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Jewish Thought


Sifting the Cairo Genizah Sifting the Cairo Genizah
Friday, April 1, 2011 by Lawrence Grossman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Everyone knows about the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered over 60 years ago, and about the new light they shed on the sectarian Judaism of late antiquity, the beginnings of rabbinic Judaism, and possibly the prehistory of Christianity. Fifty years before that, the Cairo Genizah similarly revolutionized the picture of the Jewish Middle Ages.
The Turkish Model The Turkish Model
Thursday, March 24, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Considering the current upheaval in the Arab world, some optimists foresee the possibility of Islamic parties coming to power by democratic means and the consequent emergence of Turkish-style political systems. But how firm is Turkey's own commitment to democratic principles?
Three Blessings Three Blessings
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

The Jewish prayer book (siddur) is thick with texts: blessings, thanksgivings, and petitions, instructions, theological claims, and historical memories. Some traditional texts bear especially outsized burdens. In this respect, few can rival three lines that begin "Blessed are you O God, King of the Universe, Who has not made me . . . " and conclude, respectively, "a goy [Gentile]," "a slave," and "a woman."
Halakhah for Americans Halakhah for Americans
Friday, March 18, 2011 by Elli Fischer | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Asked in a 1975 New York Times interview how he had acquired his standing as America's most trusted authority in Jewish religious law (halakhah), Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (1895-1986) replied: ''If people see that one answer is good and another answer is good, gradually you will be accepted."
The Peace Plan Israel Needs The Peace Plan Israel Needs
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Israel's wobbly friends in Europe and the U.S. are renewing their pressure on Jerusalem to "do something" about the "unsustainable" stalemate in the "peace process." As German Chancellor Angela Merkel scolded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "You haven't made a single step to advance peace."
Beyond Tanks Beyond Tanks
Monday, March 14, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Israel in the past has fought large-scale conventional wars in which infantry and tanks have squared off. It has also faced down terrorists who cross borders to blow up buses or hide themselves among civilians. The next wave is called hybrid warfare, blending (in the words of the military theorist Frank Hoffman) "the lethality of state conflict with the fanatical and protracted fervor of irregular warfare."
Identity = ? Identity = ?
Thursday, March 10, 2011 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

In discussions of that elusive entity known as "Jewishness," few terms have become so ubiquitous, and as a consequence so elusive, as "Jewish identity." The phrase regularly serves as the name of a communal dream: the wished-for end product that vast apparatuses of education, institution-building, and programming aim to instill and perpetuate. But what is it?
The Last of the Red-Hots? The Last of the Red-Hots?
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 by Sam Munson | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

The past decade has witnessed a seeming revival in the fortunes of America's old, new, and newest Left. Some elders, notably including Bill Ayers, have enjoyed career recrudescences. One of the better-known spokesmen and avatars of this revitalized political culture is the veteran writer and activist Todd Gitlin.
The Old Young Guard The Old Young Guard
Monday, March 7, 2011 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

One of the most significant movements of Jewish renewal in the 20th century was Hashomer Hatzair: the Young Guard.  Founded as a youth group in Vienna in 1916, the movement set itself in opposition to what it regarded as the emaciated character of Jewish life.
The Virtuoso of Judaism The Virtuoso of Judaism
Thursday, March 3, 2011 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Religious virtuosity comes in many forms. One of them is the ability to reconcile seeming irreconcilables, like faith and freedom, piety and intellect, revelation and science. The dream of synthesis has lured many in the past two centuries. One who seemed to live it was Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
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Editors' Picks
Narrating the Law Dvora E. Weisberg, H-Net. A new work of Talmud scholarship challenges the traditional distinction between halakhah and aggadah by identifying an overlapping literary genre: the talmudic legal story.
Israeli Inflation Ronen Bergman, New York Times. The rising cost of the life of an Israeli hostage, from the Entebbe raid to the Shalit deal.
Right Turn? Evelyn Gordon, Contentions. Yitzhak Rabin is idolized by those who claim that Israel's population has become more conservative—a claim that Rabin's own record refutes.
Tangled Up in What? Joel Davidi, Toledot Am Ha-Sefer. Josephus refers to "a remembrance upon the arms" (which may or may not be figurative); Aristeas refers to a "sign around the hand" (same). Why are the earliest Jewish sources on tefillin so ambiguous?
Sub specie aeternitatis Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal. David Horowitz's new book is a small but important contribution to the revival of the art of dying well.
Pledges and Gag Rules Jonathan S. Tobin, Contentions. While the cause of Jewish unity is noble, a new "National Unity Pledge for Israel" is clearly intended to shut down accountability on the issue from those in power.
Drowning in the Red Sea Ruth R. Wisse, Jewish Review of Books. The history of Yiddish publications in America shows what moral credit writers of the highest order were prepared to extend to the Soviet Union.
Mob Tactics Lee Smith, Tablet. While the Shalit deal was a moral calculation and a form of strategic communication, the Grapel deal was a simple case of extortion.
When Qaddafi Courted the Jews Ron Kampeas, JTA. What led Qaddafi to cultivate back-channel relationships with Jews and the U.S. over the past decade? And why were Jews receptive to the dictator's overtures?
Physician, Explain Thyself Michael L. Satlow, Talmud Blog. How can we account for the Babylonian Talmud's medical advice, which in many cases seems to have been transmitted retrojectively?