Siren Songs

 

"For your voice is sweet and your appearance pleasant" (Song of Songs 2:14). On the basis of this verse, Jewish law prohibits a man's listening to kol ishah, a woman's voice in song. Unlikely as it may seem, this prohibition has sparked a controversy that could shake the foundations of Israel's self-defense and self-definition.

Kol Ishah Reviewed  Yehuda HenkinUrim Publications.  Thirty years ago, Saul Berman wrote an influential and relatively liberal interpretation of the kol ishah prohibition. But there has been an answer. (PDF)  SAVE

Sad Sexual Obsessions  Eric H. YoffieJerusalem Post.  Does the Israeli rabbinate's increasing focus on gender issues have an unattractive psychological component?  SAVE

Religion and the IDF  Aryeh TepperJewish Ideas Daily.  Almost a third of the officers in Israel's army now wear kippot. Is the IDF about to become the long arm of rabbinic law?  SAVE

Voice of a Woman  Shmuel RosnerNew York Times.  If Orthodox Jews believe they are forbidden by law to hear a woman sing, how far should the Israeli military go to facilitate their observance?  SAVE

Gender Trouble  Yehudah MirskyJewish Ideas Daily.  For "Hardalim," the objections to women's singing go beyond modesty and gender separation; they are also a matter of national identity.  SAVE

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Jerusalem's Ego and Id

 

Biography is not the same as history. Biography charts the outer and inner life of a person—character, spirit, morality, emotion, perhaps even soul. History, by contrast, incorporates different narratives and pieces of evidence, seeks out new data, then rises above all the fragments with a synthesis.

Montefiore on Montefiore  Todd LeopoldCNN.  There have been many reactions to Jerusalem: the Biography. Here, the author responds to the challenge put to him and delivers his own verdict on the book.  SAVE

Melisende’s Psalter  British Library.  Like her ancient predecessor, King David, Queen Melisende commissioned artwork for the Book of Psalms. Now preserved at the British Library, it can be seen online.  SAVE

Lord Shaftesbury: God’s Reformer  Marena FisherYale Standard.  Lord Shaftesbury, the paradigmatic Victorian reformer, dedicated his life to improving the condition of the poor, rehabilitating felons—and restoring the Jews to their homeland.  SAVE

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Judaism on Steroids

 

Ryan Braun, the reigning MVP of baseball's National League, is having a rough offseason. On December 12, ESPN reported that Braun had tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug (PED) after a league-mandated drug test revealed elevated levels of testosterone in his system.

Braun’s Temple  Richard SandomirNew York Times.  Why such interest in whether a ballplayer plays a game or worships on a High Holy Day? Call it the Greenberg-Koufax Yom Kippur Precedent.  SAVE

The Golden Age of Jewish Ballplayers?  David ElfinMoment.  Profiles of Braun, Craig Breslow, Ike Davis, Danny Valencia, and Kevin Youkilis.  SAVE

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Highlights of 2011:
Part II

 

Part II of our round-up of the past year's most popular features on Jewish Ideas Daily. (Part I is here.)

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Part II"

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Insight & Analysis

The Wages of Criticism  Zev EleffJewish Review of Books.  The 18th-century scholar Aryeh Leib Ginsburg was a harsh critic of earlier halakhic authorities. Did they finally exact revenge on him? And, if so, who's been covering up the story?.  SAVE

Cancelling Conversion  Gil StudentTorah Musings.  While many Orthodox rabbis have become too willing to annul conversions, even the non-Orthodox world recognizes that there are some circumstances in which a conversion must be overturned.  SAVE

Blurring the Issue  Hadassah LevyTorah Musings.  Blurring or removing photographs of women might be understandable in the ultra-Orthodox world, but it should have no place in Modern Orthodoxy.  SAVE

Reb Shlomo, Superstar  Mary Jane FineForward.  If Fiddler on the Roof is about tradition, a new musical about Shlomo Carlebach is about breaking with tradition—even if that means, as in Carlebach's case, breaking one's father's heart.  SAVE

The Original Kosher Jesus  Fred MacDowellOn the Main Line.  150 years ago, Rabbi Elias Soloweyczk published commentaries on Matthew and Mark, aimed not at rejecting the Gospels but showing their concordance with the Talmud.  SAVE

Sha-bot  Gil StudentTorah Musings.  Can a robot be a Shabbos goy? The question is not simple, but it is not without Talmudic precedent.  SAVE

Three Talmudists Confront the Evil Urge  Shai Secunda, Amit Gevaryahu, Eva Kiesele, Raphael MagarikTalmud Blog.  A symposium on the psychological, historical, and rabbinic development of the yetzer hara picks up where Jewish Ideas Daily left offSAVE

The Weekly Portion

Ki Tissa: Those Shining Horns

 

Exodus 30:11–34:35

By Moshe Sokolow

  Michelangelo Moses horns Bible Ki Tisa Ki Tissa karan Italy church

At the very end of this week's portion, Moses descends from Mount Sinai with the replacement set of the two tablets of the Law. As the Torah puts it, "Moses knew not that the skin of his face karan while He talked with him" (Exodus 34:29).

Continue Reading "Those Shining Horns"  Moshe SokolowJewish Ideas DailySAVE

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The Weekly Portion

Mishpatim: Hebrew Slaves and their Masters

 

Exodus 21:1–24:18

By Moshe Sokolow

 Hebrew Slaves Masters Egyptians laws bondage desert

"Should you purchase a Hebrew slave [eved ivri], he shall labor for six years and go free, gratis, in the seventh." This week's portion commences with a topic that is of poignant and almost eerie pertinence in this period of upheaval caused by economic straits, when many Jews have increasingly been compelled to depend on communal and philanthropic welfare. How does a Jew become a slave? And can another Jew become a slave master?

Continue Reading "Hebrew Slaves and their Masters"  Moshe SokolowJewish Ideas DailySAVE

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The Weekly Portion

Nitzavim-Vayelekh: The Last Mitzvah

 

Deuteronomy 29:9 – 31:30

By Moshe Sokolow

A well-known talmudic tradition reports that there are exactly 613 mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah. Of the total, 248 are positive (the do's), while 365 are negative (the don'ts).  Not all the sages are in complete agreement on this enumeration, with some arriving at a higher number. But the custom has long been to speak of 613 mitzvot—or, in Hebrew, taryag mitzvot, based on the numeric values assigned to letters of the Hebrew alphabet. 

Continue Reading "The Last Mitzvah"  Moshe SokolowSAVE

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