judaism

Hanukah

כ״ה בכסלו ה׳תש״ע (Saturday 12 December 2009)

I’ve noticed that a lot of the readers here are coming from places in the world where there are not a lot of Jews. Consequently, there may be people reading DoG who don’t know what Hanukah is and what it’s all about. Hanukah (rhymes with Monica) is the Jewish Christmas. It celebrates the birth of [...]

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Birobidzhan: The Worst Idea Ever

י״א בכסלו ה׳תש״ע (Saturday 28 November 2009)

How do you know you’ve got the worst idea ever? It’s unlikely that anyone will come up to you and say, “Your idea is so bad it makes me want to cry,” nor will your idea win a “worst idea ever” vote (masses of people tend actually to prefer bad ideas as a matter of [...]

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Conversion to Judaism

כ״ח במרחשון ה׳תש״ע (Sunday 15 November 2009)

For purposes of what I consider to be Jewish unity, even though I don’t accept Rabbinic authority to impose an interpretation of the Torah, to legislate or to enforce their interpretation or legislation, I have spent many years believing that all conversions must follow a strict “orthodox” approach: the prospective convert is (1) discouraged, then [...]

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Ancestor worship is idolatry

י״ב במרחשון ה׳תש״ע (Friday 30 October 2009)

While reading the recent article in Slate about gravers, I got to think that one of the things that genuinely and independently appeals to me about Judaism, and even appealed to me when I was a child and hadn’t yet learned anything, is the way Judaism approaches death and mourning. My parents, who both grew [...]

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