tikkunolamresistance

[tikkunolamresistance]

ya know, it’s weird. i’ve had this url for a few months, proudly assert my zionists beliefs, and yet i don’t get harassment. do we think it’s because i don’t ever engage with bad faith dissidents? (this ain’t an invitation to harass me more an observation)

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i just don’t think anyone needs to be an asshole in online conversations but they insist on it!

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Fragment of siddur, discovered in the Cairo Genizah, Rabbi Saadia Gaon, Syria, 12th century

Rabbi Saadiah Gaon (882-942), a masterful pioneer in the fields of halakhah, Hebrew grammar and philology, biblical exegesis and translation, and Jewish philosophy, was also a major authority on Jewish prayer and a prolific composer of liturgical poetry. Born in Egypt, he eventually made his way, via Palestine and Aleppo, to Babylonia, where he was appointed ga’on (eminence) of the Sura yeshiva in 928. In the introduction to his siddur, compiled in Babylonia and titled Kitāb jāmiʿ al-ṣalawāt wal-tasābīḥ (Book of All the Prayers and Praises), he explains that he wrote the work because of the profusion (and confusion) of the prayer texts then in circulation. His own book sought to reproduce the original, unadulterated versions of the daily, Sabbath, and festival prayers for the entire liturgical year, interspersed with clear halakhic instructions written in Judeo-Arabic. The siddur would, with time, exert significant influence on the prayer rites of the Jews of Afghanistan, Iran, Kurdistan, and Yemen.

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Pomegranate pngs. ♥️

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i don’t think i’ll ever have the words.

[tikkunolamresistance]

Two Austrian wooden tzedakah boxes

one printed with a scene of the Western Wall, inscribed in Hebrew The Land of Israel / Western Wall / Rabbi Mair Ba'al na-Nes; the other printed with the globe backed by The Tablets and the night sky, and engraved Keren Hatorah.

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The shabbat queen is extremely important to me and I'm in love with her actually

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"Stupid Zio, you believe IOF propaganda! Unlike me, an enlightened leftist who only reads Al Jazeera! My side is completely truthful and never has to resort to lies or propaganda unlike you conniving devils!"

[tikkunolamresistance]

"... and to anyone who's asking for revenge on our behalf, there are 73 more hostages that have to be returned. Before anything else".

- Ofri Bibas, sister of Yarden Bibas, sister-in-law of Shiri Bibas, Aunt of Ariel and Kfir Bibas.

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some of y'all would cheer if jews started being shoved into ovens again so long as the headlines and tweets and your tumblr mutuals said "zionists finally being shoved into ovens"

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I saw a similar post but the options weren't as comprehensive so I thought I'd make my own. I know we all need something lighthearted right now.

[id in alt text]

[tikkunolamresistance]

A man was seriously wounded during a stabbing attack at Berlin's Holocaust Memorial on Friday, Tagesspiegel newspaper reported.

The police have closed off the area and are searching the grounds for the perpetrator.

Berlin police told the newspaper the man was injured with a sharp object and transported by the fire brigade to hospital. Tagespiegel said the attack had taken place on the northern side of the sprawling Holocaust monument, near the US Embassy.

This is a developing story.

[tikkunolamresistance]

sorry not sorry for all the recent angry jew posting. it's just, you see, that i'm very jewish and im very angry

[tikkunolamresistance]

Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir were sheltered in the safe room of their home. Yarden left to try and protect them, was brutally beaten by a mob, and was taken hostage. armed militants dressed in civilian clothing riddled their home with bullets, murdered their beloved family dog, used power tools to remove the safe room door, then forced Shiri, clutching her small children, out, put their hands on her, and violently abducted them to Gaza, where they were sold to another terrorist faction (it’s unclear which, both PIJ and Mujahideen Brigades have been reported). most of this is on video.

that is the truth of what happened. do not ever allow anyone to take the reality of what was done that day away from them.

[tikkunolamresistance]

Why do you care so much?

I've been asked this question a few times in the past year - why I spend so much time thinking, reading, and reflecting on antisemitism, especially because I am not Jewish myself. There are a few reasons, really. One of them is that I think antisemitism is a hatred that spawns other hatreds, but even if it did not, it would still be worth studying, because the fact that it is a hatred at all is enough. The fact that antisemitism impacts Jewish people is enough of a reason to oppose it.

It's also because it's important to oppose because of the way it damages the thinking habits of people who believe it. I saw somebody say, "Jew-Hate makes you dumb," once. And though I think it was probably an off the cuff statement for them, it stuck with me, and I think they're right. In my religion, we say hatred is one of the three poisons - it can seriously harm your mental well-being in a way that deepens your suffering in all aspects of life. Often, hatred can also be spread like a contagion. It's something that destroys social harmony and causes severe social dysfunction. And right now, I think antisemitism is the most contagious of hatreds - I've seen people in my life fall off the cliff, I've been able to talk some back from it, and I've seen how so many people wander towards it without any idea that that's what they're doing.

Part of the problem is that antisemites consider themselves righteous in a way I think most racists don't. Often, you'll see "I'm not racist but" I almost never see that with antisemitism. They don't add that qualifier. They just say it. Most racists I know will make a tacit acknowledgment of the racist implications of what they're about to say - antisemitic people don't. They often even engage in anti-Jewish racism while invoking anti-racism.

I don't really know any Jewish people in real life, perhaps only two. But I don't need to know them to know that hating them is wrong. I think I also have a debt of gratitude to many people in the Jewish community because of the advances in Buddhist Studies made by Jewish people, which sounds strange - but it's true that many leading voices and researchers, both in academia and within Buddhism itself happen to be Jewish. I'm not sure why this is, but it's absolutely true. The most prolific translator of Pali into English that I can think of is Jewish. The most impactful Vipassana instructor in America I can think of is Jewish. The most impactful voice in Deity Yoga, for Tibetan Buddhism, is Jewish. People who are Jewish, for some reason, contributed probably more than ex-Christian Americans or atheists combined to the proliferation of Buddhism in the United States.

Buddhists and Jewish people are known to have a close relationship. There are a lot of different reasons for this that I would suggest, but none that add up to explain the amazing contributions to Buddhism made by American Jews.

I think another reason I have for being so interested in antisemitism as a non-Jew is the kind of... political disillusionment I've been experiencing? It's been a disturbing few years, and I haven't seen many people elaborate very well on this feeling of abandonment and horror, witnessing people who you thought shared your values become hateful and deeply violent in their beliefs. The only people I've seen consistently speak about it happen to be Jewish.

I think all of this has helped contribute to a feeling of closeness to Jewish people as a group, despite that I don't really know Jewish people in my real life, and only have one or two Jewish friends online. This year has been a horror show of watching people's minds become twisted - it's so scary in a way I can't quite capture with words right now.

I also sometimes have a back and forth with myself about when and if to mention I'm not Jewish when I talk about antisemitism, because I do think it's totally necessary to explain the perspective from which I speak, but to be honest it feels kind of icky to be like "I'm not Jewish, but antisemitism is bad", because antisemitism is bad whether or not the person saying so isn't Jewish, and I think it might be a negative for people to think "not being Jewish" is something which makes it any less valuable to be against antisemitism, and talk about how against it you are. It's very real that people who talk about antisemitism are perceived to be Jewish, and obviously, it's important not to lead people into thinking you're Jewish when you're not, but adding an "I'm not Jewish" qualifier to statements about antisemitism I worry might contribute to the perception that those against antisemitism are Jewish.

Antisemitism is such an insidious ideology. And it's everywhere. I see it daily in so many different spaces. It has the largest impact on Jewish people, but it also impacts non-Jewish people at times. I distinctly remember being mocked throughout school for "looking Jewish." I think about that Greek restaurant which was attacked because they were thought to be Jewish. Or that man in the Amsterdam violence who tried to help and was then accused of being Jewish himself. It's so deluded, violent, and manages to consume people's thoughts like a parasitic worm in their brain.

Anyways, I planned for this post to be more organized. Oops.