Kindle Notes & Highlights
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May 5 - June 11, 2024
For all Jews, participating in a Passover Seder is the most popular Jewish practice, followed closely by observance of a milestone ritual over the past year, such as attending a Bar/Bat Mitzvah or lighting a yahrtzeit candle in remembrance of a deceased relative.
Nearly half of all American Jews still fast for all or at least part of Yom Kippur.
replaced the largely unfamiliar language of “Jewish law” with the more comfortable and familiar language of “Jewish tradition.” The language of Jewish “law” suggests hard and fast rules and consequences for disobedience that are foreign to most non-Orthodox Jews. On the other hand, Jewish “tradition” connotes positive associations and the desire for transmission.
80 percent of non-Orthodox Israeli Jews do not eat pork,
It is possible for individuals to find an authentic yet personal meaning in tradition when three conditions exist: (1) people exercise individuality as to what rituals and traditions they elect to incorporate in their lives; (2) people infuse the elements they choose with their own personal meaning; and (3) people consistently perform the elements they practice in a way that embraces, at least to some degree, the authenticity of historical tradition.
In her ELI Talk, Jewish educator Stacey Aviva Flint observed that studies show that 11–20 percent of American Jews self-identify as Jews of color.
35 percent of non-Orthodox Jews in the United States report not eating pork
Susan Scafidi, Who Owns Culture? Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law
Very observant women avoid wearing makeup on Shabbat since the application of cosmetics is considered an act of creation.
four key elements: differentiation, disconnection, joy, and the selection of tradition, performed consistently.
Rabbi David Wolpe has articulated a similar philosophy: “The predominant rule of the Sabbath is to live in harmony with what is, not to seek change; this day is for renewal, not transformation. The Sabbath asks us not to be creative but restorative; not to give out but to take in; to sanctify time and recall our souls to their Source.”
It is sobering to realize that “we have years because of the sun, months because of the moon, and weeks because of the Jews.”[15]
He calls Shabbat “humanity’s greatest source of renewable energy, the day that gives us the strength to keep on creating.”[18]
Of course it is no surprise that providing a break from fatigue can be beneficial in renewing creative energy. Significantly, though, the current research goes further by showing how incubation with unconscious thought may contribute to creative problem solving in a proactive way.
mind wandering “could be linked to enhanced creativity, particularly for problems that have been previously encountered.”
The Artificial Intelligence and Psychology Project (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University, 1989),
Ted Merwin, author of Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli,
Right now the Jewish Food Society is engaged in creating an online archive of Jewish recipes from around the world.
Kosher chef and author Laura Frankel told me that she believes for many Jews, kosher food still represents “the final frontier” of Judaism.
“in 1923, Heinz Vegetarian Beans became the first food item to carry national kosher certification.” Fishkoff, Kosher Nation, 8, 48.
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, regarded by many Orthodox Jews as the leading legal authority of his time, ruled that the once-a-week Talmudic requirement for scholars should be changed to twice a week
Before 1970, only 17 percent of individuals in the American Jewish community who married chose to marry non-Jews.
reaching 58 percent of individuals who married in 2000 or beyond.
Significantly, Pew also found that among non-Orthodox Jews who married between 2000 and 2013, 71 percent are intermarried.
Professor Shaye Cohen concluded the existence of the matrilineal principle is likely the result of a variety of rabbinic motives.
The 2013 Pew Report also provides evidence of the disparities between in-married and intermarried couples. It shows that whereas 96 percent of in-married Jews are raising their children as Jewish by religion, this is true for only 20 percent of intermarried Jews.
Rabbi Avram Mlotek, ordained at the most liberal Orthodox seminary, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, has suggested “it’s time we revisit our tribalistic approach toward intermarriage and our highly divisive conversion practices.”
Leonard Saxe et al., Under the Chuppah: Rabbinic Officiation and Intermarriage
many part-time Jewish education programs provide both a more flexible schedule and content that offer families far greater options than was the case previously.
In 2018, these debates took center stage with the publication of Jonathan Neumann’s divisive book To Heal the World? How the Jewish Left Corrupts Judaism and Endangers Israel
After “remembering the Holocaust,” the two most popular elements were “leading an ethical and moral life” and “working for justice and equality.”
Rabbi Jill Jacobs has observed that by using the term achikha (your brother) when speaking of the poor in this verse and elsewhere, the Torah is commanding resistance “of any temptation to view the poor as somehow different from ourselves.”
The use of tikkun olam in the Aleinu generally is understood to refer to the entire world rather than the Jewish world, and in this manner it departs from prior usage.
Tikkun Olam: Judaism, Humanism & Transcendence, ed. David Birnbaum and Martin S. Cohen (New York: New Paradigm Matrix, 2015),
Jill Jacobs, There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law & Tradition
Alex Sinclair, Loving the Real Israel: An Educational Agenda for Liberal Zionism
Elliot N. Dorff, The Way into Tikkun Olam: Repairing the World
The laws and customs surrounding mourning are designed to strike a balance between maximizing reverence for the dead and the mourner’s psychological well-being.[5]
only 77 percent of Modern Orthodox Jews are “absolutely certain” of their belief “in God or a universal spirit.”[15]
The placement of this lineage at the end of the text is particularly significant because according to the tradition, the Messiah will be a descendant of King David, and of Ruth, the woman who chose to be Jewish.[19]
Daniel Boorstin, The Creators, in which he observes that the Torah’s language that “God created man in His image” furnishes a path leading man to regard himself as a potential creator.[20]
The simple truth is that most Jews need to be more proactive when it comes to preservation of Jewish tradition—both religiously and culturally.
And in 2018, the Reconstructionist movement rebranded itself through an organizational name change designed to convey the importance of doing Jewish rather than being Jewish. Rabbi Deborah Waxman announced the name change to Reconstructing Judaism,
consider Rabbi Lori Shapiro’s introduction of “goat yoga” as a means of reenacting the traditional Yom Kippur avodah service in her Venice Beach location. The avodah service entails commemorating the ritual of the High Priest in the ancient Temple.
