... does that mean we don’t have to keep halacha? What about the fact that in Devarim (Deutoronomy) there is a commandment to keep the Torah all the days you are alive on earth?* In addition, more and broader-accepted rabbis are behind the second category.

3. TL; DR - Conclusion:

As a result, it makes sense to conclude that Rashi’s “all four directions” could plausibly include “every physical celestial body,” making it permissible to bury Jews on the moon: it will count as “returning to the earth,” which, as mentioned above, is what Jewish burial is trying to achieve. 

4. Footnotes and sources: 

Footnote: if you have to live on a colony, I would imagine that rabbis would be pretty lenient in deciding whether you could have a proper burial there. After all, better an approved, if by small margins, Jewish burial than someone remaining unburied. 

Second footnote: You would probably want a system that allows for decomposition of the body, since that’s part of “returning to the earth.” I don’t know how that would work on the moon. 

Asterisk: There is actually an opinion that halacha doesn’t apply in space for these reasons, but it is pretty broadly rejected and viewed as radical. See here for some more details. 

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Choni Ha-Ma’agel,” or in English, “Honi the Circle-Man,”

I’ve seen it rendered as “Circle-Maker” but that’s not quite right either?  “Circler” would be the word if that were a thing in English.

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bigscaryd

I’m just sort of confused as to the op blog name and content. Is the suggestion we draw a circle and refuse to step out if it until people stop being hateful?

It’s not a suggestions blog (that would be alternativestodiscourse I guess?), just a blog for discussing Torah study and related things instead of The Discourse.

Although now you’ve got me thinking …

“He drew a circle in the dirt, and called out, Master of the Internet!  I will not stir from this circle until the toxic discourse ceases.”

“At once the entire Internet fell silent.”

“Honi called out, Master of the Internet, it is not this ceasing I mean; for is not a drought of speech surely as terrible as a drought of rain?”

“At once the entire Internet burst forth again in speech, in finger-pointing, and in shaming.”

“Once more Honi called out, Master of the Internet, it is not this I mean either, but a debate for the sake of truth.”

“And there came a mighty voice from above, and it spake: my dude, the Unfollow button is there for a reason.  And Honi saw that it was so.”

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In response to the ask I just received (which I am looking into right now!), I want to clarify: I am 100% open to answering fanfiction trope halacha questions as well as fantasy questions. Like, I am so down for it. Please ask me fanfiction trope questions.

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If you time traveled back to when the Temple was still a thing, do you think you'd be obligated to make a sacrifice? I asked my rabbi and he did that rabbi 'ask 20 questions about it as an answer' thing, and I just want to hear peoples' opinions.

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If the Temple was still standing in the time period you were living in, then yes, you’d be obligated in sacrifices just as anyone else would be. 

I think your rabbi might have been right in asking you questions about what you meant! Let me know if I’ve misunderstood and there’s a nuance I’m not seeing. 

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heads up

Hey,

I’ve been thinking a bit about this blog and... okay, so I get a decent number of asks/messages, and they’re pretty split: many of them are “hey look at this cool supernatural thing! can we talk about it in Jewish/halachic terms!” or “hey I have this halachic question!” while others are “is this antisemitism?” or “are Jews white?” or “can I convert?” or “can I call myself part of x/y/z group?” 

In the past, I’ve answered both types of questions, albeit occasionally uncomfortably. I am not going to do this going forward

I will continue to happily answer all of the weird halacha and similar questions from a Jewish perspective as thoroughly as I have been doing so far (... and probably with the same time delays... I’m sorry...). But I do not have the mental or emotional energy, or the expertise, to answer the second group of questions. That is not what this blog is for. 

Thank you all for understanding. 

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blueandnoah asked: 

hi! so i’m a non-jew, but i lived in a jewish residential building last year that was home to jews and non-jews alike. we were supposed to keep kosher in the dining room, but other areas in the house were fair game (i say this as an indicator of how liberal/not the house was). as a vegetarian there wasn’t much for me to eat at meat dinners so i’d have bread and margarine, but now that i know about ma’arit ayin, i wonder if i shouldn’t have done so. certainly one of the cooks once asked me if the margarine was butter (so it wasn’t totally clear what i was eating). so basically, as a non-jew obligated to keep kosher because of the rules of the house, should i also have followed ma'arit ayin, or is that a separate thing that didn’t apply to me? (i’m not living there anymore, so this is a question borne of curiosity and not of necessity.) thanks for any consideration =)

That’s a really thoughtful question! The quick answer: because of the fact that margarine is commonplace, eating margarine during meat meals wouldn’t have been a problem of ma’arit ayin even if you were Jewish. 

Essentially, due to ma’arit ayin, some actions are prohibited despite not technically breaking halacha because they look like you’re breaking halacha - like, imagine you went to a Jewish community which had never seen soy burgers before and started eating one with cheese. They’d probably assume you were breaking kashrut, even if you weren’t, and so that wouldn’t be okay from a perspective of ma’arit ayin. 

In the modern day, margarine is well-known. People use it a lot, and even if it initially looks a little strange, we can reasonably assume that you weren’t eating butter. (The cook may have asked because you weren’t Jewish and they weren’t sure if you had, I dunno, forgotten about milk and meat, but given the respectful tone of the ask I’m going to assume you were reasonably well-trusted in this area.)

One caveat: the sources I looked at about this discussed only how Jews should behave. It is possible that I have missed a nuance that comes with you not being Jewish, or missed something elsewhere. As usual, followers please feel free to respond/add to the post. And anyone who wants to ask me a question can always do so in my ask box or by messaging me. 

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