If your repugnance towards anti-Semitism is only for the wrongs done to fictional Jewish characters and not living Jewish people, you need to reevaluate your priorities.

What you say: [Q]abbalah is part of the Western Tradition of magic and mysticism!

What you mean: we stole it long enough ago that we don't have to give it back

What I hear: you don't care about Jewish people at all

What you've communicated: there actually isn't a "Western Tradition" in the same way there's no such thing as "White culture," and what you actually mean is that your spirtual ancestors were colonists and Xian hegemonists who took what they wanted, and now you want their theft as your inheritance and the Jewish mysticism they stole as your heirloom

What is hateful to yourself, do not do to your fellow man. That is the whole Torah; the rest is just commentary.

Hillel the Elder

If your “answer” to antisemitism is to tell Jews to stop being Jewish, you are entirely missing the point.

Jews should have the right to live Jewish lives, without fear of being oppressed or murdered by gentiles. You are asking Jews to give up their heritage, religion, ethnicity, and very identity to escape persecution they shouldn’t have to experience in the first place.

And it’s not like separating ourselves from our Jewish identities ever stopped gentiles from persecuting us anyways.

Don’t schedule important events on major Jewish holidays

A lot of things get scheduled on major Jewish holidays, in a way that prevents Jews from being able to participate. This needs to stop. 

If you’re in charge of scheduling things like:

Please avoid scheduling on major Jewish holidays. The most important ones to avoid are:

These holidays are at slightly different times each year, because the Jewish calendar is lunar. Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are in the fall, Passover is in the Spring. You can check when they are at hebcal.com, and hebcal.com also has a calendar you can subscribe to that says when the holidays are.

Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are the times at which Jews who don’t go to synagogue at any other time of year go. (In the same way that some Christians only go to church on Easter and Christmas). They are also major family holidays, even for people who are otherwise secular. Yom Kippur is a 25 hour fast (from both food and water) and most people who observe it are pretty wiped out immediately afterwards. 

The first two nights of Passover are when Jewish families hold Passover seders. It’s a major family holiday, even for people who do not consider themselves religious and never go to synagogue at all. Nearly all Jewish families have some sort of seder. 

It is considerate to also avoid scheduling important events that would require travel on the day before and after these major holidays. It is critical to avoid scheduling events on the holidays themselves.

There are other Jewish holidays that will create conflicts for some Jews, but they’re not as important to most Jewish people. 

tl;dr: If you value Jewish participation and solidarity with Jews, it is critically important to avoid scheduling important events on on Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and the first two nights of Passover.

The Hebrew calendar measures days from sunset to sunset, so a single-day holiday will span two dates on the Gregorian (civil/secular) calendar. If the calendar you’re using doesn’t say ‘Yom Kippur begins at sundown,’ check another calendar to verify which Gregorian evening and day will have the holiday observance(s).

That too. Thank you.

When someone is a Christian they are not constantly asked their position on the holocaust, the transatlantic slave trade, the extermination of Native Americans or any of the thousands of atrocities committed by Christians. So why do Muslims get asked about terrorism and Jews about Israel and are grouped in with specific bad people while Christians are not required to explain themselves.

Now, there’s a thought.

I had a conversation with a friend the other day during which, after it came up that I only eat at kosher restaurants, she said that she hopes I don’t think less of her for being “a bad Jew”. And I just hate that whole idea so much. 

So, if anyone out there needs to hear this today: you are not a bad Jew. 

You don’t keep kosher or Shabbat? You’re not a bad Jew.

You can’t read Hebrew and don’t know what to do during the Amidah? You’re not a bad Jew.

You only celebrate Hanukkah and haven’t been inside a synagogue in years? You’re not a bad Jew.

You don’t know any brachot and can’t even remember the last time you prayed? You’re not a bad Jew.

You can still learn and take on mitzvot, if that’s something you want in your life. And if you don’t want any of that? That’s okay, too. You’re still not a bad Jew.

We’re a self-deprecating people. I know. I’m right there with you. But this one kills me. Wipe those words out of your mouth and stop tearing yourself down for all the things you never learned or don’t do. No matter what the reason is. It doesn’t matter.

You are not a bad Jew.

I’m upset because I want to change the world but the world is too big and people are too mean

“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” - Rabbi Tarfon

It is perfectly ok to want to embrace and take part in your own culture and reject goyische culture. It is your right to want to live as a Jew in every sense of the word.

Orthodox Judaism is not a cult, and if your gut instinct after getting into a disagreement with an Orthodox Jew is to tell them that their opinions don’t matter because they’re in one, you’re an antisemite and one who isn’t very good at arguing at that.

Rabbi Michael Marmur on “Mesorah” (via bighebrew)

Plain and simple Credit : https://lillithtits.tumblr.com/

Kosher vs. non-kosher chanukiyot (aka menorahs)

Most, if not all, of you will be familiar with the chanukah menorah (chanukiyah). It has nine lights, with one of them being the shamash, which is used to light the others. 

There are some rules for the chanukiyah for it to be ritually suitable (kosher) for Chanukah. 

This is the basics! There’s lots more halachah related to observing Chanukah and lighting the menorah, but this is the jist of it.

For your reference…

Kosher Chanukah menorah:

Also kosher:

Not kosher:

(Candles are not all at the same height)

(Shamash is on the same level as the ritual candles)

Note, though, that many many people light non-kosher chanukiyot for Chanukah. (I have one kosher one and one non-kosher one.) That’s why there are so many made that aren’t kosher! If you follow halachah, you won’t be able to use these, but if you’re a little more flexible, you can use a kosher one for the ritual itself, and light the non-kosher ones after, just for fun and to increase the joy of Chanukah (which is also a mitzvah). And if you really need to, you can use an electric one. Just remember to check the ritual permissibility of your chosen chanukiyah against your personal adherence to or interpretation of halachah.

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Jewish people who type the word “god” as “g-d”: Do you think you can fool the big man upstairs with a technical work around? When he goes through your emails/texts/facebook posts after you die, you don’t think he’s gonna see that dash and think “this sneaky fuck here, enjoy h-ll.”

this thought comes from someone who has no idea how Judaism works, but okay. People avoid writing out God’s name, because you aren’t ever allowed to destroy or desecrate something with God’s name on it - you have to bury it instead. That’s what a genizah is. The most well known is probably the Cairo Genizah. It’s a box where Jews can put anything with God’s name on it to ensure that it gets buried. So obviously Jews do write out God’s name. In fact, it used to be traditional to mark the top of pages with God’s name as a kind of blessing or mark of honesty. That’s why there are so many miscellaneous texts in genizahs. Judaism reads “do not use my name in vain” pretty literally as a command to revere and respect the Y-H-V-H name of God. Most rabbis agree that this commandment only holds for the hebrew, so not typing out God is more something people do out of respect or as a nod to this tradition. Some people use G-d because they want to parallel the fact that the tradition was put in place for people who would be speaking and writing in hebrew or a very near identical language like Aramaic.

It’s a matter of respect, not a matter of “don’t do this or you will be punished.” Besides, Judaism deals almost exclusively with punishment in life and Judaism very explicitly doesn’t have a clear and codified notion of עולם הבא (the world to come). And there is certainly no notion of hell. Also, Judaism is not nearly that harsh in response to small mistakes. We have a holiday every year explicitly devoted to the idea that we all fuck up and that we need to ask forgiveness from each other and God (and during which God does all the judging - God doesn’t wait until after we die. It’s an active thing that can be constantly adjusted). Maybe world religions is not the best topic of contemplation during your shower.

Jewish retirees in South Beach, Miami, Florida. Photographs by Gay Block.

“In 1982 I fell in love with the old people of South Miami Beach. They were the bubbes and zeydes I wish I had. These were pensioners living on social security checks in one-room apartments, telling stories of their lives and their children.”