Jesus in the Talmud

I recently stumbled across an interesting book entitled The Talmud Unmasked. It is unfortunate that the hagiographic rewriting of history done in the yeshivishe-veldt extended to attributing aggaditta in the gemarah to stories of Jesus. These ideas have, ofcourse, escaped into the "real" world and do nothing less than substantiate canard and lend credence to the claims of our haters. An intellectually honest approach to the passages generally cited, and to the idea of Jesus being discussed in the gemarah at all, is located here. However, I care so little about this that I have already finished writing on the subject. Good-bye.

Complete Rubbi"Sh!

An extraordinarily intelligent man occasionally gives private shiurim which I, even more occasionally, attend. From time to time I come across "underground" recordings of his as well. When I credit him in my writings, I attach the nom de guerre (and those who do not understand that this is a war are simply naive) Rubbi"Sh which is an acronym for Rebbe Shloime (the "e" on the end of his name is pronounced in the yiddishe fashion). As he tells it, he is one of the most quoted individuals in the history of the world. In every instance that somebody declaims, "That's Rubbi"Sh!" the intended information is being attributed to our teacher. His prolificacy is surpassed only by a certain Sufi mystic name Ibid.

The Orthodoxy Test

My brother showed me this test, and I took it. It did not know how to qualify me. That is truly telling. This was its response:
This means you're: Huh?
I believe that is the sum total of my religious existence... neither here nor there... best described as: Huh?
Try it out for yourself through my Links section.

Frank Yehudi

I do not subscribe to any of the varied philosophies coagulated together under the banner of "Zionism" (although my own ignorant and obfuscatory brand of ethnocentrism could possibly be rolled into that same lump, if one did not examine me too closely) and I have very little patience for their brand of self-destructive hypocrisy.

However, there is this blog, The Ideological Underground, I stumbled across while skipping through the catty sandbox of Arutz Sheva's editorials. He calls himself Frank Yehudi, which is clearly a code of sorts (frank=honest, yehudi=jew) through which he tells his readership that he is an honest Jew. That, together with the subject matter of his posts, seems to be implying that his own Judaic Veracity is a brand sorely lacking among throng and throe of our World-Kehilla. And perhaps, with a slight caveat or two, I believe him to be veridic.

He seems to be a clear result of post-modern Zionism poured into a thinking man who has decided to question an extremely traditional Orthodox upbringing. His brand of irreverent religion is quite appealing to me and he quite often makes very good points. I also think that he is a liar, but then this is the internet and if one were not to prevaricate here, where would one find the appropriate forum? Besides, I am lying as well. But I am honest about it.

While itt is unfortunate that he does not post regularly, I am highly suspicious of the veracity of any comments concerning a book, website, or radio spots. (Although, I do not see why he could not have some sort of column or even a show on Arutz Sheva. I truly believe it would improve their ratings, as many of their shows are unmitigated drek.) I suspect he has better things to do with his time than write regularly. I would guess either a student or a family man.

As I stated previously, I am not a Zionist. And I do not throw my lot in with those who can not make up their minds as to what is true observance. My brother is among those. He lives in Jerusalem, specifically the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood. I visit him occasionally and have met his Rebbe. I do not like or approve of this charlatan. The philosophical smoke and mirrors thrown up by this man have captivated the admiration of my dear brother and a few others. I shall write on that more later.

"Jewish"

First I want to make the statement that I dislike the term Jewish. Aside from the sound of the word itself, and the historic and ethnically disparaging connotations that come with it (eg. both Muslims and Christians named themselves while we are satified with the mispronounced misnomer of "Jew" which was given to us by those who oppressed us.) what truly sparks my loathing is the -ish. This -ish is a signifier of an approximation. "Will you be home around five-ish, dear?" "It was a sort of greenish colour." So, I am an approximation of a Jew. While, from a certain historical perspective that may have a ring of truth to it, my ethno-centric leanings refuse to accept it as the defacto appelation by which we know ourselves. Were it up to me what would I choose? As of now, I have no answer to that, but I am taking suggestions.