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Religion


Back From Heaven Back From Heaven
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 by Micah Stein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

In May 2011, Gallup conducted its annual "Values and Beliefs" poll, seeking to quantify religious demographics and beliefs in America. One question struck a national nerve, eliciting a consensus that defied religious or cultural distinctions. The question: Do you believe in heaven? The answer: Yes, overwhelmingly.
Among the Mourners of Zion Among the Mourners of Zion
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 by Micah Stein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

We are a nation of mourners this month, collectively observing the Jewish rituals of grief in memory of . . . well, something or other. The occasion for mourning is the Omer, which began on Saturday night; the reason for mourning is more mysterious.
Make Yourself a Teacher Make Yourself a Teacher
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

The meanings of "Torah" are inexhaustible, but its plainest sense is "teaching." It does not exist apart from being communicated. That circulation between human beings, and between humans and God, both gives Torah life and teaches us that Torah itself teaches life.
Hitting the Jackpot Hitting the Jackpot
Thursday, March 8, 2012 by Micah Stein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Who doesn't like Purim? Besides the costumes and candy, the story itself has all the politics, sex, and violence of a juicy HBO series. In case you missed it: "Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted to destroy the Jews, and had cast a pur—that is, a lottery—with intent to crush and exterminate them."
Jewish Ethics, from Ancient Bible to Modern Bus Jewish Ethics, from Ancient Bible to Modern Bus
Monday, February 13, 2012 by Lawrence Grossman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

The next time someone tells you that ethical behavior doesn't need a foundation in religious teaching, step onto an Israeli bus (it doesn't have to be the gender-segregated variety) or open a mass-circulation Israeli newspaper and see how religion puts Jewish ethics on steroids.
In God They Trust? In God They Trust?
Thursday, February 9, 2012 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Stick an average alumnus of the Israeli public school system into a synagogue during morning prayers, and chances are they would be bewildered. Even if they could recollect an arid Bible class they had to endure long ago, what good would it do them? They'd still be lost.
Siren Songs Siren Songs
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 by Shlomo Zuckier | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

"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.
Human Rights and Religious Wrongs Human Rights and Religious Wrongs
Friday, January 13, 2012 by Jonathan Neumann | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Although the discourse on human rights has a long pedigree, traceable at least to early modern natural rights theory and politics, the philosophical case for human rights against one alternative, religion, has yet to be made.
Judaism on Steroids Judaism on Steroids
Monday, January 9, 2012 by Micah Stein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

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.
The First War of National Liberation The First War of National Liberation
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

This is the 2,179th anniversary of the world's first war of national liberation. There have been many since. To a surprising extent, such wars have followed the pattern first established by the Maccabees. They, like later heads of independence movements, were leaders of a people conquered and occupied by a great empire.
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Editors' Picks
The Conversion Crisis Marc Angel, Haaretz. "The halakhic Jewishness of an Orthodox convert is not decided by the Rabbanut—but by God.  The Rabbanut has no right whatever to question or deny the validity of halakhic conversions."
The Mehitzah Heresy Harry Maryles, Emes-Ve-Emunah. Today, it goes without saying that an Orthodox synagogue must have a mehitzah separating men and women in worship.  But one great "decider" of the 20th century thought otherwise.
Who Is A Jew? Gil Student, Torah Musings. In 1958, David Ben-Gurion consulted with Jewish scholars and leaders around the world in hopes of finding a universal definition.  He received 45 different answers, of course.
The Next Generation Dana Evan Kaplan, H-Net. Jack Wertheimer's new study of young American Jewish leaders claims that, contrary to popular belief, not all of them are working to bring down the establishment.
Rebelling In God's Name Nathan Lopes Cardozo, Jerusalem Post. "When we go to synagogue, it is a protest against man’s arrogance in thinking that he can do it all himself."
Smashing the Idols Josh Yuter, Jewish Press. Has veneration of gedolim, great rabbis, become "the single greatest impediment to intelligent religious discourse in the Orthodox Jewish community"?
God Above Moves Down David Wolpe, Sh'ma. "Belief in what is above us has increasingly moved to what is within us.... God has been not only dethroned, but given a seat next to us in the bleachers."
Misunderstanding Midrash Moshe Shamah, Jewish Ideas and Ideals. Maimonides wrote that those who take the Midrash literally "destroy the Torah’s glory and darken its brilliance," but many Orthodox teachers today do just that.
Redemption of the First Shorn Philologos, Forward. What’s the grammatical difference between upsheren and upsherenish?  It’s the difference between an ordinary haircut and an offering to the Lord.
Criticizing the Biblical Critics James Kugel, Kavvanah. Modern biblical criticism, for all its sophistication, treats "only the literal meaning of the Bible’s words on the page, divorced from Judaism’s age-old traditions of interpretation." (Interview by Alan Brill)