Gil

Tend the Garden

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Despite my doctrinal differences with most people, I can’t in good conscience condemn them all as heretics.

I can keep the truth my ancestors and their teachers kept, and learn from the truth of the person before me.

Every truth is different and yet in their common root I can taste their unity.

And from the root of all truth, it is possible to speak of my ancestors’ truth within the family of humankind, with words that enter the heart, and be understood.

This blossom of faith needs a garden in which to grow, it is not the only rose in bloom.

Now – can you help tend the garden?

Rambam’s Cat

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I bet Rambam would’ve named his cat Hakim.

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Given Rambam’s Judeo-Arabic background and the language in which he wrote many of his works, it is highly likely he would give his cat a Judeo-Arabic name.

He might name the cat ‘Aql (عقل, meaning “intellect” or “reason”), aligning with his philosophical emphasis on the primacy of intellect in achieving human perfection and connecting it to the natural wisdom exhibited by animals.

Another possibility is Hakīm (حكيم, meaning “wise” or “philosopher”), reflecting the cat’s independent and contemplative demeanor, qualities that could be appreciated as symbolic of wisdom.

These names would both reflect his cultural and intellectual environment while honoring his philosophical worldview.

Baby Steps Toward Being a Rabbi

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Read from the Torah in public today for the first time in well over fifteen years.

Was nervous as hell but made it through ok.

I’m going to have to do it a lot more frequently if I want to be a rabbi. #facts

Here’s to taking baby steps out of the comfort zone!

The Shabbat Linecook

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A Jewish person is employed as a linecook in a restaurant and cooks an omelette on Shabbath for a customer.

Can any leftovers from the omelette (let’s say they made a double portion accidentally) be eaten by other people after Shabbath? Is any food that cook makes afterwards categorically prohibited?

Even when the cook is engaged in direct melakha, it’s unlikely they’re doing so with full and flagrant intent to transgress the law. Here in Israel, unless you know for sure the cook (or essential participant in cooking) is דתל”ש, the probable assumption is that they are אנוס or תנוק שנשבה in some way (like most “Hiloni” Israelis), partially educated here and there (and trustworthy in factual matters to which they can attest, like whether the meat they serve has a hekhsher or whether it was cooked with any dairy ingredients or in a recently used dairy pot) but ultimately denying them full legal culpability for their transgression. They don’t have sufficient knowledge to transgress במזיד and certainly not בפרהסיה.

These are important factors imho.

There is an implicit assumption behind denying restaurants certification for opening and serving customers on Shabbath: it’s that any Jewish person who transgresses the Shabbath must be doing so with full knowledge and awareness of their transgression and with full intent to transgress, and so therefore must be “prosecuted” (or at least judged unfavorably) to the full extent of the law.

Does this assumption match reality? No, I don’t think so.

Does this assumption reflect a healthy attitude towards one’s fellow Jewish people? No, I don’t think it does.

I’m not here to tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t eat. But I think this din requires public clarification.

Be Complex

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Coda:

And if you think that I – a pro-annexation, settlement-loving, (formerly) Gaza war-supporting, religious Zionist advocate for a halakhic state and critic of Islamic imperialism in Israel – am a Leftist, then you clearly don’t understand the concept of complexity.

In a world of dichotomous fundamentalism, be complex.

A Note to the Haters

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Evening Musing:

My haters among the fans of a certain student of R José Faur, z”l, amuse me.

Strangers personally insulting me on the internet will always amuse me.

A sense of irony is a benefit of perspective, gained from experience.

A sense of humor is a sign of a well-adjusted personality.

There is irony in dressing down someone you’ve never met. There is irony in revealing more in your hate about yourself than about the individual you think you despise. And there’s irony in making any derogatory statement regarding my relationship with the teachings of R Faur, z”l.

It’s all just kinda funny. 😀

Now, I’ll never claim to be an expert on anything, let alone the work of a genius like R Faur, z”l. However, I have read everything he ever published in English and in Hebrew (starting with Golden Doves – a book my haters who beef with my post-modernism have clearly never read) and was extremely privileged to have many personal conversations with him about his work. While I’ve since grown to a more critical view of some of his ideas and positions, his work remains an indelible influence on me and my Judaism, and I will gladly engage in productive discourse with anyone who genuinely wants to know in which ways R Faur’s Torah have informed my worldview.

And I’ll even let you in on a sad little secret: at the time of his passing, R Faur, z”l, and I were not personally on good terms. What happened, happened. But I’ll promote his work and encourage everyone to learn his Torah, especially The Horizontal Society, until the day I die. That’s how much respect I have for the truth in his teachings and for his dedication to that truth.

והמבין יבין

But the real irony is – the haters are all worked up in their (quite negative) feelings, while I’m just chilling on my Jerusalem rooftop thanking the Creator for another evening.

🤷

Come on, it’s funny.

Who Sets the Boundaries of Jewish Law?

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Morning Musing:

Rambam in his introduction to his comprehensive compendium of Jewish law declares that Jewish law is based on the rulings found in the classical sources up until the closing of the Talmud.

After that, all opinions are equal and we go with the most reasonable opinion; all new enactments are local and we don’t coerce any community to adopt the practices of another community.

As is well known, Rambam specifically calls out the Geonim of Babylonia as lacking binding authority over the Jewish people, rejecting their equally well-known claim to a continued institutional monopoly over Jewish law.

Yet, throughout his legal masterpiece Rambam references Geonic interpretations and enactments, sometimes citing them anonymously as a class, more often including their rulings without distinction alongside rulings found explicitly in the Talmud. The source of these rulings is the discourse of “al-Talmud Lana,” the oral tradition and textual culture accompanying the transmission of the Talmud through the Geonim to the communities and schools of the Judeo-Arabic diaspora, including Rambam’s native al-Andalus.

This adds an obvious layer of difficulty to the project of halakhic observance that Rambam sets out in his introduction – what are the parameters of that observance? Who sets the boundaries of Jewish law – the rabbis of the Talmud or the rabbis after the Talmud?

According to Rambam, what options, what readings of the sources, are truly available to Jewish individuals and communities today, and which are truly off-limits?

There are answers. But I’m about to step into the office. 😉

This Is the Way

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Can you hold a broken creation in your embrace and love it until it heals?

By my life, this is the Way

The Moon Calls

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The moon calls

Hanging heavy above amber city lights

Shadow over crescent

A stroke of Jerusalem stone

Shining warmly through the frigid air

We all point to the moon

Towers rising and reaching

up but never

Touching

We dance together

Earth shadow and moon light

We spin together

Across the stars

Your face turning

up, always

Changing

Your smile

Knowing

The change that comes

To those of us yet

unborn

A Religious Reform Bill for Israel

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Since the politicians in the governing coalition are so concerned with reform, I think the rest of the Kenesset should propose a Religious Reform Bill (including common-sense updates to the Draft Law!) :

1) Cease bureaucratically empowering the Rabbanut in the areas of Jewish identity, family life, and diet; legally recognize Israeli citizens’ freedom of association in these areas
2) Withhold the Rabbanut’s funding until it reorganizes as a free, open institution of higher rabbinic education, that does not discriminate against any Israeli citizen (under penalty of losing its government funding, including for the chief rabbi offices)
3) Form committees (in partnership with the rabbinic departments of state universities Hebrew U and Bar Ilan) to create a) an independent professional standard and regulating body for municipal rabbinic appointments and b) a series of standardized tests to evaluate yeshiba students receiving government benefits
4) Make eligibility for municipal (and higher) rabbinic appointments conditional on completing national service
5) Make yeshiba students’ exemption from military service conditional on achieving passing scores on standardized tests
6) Make government stipends to yeshiba students conditional on achieving distinguished scores on standardized tests