#but i will likely come out to my rabbi which will most likely go over well. he's been giving green flags from the start

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Were you out as trans to the Rabbi who managed your conversion? I'm Jewish and trans too (from birth tho), and I'm interested to know how it worked for you

I'm still in the process, but I have so far not told anyone about my being trans. I don't know... I just don't feel as though I need to qualify my manhood, if that makes sense. I've been finding in many of the largely cishet jewish spaces that I'm in that I feel more accepted even when I'm stealth than when I'm in non-jewish cishet spaces, so I really don't find it that big of a deal to make it Known. Obviously, it may be different when it comes to my rabbi, and it'll likely come up because I want to look into maybe an alternative to a brit (not out of requirement, out of my own want)... If you couldn't tell, I'm still trying to figure out what I want haha!

I guess the long and short of it is... It just works for me? It's rather boring the way it's been for me, and for that, I really am grateful. I know it's not the same for everyone, and I want to make it clear that this can absolutely coexist with having a really boring, uneventful experience with this.

[vraska-theunseen]

google how to not be sosososo anxious all the time. its not even like stress that motivates me to get things done it's just like. i make a mistake and misunderstood instructions in class and my teacher is like "you were supposed to figure out precisely where 180 was before taping the draft and punching your marks" when i like an idiot guesstimated it and after a moment of me going "oh..." bc its something i can't fix bc i've already punched in all the holes on the part he's like "i think you'll be okay" and goes back to what he's doing and then for three hours im like he's so annoyed with me i bring things to him too much and ask him too many questions and make the stupidest mistakes every day he hates me. i ask a friend something and they don't respond because they're busy or forget about it or don't see it or any number of other reasons and then a couple weeks later i send them something else and they don't respond for a few hours and its enough time for me to convince myself i said something a while ago that they took offense to without realizing and they're ignoring me and i send another message saying "are you mad at me did i do something can you tell me what i did so we can work it out" and he's like "what?". a friend posts about people treating them badly in a way that's clear they're talking about a specific phenomenon or person and im always like omg are they talking about me did i do something bad and not realize it... and its someone i talk to so infrequently and casually it obviously would not be a concern or someone i've known for so many years that they would obviously come to me if there was any conflict that arose. help

[infiniteglitterfall]

A Chabad synagogue in Pomona, New York, burned to the ground on April 17th, along with its three Torah scrolls.

Torah scrolls are hand-written, hand-made, and kept in elaborately decorated cases or wrappings.

Many of them have long histories; my synagogue has two, I think, that were smuggled out of villages being destroyed in pogroms or in Nazi attacks. One of them is the only remaining piece of that village on earth.

Sometimes, the Torah scroll doesn't even belong to the synagogue, but is on loan from a place like the Memorial Scrolls Trust:

There's an entire Jewish holiday just for taking them out and dancing with them: Simchat Torah, "The Joy of Torah."

In fact, that was the holiday on which Hamas's invasion took place.

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So it's a particular tragedy when a Torah is destroyed.

Chabad itself has a page about what goes into making just one Torah scroll:

"An authentic Torah scroll is a mind-boggling masterpiece of labor and skill. Comprising between 62 and 84 sheets of parchment -- cured, tanned, scraped and prepared according to exacting Torah law specifications -- and containing exactly 304,805 letters, the resulting handwritten scroll takes many months to complete.

"An expert pious scribe carefully inks each letter with a feather quill, under the intricate calligraphic guidelines of Ktav Ashurit (Ashurite Script). The sheets of parchment are then sewn together with sinews to form one long scroll. While most Torah scrolls stand around two feet in height and weigh 20-25 pounds, some are huge and quite heavy, while others are doll-sized and lightweight."

I learned all of this on Tumblr.

Once upon time, in people's "punch Nazis" days, I would've been able to find some mention on Tumblr of this synagogue burning.

There is none, so I'm posting about it.

And I'm going to quote Daniel Weiner, Rabbi of Temple de Hirsch Sinai in Bellevue, Washington, when his own synagogue was vandalized last November:

"It’s horrific and heartbreaking.... [Taking out your feelings about] what's going on in the Middle East by defacing a sacred space of a synagogue -- that’s the very definition of antisemitism."

I'm also posting about the Kehillat Shaarei Torah Synagogue in Toronto, whose windows were broken on Friday, April 19th, by someone who also tried to break the front door down.

And the April 15 graffiti outside a Bangor, Maine synagogue that said, "Nazi Israel 30K murdered," next to a crossed-out Star of David. The same synagogue faced pro-Hamas flyers plastered around it in November.

I was going to include all the synagogues vandalized over the past six months. But there are way too many. Several every week. Lots are swastikas.

I'll go back to just doing attacks on and near synagogues.

Someone has to talk about the 1-year-old who was stabbed outside Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel (BZBI) synagogue, in Philadelphia, on April 13th.

The foiled terrorist attack on a Moscow synagogue on April 11th.

The man who, on April 9th, screamed at the rabbi at Moldova's Great Synagogue, "What are you doing here? How come no one has finished you off for everything you are doing to the Palestinians?" Just one week after people had vandalized a Holocaust memorial in nearby Soroka, and sprayed "Free Palestine" on it.

The Oldenburg, Germany synagogue that was firebombed on April 5th.

The Florida Las Olas Chabad Jewish Center, which on March 16 burned, but not to the ground. The Torah scrolls were safe, and no one was hurt, but the back of the building was severely damaged.

The planned-but-thwarted-on-March-7th ISIS massacre in a Moscow synagogue.

The stabbing of an Orthodox Jew in Switzerland on March 5th. (He was badly injured, but expected to survive.)

A man leaving a synagogue in Paris was beaten on March 3rd.

People set the courtyard of a synagogue in Sfax, Tunisia on fire on February 27th. Firefighters managed to put the fire out before it consumed the inside of the building.

The synagogue is no longer used; there are no Jews left in its area, and fewer than 1,000 Jews left in Tunisia overall.

(Thousands of Tunisian Jews were sent to work camps during the Holocaust. Antisemitism across the Middle East continued to increase rapidly for decades. By the 1970s, 90% of Tunisian Jews had fled to France or Israel.)

On February 18, an Orthodox Jew leaving Synagogue of Inverrary-Chabad in Lauderhill, Florida, was beaten by an attacker yelling racial slurs.

Someone deliberately chose International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, to smash all the windows in the front of Sgoolai Israel Synagogue in downtown Fredericton, New Brunswick.

On December 29, Turkey arrested 32 people linked to ISIS who were planning attacks on synagogues and churches.

On December 17, a man drove a U-Haul truck up onto the sidewalk between a barrier and the front door of the Kesher Israel Congregation in Washington D.C., got out, and started yelling "Gas the Jews." He also sprayed a foul-smelling substance on two people leaving the synagogue.

December 17 also saw 400 synagogues across the United States receive bomb threats.

On December 11, a man attacked an elderly couple on their way into a synagogue in Los Angeles, screaming, "Give me your earrings, Jew!!" and beating one of them bloody with a belt. (Happily, he chased the guy down the street, and caught him when his pants fell down.)

On December 10, a 16-year-old was arrested in Vienna for planning an attack on a synagogue.

On December 8, on the first night of Hanukkah, 15 synagogues in New York State received bomb threats. And someone screamed, "Free Palestine," and fired shots outside of Temple Israel in Albany, NY. Which has a preschool that was in session.

Meanwhile, the five Jews left in Egypt were canceling public Hanukkah candle-lighting at their synagogue out of fear of reprisals. Particularly after two Israelis in Alexandria had been gunned down by terrorists on October 8. (While Israel was still fighting Hamas in Israel.)

On November 15, a terrorist group set the only synagogue in Armenia on fire.

Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) has a history of working with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

(PFLP is part of Hamas's network of groups. Samidoun is their nonprofit arm - which is why Germany banned Samidoun last year, although it's still active in many other countries.

PFLP is also actively supported by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), a diaspora nonprofit group, and Within Our Lifetime (WOL), an SJP spinoff in NYC.)

On November 11, halfway through Shabbat services, police asked Central Shul in Melbourne, Australia to evacuate "as a precaution" due to a "pro-Palestinian" protest that had chosen the neighboring park as its gathering place. Australia has seen some very outspoken antisemitism at protests, including the march shortly after October 7 that chanted "Gas the Jews."

Also on November 11, protesters targeted a synagogue along a march route. They sat in their cars, spraying green smoke and shouting at people leaving the synagogue. The march itself featured a record number of horrifying signs and chants.

On November 7th, Congregation Beth Tikvah in Montreal was firebombed, and the back door of the Jewish organization across the street (Federation CJA) was set on fire.

On November 4, protesters chanted "Bomb Israel," and burned an Israeli flag outside the only synagogue in Malmo, Sweden.

During October, there were 501 antisemitic acts under investigation in France in just three weeks, including groups gathering in front of synagogues shouting threats, and graffiti such as the words “killing Jews is a duty” sprayed outside a stadium.

On October 18, people firebombed a synagogue in Berlin after homes all over the neighborhood were graffitied with stars of David.

And also on October 18, hundreds of "pro-Palestine" rioters attacked the Or Zaruah Synagogue, in the Spanish enclave of Melilla in North Africa, while worshippers were inside.

Based on the video, they seem to have blocked the synagogue entrance completely, while screaming "Murderous Israel" and waving Palestinian flags. (Melilla is an autonomous zone belonging to Spain. It borders Morocco.)

On October 17, during pro-Palestinian protests, hundreds of rioters set fire to Al Hammah synagogue, an abandoned house of prayer in central Tunisia. They hammered down the building’s walls and raised a Palestinian flag on the building. Police did not intervene.

The Facebook page "Tunigate", which has around 88 thousand followers, published a video of the assault. So did "Radio Bousalem”, with 83 thousand users. The vast majority of comments on these videos welcome these acts. The building was severely damaged and almost completely razed to the ground.

On October 15, bomb threats were sent to many East Coast synagogues. Attleboro synagogue Congregation Agudas-Achim received one of the emails, which read, "The bombs will blow up in a few hours. A lot of people will die. You all deserve to die."

On October 8 -- again, while Hamas was still in Israel -- Madrid’s main synagogue was defaced with graffiti that read “Free Palestine” next to a crossed-out Star of David.

And on October 7, an assailant in Rockland, NY fired a BB gun at two women entering a synagogue. Later in the month, a banner at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in the area was vandalized with the words, “Fuckin kikes."

[olderthannetfic]

Being a trans man and not being an anti is also isolating, which is part of why I think trans guys gravitate towards either being an anti or reposting anti posts. If you're not an anti, you get booted from discord servers, blocked on social media at best or sent misgendering rape threats, death threats and suicide bait by other trans men at worst, and now that I'm in college I've found IRL that not being an anti makes a lot of people in queer spaces available to the average college student incredibly uncomfortable. So you have to either be entirely alone - which is very difficult when you're young, queer, and just coming into your own identity - or you have to be around it a lot without saying a word. Agreeing with it at first wouldn't even be necessary. You just have to not say anything against it, and then you'll be able to be around other people.

It doesn't help that most trans men who get sucked into anti circles are teens at the time. There's 501 proposed anti-LGBT laws right now, not counting everything that has passed, the majority of it anti-trans. If you're a teenage boy seeing all this transphobia on the rise, you're going to feel powerless. Bullying people like antis do makes you feel power over at least a few people. Being told you can consume your way into being a good person via media intake makes you feel like you have power and control over at least that.

I was sucked in incrementally because I wasn't exposed to the more violent antis who fantasized about murder and hurting people for writing fiction, I met my only friend - who was an anti - after my dad had beaten me for coming out as trans, and I was sixteen. I got out when I was eighteen because once I went to live with my mom, a psychologist, she gently corrected me when I would say things that aren't based in fact. She pointed out how upset these people were making me. She taught me how to fact-check claims and look into the veracity of claims.

And when I tried to convey to my friends that no, what they were saying wasn't supported, they turned on me. Including the only person who had been there for me when I was hatecrimed, who had reached out to me specifically because she met me what day. I lost every friend I had in roughly 30 hours.

If I hadn't had a really great mom, a very intelligent rabbi who's well-versed in psychology and is a former lawyer who saw the "fiction made me do it" excuse used to defend heinous crimes and doesn't buy it, and an older half-sister who lived through people calling her a psycho lesbian because she's a lesbian who played D&D, listened to metal and dressed Goth in small-town Montana in the 80's/90's, I would have probably killed myself. Having those three people who accepted me and did not accept this extremist rhetoric kept me sane and repaired my self-esteem enough to keep me going.

But a lot of people don't have three adults who are intelligent, supportive, and know better than to fall for this faux-psychology. A lot of people don't even have one. Often, they have unsupportive people who also believe firmly in the faux-psychology of "if you watch a thing you'll do that thing IRL". So there's not only no one hauling them out of this, it's getting reinforced.

Being a non-anti who is a trans man gets me a lot of shit from a lot of people online and offline. (As other anons have mentioned during the ace discourse, online talking points come up on college campuses and in real life, because the internet is not an alternate dimension, it is something being used by the people around you who exist in the same physical space as you.)

A reality that I don't think people want to discuss is that trans men, just like all other people of all other genders, suffer a lot of psychological distress if they're put in a position where they have no support. I sure as fuck wasn't happy being in a position where I went from having tons of online friends, discord servers I could hang out in and fandoms I associated with good vibes to none of that, plus harassment, plus massive misgendering.

It's a lot less awful of an existence to be a trans man and an anti when you're young and need community and support than it is to not be an anti and be isolated. And humans gravitate towards the least awful option 99% of the time.

--

Yuuup.

Having some kind of real support network, usually offline but at the very least not randos you met a day ago on discord, is vital and is the difference between not only whether you rot in a pit of antidom forever but in stemming the massive flood of trans teen suicides. The overall queer rates aren't great, but the specifically trans rates... they're bad. They're so, so bad.

[dearfuturehusbandblog]

The Stupidity Doesn't End

Dear Future Husband,

Yesterday was an okay day and today was an okay day. No major hiccups or blowups or stupidity. Things were actually relatively okay.

But of course, that means nothing, because everything can change in a split second.

There's a Little Old Lady in our building who is moving to an old age home soon and MotherLivelyHeart decided that we should have a goodbye party for her.

The discussion of this party went from "we should invite everyone she knows to come say goodbye to her" to "we'll just keep it a building thing."

And every time discussion of this thing came up, I kept saying we should do it in the party/conference room that our building has, but MLH has some unexplained hatred for that room and always nixed the idea. She wanted "to do it in my home. I have a beautiful home for a reason."

The last discussion we had about this party earlier in the week (after she agreed to doing the mealtrain thing on Thursday and before she decided she doesn't want to do that again for quite a while), it seemed decided that we would have the party in the hallway near Little Old Lady's apartment with a tiny table set up with a little nosh and a bunch of chairs, instead of in our apartment.

When MLH bought the stuff for the mealtrain breakfast, she also grabbed a boxed cake and boxed brownies. And at some point she scrounged up a bag of popcorn. And erev Shabbos, BigSis baked the cake and brownies.

Then, on Friday, MLH pinned an event in the building whatsapp chat reminding everyone to come say goodbye to Little Old Lady and the time that she posted was 6:15pm-6:45pm or "after havdallah." And the location she posted was our apartment.

Now, time is important for a few reasons. One of which is that, recently, for some reason unbeknownst to me, we have started following a different havdallah time than we used to.

When I was growing up, we waited the longest time for havdallah because my father thought he was chassidush or something and that's what he'd been taught. But it became an issue when he wasn't davening with any chassidush minyan anymore (and hadn't since I was like 2) and we were the weirdos, having heard havdallah at our friends' houses and still unable to do anything after shabbos (like get a ride home) until the proper zman.

My parents spoke to a rabbi* about it who told them that since they had chosen this time as baalei teshuva who didn't really know anything, they could change it. But it was a one-time change and they couldn't adjust again after that, and to be sure of which time they wanted to switch to.

So when I was in high school, we all of a sudden started keeping the "one hour" that most people keep. I believe this is the opinion of The Gra...?

And so, 6:15pm this week becomes important when, out of the blue, we're not ending Shabbos at like 5:30pm if Shabbos started at 4:30pm, but instead at what I think is the offical Tzais HaKochavim time of around 5:45pm. Because by the time Shabbos is over and we've cleaned up from shelosh seudos and actually finish havdallah it's after 6:00pm, which gives us only 15 minutes to set everything up.

And right before havdallah is when MLH decides to tell us that she forgot to get small plates. Oh, and also we don't have any drinks.

This was something SHE was planning. She didn't ask for any help. In fact, ada raba! She told me point blank that she didn't want me making a big deal over this and buying or baking anything for it. "I'm just going to pick up some cookies or something." I was like "fine, this is your thing, go for it."

Well, Little Old Lady showed up at like 5 after 6pm and parked herself right between the kitchen and dining room, when we had just barely finished havdallah, and nothing was set up yet.

We now have 10 minutes to get everything ready which includes finding a folding table for the hallway, making sure we have a tablecloth for it, tracking down small disposable plates and some drinks.

Because none of this was done before Shabbos.

Then another neighbor shows up and she sits next to Little Old Lady and now the direct path from the kitchen to the dining room is blocked, despite us clearly needing that area cleared to be able to get things set up. But whatever. God help our cluelessness.

MLH makes some statement about getting the hallway set up and BS all of a sudden goes "why?" And MLH says "because that's where we're setting things up." And BS makes a face and says "why? it's cold out there." And MLH goes on some mini diatribe about how our apartment hasn't been tidied up and it's so embarrassing, devastating, and humiliating.

Yes, in front of Little Old Lady and Other Neighbor. FFS.

Well, BS's resistance settles the topic - we're doing it in our apartment.

Which shouldn't really be much of a shock, considering that MLH set the location for the event as our apartment and nobody knew the original intention was to have it in the hallway to begin with. But whatever.

Right after Little Old Lady arrived, MLH started cutting the brownies and needed a tutorial on how. Like, seriously? While she was cutting the brownies I asked her what she wanted to do with the bunt cake.

Her response: "Well, we could do an icing or a drizzle, but that means pulling out the confectioner's sugar and vanilla and making a mess... we could cut it up and put it on plates, or just leave it plain and let people do what they want. It's a cake; don't overthink it."

So fine, I left it alone.

Then at about 6:20pm, while she's cutting the brownies into ridiculous shapes despite what I had shown her, she asks me "What do you want to do with the cake?"

I said, "I don't know, it's your cake, whatever you want."

And I get back a condescending remark through forced smile and gritted teeth: "Thank you so much for your help."

Because, I'm of course the bad guy.

Because she "planned" and did a piss-poor job of it.

Because I clearly needed this right now.

I should add that I've been having issues today with the arm that I broke earlier this year. I don't know the cause of it, but I've been experiencing pain for hours, which she knew. And I even made a comment to her about how the most pain is when I have to rotate my arm and grasp things which is required for cutting and carrying.

Yet she kept trying to get me to cut and carry things.

It's almost like she wants me to say no so that she can be upset.

I don't get it.

Anyway, so now we're hosting this little party in our apartment that is "so gross and disorganized and unclean and an embarrassment" or whatever, and while guests are literally coming in she's puttering around tidying random things and muttering under her breath how embarrassed she is at the state of the apartment.

Which, granted, is a bit unorganized, but isn't unclean. It's just not "host-a-party" clean because we didn't clean to be hosting a party.... because it was supposed to be in the hallway and not in the apartment....

So at around 6:30pm, about halfway through the time she alloted for this "party", MLH was fuming at the embarrassing state of our apartment and my inability to be helpful physically (or idea-wise, considering I just parroted back the whole not overthinking the cake situation to her and I guess that was the wrong thing to do), BS started putting together a glaze for the cake, and I sat down on the couch, out of the way, and checked a few messages on my phone and started cataloguing my thoughts.

And MLH took that opportunity to ask me in a whisper across the room "are you going to join us?" To which I was like "what?" and she said louder "are you going to join us at the table?" and I was like "I don't know, maybe" and she said something like "well, then, just go to your room. this is not nice." Because I guess me sitting on the couch on my phone while things were still being pulled together and Little Old Lady was shmoozing with two neighbors, was the rudest thing I could possibly be doing.

Should I remind you that I'm in my mid-30s?

And being reprimanded like a child.

For being in pain and out of the way while people set up a party that I was told straight-up to not do much for.

I frickin' hate my stupid life.

Shabbos was decent and this is how my week starts.

I'm over it all already.

So, my dear future husband...

Here's wishing you a shavua that's tover than mine.

-LivelyHeart

*and just because my life is ridiculous and stupid, this rabbi was someone my mother was doing work for at the time, and who has since been locked up for being a disgusting pervert who went off the rails when he was found out and arrested. I don't even know if he's frum anymore, not that he truly was if he was really doing all those gross things he was accused of, which I kind of don't doubt, based on the piles and piles and piles of evidence....

[giyrut-girlie]

(queer) jews in my phone i need help/love

this is a long ass post im so sorry lmfao, im putting it in under the cut to save you all but also if people have head space pls read <3

on friday night, i found myself the last of the shabbat guests (who weren't staying the night) at the Rabbi's house. i had asked my housemate to pick me up at 10:30, but everyone else left before 10.

the kids and rabbi's wife had gone to bed, so it was me, the Rabbi, and two older frum guys who stay over shabbat most weeks to be closer to shul.

for some context, earlier in the evening one of these guys had asked another dinner guest (a med student who I'm good friends with, she's a year or two younger than me) whether trans issues came up in her study. the two of us youngins made brief "help me" eye contact and she answered saying that yes, they did cover trans issues given that as a doctor she will, at some point or another, treat trans patients. the subject was changed, but the room was a bit tense.

so: 10pm, i'm sitting at the table, a little tipsy from all the wine, just hanging out until my ride comes.

the rabbi says "hey ella, i have a question for you now that everyone else (by which he means the not-so-frum people) is gone." and i Just Knew what he was about to ask.

i won't go into extreme detail about the actual conversation, but to sum it up: I was asked my opinion on trans folk, i said that i am supportive and do in fact believe trans people about their identities and was Shut All The Way Down. if i cited statistics i was told that actually they'd seen the opposite, if i tried to explain a study i was familiar with, i was told that they didn't think that was true. i actually don't know how i stayed calm, bc my mind and body were telling me that i was Unsafe basically the entire time (thanks anxiety disorder really did me a solid there /s).

eventually 10:30 rolled around and i had a get out of jail free to skip the rest of that fuck awful conversation, and my housemate was very nice to listen to my debriefing. while talking to her i came to the realisation that one of the main factors in the disagreement was that the rabbi didn't actually value the wisdom of any cultures/teachings/histories outside of judaism. if I talked about sistergirls of the torres strait, or māhū of hawai'i, that was dismissed essentially as goyische nonsense.

this whole conversation has been a Fucking Downer for my mental health. i actually broke shabbat (beyond my usual one melacha to be in the clear and sneaky housemate taxi service) that night bc my thoughts were racing too much to sleep without putting on some comfort media.

but beyond the mental health stuff (though probably actually very related) i've found myself really struggling with judaism since friday night. having my rabbi, who has been helping me through conversion, and who i have really valued as a teacher, and the only two other frum people in the community be so overtly transphobic all at once has really taken me for a spin. like, my rabbi is a lubavitcher, i knew that he was going to be fairly conservative about some stuff, but he literally told me that he only uses the correct pronouns for one of our community members as a "personal favour", and essentially told me that she was good evidence against trans acceptance bc nothing she could ever do would ever make her not a man (and you better believe this involved a lot of comments about her appearance)

to put the icing on the cake, when i dropped off his kids today (i nanny for them once a week), he handed me a book that upon research is basically the jk rowling talking point bible. he said to me that it was a really good book for me to read and that it might help fight some of the "mob mentality" (interesting term for scientific consensus but okay)

(also i had actually looked up my own citations from the discussion later and found myself to be very much correct in my recitation of statistics, but you better believe i wasn't petty enough to forward them on)

ANYWAY if anyone is still reading i'm fucking bummed and super anxious about interacting with my community, my conversion, finding the balance between really truly wanting to pursue an orthodox lifestyle and also being queer myself etc etc

i live in a really small jewish community and can't really leave until i finish my degree in 2026, so i can't exactly just find a more accepting rabbi or shul.

anyone have any advice, or just some solidarity for feeling shitty in this space? love u jews in my phone xx

[dragoneyes618]

Pogrom is one of four words that antisemitism has given to the contemporary vocabulary - the others are genocide, the attempt to kill an entire people; Holocaust, the Nazi murder of six million Jews between 1939 and 1945; and ghetto, the name given to the enclosed areas in many European cities where Jews were forced to live until the twentieth century, and during the Holocaust.

While technically, the word "pogrom" refers to three waves of attacks against the Jews of Russia (in 1881-1884, 1903-1906, and 1918-1920), today the term is used to refer to any antisemitic attack.

The Russian pogroms radically affected Jewish life. American Jews, many of whose ancestors come from Russia, are very likely living here because of the pogroms. In 1881, when the pogroms began, more than half of world Jewry lived under Russian rule. However, the violent attacks quickly prompoted waves of Jews to flee the country, with most going to the United States. Twenty years later, during a second wave of pogroms, the number of Jewish immigrants in 1905-1906 alone exceeded 200,000.

The pogroms also caused a major upsurge in Jewish support for Zionism. The First Aliyah (wave of immigration to Palestine) came in response to the 1881 Russian pogroms, and the Second Aliyah in reaction to the ones that began in 1903. In 1989-1990, rumors of impending pogroms caused an immediate and enormous upsurge in Soviet-Jewish emigration to Israel.

In addition to the killings and looting, the most disquieting feature of the pogroms was the support they received from the Russian government. In the aftermath of six hundred pogroms that took place between 1903 and 1906, it was revealed that the pamphlets calling for the attacks had been printed on the press of the czar's secret police. My grandfather Nissen Telushkin, the rabbi of the small shtetl of Dukor, told me that Russian Jews used to wish for a corrupt police chief because he could be bribed to stop a pogrom. It was the "idealistic" police chief whom the Jews dreaded because when the order to make a pogrom was issued he could not be bribed. 

What was a pogrom like? Shocking eyewitness testimony was given by Sholem Schwartzbard. I offer it hesitantly The description is so sickening that images from it have on occasion haunted my nights. Schwartzbard himself was a survivor of the pogroms of 1918-1920, which occurred during the brief interval when the Ukraine was an independent republic under the rule of Simon Petlura. After the Soviets defeated the Ukrainian forces, Petlura escaped to Paris, where Schwartzbard assassinated him in 1926. After a three-week trial, in which Schwartzbard offered evidence of what Petlura, his troops, and the Ukrainian masses had done to the Jews, a French court acquitted him. This excerpt reveals the nature of a pogrom:

"At the end of August [1919], when I was in Kiev, Petlura's advance guard entered. They murdered all the Jews they met on their way. In the center of Bolshaya Vasilkovskaya Street, I saw the corpse of a young man stretched out on the pavement and, her head on his dead body, a woman lamenting for her one and only son. Hoodlums shouted obscenities, mocking her despair. One sermonized: "This is good. We'll show you, damned Jews, we'll slaughter you all."

[Elsewhere} they forced unfortunates to eat their excrement. They shoveled earth over them and buried them alive. Nor did they spare the dead...In Tripole on the Dnieper, Petlura's birthplace, after the fifth pogrom, forty-seven corpses of the old, the sick, and the children were left lying in the street, and no living soul remained after them. Dogs began to pick at the bodies, and pigs to nibble. Finally, a Gentile who used to work for Jews, out of pity dug a grave and buried them. The Haidamacks [Ukrainian soldiers] learned of it and for that they murdered him...."

All of the events described above occurred in the twentieth century.

- Jewish Literacy, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, pages 258-259

[sappho-shalom]

conversion update!

so first of i just want to thank everyone for being so kind and supportive on my last post, it means so much! most of my experience with blogging on tumblr was like talking into a void so it’s really so cool to see so many people reach out to me and to be so helpful!

an update to the last post, i did manage to finish the first 5 chapters and complete the sort of “study guide” my rabbi sent to me, so now i’m onto the next 5! i told him about my concerns with this particular book (and my struggles when it comes to reading in general) and he completely understood and assured me that the rest of the book really picks up and will be less “technical” if that makes sense. so far he’s absolutely right, it goes into more detail about things that i don’t already know (i think the biggest issue with the first 5 chapters was just having to read about a lot of stuff i was already aware of since i had been researching judaism for a bit at this point) and just seems easier to read.

my rabbi didn’t tell me to or anything but i am starting to ease myself into observing shabbos, i try not to go out and i put my phone and computer away on friday night which really helps me read and study! so far i’ve already finished a full chapter ^-^

another big thing, he gave me a siddur and recommended i do 2 blessings every morning! i’m not sure about the names or anything but they’re about the soul and body g-d gave to me! we read through them together and it was a really touching and powerful experience, especially as i struggle with my own self esteem and body image problems :]

i have a feeling that i will start going to friday night services soon which i’m really excited for! in the meantime, next week i’m planning on making challah and having a friend over for shabbos !

i think my number one concern right now is just my social anxiety, i love meeting with my rabbi and talking about things but i just have a really hard time with the actual talking part 😭 i fear that it makes me seem unenthusiastic or nervous about the conversion process when in reality i am super excited!!!

anyways that’s all i can think of right now, thanks again!

[hallelujahonmytongue]

I finally went to meeting for worship after meaning to for months but never actually going, and it was so nice! I am so out of practice at sitting in silence so my brain was going a mile a minute for most of it but G-d still managed to speak to me. I’ve been trying to come to terms with the fact that I’ll never believe in G-d again, because that’s where I thought I’d end up since after I last lost my faith (which was over a year ago now) and it hurt so badly that I promised myself I’d never open myself up to that pain again. But I heard the still, small voice asking if that’s how one should go about love? Shutting oneself off to it for fear of pain? I wouldn’t think that about any other kind of love. As soon as I thought that I got all the classic feelings I get when I sense G-d’s presence. Which was nice. I’m still so burned from a year ago that I’m really, really scared of starting to pray again which makes me realise quite how horrible that time was. But I’m getting more open to stuff now. I should talk to the rabbi, anyway.

I was thinking about how I can reconcile the pain and suffering in the world with a G-d that I would want to pray to. I basically came to the conclusion that when G-d created the universe, they basically set the conditions for the laws of physics and they created the Earth such that there would be no pain or suffering. But like the midrash (I think it’s a midrash, might just be someone’s idea) that G-d took a breath in and in that space the world was created, when G-d moved out of the way so that humans could live, the perfect creation shattered like a clay pot. It’s the work of humans to fix the pottery, like tikun olam. The world is not meant to be this way, and we can fix it through human actions. When I pray to G-d I’m not praying that They will intervene in the world directly, because that’s not what They do. I’m praying so I have hope that things can be better and so that I will be spurred to action to make that better world. I forget which nun said it, but I don’t pray so that G-d will change the world for me, I pray so that G-d will change me for the world.

[gnothi-seayton]

I’ve been catching up on the “culturally Christian” discourse. I’m a bit disappointed that the most active posts are atheists going, “How dare you call me Christian?” instead of taking the opportunity to interrogate some aspects of themselves that are not as de-Christianized as they’d assume. I spent a large part of my youth trying to find those blind spots and I’m a second generation non-Christian.

But this points to what I see as one of the corner stones of Christian culture: emphasis of belief over practice. It started with Paul’s epistles where he introduced the centrality of faith. Jesus spoke of faith in the gospels, but not nearly as much as exhortations about how to live a moral life. Next, the Council of Nicaea established its creed, a series of “we believe…” statements that Christians still recite every week. Nicaea and every subsequent Council has laid down further obligatory sets of beliefs and anathematized anyone who refused to toe the party line. Christian states have made heresy a crime. Conversion became a prerogative. Many were killed because they refused to submit.

This emphasis on belief got cranked up to 11 in the Reformation. Where Catholicism teaches the importance of faith and works, Calvin taught sola fide, salvation by faith alone. Modern philosophy started around the same time and was self-consciously a merely intellectual exercise, unlike ancient philosophy. So when major breaks with Christianity came on the scene, it shouldn’t be a surprise they defined themselves with terms like “atheism” and “skepticism.” Their emphasis was also on (lack of) belief. Atheists evangelize their beliefs and are quick to ridicule any one for wrongthink. Politics are much the same, especially here on Tumblr.

Now contrast that with Judaism and Islam and other religions where relatively more emphasis is placed on correct practice than correct belief. There are certain doctrinal red lines, of course, but it doesn’t come up as often as the importance of prayer ritual (think of phylacteries or salat) or following certain behavioral rules (dietary restrictions, wearing certain clothing). Christian chauvinism tends to look down upon halakah and shariah as being backward or “medieval”. From an orthopraxy perspective, the Christian emphasis on highly specific doctrine might seem like a weird fixation.

I think it’s no coincidence that the Ethical Society was founded by a man who had once trained to become a rabbi. His organization focused on secular congregations and public outreach. Many of the culturally Christian atheists of the time were more interested in publishing tracts or debating Christian ministers.

So to think that even though you come from a Christian culture and perhaps were even raised actively in a church, that simply switching out one belief for another will radically transform who you are and how you interact with the world is incredibly naive. Start by looking at the ways in which you privilege belief over action in your life.

[shalom-iamcominghome]

I’m going to send emails out soon to finally try to find a willing rabbi to guide me in the conversion process. I’ve said I wanted to convert in December but was thinking about it even before then (that’s just when I told people). But I’m worried about not being Jewish enough. Like I want to convert ‘orthodox’ Sephardic, which ik is kind of redundant bc most sephardic ppl just say sephardic and aren’t rlly divided into orthodox, conservative, reform either due to historical reason, but like what if I turn out being not so orthodox after? Like I love the idea of being observant, but I know that I’m not someone to wear modest dress 24/7 (rn I only wear shorts like a handful of times of year but I’ll also wear leggings, and tights pants or v neck shirts that show cleavage). And I’m not a virgin and don’t really want to be celibate. Idk I just feel like if I go through the process of converting and being observant, I will be expectant to be fully observant and idk if that’s an expectation I can’t hold. Are there any other ppl that converted only to become ‘less’ observant after? And idk observance is a personal things, but many ppl will still look at you as less observant if you don’t follow every interpretation they do

I want to preface this by saying I hope you are able to find a rabbi who you feel safe to discuss this with. Oftentimes, you'll find that they themselves can empathize with you, even if they themselves are born jews. Jewish identity for all is complex. I also hope that, in answering this further, you might find comfort and know that you are worthy of converting.

I am in a mixed Ashki and Sephardi conservative shul, and my sponsoring rabbi is himself not conservative (I'm in a unique position). When he and when other rabbis ask about observance goals, I have noticed it is so they can anticipate how they can best help you. I myself want to be a 'typical' conservative jewish man, so I find some level of empathy with you! It's hard! And you're in what can feel like a raw and vulnerable space, one where judaism feels just out of reach, something you want or need. Trust me when I say I absolutely get it.

I felt the exact same as you before I joined my shul and later again when I found my rabbi. I worried about the fact that I didn't know how to daven, when to bow, the fact that the siddur is transliterated differently than what we say. It was overwhelming! But then... my community privileged me and truly put such an astounding effort in supporting my journey. It is by no means over, but they treat me the same as any other jew in the congregation. I'd feel weird if I pulled by phone out during shabbos because they hold me in the same light as them. All of this is to say that it is just as likely that you will find a community with whom you feel embraces you through this entire wonderful journey. It is entirely possible to marry your goals with judaism - it has been done before. How could a culture, a religion, a people have survived millenniums without someone like you having made a similar journey and made it as a jew? There will always be people like you, like me, who have made this journey and made it work for them, with others who loved them as a comrade, lover, friend, and confidant.

And when it comes to a varying of practice once you are jewish? It is only natural if that happens. A conversion is not an ever-lasting contract to stay stagnant in your practice - it is, essentially, formalizing that you are part of this people. I have been following plenty of jews who have converted and who have both become more observant and less observant. In fact, a ruling about this which has truly comforted me is from Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, a Sephardi chief rabbi who made a ruling about this:

You are human, and there are 613 mitzvot. Hardly any of us consistently follow them all - especially when many require the temple! We can only expect you to do your best, to live jewishly under your terms and readiness! It takes some of us years to work up to certain observances, and that is regardless of jewish status. It would be unfair to expect you to take on more than you are ready for, regardless of if you have immersed yet or not. Heck, I only feel comfortable observing a select amount of mitzvot because I want to understand all of them before doing them. I want my soul to yearn for an aspect of observance, because my personal goal is to fall hopelessly and madly in love with jewish life, judaism, and this wonderful people. I want to emphasize that we all come at judaism with a unique, interesting, and worthy background. Yours is no exception.

I hope that, maybe, you got something out of this rambling. You are worth it to convert if you have decided this is your desire, want, or need. I for one welcome you here, and hope that our paths continue to cross. Please don't hesitate to talk anytime - judaism is a communal practice. It is not something you can wholly do alone.

[nijjhar]

John 14v21-26:- Corruption by the Messianic Jews. Jesus set us FREE as M... John 14v21-26:- Corruption by the Messianic Jews. Jesus set us FREE as Mary Magdalene was of the 7 demons of Menorah. Co commandments from Christ Jesus. https://youtu.be/j8eQZzkUKOg Anti-Christ Popes and their stooges call themselves "Fathers" when we have One Father of our souls Elohim, Allah, Parbrahm, etc. Holy Gospel of our Supernatural Father Elohim, Allah, Parbrahm, etc., delivered by the First Anointed Christ, which in Punjabi we call Satguru Jesus of the highest living God Elohim that dwells within His Most beautiful living Temple of God created by the demiurge Potter, the Lord of the Nature Yahweh, Brahma, Khudah, etc. and it is called Harmandir or “Emmanuel” according to Saint John 14,21-26. Jesus said to his twice-born Labourers that he had employed in the Royal Vineyard of our Supernatural Father of our souls and not the once-born spiritually blind disciples of the Rabbis, a corruption by the Messianic Jews: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me; a corruption. Jesus came to set us FREE and not to bind us. Whoever loves me philosophically called “Philia Love” will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him in “His Word”.” Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, "Master, (then) what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, yet the word you hear is not mine called “InshJesus” but that of the Father called InshAllah who sent me. I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the holy spirit, common sense that the illiterate people use, the Gentile uses that the Father will send in my name--he will teach you everything and remind you of all that (I) told you." Youtube channel - Truthsoldier I served in the satanic Iraq war. I openly am shamed for that and I asked for forgiveness for taking part in that war. I actually had my awakening while over in Iraq. My eyes were opened to the injustice of that war. The Iraqi people loved Saddam; they had whole stories with nothing but Saddam’s face on everything. Since then I have been speaking out against the US and ISRAEL on my Youtube channel. Here is my contribution:- Holy spirit, common sense, shatters the fetters of the dead letters, the Holy Books. If we have One God, our Supernatural Father of our souls, then there should be one Faith. In Christianity, Jesus said One Fold called the Church of God headed by One Shepherd, our Bridegroom Christ Jesus/Christ = Satguru Nanak Dev Ji, the Second coming of Jesus. Solid Proof; this Golden Temple is of the same size as the Holiest of Holy that used to be in Jerusalem and its Curtain held the Secrets of the Oral Torah = His Word was rendered from the Top, the Temple High Priests, to the Bottom, the village Rabbis off you go – Luke 16v16; Law and Prophets were till John and thus, everyone makes a direct approach to God through His Word = Logo = SATGUR PARSAD. So, these hireling Dog-Collared Priests and Mullahs, cannot give your account to God as the Rabbis used to give at Passover. So, they are "ANTICHRISTS" that have a following of the spiritually blind Super Bastard Fanatic Devils - John 8v44 -, Hindu, Jew, Sikh, Christian, Muslim, etc. Outwardly, and not spiritually inwardly. These spiritual selves Hindu, Jew and Christian, are never born like Christ, the Title and they never die but the tribal selves Judah, Levi, Jatt, Tarkhan, etc. were born and they will die. Thus, Jesus was born and Jesus died on the Cross and rose on the Third Day and NOT CHRIST, THE TITLE. Books:- ONE GOD ONE FAITH:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/bookfin.pdf Greatest Blasphemers and Killers Blair and Bush being considered by Anti-Christ Bishops for Nobel Peace Prize. Nobel Peace Prize should rather go to Assange and the Iraqi Journalist who threw both his shoes at the hypocrite Bush in Iraq. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qHdTpTXHvE&list=PL0C8AFaJhsWz7HtQEhV91eAKugUw73PW1 Christ Jesus was killed by the Temple High Priest Hypocrite/Blasphemer against the Holy Spirit and so are these Bush and Blair who at the backing of Jewish people in the USA destroyed one country after the other starting with the cradle of Humanity Iraq, the Land of the forefather of the Chosen People who are no more faithful to Abraham but has become sons of the Highest Satan Al-Djmar Al-Aksa. Blair and Bush’s blasphemies against Holy Spirit https://youtu.be/0WBYOmpDuCs American Jews are today – http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/GrimReaper.htm Destroying one country after the other, so that the scripture is fulfilled. Also, do not forget the partition of India and how the dirty hearted-British divided the homeland Punjab of the brave Jatt tribal soldiers who fought in the two World Wars for the British. Trinity:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/trinity.pdf

[onmymasa22]

When u were diagnosed at like 7 with an auditory processing disorder and at 20 with ADHD (which spoiler alert- usually goes together cuz adhd always comes with friends, POTS also usually has a seat at the table) and its 2am and u google auditory processing disorder symptoms for the first time and realize that the tiredness u feel from listening, that theres ppl who u just cant understand because of their speech pattern, and the fact that it can take u a WHILE till u can answer someones question and they think that there's something wrong with u is ALL connected to it.... and suddenly ur life makes more sense.

The little things in november

Clean laundry

Perfume

Teeshirts with funny quotes like "straight out of bais yaakov" and "surely not everybody was kungfu fighting"

Winterboots

I dont really celebrate thanksgiving, to me its a christian holiday with Mass, yes there is thanksgiving day mass. ppl came to america which didnt belong to them, killed ppl, and i guess said "lets eat". Not the most jewish. But taking a second

As i got older my family stopped doing thanksgiving when my parents learned that theres a thanksgiving day mass, making it kind of a christian holiday go to. And it always felt weird to me the idea of ppl coming to a country that was not assigned to them and kill ppl for it. We dont really do that.

Something that always bothered me why moshe seperated from his wife. If a man and a woman togetger is the holiest thing that can be. Rabbis and shir hashirim talks about that its completeness the most that can be. And to me, seperating is a christian thing.

The head of my department: so who do u want helping u with ur final exhibit project?

Me: rachel, shes the only teacher who believed in me from the beginning. She saw me working and said "wow, ur an artist" i was flying for a week, im still flying honestly

The head of the department: but we all believe in u. I gave u a really high grade, doesnt that tell u i believe in u?

Me: oh, that didn't even enter... thats like a guy saying "but i paid the mortgage, doesnt that tell u that i love u" like no- i need the gushy crap too

Clean laundry

Jacobs coffee the one in the green bottle that looks like little pebbles

Pottery

Finding canvases for your oil acrylic painting ideas

And gettting aculpture tools amd clay for pottery and sculptures.

Anyone know of a indoor place with good ventilation that someone can sit and oil paint

Interviewer: do u have any special skills?

Me: yes, my special skills range from the abi can name the title and singer of most songs three beats in.

Does anyone else feel like their brain remembers the weirdest things.

Weird skills

When u have a weird brain, u can name a song

that gloms onto all kinds of crap, u can listen to the radio and name the song and the singer three seconds in. And also

Skills i have that are totally unusable:

The ability to name the song and the singer three seconds into most songs in hebrew or english

I can name you all the generations from adam to moshe by heart and every parsha

What my memory includes

Hebrew and english songs, knowing the title and singer three seconds in and all the lyrics.

Every generation from adam to moshe.

All the parshios

Weird dvar torah ive heard over the years.

The quantum theory

The voice of everyone ive ever met befause i remember and can recognize someones voice more than their face.

One of my insecurities is being called tired. Having people tell me im a tired person. I do alot but i know i am. It takes me effort to understand what i hear in english. To try to understand what i hear in

Im that person who can name the title and singer of

When u realize ur friends pick up on things that u didnt notice u do. I was told i dont twist my neck. I move my whole body to face people when i enter the room.

U know whats interesting. When i made aliyah, for the first two years when anyone would ask me where i live, my answer was always everywhere. Because i never knew where id end end up sleeping. Id just aways have my backpack with a toothbrush. Sleeping everywhere from cars to bars to couches to benches to chairs stacked together. Outside, inside. Sober, drunk. Nights dancing, chilling, talking, drinking. I was just always along for the ride. Pants with holes from bonfires, clothes comfortable enough to chill in them for two, sometimes three day adventures. I remember laying on the floor, three arak shots in, being so happy i couldnt believe it. I also remember crying uncontrollably or being so numb, throwing up in the street, sleeping there till the busses started again cuz i really had nowhere to go.

Something really cool

So it always bothered me how moshe seperated from his wife. Like, thats a christian thing. We dont do that. Being married is holy. Sex is like the kodesh hakedashim. It says that miriam and aharon were saying that moshe should divorce

night id sleep in Jerusalem, tel aviv, ramat gan, yad binyamin, yad atan

[riverdamien]

When You Do Something Do It From the Soul!

"When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” – Rumi

    =============================

As we officially celebrate thirty years of ministry on the streets of San Francisco, I can honestly say these years have been a joy. Rumi remarked:

"Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of what you love!"

That pull has come from my love of Jesus of Nazareth, whom I encounter daily and night in the faces of each person I serve on the streets of San Francisco. This pull comes from being pulled into being a "Story Catcher."

William Broderick sums up the call of the streets in these words:

"Once you've heard a child cry out to heaven for help,

and go unanswered

nothing's ever the same again.

Nothing.

Even God changes..

We  have to be candles, burning between hope and despair,

faith and doubt, life and death,

all the opposites.

And in serving on the streets of San Francisco I have learned in the words of Richard Nelson:

“There may be more to learn from climbing the same mountain a hundred times than by climbing a hundred different mountains.”

Ta-Coates Nehist accurately said: "The streets transform very ordinary lives into a series of trick questions and every incorrect answer risks a beat down, a shooting or a pregnancy, none survive unscathed."

The streets transform lives in ways one can not even imagine, but through my relationship with Christ mine has been transformed into one of loving each person I meet as the broken body of Christ, and in the words of Elizabeth Gilbert, "You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not my your successes or failures!"  and in finding the secret to life, best described by Henry Moore:

"The secret to life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for your whole life. And the most important thing is--it must be something you can not possibly do!"

The journey to the Promised Land, the journey to freedom, which was the journey to God, was the task for Moses. Second-century Rabbi Tarfon put it similarly: "It is not up to you to finish the work of perfecting the world but neither are you free to avoid it!"

Over time I am often asked: "Do you love the Church!" I am seen as one who is not within the established church, and my journey from the beginning until now has been one of growing more and more in love with the Church, the body of Christ!  I am very, very privileged to be a priest! The streets have led me to authentic, profound, and very Anglican and Catholic practices, yet our practices of worship have little semblance with those of the traditional church.

We have incorporated our faith into a faith of the streets. Like Dorthy Day said:

“I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.”

We continue our journey as "Story Catchers," listening to their stories, holding them without judgment, and not fearing to trust in Jesus. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

------------------------------------------------

May the work of

“figuring people out”

Never replace the work of knowing people

And loving people

And giving them room

To confound

And inspire

And surprise me

---------------------------------------------------------

30th Anniversary Celebration

Victor’s Pizza

6 p.m.

November 9, 2024

WE ARE BEGGARS! WE REALLY NEED MONEY--Really Badly At the moment!

FOR FOOD, SOCKS, HARM REDUCTION AND OTHER SERVICES!

P.O. Box 642656

415-305-2124

temenos@gmail.com

pay pal

www.temenos.org

We are in desperate need now!

(Temenos and Dr. River seek to remain accessible to everyone. We do not endorse particular causes, political parties, or candidates, or take part in public controversies, whether religious, political, or social--Our pastoral ministry is to everyone!

==================

Temenos Catholic Worker

P.O. Box 642656

San Francisco, CA 94164

Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims, D.Min, D.S.T.

==========================

“People ask me why do you write about food,

and eating and drinking. Why don’t you write

about the struggle for power and security, and

about love, the way the others do? The easiest answer

is to say that, like most other humans I am hungry (M.F. Fisher!”

[yhwhrulz]

Worthy Brief - September 20, 2024

Prepare to be married!

Isaiah 62:5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over a bride, so your God will rejoice over you.

Revelation 19:7-8 Let us be glad and rejoice and we will give glory to Him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has prepared herself. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.

Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.

The last and most intimate metaphor for Messiah's relationship with us is as Bridegroom to Bride. For some, the Lord's intention to marry will be the most significant and wondrous purpose in all of Creation. The preparation for the wedding will be the most meticulous and profound of all historical processes, orchestrated by His Holy Spirit in cooperation with every devoted and expectant saint who ever lived.

Ancient wedding customs provide insight illustrating our preparation for the divine wedding ahead. In ancient times, acquiring a bride involved a transaction; a bride-price and a dowry were set and agreed upon in the betrothal of a young couple. Following this agreement, the bridegroom returned to His Father's house to build a domicile for his expectant bride while she anticipated her husband's return by preparing her wedding garments.

In parallel, our betrothal to our holy Lord, the beginning of our preparation for marriage, required the offering of His cleansing blood on our behalf. And before returning to his Father's house following his death and resurrection, Yeshua told his disciples, "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself." [John 14:2-3]

It is clear that Yeshua expected his followers to understand the parallel to betrothal and marriage customs within their own culture and to apply that understanding to their own relationship with him. This applies to us as well. Anticipating our Bridegroom's return will awaken a deep excitement stimulating an intense desire to be prepared for him.

Your love for your Bridegroom will be expressed in your desire to be like him. That preparation is the work of the Holy Spirit within you, cleansing and transforming you through faith, good works, obedience, and prayer, the "fabric" of your wedding garment. Your joyful anticipation of his soon return will inspire the abiding, which prepares you for the heavenly announcement you've waited for all your life.

Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend!

Your family in the Lord with much agape love,

George, Baht Rivka, Obadiah and Elianna (Missouri) (Baltimore, Maryland)

Editor's Note: Feel free to share any of our content from Worthy, including Devotions, News articles, and more, on your social platforms. You have full permission to copy and repost anything we produce.

Editor's Note: During this war, we have been live blogging throughout the day -- sometimes minute by minute on our Telegram channel. - https://t.me/worthywatch/ Be sure to check it out!

Editor's Note: Dear friends — we are now booking in the following states. Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida! If you know Rabbis, Pastors or Leaders who might be interested in powerful Israeli style Hebrew/English worship and a refreshing word from Worthy News about what’s going on in the land, please let us know how to connect with them and we will do our best to get you on our schedule! You can send an email to george [ @ ] worthyministries.com for more information.

[umichenginabroad]

Week 13: Frühli-cking Around

Ciao all,

This week was filled with festivities topping off the semester before finals kicked in. I’ve got a TON of work to do over the next few weeks, my assignments are detailed in the “Finals Season” section below. The other sections are more lighthearted and fun! Skip around as you wish, thanks for reading!

Surprise :)

This weekend, my favorite person in the world (and best friend) Miss Lydia Kim surprised me with the most beautiful bouquet of flowers. She knew I’d been a bit stressed and just felt like treating me. Gosh, I love her! I’ll be honest, our friendship is probably the best thing to come out of this program.

Pesach, Abroad!

This week I celebrated Passover along with some of my Jewish friends here in Prague. Brandon and I signed up for a Seder at the Prague Chabad to kick off the holiday. It was extremely expensive ($70 per person) which I found ridiculous, but we paid it anyway because we felt a strong need to go to at least one seder this Pesach holiday. 

We opted for the English service over Hebrew so we could both follow along, and we ended up getting sat at a table with 3 other Michigan students and the parents of one of the students! It took ~5 minutes to make a connection with the parents - the Dad’s brother is my cousin’s girlfriend’s Dad. Classic Jewish geography. For those who don’t know, the Seder calls for the drinking of 4 cups of wine, so our table got pretty chatty relatively quickly. And, one of the Rabbis started handing out shots of their homemade vodka, so we surely had a lot of fun. We actually ended up leaving early because it was a long service, at the idea of the parents, who treated us to drinks and food at the guys’ favorite bar afterwards! Overall, it was definitely a night to remember, Brandon can attest. I usually go to one of my friend’s houses in Michigan to celebrate the Jewish Holidays at school, so it felt good to connect with other Jewish people around this time of the year.

The rest of the week I kept Kosher for Passover loosely, by consciously avoiding non-kosher ingredients. However, there wasn’t really much I could buy that was certifiably kosher because Prague is so secular, so I just had to use my best judgment. This made it more difficult than usual to keep Passover this year, that’s for sure.

Finals Season

This week we were informed of a ridiculous amount of work we had due over the next 2 weeks. I’ve listed all of the assignments below, by subject, so you all have an idea of our workload.

Communications in the Tech Sector:

Reflective Development Paper #3 (2-3 page paper on interpersonal/professional/social development abroad)

10-minute Individual Lesson (recorded presentation over zoom)

Final Executive Summary (informational catalog detailing our challenge project background, objectives, contributions, and results; this assignment has been a work-in-progress throughout the semester)

Challenge Project Infographic (required new addition to the executive summary)

Final Reflective Development Paper (fortunately, our professor Gray is the GOAT and changed this paper to just submitted our updated resume and a cover letter for review) 

Leadership Development in the Tech Sector:

Leadership Development Plan (Independent reflections on in-class activities and our challenge project experience, an additional 1200 word paper on personal development abroad)

Pitch Presentation (10 minute group presentation pitching a venture of your choice)

Challenge Project Final Deliverables and Presentation Panel (Final SEO strategy for the company; 10-15 minute group presentation to client)

Tech Ethics & Public Policy

Group presentation (10-15 minute group presentation performing a risk assessment on a chosen technology)

Group research report (~20 page report detailing the promises, perils, risks, and current/future regulations on the technology)

Individual reflection (2 page reflection on takeaways, group work experience, and contributions)

Architecture & Design in Prague

Final research paper (3-4 page report on a architectural site of choice)

Essential Czech

Travelers journal (3-4 entries per week of key insights about life abroad; my blogs definitely will come in handy for this one!)

Database Management Systems

In-class final exam

Wish me luck in completing all of this… rip.

Munich

This weekend, Alisha, Mihika, Lydia, and I went to Munich to celebrate Springfest!!! We took the early bird FlixBus again this weekend, but it was 6 hours instead of the dreadful 8 it took to get to Budapest last week. Springfest in Munich is a slightly smaller Oktoberfest, resembling an American county fair with rides and food trucks serving up everything from classic Bavarian pretzels to international street food. There’s also a maze of tents, some more traditional than others, but each bumping with folk music, clinking steins, and locals dressed in lederhosen-clad swinging to oompah bands! I wasn’t expecting so many people to be dressed up, I honestly thought it would distinguish us as foreigners from the local population if we were to rent outfits, but I was wrong… literally everyone was wearing them! We met a lot of Germans our age while mingling within the tent and also while waiting in line for the tents, which took like 3 hours too long. Although we didn’t dress up in dirndls, the traditional dress worn by women, we definitely got a unique, authentic German experience at the fest.

We also found time to wander around the city of Munich, and found it to be pretty modern with booming outdoor markets and shopping centers. I made sure to try the different types of wursts from the street vendors and other traditional foods like a full, slow-roasted chicken! 

We also toured an aristocratic palace in the heart of the city, but we pretended we were 15&under and didn't get ID'd to get free admission. Score! Pretty much everything inside was a replica though due to WWII bombings, so it was kind of underwhelming.

There were a couple Bachelor parties too while we were there, which made for some funny interactions. One of the guys literally tried to get us to spank the *bent over* groom with a branch… umm no thank you! We laughed but afterwards decided that Springfest would actually be such an ideal setting for a bachelor party for many reasons, especially the plentiful beer! It’s a super festive atmosphere, hosting numerous live bands and dance floors, and is typically much less crowded than Oktoberfest. I’ll definitely be keeping it on my radar for the future!

Now for some ins and outs:

Ins

Lederhosen: All the locals (and many tourists) were dressed in traditional clothing for Springfest, it was awesome! And, the Bavarians are not offended by tourists wearing lederhosen, just make sure to buy the real thing, e.g. go to Angermaier.

First Seder Abroad! I was excited and a bit nervous to celebrate Passover abroad due to the state of the world right now, but it felt nice to be a part of a Jewish community after being away from home for so long.

Outs

Academics: All of my classes seem to be piling work on us over the next few weeks as the end of the semester approaches, which is extremely overwhelming. We don’t typically get any class time to work on them, and I’m not going to have much free time to do homework when my family comes to visit next week. Going to have to lock in.

Wipe(outs): Crowds of people watched as people river surfed at a park in Munich. Lots of falls but it was cool to watch the group take turns jumping in and even coach the newbies.

Thanks for joining me for this week’s blog, I’m looking forward to catching you all next week!

Mach's gut (German for “do well” or “take care”),

Reese Liebman

Computer Science and Engineering

Institute for Study Abroad (IFSA) CS Tech Career Accelerator in Prague, Czechia