#Torah Talmud

[baroque-hashem]

Whenever I see Jews on my dash arguing about interpretations of the Talmud I just chuckle and I'm like...Nothing's changed. Nothing has changed in over 3,000 years. We're still the same Jews. Our clothes, hairstyles, slang may be a bit more modern, but we're still the same Jews. And I love us.

[girlactionfigure]

myjewishlearningcom

This is the Jewish version of the Golden Rule. Rather than telling people to do unto others what they wished done for themselves, the first century sage Hillel taught the inverse: Don’t do to others what you’d hate to have done to you. Hillel’s teachings are featured prominently in the Talmud and his wisdom inspires to this day.⁠

[yourhavruta]

Male sex - is being gay a sin?

I've already saw a couple of those videos on my fyp, and they annoy me a little, especially the comments.

A little preface:

As we know, the original texts of the Tanakh (old testament) were written in Hebrew.

When the Romans ruled over judea, Jesus started a new current in Judaism, which became Christianity after he died.

His followers spread their beliefs, and romans became Christiana as well.

So, one if the first thing they did was to translate the Tanakh to Latin, and then years later to other languages as they continued with the Crusades.

Now, what's bothers me the most about those posts is that they say the mistranslation caused the verse to be "a man shall not lay with another man" instead of "a man shall not lay with a boy" (meaning is was supposedly meant to be about pedophilia and not homosexuality).

The this, that in the original text there nothing about a boy.

"וְאֶ֨ת־זָכָ֔ר לֹ֥א תִשְׁכַּ֖ב מִשְׁכְּבֵ֣י אִשָּׁ֑ה תּוֹעֵבָ֖ה הִֽוא׃" {ויקרא, י"ח, כ"ב}

"And with a male you shall not lie the lyings of a woman; it is an abomination." {Translation - Sefaria, Rabbi Shraga Silvershtein}

Nothing about a boy, nothing about a teenager {נער - sometime interpret as a young male, even if he's 30}.

If we take the verse very literally, it means that a males aren't allowed to have Anal sex with eachother.

Tho, the interpretation that it's about pedophilia, didn't came first from Christians.

[יא] "ואיש" – להוציא את הקטן. "אשר ישכב את זכר" – אף הקטן במשמע.

In verse י"א, the text says "and a man" - meaning an adult male {13 and above}, then it keeps on telling all the laws of Incest. In verse כ"ב {"And with a male you shall not..."}, it. Says a male.

According to Sfara, Kdoshim, it means a male shall not lie with any other male - minor and adult as one.

So, in conclusion, there is definitely mistranslation from the original text to the old testament in the Christian's bible, but it's not explicit about Pedophilia.

Reblog or comment if you have anything to add, this is a very big topic.

Have an easy and meaningful fast.

גמר חתימה טובה🕊️

[hyperpotamianarch]

Next, I'm going to try and pour out information about Jewish religious literature. To be fair, there are probably way more extensive posts, websites and YouTube videos on this topic, but I chose to talk about it because I've seen some slight misinformation going around. Hope I won't come off as patronizing. Note, I'm writing it to be comprehensible for none-Jews as well as Jews, so I might say a lot of things you already know if you're Jewish.

So, Jewish religious literature can be divided to three main branches: Mikra, Mishnah and Talmud. This is not a completely precise division, nor can it be applied to every Jewish religious book, but it's helpful for the basic books, those considered obligating by Rabbinic Judaism.

Mikra (which, roughly translated from Hebrew, means "something that is read") is the one of those three that is pretty much closed: you can't really write a new Jewish book that'll be considered a part of it. It's also called the Written Torah, and includes the entirety of the Hebrew Bible, AKA Tanakh. In case you're wondering, that includes all books in what Christians call "the Old Testament", only sorted differently and into three categories: Torah - the Pentateuch, Nevi'im (Prophets) - which includes every book named after a person outside of Job, Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Neḥemiah, and in addition to those books includes the books of Judges and Kings, and the Ketuvim (Written texts) - which includes all the rest of the books. The order of the books in the Tanakh is as follows (using their English names for convenience, I don't necessarily stand behind those translations): Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Nevi'im: Joshua, Judges, Samuel (1&2), Kings (1&2), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Twelve Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Naḥum, Ḥabakuk, Zephaniah, Ḥaggai, Zechariah, Malachi). Ketuvim: Psalms, Proverbs, Job (transliteration did a number on this one), the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra&Neḥemiah, Chronicles (1&2). Overall, there are 24 books in the Hebrew Bible. It is only later divisions, some of which are outright nonsensical, that made the number into 39.

Those books are ones that are considered to be written using some degree of Divine Inspiration or outright prophecy (which doesn't have to do with knowing the future). Common tradition considers the division of the Tanakh to be between three levels of prophecy, of which the Ketuvim were written in the lowest. As the Written Torah, the entirety of these scriptures is meant to be read (and not repeated by heart). There are occasions where there's a difference between the reading tradition and the writing one - but that's another story. The last books in the Tanakh were written around the 5th Century BCE according to tradition, and it was closed to new additions a couple of decades, perhaps a century or two, later.

The other two branches are both considered parts of the Oral Torah, to varying degrees. You see, according to Jewish tradition, Moshe (Moses) got the Torah in Mt. Sinai in two parts: the Written one (which at the time only included the Pentateuch) and the Oral one, which included explanations on how to actually act upon the commandments in the Written Torah, in addition to deduction laws to be used on the Written Torah (at least according to Rambam, AKA Maimonides). Both the Mishnah and the Talmud, at their core, are based on that. But much of the things said there are things clearly said by Sages and Rabbis from the 1st Century CE onward. How does that work, then?

The answer kind of depends who you ask. But the Orthodox way to look at that is usually that people either have old traditions that were passed down to them, or are using the deduction laws given to Moshe at Mt. Sinai. But I guess all that was a digression, so let's get back on topic.

The Mishnah is called that way after the Hebrew word for repetition. It's supposed to be sturdied this way to be memorized, though it mostly exists as written text nowadays. Back in the time it was codified - the Tana'ic era (10-220 CE, approx.), called that way after the Aramaic word for people who memorize through repetition - there were many versions of traditional laws memorized this way. This stemmed from many different people teaching the same laws, and it ended up being a game of Telephone. Also, it probably needs to be said that while I call those "laws" they weren't usually the bottomline Halachic rules, since it included disagreements and multiple opinions.

The end of the Tana'ic era came when one person, Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, composed an authoritative collection of those after studying all the different traditions he knew of. This is what we nowadays call the Mishnah. It's made of 60 tractates- (whisper, whisper Wait, really? Whisper, whisper Huh. All right, then.) I have been informed that the number is actually 63. Who knew? Anyway, those 63 tractates are sorted by topic into 6 orders. Those orders are: Zera'im (seeds, concerns itself with matters related to plants with the odd tractate about liturgy at the start), Mo'ed (occeasion/time, concerns itself with Jewish holidays), Nashim (women, concerns itself with marriage laws in addition to two tractates about oaths and vows), Nezikin (damages, concerns itself with court procedures. Has two miscellaneous tractates that don't make sense there but belong nowhere else), Kodashim (holy things, concerns itself with matters relating to the Temple procedures as well as one tractate about Kashrut and one about heavenly punishments), and Taharot (ritually clean things, I guess? Though this translation is less than accurate. Has to do with - you guessed it - ritual cleanliness). The tractates aren't divided evenly between the orders, and inside of them are sorted by length. The longest tractate is 30 chapters, the shortest is 3. And yes, all of that was supposed to be remembered by heart - possibly only by a number of specific people.

Now, I didn't mention it previously, but there were certain books written that didn't get into the Tanakh - Apocryphal books. Those are not only considered outside the religious canon, but are not to be studied as well - though this might be a little flexible, the bottom line is they can't really be used for anything religious. I'm saying this right now because the same isn't true for Oral traditions that weren't codified in the Mishnah. Some of those were codified in other ways, and can be used to help understand the Mishnah better - which leads us to the Talmud.

Talmud, translated literally from Hebrew, means "study", as in the study of the traditions from the Mishnah. It is a separate book from the Mishanh, but is structured around it. Due to that, there are occasions people will tell you a given quote is from the Talmud when it's actually from the Mishanh - since the Talmud quotes the Mishnah when talking about it. The Talmud usually tries to reason the origin of the opinions in the Mishnah and to delve into the intricacies of those laws: what happens in fringe cases? What about other situations that the Mishnah didn't mention? How does what this specific Tana (rabbi from the Mishnah) says here fits with what he himself said in another place? And such things. The Talmud is, in essence, a recording of centuries of debates and discussions about the Mishnah. Oh, and there are two Talmudim (the plural form of Talmud).

One could say that the Jerusalem Talmud (Yerushalmi) is the equivalent of the oral traditions that didn't get into the Mishnah: it's less studied and considered less obligating than the Babilonian Talmud (Gemara, or Bavli). It still is occasionally quoted and used to study things the Gemara doesn't talk about or doesn't elaborate on. The main difference between the two is where thy were codified - the Yerushalmi is a codification of the study as it was conducted in the land of Israel (mostly in the galillee; the name Yerushalmi is a little misleading), while the Bavli codifies and records the study of Babylon. There's also a different in the language - both are written in Aramaic interladed with Hebrew, but in different dialects. The Yerushalmi was also codified a couple of centuries earlier than the Bavli - the Yerushalmi was codified around 350CE, due to persecutions under the Bizantine empire, while the Bavli was compiled by the 5th century CE.

While those two Talmudim are separate from each other, there is some intersection. Travel between the land of Israel and Babylon wasn't too rare at the time (called Tekufat Ha'Amora'im in Hebrew, the era of the Amora'im. Amora means interpretor or translator in Aramaic), and so you can see rabbis from Babylon mentioned in the Yerushalmi and Rabbis from the land of Israel mentioned in the Bavli. The easiest way to tell the difference is by their title - in Babylon, a rabbi is called "Rav [name]", while in the land of Israel they are called Rabbi. There is a reason to that, but I'm not getting into it yet. In addition, the Bavli regularly talks about how things are done "in the west" - which is the land of Israel, since it's to Babylon's west. As mentioned, the Bavli is the more authoritative of the two, and is the one usually referred to when people say "the Talmud". The Bavli directly discusses 37 of the Mishnah tractates - it nearly doesn't talk at all about the first and last orders of Mishnah. The Yerushalmi, meanwhile, talks extensively about the first one - but has nothing about the next to last one. There are also other tractates missing in the middle for both.

Now, technically the Babylonian Talmud was codified at the end of the Amora'ic era. However, somewhat unlike the Mishnah (well, I'm not being accurate, the Mishnah also has a thing or two that was shoved later), there were still later additions from a time known as the Savora'ic era. Savora is a word that means "a reasoner" in Aramaic, and I probably could've explained how appropriate this name is for them if I'd have studied enough. From what I know, the characteristics of a Talmudic piece from the Savora'ic era is having no names mentioned/having names of known Savora'im mentioned (the latter is a little rare, to my understanding), and reasoning about the language and meaning of words from the Mishnah. the Savora'ic era probably ended at around the 6th-7th century CE.

From that point on, we'll need to more or less abandon the comfortable division I offered earlier, because it's kind of hard to say which book belongs where, besides many books that might technically fall under the same category but be different enough to require their own categories. In addition, from here on out, no book is considered as all-obligating: you can't go against the Talmud in a halachic ruling, but you can go against anything later.

But, since this thing is long enough as it is right now, I think I'll just write a couple of additions about important books I chose not to mention, and then finish it here for now - with the next couple of periods of history of Jewish religious literature left for a future date.

So, the most significant genre of books I've been ignoring are the Midrashim. I mean, sure, I could talk about Apocrypha, or about the Tosefta/Baraitot (oral traditions that didn't get into the Mishnah), but I mentioned those already. The Midrashim, however, are a genre of writing I completely ignored so far.

I think the best way to explain Midrash is that it's a loose interpretation of the Mikra, based on traditions. There are generally two sub-genres for Midrash - Midrash Halachah and Midrash Agadah. The former concerns itself with the law, the latter with the stories and ideas. The books of Midrashei Halachah we have that I can remember are Mechilta (lit. "Including", more or less. On Exodus), Sifra (lit. "Book", from Aramaic. On Leviticus) and Sifrei (lit. "Books", from Aramaic. On Numbers and Deuteronomy). Those are mostly from the Tana'ic era, I think. There are two major books of Midrashei Agadah, both encompassing all of the pentateuch, named Midrash Rabbah and Midrash Tanḥuma. Those are named after specific people, likely the ones who compiled them, and those names indicate they are from the Amora'ic era.

So, to sum it up: 24 books written during the vague time of the Biblical era, codified into the Tanakh at around 300 BCE, with lots of disagreement on the exact date. Oral traditions passed down between generations, including ones clashing with each other and rulings added through the generations, passed around throughout the Tana'ic era (10-220 CE), and codified into 60 tractates of Mishnah by the end of it. In addition, at the same time, some loose interpretations of the Tanakh that have led to the rulings of those oral traditions are written down in the Midrashim. Discussions and elaborations on those oral traditions of the Mishnah as recorded from places of learning in Babylon and the Land of Israel through the Amora'ic era - around 220-500 CE - are recorded in the Talmud, with some additions from around the 6th century CE.

Any inconsistency in spelling and terminology is to be blamed on my unwillingness to go back and edit this. Sorry.

Thank you for reading, have a good day, and I hope to see you for part 2! Once I get an idea about what I'm going to say in it...

[edenfenixblogs]

hey i saw the post about your cousin's bar mitzvah, and well first of all congrats to her. but also uh one thing you mentioned made me curious- what *am* i supposed to do should i find a dead body on the side of the road, if it's no problem for me to ask? not to worry you or anything like that but i guess it'd be useful to know if i pass a car crash on a road trip again.

Ah! What a good ask!!!! I see you committing to the act of learning more about Judaism as an act of allyship, and I appreciate you! Thanks so much for taking an interest.

Obligatory disclaimer: I’m not a biblical scholar or a Talmudic expert. I’m just a Jew who likes being a Jew.

So my Torah portion was in Leviticus. For those who don’t know, Leviticus and Numbers are often considered the doldrums of Torah books. It’s not where a lot of the well-known exciting parts happen. Those books generally contain a lot of lists of rules and mitzvot.

But this is actually why I like the way Judaism reads the whole Torah in order. It forces us to confront the “boring” stuff. And in so doing, we have to think harder about why that stuff is included in our books.

So that’s why my assigned portion was interesting to me.

The actual text basically says “don’t touch dead bodies.” But I remember reading the Talmudic scholarship which was especially interesting because its focus was to elaborate on all the exceptions and then talked about the importance of doing good deeds without a reward and not punishing those who need to do things like touch dead bodies.

The point of the text isn’t to condemn people who are doing the “forbidden” thing without any cause. The text outlines a lot of rules (many of which are not relevant anymore) and, frankly excessive punishments for breaking the rules.

But Judaism doesn’t end at the literal text. Talmud (rabbinical interpretation) is equally important.

My take on the material was this:

There are some things that, on the whole, we shouldn’t do. We shouldn’t touch dead bodies. We shouldn’t come to synagogue when we are sick. We shouldn’t cheat on our spouses. Etc.

But sometimes, you do need to break the rules. And for some things, someone must always break the rules. There must be someone in any community whose job it is to touch dead bodies. Someone must bury the dead. At the very least.

For people in that position, it is so vitally important that we do not throw the literal text in their face. It is important that we do not condemn them or shun them or otherwise exclude them from our community. Judaism is about community. And you cannot have a community that is based upon excluding people who do essential jobs. Rather, thank them. Because they are doing a good thing with no inherent reward. Quite the opposite. Those people should be celebrated. They take on the hard work knowing it carries risk of exclusion and judgment, but they do it anyway. Because it’s right.

Back in the day, if you saw a dead body on the side of the road and no one seemed available to bury it? Bury it. Give that fallen soul dignity. Then pray about it. Physically and emotionally wash the sin* away. (*sin in Judaism is not the same as the Christian idea of sin. Sin is more akin to an “oops” or “missing the mark.”) And take pleasure in doing something good for humanity and knowing that nobody else had to take on that sin for you.

So, nowadays, if you see a dead body on the side of the road? Call the person whose job it is to deal with that. And thank them for doing this very emotionally difficult work. Welcome that person into your community. Be kind to them. It matters. Because there is no community at all without them and people like them.

And in general? The more broad lesson to this is to of course be kind to people who do unglamorous but necessary work. And to take on that unglamorous work ourselves when necessary. That’s how we keep our community functional and healthy. Do good deeds without expecting a reward. Do what’s right even when you expect a bad outcome. Do good and right things for their own sake, because that’s what we exist to do. Create goodness in the world. The reward is the better world we create.

Thanks for asking @clawdia-houyhnhnm

[secular-jew]

Q: "Most of the Arab countries say that the 'Zionist project' is racist project"

A: "This is a mistake, brother, and here's why..."

[nonstandardrepertoire]

sometimes when the sages are like "this verse about leprosy proves that the sun is red despite appearing white because of a strained pun involving a ruling about buying wheat", i'm like "sure besties, whatever you say", but then sometimes they go on to explain that the sun is red in the morning because it is rising over all the roses in the Garden of Eden and taking on their reflected hue and i need to go lie down on the floor until i recover

[sefaradweb]

El renacimiento de los judíos sefardíes en Jerusalén

🇪🇸 El renacimiento de los judíos sefardíes en Jerusalén destaca por la reconstrucción de sinagogas sefardíes después de la expulsión de los judíos de España en 1492. Entre ellas, se encuentran cuatro sinagogas históricas, como el Kal Talmud Torah y la sinagoga Eliahu Hanavi, vinculadas a leyendas de milagros que ayudaron a preservar la comunidad judía bajo el Imperio Otomano. Este renacimiento simboliza la resiliencia cultural y religiosa de los judíos sefardíes en Jerusalén, quienes, a pesar de las restricciones impuestas por las autoridades otomanas, lograron reconstruir su identidad. A través de la coexistencia, aunque en condiciones difíciles, los judíos sefardíes establecieron una presencia duradera en la ciudad santa, destacándose como parte central del judaísmo de Jerusalén.

🇺🇸 The revival of the Sephardic Jews in Jerusalem highlights the reconstruction of Sephardic synagogues after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. Among these are four historic synagogues, such as the Kal Talmud Torah and the Eliahu Hanavi Synagogue, linked to legends of miracles that helped preserve the Jewish community under the Ottoman Empire. This revival symbolizes the cultural and religious resilience of Sephardic Jews in Jerusalem, who, despite the restrictions imposed by Ottoman authorities, managed to rebuild their identity. Through coexistence, albeit in difficult conditions, the Sephardic Jews established a lasting presence in the Holy City, standing out as a central part of Jerusalem’s Jewish identity.

[rabbiaharon]

BS”D

The Two Children

A parent has two children. One of whom is responsible, humble, and desires connection with their parent, and one of whom is egotistical, irresponsible, and primarily pursues their own benefit and enjoyment. Early in their childhood, the parent gives both children the same responsibilities. Easy, simple chores that they expect both children to do, and if they don’t, there will be no major loss. The responsible child does their chores with respect, knowing that whether or not they enjoy their chores, they look forward to the time they’ll be able to spend with their parent after they are finished. The irresponsible child rarely does their chores, instead choosing to lounge around, draw on the walls in crayon, complain, and roll their eyes at anything their parent asks.

As they get older, the parent recognizes that they can trust the responsible child with more meaningful tasks, and that they can rely on them to be completed. In return, the responsible child acquires a deeper relationship, and cultivates their emotional connection with their parent. The irresponsible child continues to receive basic tasks, and continues to present emotional resistance to their parent, refusing to do the simple tasks, respecting only themselves and even going directly against their parents’ wishes, doing things that present danger to themselves, and maybe even the entire family.

When they are teenagers, the responsible child is trusted to stay out late, to come home when expected. The parent trusts them to start to take some responsibilities in organizing and planning in the household, and they get a job. The irresponsible child continues to misbehave, perhaps joining a gang, or getting into drugs. They still refuse to contribute to the household via any basic tasks, and occasionally even try to work against the responsible child in their own actions.

When they are full-grown adults, the contrast is stark. The responsible child has developed a deep and meaningful dialogue with the parent, and has a reciprocal relationship, where they provide the parent with some of the support they once received as a child. They have learned to do things for the parent on their own initiative… not because they are told what to do, but because they’ve developed a feeling for what makes their parent happy. The irresponsible child has finally noticed that their own actions have shredded their relationship with their parent, leaving them estranged. Rather than reflecting on how they should behave in the future and trying to repair the bridges they burned, they begin to resent and even hate the responsible child for their rich, intimate, and personal relationship with the Parent, a relationship cultivated…. Over thousands of years.

Such is the relationship between Hashem, Jews… and antisemites. In the days of Noah, G-d gave all of humanity 7 commandments; Not to murder, not to steal, not to commit acts of sexual immorality, not to blaspheme His name, to believe in Him, to establish courts of law, and not to eat meat taken from a live animal (Rambam, Hilchos Malachim). By and large, the nations of the world paid little heed to these laws, and invented new forms of idolatry, undermining any relationship they had with the Master of the World. When they did keep the laws, they often did so with complaint, or with perversion and malice. For instance, the “courts of law” of the city of Sodom were used to accuse, try, and execute those who hosted guests or gave charity….

… And then there was Avraham and his family. They kept the 7 Noahide Laws with awe and respect, and cultivated a relationship with G-d. G-d gave Avraham tasks, tests to his dedication and he passed them all. In response, he was given a new mitzvah. As the Lubavitcher Rebbe says in the final Ma’amer he left us with, the term mitzvah (מצוה ־ commandment) is related to the term tzavsa (צװתא) meaning “connection”. This mitzvah - the mitzvah of milah - represented the first vote of confidence between him and his Father in Heaven, “I understand, you want to connect to me, and I know you want to do more, but let’s start with this. This isn’t a one-off, this is the first step between you and I.” As the years, decades, and centuries passed Avraham’s children deepened their relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu (The Holy One Blessed be He), and he took care of them intimately, as with Yitzchak during the famine. When Yaakov dedicated himself to raising a people who would all follow G-d’s word, he was even given a name which showed his relationship with G-d… a name which foreshadowed an even deeper relationship in the future - one where his hundreds of thousands of descendents receive a Torah containing a spiritual letter for each and every one of them, as it says in the Zohar Hakodesh - that Yisrael stands for “There are 600,000 letters in the Torah” (י־ש ש־ישים ר־יבוי א־ותיות ל־תורה). After the people’s teenage years - 210 years of suffering in Egypt (Who’s to say that Hashem doesn’t understand the suffering of a teenager!), they were ready to deepen their relationship again.

Hashem was ready to give them the responsibilities associated with the upkeep of the house. Hashem was ready to begin the partnership that was prepared for from the 6 days of creation, as it says “אשר ברא אלקים לעשות” “Which Hashem created ‘to do’.” It states in Bereishis Rabbah (11:6) - “Everything that was created in the 6 days of creation requires further work”. While the simple understanding of this Midrash is the idea that wheat needs to be ground to make bread, or that mustard must be sweetened before it is eaten, a much deeper explanation is brought in sifrei kabbalah and sifrei chassidus: The Mitzvos that Hashem has commanded us help to spiritually complete the creation he left uncompleted.

As we matured as a people, we came to understand what Hashem wanted of us, and enacted our own decrees, including Rabbinic Mitzvos and fences or additional obligations in addition to the scriptural ones, as it says in the Talmud (Berachos 20b):

דרש רב עוירא, זמנין אמר לה משמיה דרבי אמי וזמנין אמר לה משמיה דרבי אסי: אמרו מלאכי השרת לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא: רבונו של עולם, כתוב בתורתך ״אשר לא ישא פנים ולא יקח שחד״, והלא אתה נושא פנים לישראל, דכתיב: ״ישא ה׳ פניו אליך״?! אמר להם: וכי לא אשא פנים לישראל, שכתבתי להם בתורה ״ואכלת ושבעת וברכת את ה׳ אלהיך״, והם מדקדקים [על] עצמם עד כזית ועד כביצה.

”Rav Avira taught, sometimes in the name of Rebbi Ami, and sometimes in the name of Rebbi Asi: The ministering angels said before the Holy One, Blessed be He: Master of the Universe, in Your Torah it is written: ”who favors no one and takes no bribe” (Devarim 10:17), yet You, show favor to Israel, as it is written: “The Lord shall show favor to you…” etc (Bamidbar 6:26).

He replied to them: And how can I not show favor to Israel, as I wrote for them in the Torah: “And you shall eat and be satisfied, and bless the Lord your God” (Devarim 8:10), yet they are exacting with themselves [to recite birkas hamazon] on [bread] the size of an olive or an egg.

The irresponsible child began to truly notice his lack of relationship with his Father in Heaven when the Torah was given, and began to resent the Jewish People even then, as it says in Tractate Shabbos in the Talmud (89a);

“מאי ״הר סיני״? הר שירדה שנאה לאמות העולם עליו.

”What is the meaning of ‘Mount Sinai’? The mountain which drew hate (sina) from among the nations”.

As time went on his hate turned to anger, and anger to rage. He did not look inward to see why he wasn’t being given more responsibilities. He didn’t examine his own behavior to realize that the true cause of his resentment was the guilt of a missed opportunity - or many of them. Instead, the rage of the Irresponsible child has manifested in every generation, causing violent actions towards individual jews and genocide attempts against the entire Jewish people. With the entire history of the world as precedent, his behavior in our generation is neither unusual nor surprising.

Next time you see an antisemite spouting vicious vitriol - or if you are an antisemite and you’re feeling angry while reading this, remember that those feelings are nothing more than the invalid insecurities of a petulant child who squandered every chance to form a meaningful relationship with his Father, and instead of reflecting on his own shortcomings, he has chosen to blame his sibling for all of his problems.

The solution in my eyes is twofold: Antisemites must recognize where those feelings come from. Blaming a people that makes up 0.2% of the world’s population for 99.8% of the world’s problems is neither logical nor realistic. Learn about us. Get invited to a shabbos meal, or a passover seder. Trust me, you WILL find a jew (for better or worse) who will invite you. You’ll be well fed, and it won’t be poisoned. Don’t just take my word for it either: Educate yourself about Judaism from Jewish websites, like Chabad.org or Aish, not from Wikipedia - and certainly not from random users on Tumblr or Facebook.

Us as Jews? We must recognize the source of these things, and not be discouraged. We should stay the course. We’ve been developing our relationship with Hashem for thousands of years, and we’ve been tasked with fixing his broken world. If someone who was formerly an antisemite - or someone who is trying to change - approaches you, remember to stay safe (do your due diligence to ensure your own safety before inviting them over!), but be welcoming and warm to the best of your abilities. Ultimately… even the estranged, petulant, irresponsible child is still a child of Hashem, and regardless of your personal feelings (and mine, by the way), can be accepted in repentance, should Hashem desire it.

[tekhelet]

Hello! This is my intro post for tags while I try to keep everything here organized. More to come later!

[ace-hell]

"jews control Hollywood!"

Jews invented Hollywood, don't like it doesn't use it or participate, or watch. It was made for us not you

"jews control the banks!"

Jews were tasked with money work bc it was viewed as blasphemous, have a problem take it up with the medieval christians

"jews control the media!!"

Have yall even seen wtf is going on with the media😭 ain't no fucking way a zionist jew run that thing

"jews control the weather and land and cause natural disasters!"

Omg? Like in the ATLA? the earthbender jews cause earthquake? And water bender jews cause tsunami? Tbh that's kinda sick yall are just losers

"jews drink X people's blood!"

Humans. Can't. Digest. Blood. We all should've died long ago if that was true

"jews are satanists!!"

Jews? Don't? Believe? In? Satan??? In judaism satan is a metaphor for your negative, inpulsive, violent and intrusive thoughts not a literal being or an entity, the idea of "satan" as a ruler contradicts the whole idea of judaism and "one god one ruler" 💀

"jews are colonizers!!"

Yes bc palestinians and jews proving they are native by having JEWISH dna is SO colonial weh. there's no palestinian dna so that's a food for thought. Also הגונב מגנב פטור.

"jews killed jesus!"

Wha holup, i thought yall believe jesus was palestinian no? Bc "he lived in what today is palestine"? Does that mean that everyone at the time were palestinians too? Palestinians killed jesus.

[drafty-castle]

This may be a weird complaint and I’m probably driving way out of my lane here but…

I was looking up Hebrew-English Torah (Torahs? Don’t know how to pluralize that) and Talmud because I follow several Jewish creators here on tumblr and on YouTube. So much of what these creators say about Judaism is so beautiful that I wanted to know more, and, being a bibliophile, my first instinct was to look for the writings.

And I found them? But I can’t tell a good English translation from a bad one, so I checked the reviews. And this is where the weirdness comes in and where I may be stepping out of my lane, but….

All of the reviews are written by Christians?!?

Like, every review on every book on Amazon I checked was written by some brand of Protestant looking to “deepen their understanding of the Bible/Old Testament” or was using the Hebrew-English translation as a teaching tool while learning “Biblical Hebrew”.

On the one hand, I get it. As far as Christians are concerned, they are the religious inheritors of Judaism via fulfilled prophecy. On the other hand, I’m not even Jewish and it just feels ghoulish how there was not one Jewish review amongst the dozen or so Torah I checked.

Now, maybe there’s a totally reasonable explanation for this. Maybe Jews don’t buy their holy texts off Amazon (reasonable) or they know which ones are the right ones to buy via community word-of-mouth (also reasonable). Maybe, as a non-Jew, I am unaware that leaving an Amazon review admitting to being Jewish might leave yourself open to doxxing or something by bigots, in which case I’m even more pissed off than before. Maybe the issue is just a matter of statistics: there are more Christians than Jews in USAmerica so that’s who is buying and reviewing the books.

I don’t know what the reason for the lack is, but it’s weird and off-putting enough to make me pause. It was enough to make me write this post.

And it was enough to make me NOT buy a Torah, because, honestly? I’m not going to trust a Christian’s word on how accurate a Jewish holy text is. No. Just…. No.

If anyone has any thoughts or insights into what’s going on here, I’d love to hear it. And if anyone with any experience could point me to which translations are acceptable and which are bunk, that would be great. I’d considered contacting the nearest rabbi, but his synagogue is literally 100 miles from me and I don’t know what hours are appropriate to call and my social anxiety over the phone is just making things all sorts of difficult right now, so that’s currently off the table.

[girlactionfigure]

myjewishlearningcom

Hillel (also known as Hillel the Elder) is one of the best-known sages of the Talmud. ⁠ ⁠ Hillel is known for a number of famous maxims in addition to this variant of the golden rule. Many of these are recorded in the early chapters of Pirkei Avot, the section of the Talmud concerned primarily with matters of ethics.⁠

[yourhavruta]

𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐀!

"𝑻𝒘𝒐 𝒋𝒆𝒘𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔"

In this blog I'm going to open discussions about different opinions, ideas or thoughts about Judaismin all it's aspects.

𝐁𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬:

- 𝖸𝗈𝗎 𝖼𝖺𝗇 𝗌𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗂𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖺𝗌𝗄𝗌 𝖻𝗈𝗑 any 𝗍𝗁𝗈𝗎𝗀𝗁𝗍 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗌𝗎𝖻𝗃𝖾𝖼𝗍 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗐𝗈𝗎𝗅𝖽 𝗅𝗂𝗄𝖾 𝗍𝗈 discuss about but if you send spam you're account will get blocked.

- everyone are welcome - "ואהבת רעך כמוך"

- respectful language. We can argue or disagree with eachother without getting personal and harmful.

- non jews, I will not be your token Jewish person.

- DM are open for anything.

𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐞 {𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠}:

- my chosen/internet name is John (not very Jewish of me, I know).

- I'm a 17 y/o trans guy.

- full ashkenazi.

- I come from a religious family.

- I learn in a Jewish highschool.

- for more info about me you can check my main blog { @rmoony12 }.

I hope it's clear what this blog is, I tried my best to explain. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

[livethrushit]

was talking to my friend about how i feel silly calling myself a bby linguist when it's "just a special interest" and not something i'll ever be professionally. they pointed out: a special interest i've spent years learning in various ways outside of academia. through multiple ongoing study groups with friends i've made bc they also love learning these languages, countless books and hyper niche journals, videos, and lotsssssss of study practice.

i learn languages very slowly and grammar fucks me up which gives way to imposter syndrome & being bad at my passion. but id rather spend my days buried in ancient languages and painstakingly learning the philosophies, histories, and methodologies of translation and linguistics than study anything else this in depth more easily.

i've done presentations for study groups on translations of specific words and how vast the interpretations could be as a result. like did you know the whale (it's actually a giant fish) in the biblical story of jonah is a masculine noun in the beginning of the story and changes to a feminine noun later on? and how much that confused the fuck out of early commentators? JUST ONE WORD!! it's beautiful.

i know grammar structures of multiple germanic languages & semitic languages. that's not nothing!! that is COOL actually.

academics are people who are *mostly* able to afford to study their special interests is the way i'm choosing to look at it. barriers don't mean my studies are less important.

[bayerischephobic]

whats up judaism fandom i think that judith shouldve been more unhinged. like if u support womens wrongs