Tikkun Olam

Just came across a guest post by Shoshanna Jaskoll on Life in Israel which is an eye-opener.  It opens a discussion on the attitude of religious and ultra-religious men towards women, from the extension of the prohibition to hear a woman singing while a man is davening the "Shma," to a general prohibition of women singing, period, including zemirot Shabbat (no sexual intent or content whatsoever) in a mixed group.  From condemning women for not being "tzni'us" enough to threatening to expose those women who dress in burkas; also disallowing photographs and ads depicting women (even of those modestly dressed) and essentially removing them from the "public sphere." Nowhere do I see any religious and ultra-religious male indignation, however, towards men who emotionally and even sometimes physically assault women who dare to do the dastardly deed of sitting in the front in buses not officially designated as "Haredi" (ultra-religious) buses. ...

 I was reading comments on another blog, and one commenter related a joke, which was pretty funny, but got me to thinking about Judaism, and and change.  Some change can be good, and some change, unnecessary, and even bad. This was the joke: An old man goes to visit his nonobservant grandson. He asks, "What's that on your necklace?" The young man proudly says, "It's my mezuzah! See, I'm proud to be Jewish!" The old man goes to the door and starts looking around the doorway. "What are you looking for, Pops?" "I'm looking for your tzitzis!" I am throwing this post out there for discussion, as I could be wrong (moi? never!), and anyway I would love to dialogue with my readers, many who might be more knowledgeable than I. For centuries, Judaism - and I am speaking of Ashkenazic Judaism, because that is my background, and I know less about the Sephardic stream - was more or less unchanged.  A "Jew" was n...

Are the Taliban of Jewish descent? According to research now being funded by Israel , the Afridi Pathans in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan may be descendant from the Israelite tribe of Ephraim: According to experts, Israel’s decision to facilitate the research could also be because of the theory supported by many that Afghanistan’s Pashtun fighters, the community from which the Taliban draw their strength, are descendants of Afridi Pathans. Just what we need. Welcome the evil in-laws (they say your worst enemy comes from within you, but this is. . . mugzam kvar* *). (please pardon the bad language; generally it's not my style, but this was priceless.) *(Nablopomo Day #15) **mugzam kvar: lit., "exaggerated already;" in the vernacular: over the top already! *Copyright alert: No infringement of any text or graphic copyright is ever intended on this blog. If you own the copyright to any original image or document used for the creation of the graphics or information on thi...