Tikkun Olam

This morning I did something wonderful, that I rarely, if ever do: go out with friends for coffee and shmoozing. Today I was invited out by a friend to Starbuck's for a coffee-and-Yiddish-and-Hebrew-Poetry-reading-and-explicating-treat . Does that sound boring to you? It might, to some, but not to me. Although these days I rarely read poetry, which I love (and on which I grew up). I used to read, and even dabbled a little in poetry writing (my poems weren't very good). My father ( alav hashalom *) was a Hebrew scholar, teacher and poet, and published one thin little book of poetry, after having published many poems and articles in Hebrew newspapers and literary magazines (many now defunct) such as Ma'ariv, Bitzaron, and Niv (the latter which he founded many years ago) . He also translated poetry by the American and British masters to Hebrew, as well as Shakespeare's Measure for Measure (מידה במידה ). My friend ( -mefuzeret le-gamrei *, somewhat like me--but a wonde...

My younger son (Nathaniel Blumenstein), reminded me of Purim last week when I heard he was rummaging around in his Jerusalem kitchen for his Abba's star iron , in the hope that we left it there last Purim, when we traveled to Israel for his older brother's (Mister Arnold) wedding. You see, we had taken it with us, knowing that since we were returning way too close to Purim (two days), we would never have the time to stand over a hot deep fryer, sweating away frying our Famous Purim Stars in boiling oil. So, clever beings we, we took our Purim Star paraphernalia with us to the Holy Land, and actually made our Purim stars at yon younger son's postage-stamp-sized apartment, in his teeny weeny alcove- er-kitchen. Actually, he made them, and did a great job of it, too. These Purim stars, deliciously crispy, made from a yummy batter of milk, flour and eggs--were the delight of our family since our Texas days, almost thirty years ago. Well, it was Toodles (Nathaniel...

For the past couple of weeks I have been reading some serious blogs which question Judaism, the divinity of the Torah, halacha, the TSBP (Torah she'be'al peh=oral Torah), and other minor questions such as whether or not G-d exists, not to mention creationism versus evolution, etc. As they started saying in the 70s, this is some heavy stuff (well, that sure dates me). All of these questions are important. I myself have questioned many aspects of my religion, and still have questions while I continue to be "Orthodox" (whatever that is). I've made the decision that the benefits outweigh the negatives, and the fact that I still have some doubts is ok. I had a fairly strong Jewish and secular education, and no, it didn't solve all the problems nor did it answer all my religious and existential questions. So what? I judge my religion as a whole by the behavior and actions of its adherents, not only by what it professes. On the whole, I would ask you: 1) Do Jews prov...