#(and jews in particular)

[worfsbarmitzvah]

there’s such an attitude among ex-christian atheists that religions just spring up out of the void with no cultural context behind them. like ive heard people say shit like “those (((zionists))) think they own a piece of land bc their book of fairy tales told them so!!!” and they refuse to understand that no, we don’t belong there because of the torah, it’s in the torah because we belong there. because we’re from there. the torah (from a reform perspective) was written by ancient jews in and about the land that they were actively living on at the time. the torah contains instructions for agriculture because the people who lived in the land needed a way to teach their children how to care for it. it contains laws of jurisprudence because those are pretty important to have when you’re trying to run a society. same for the parts that talk about city planning. it contains our national origin story for the same reason that american schools teach kids about the boston tea party. it’s an extremely complex and fascinating text that is the furthest thing from just a “book of fairy tales���

[shalom-iamcominghome]

I've been doing a lot of reflection as of late, especially after this past class.

This past class was about the Torah and Tanakh in general, and the way the rabbi talked about the commandments (specifically the ten commandments) has made me really reflect on how I interpret them, specifically the fifth commandment, or honoring your mother and father.

This is a commandment I have wrestled with for a long time - in fact, it brought me away from g-d at multiple times. I was severely abused when I was incredibly young by my mother, and I used to feel insulted at the implication that I were to honor her while she got to live a better life. It was hypocritical, in my eyes.

But this rabbi surmised that this particular commandment was because parenthood is an act of creation, something that is like the g-d from which we come from. My realization is this: I don't think we're necessarily meant to take even these commandments literally.

I this particular commandment is more of a call to honor creation - creation is a gift, and like any gift, many people simply will not like it and will discard it. The person who abused me created me, but she did not honor creation. She didn't honor me, but I can still honor it.

I have started to honor creation much more. I'm too young, too unstable, not mature enough to be a father (though I fantasize about it), but I create all the time. I create relationships, I create with my hands through crochet. I create memories, I create my world. And I can honor who I am and where I came from that made me who I am. I've been learning one of the mother tongues of my family (Italian, since part of my family originates there) and it was judaism that inspired me to do this.

I don't think g-d wants me to honor my abuser. I think He wants me to remember the Holy action of creation. When I am a father, that act of creation will be Holy, and indeed, I am already joyful about the thought.

I have seen many people struggle with this particular commandment, but I think this perspective helps me personally. I don't think I ever have to forgive my abusers (plural), and I don't think I am commanded to simply because they happened to be family. I am commanded to recognize the holy, to elevate the mundane. In doing so, I will remember g-d. Through creation, I honor g-d and everything he has done for us, for me, and for our collective people.

[rotzaprachim]

bracha to stop looking for things on the internet that will make me angry

[slyandthefamilybook]

Once there was a boy who was a shepherd. He kept watch over a small flock of sheep in a pasture at the edge of town. He loved his sheep. He had been born to a shepherd from a family of shepherds, and had so grown up amongst his flock. He knew all of the sheep by name and would great them one-by-one each morning. "Hello Dolly," he would say. "Hello Steven and hello Betty."

Now these sheep were undoubtedly useful: the townspeople would eat their meat and weave their wool and gnaw on their bones as they worked the fields. But these sheep were also alive. They had a glittering intelligence in their black eyes, and they would commune every so often to discuss the harvest, and the shepherd boy, and the townspeople. The sheep loved the shepherd boy and they loved the town and the townspeople, and the people loved them back. They were good sheep.

Now one day the shepherd boy overheard one of the townspeople talking about his flock. The man said he thought the sheep were ugly, and that they smelled bad. This upset the shepherd boy, because he loved his sheep, and he thought the people loved his sheep as well. The shepherd boy, being no more than 12 years old at the time, wanted to remind the people of how much his sheep mattered to them. So one night as the moon hid behind the clouds the shepherd boy stood on a stone in his pasture and cried out: "Help! Help! A wolf!"

Out came a crowd of people, blinking the sleep from their eyes and carrying torches and pitchforks and shovels and ladels. They stood in the pasture and looked about, but they could see no wolf. The townspeople became angry and shook their fists at the shepherd boy. "This is a serious matter!" they cried. The shepherd boy had to admit that his ploy was juvenile, but he was still a child, and so the people forgave him. And they continued to love the shepherd boy and his sheep, and the shepherd boy and his sheep loved them back, for the townspeople had proved that night how much they cared.

Five years later, when the shepherd boy was now a teen, he stood amongst his flock in the pasture and he said "good night, Dolly. Good night, Steven and good night, Betty." But as the clouds passed over the moon the shepherd teen saw a shape in the distance, and out of fear for his flock he cried out: "Help! Help! A wolf!"

Again came the great crashing crowd with their knives and their swords and axes and bows. They stood in the pasture and looked about, but they could see no wolf. The townspeople once again became angry, and they shook their fists at the shepherd teen. "This is a serious matter!" they cried. "We love you and we love your sheep, but you must learn to not be so frightened!" With great grumbling the townspeople returned to their homes, and the shepherd teen sensed that something had changed.

Five more years passed, and the shepherd teen was now a shepherd. He still passed through his flock every morning and said, "Good morning, Dolly. Good morning, Steven and good morning, Betty." And the sheep loved the shepherd and he loved them. But in his age he had grown cautious. The shepherd had learned from the townspeople that perhaps the wolves were not so great a threat as he had thought. And so at night when he would see their red eyes prowling at the edges of his pasture, he would stay silent and wait.

One night, as the clouds began to cover the moon, a wolf appeared. The wolf approached Dolly the sheep and snarled, its lips wet. "Away!" cried the shepherd. "Away with you!" But the wolf showed its fangs and said, "I want your sheep." "Why?" cried the boy. "Why must you take my sheep? You have your food in the forest!" But the wolf laughed. "I want your sheep because I am a wolf and they are sheep. That is how it is done." And the wolf parted its terrible jaws and snatched up Dolly the sheep and dragged her into the deep woods. And the shepherd remained silent.

The next night two wolves appeared, their eyes red and their tongues hungry. The wolves approached Steven the sheep who was with his family. "Away with you!" cried the shepherd. "Why do you hate my sheep so?" The wolves cackled and said with the same voice, "we hate your sheep because it is the thing for sheep to be hated. All wolves hate sheep, and they cannot all be wrong. Even the birds and rabbits of the forest will come around." And the wolves each took a leg from Steven the sheep and hauled him into the dark woods. And still the shepherd held his tongue.

The next night as the moon was new the shepherd saw a sea of red eyes at the edge of the forest. The wolves marched toward his sheep, their heads held high. And the shepherd saw that indeed the birds and rabbits of the forest were among them, their eyes bleeding and their teeth sharp. They approached Betty the sheep who cried out in terror. The shepherd stood on a rock in his pasture and called out with a loud voice: "Help! Help! The wolves have come, and all the birds and rabbits of the forest!"

But this time no one came. You see, although the boy had cried wolf before, his fear was now justified. But the townspeople had grown tired of him. Every time the flock was threatened they felt compelled to act, and that compulsion drained them. And they no longer liked the shepherd. He had spent too much time with his sheep, and they had begun to see that same glittering black intelligence in his eyes. Sheep are frightened of everything and cannot be expected to know when they are truly in danger.

What had the shepherd done for them? He kept his sheep mostly to himself these days. Perhaps the shepherd was the one really in control, and he had used his cries of wolf to bend the townspeople to his will. Anyone whose flock was threatened that often must be doing something wrong.

And what was this about the birds and rabbits of the forest? They were peaceful! They could never be convinced to join with those who preyed upon them. Flocks of sheep are old and backwards and they are a drain on the town, the people thought. If the birds and rabbits hate the sheep they must have good reason to do so.

Again the shepherd called out, but the townspeople rolled over in their beds and stuffed their ears with sheep's wool. The shepherd's cries of wolf had made them feel guilty, and so they had found reasons for why they did not have to listen. And besides, the townspeople thought as they pulled their wolf skins over their heads and their eyes glowed red, the sheep really were delicious...

[cinemaocd]

Noam Chomsky "genocide denier"

I cut my teeth reading Chomsky in the 80s and 90s. He has faced criticism over the decades for his opinions that are extremely critical of U.S. and Israel's militarism. After 9-11 this made him a pariah in the U.S. and his critics have taken to socials today with out of context quotes, or just outright smearing him with the label of "genocide denier."

Reddit thread on Bosnia Genocide comments Reddit thread on Cambodian genocide comments

I'm not saying take the redditor's words for it, I'm saying these articles are a decent place to start and reddit's search works better than tumblrs...Oh and you might accidentally read some Chomsky and that would be no bad thing.

[spitblaze]

You guys know that American Jews have nothing to do with the actions of Israel, right. You guys know that it's a sovereign nation with a government full of shitheads that has nothing to do with individual Jewish people in other countries. You understand this right. You get that Jewish people are not a monolith and don't unilaterally support Israel by virtue of it being a 'Jewish State', right. You get that being antisemitic at home doesn't remotely help the people in Gaza. Please tell me you understand this

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

Goyim when I tell them my dad is a rabbi and he also eats shrimp.

[spacelazarwolf]

i can’t explain why but comments like this give me absolutely rancid vibes as a jew.

[velvetvexations]

There are a lot of things that suck about JKR and Harry Potter in retrospect, but while everyone knows by now about the goblins being disgustingly weird Jewish stereotypes I don't think I've seen anyone else express is that when I was younger I found the alternative moral framework of goblins to be interesting and inspired me to think a lot more about "blue-and-orange morality". Now that kinna thing is something I'm really big on in both my own work and in the works of others, but it really sucks having that original inspiration soured by not only the general awfulness the franchise has come to exude, but also that element in particular being one of the most blatantly gross things about it since it boils down to "fantasy Jews be greedy, am I right?".

[vamptastic]

It takes less than five minutes to find, even from sources with a strong anti-Israel lean, that it is a matter of historical fact that the land that now is called Israel and Palestine used to be Roman Judea and was renamed to Syria Palestina after the Jewish exile occured roughly a century after Christ's death when it came under Ottoman control. Why the fuck do I still keep seeing people do a find and replace for Israel -> Palestine when talking about the time of Jesus, or claiming that Jesus was Palestinian? Who the hell goes around making confident assertions like that without so much as reading the Wikipedia article for Palestine? How am I seeing people who literally do not know that the Ottoman Empire existed devoting their time and energy into activism for a Middle Eastern country? I don't even want people to read a book, I want them to Google things!

[roguelibrarian]

Really there's no reason for deep fried Oreos not to be a Hanukkah food.

[rotzaprachim]

Te Tangata Whai Rawa o Weniti - Māori language "merchant of venice"- you are SO much

[nedsseveredhead]

Funniest vague ive seen about me so far is the person who was mad I as a jew wasnt mad about the same performative bs they, goyim, were but since im jewish they cant make a callout post about me and theyre absolutely seething that i have a semi popular text post around rn

[bijoumikhawal]

I was reading your tags on that reblogging and good lord the complex discussion of Dhimmi (or related statuses) in the Islamic world gets so simplified on this site for god knows what reason—in that post I was writing about the Jews of Ibb I was going to mention how it was common place particularly in North Yemen for specific tribes to adopt pacts with the local Jews as “neighbors” and hence intimate members of the community who were protected by the local tribal law and consequently why Jews and Muslims had virtually the same dialects of Arabic in any given area; but that’s a complex matter I don’t think people would readily engage with because most of what’s said about Jews in Yemen is particular to urban Jewish communities who were directly in contact with as you mentioned, the ebb and flow of both anti-Semitic and pluralistic leaders at any given time. Like in specific the Zaydi Imamate always went back and forth on the matter within Sa‘dah, despite their control of neighboring tribal areas being hardly tangible at best and those local tribes (such as in Razih for instance) being rather tolerant of the local Jewish communities prior to the introduction of Saudi Wahhabism in the late 20th century.

It’s such a complex topic, and it’s so necessary to engage with. I just wanted to thank you for mentioning that really.

!! Yeah, there's a tendency to flatten it into one extreme or the other (and to act like the experiences of one group given Dhimmi status are the same as another group). Like, dhimmitude itself is a complex political concept because it's protected status, but it's nature as (to an extent, which at times was greater or lesser as you point out) a segregated status can lead into very harmful policies, which gets into Copts and cultural genocide (dhimmitude on its own, from my understanding, didn't have that impact, but when combined with other laws and cultural/religious/political forces, it can be very hard to read about policies that fell under Dhimmi related laws and not think about the broader impact had on our language and culture, and how conversion is used as a weapon against Coptic women in particular even today).

But situations were it doesn't, in fact, separate the community, tend to be ignored if not outright considered false. In some rural communities in Egypt there would be a very limited distinction between Copts and Muslims- in part, often because everyone there knew for a fact that the Muslim fellahin had been Coptic fellahin until a few generations back (a situation that gets generalized to all of Egypt and used as a rhetorical cudgel in really stupid ways against Copts on the assumption that genetics is the main or only factor in who is or is not Indigenous). This is also true in Judaism, for its own different can of worms about the way (in my experience) a certain type of white Jewish man will have anxiety regarding race mixing and project it onto the past and in situations where that makes no sense, and for political reasons to cast the diaspora as a unique site of misery.

[raimi]

insert post here

[nerianasims]

A lot of people online (and elsewhere but I see it mostly online) don't seem to realize when they're throwing good time after bad. This makes it easy for people who want to upset them to get them to waste their time and energy in pointless arguments.

This is very "raised Christian and read Matthew in particular dozens of times as a kid" of me, but: Don't cast your pearls before swine.