Tikkun Olam

For years there has been an on-and-off, unofficial debate among Jewish and non-Jewish scholars as well as lay people on whether or not Jews constituted a race, ethnic group, or are just a group of people living all over the world in different cultures, united only by a common religion.  Let's examine, if only superficially, what these concepts are. Here below are a few definitions of race : 1. A local geographic or global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics.   2. A group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution: the German race. 3. A genealogical line; a lineage. 4. Humans considered as a group .  Okay, so what is an ethnic group ? Here's a definition , with "Hebrews" or "Israelites" as one example: Noun 1. ethnic group - people of the same race or nationality who share a ...

I have written previously about my feelings on Thanksgiving, and am linking my post from 2007 on the subject, here . This year, we are going to friends on Thanksgiving Day, and on Friday night-as per our years-long tradition-we are having another Thanksgiving/Shabbat dinner, this year at another friend, our regular 'Thanksgiving buddy' with whom we started this minhag , many snows ago. But being that I still wanted to share a post related to the holiday, and seeing that I received this interesting holiday wish by email (from my now-famous "sister-in-law's sister-in-law"), I decided to pass it on to you, my loyal readers. ( No animals were harmed in the making of this picture ). May your stuffing be tasty. May your turkey be plump. May your potatoes 'n gravy have nary a lump. May your yams be delicious. May your pies take the prize. May your Thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs. HAVE A BLESSED THANKSGIVING (as always, thank you so much for...