Why be a Jew? Or better yet, why do Jewish things?
Saturday is my Bar Mitzvah. Today I am feeling a bit disturbed. This happens every once in a while but today it stinks because I should be happy about my weekend coming up.
Should one follow the lineage of Hillel or Shammai? Should one follow the majority which the [...]
Archive for May, 2009
Why be a Jew?
Posted in Assimilation, Michael T. Pullen, Tradition and customs, tagged being Jewish, frum, Hillel, Shammai on May 28, 2009 | 7 Comments »
Rebbecca, the Jehovah’s witness and me, the “chosen people”
Posted in Anti-Semitism, Deena Levenstein, Holidays, Terminology, tagged jehovah's witnesses, missionizing, mount sinai, shavuot, the chosen people on May 28, 2009 | 14 Comments »
I suddenly was hit with an epiphany.
I think that a lot of us more “modern,” “progressive” Jews cringe at least a little when we think about the idea of us being the chosen people. It doesn’t seem very fair and it does seem a little haughty. I’ve always had a little bit of an issue [...]
Religious life in Tel Aviv – by Ron Friedman
Posted in Contemporary, Guest writer, Ron Friedman, israel, tagged israel, jewish, judaism, Judaism in israel, religion, secularism, Tel aviv on May 18, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Ron Friedman is the former editor for the Jewish Independent (the main publication I work for). He is now living in Israel, getting his journalism career off the ground there. He has given me permission to share this article of his here. It was just published in the Jerusalem Post. It is about the religious [...]
Moral Relativism
Posted in Michael T. Pullen, Mitzvot/Mitzvas, Tradition and customs, tagged Christians, ethics, jews, moral relativism, morals, Muslims on May 12, 2009 | 6 Comments »
How can you not be a moral relativist? You had to learn your morals from somewhere. After you learn what the moral behavior is you need to do it in relative terms to the situation.
The rabbis had figured this out a long time ago. If things were not relative to the situation why do we [...]
Armin T. Wegner wrote a letter to Hitler!
Posted in Anti-Semitism, Deena Levenstein, tagged armenian genocide, armin wegner, genocide, hitler, holocaust, jews and armenians on May 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’m in awe of this German officer, Armin T. Wegner, who first spoke out against the Armenian genocide and then wrote a letter to Hitler !!! in 1933 telling him he shouldn’t dare do what he was just starting to do to the Jews. He had such foresight (when it was only the first laws [...]
