Free Kindle Book for President's Day, one day only, Monday, February 20: God's Favorite Prayers

For President's Day. A Free Kindle Book, one day only, Monday, February 20: 

God's Favorite Prayers

Our book is all about classical Jewish prayers. On this national holiday it is worthwhile reflecting on the importance of prayer in our nation's history.

George Washington's Prayer for the states, Jun. 8, 1783: "I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation."

Abraham Lincoln's prayer: When a pious minister told Lincoln he "hoped the Lord is on our side," the president responded, "I am not at all concerned about that.... But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."

Other Titles From Talmudic Books

Kindle Talmud Temurah

Kindle Talmud Kerithoth

Kindle Talmud Meilah, Tamid, Middoth and Kinnim

Kindle Talmud Niddah

Kindle Mishnah Seder Tohoroth

Kosher Talmud (Bavli Hullin)

Kosher Prayers: selected from Yerushalmi Berakhot

Kindle Rashi: the Greatest Exegete

Free Kindle Book, President's Day, one day only, Monday, February 20: 

God's Favorite Prayers

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Times: The Jeremy Lin Problem and Rav Soloveitchik

Is Jeremy Lin Jewish? No, he is not a Jew.

David Brooks quotes our teacher Rav Soloveitchik to explain the "problem" facing Knick basketball player and religious person Jeremy Lin.

This matter merits some Talmudic analysis. First, we don't have a clue what Brooks means in the essay. It has something to do with being religious and being a sports star. Somehow there is or ought to be a "problem" being both. Huh? Why?

Anyhow, Brooks cites our teacher to support his "ideas". It is the first time I have seen our rav cited in the Times. Certainly it is the first time he is cited to explain the "quandary" facing a religious professional basketball player. Here is Brooks:

Lin says in that interview that he has learned not to obsess about stats and championships. He continues, “I’m not working hard and practicing day in and day out so that I can please other people. My audience is God. ... The right way to play is not for others and not for myself, but for God. I still don’t fully understand what that means; I struggle with these things every game, every day. I’m still learning to be selfless and submit myself to God and give up my game to Him.”

The odds are that Lin will never figure it out because the two moral universes are not reconcilable. Our best teacher on these matters is Joseph Soloveitchik, the great Jewish theologian. In his essays “The Lonely Man of Faith” and “Majesty and Humility” he argues that people have two natures. First, there is “Adam the First,” the part of us that creates, discovers, competes and is involved in building the world. Then, there is “Adam the Second,” the spiritual individual who is awed and humbled by the universe as a spectator and a worshipper.

Soloveitchik plays off the text that humans are products of God’s breath and the dust of the earth, and these two natures have different moral qualities, which he calls the morality of majesty and the morality of humility. They exist in creative tension with each other and the religious person shuttles between them, feeling lonely and slightly out of place in both experiences.

Jeremy Lin is now living this creative contradiction. Much of the anger that arises when religion mixes with sport or with politics comes from people who want to deny that this contradiction exists and who want to live in a world in which there is only one morality, one set of qualities and where everything is easy, untragic and clean. Life and religion are more complicated than that.

We've written about the "celebrity" archetype in religion, the type who proclaims "we're number one". Pretty darn close to a sports figure saying that. Only sports stars do not have to feign humility. Every religion has that quality of wanting to win, expressed in subtle and overt ways. Brooks thinks that religious people are humble and sports stars are not - or something like that, it is hard to tell what he thinks.

The Rav likewise makes a dichotomy that is perhaps true, perhaps artificial, but so what? And how does that typology help us understand Lin? No clue.

Brooks informs us that, "The moral universe of modern sport is oriented around victory and supremacy. The sports hero tries to perform great deeds in order to win glory and fame. It doesn’t really matter whether he has good intentions. His job is to beat his opponents and avoid the oblivion that goes with defeat." No, that is not what team sports is all about. It is about competition. Winning is not the only thing. Sportsmanship is crucial to any game. So Brooks creates a straw sportsman.

And as for religion, "But ascent in the religious universe often proceeds by a series of inversions: You have to be willing to lose yourself in order to find yourself; to gain everything you have to be willing to give up everything; the last shall be first; it’s not about you." On the surface it is not about you. But is that honest? When the preacher says he is just a hollow vessel through which the word of God passes -- is that real humility? Or is it the container with the false bottom? And underneath it is the same certainty in winning that drives competition in sports.

Brooks is right about one thing. Sports and religion are not the same thing. In sports the team members are honest. They admit they are there to win and beat the opposition.

In religion, the same certainty can prevail. Only too often the message is encoded and submerged, and not open and honest.

So in this version both seek to win, only sports teaches honesty and openness and religion teaches deceit and misdirection. An equally valid analysis, since all we have here is brute opinion.

As to the Rav's typology, we say maybe. Sometimes a person is humble, sometimes majestic, if that person is prone to mood swings and sensitive to the world. But not all persons are by nature so volatile. There are people who are always humble and there are those who are always convinced of their own grandeur. Shall we name some names? Naw, that is uncalled for.

Neither Brooks nor Soloveitchik gets it right. Majestic and humble are not religious, philosophical or psychological categories that help us know much about sports or religion. They are the simplest of moods and motivations, passing and ephemeral feelings, without much categorical value.

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Bavli Temurah 2b: Women are on par with men

A highlight from Daf Yomi, Bavli Temurah 2b

…And what will R. Judah do with the text: ‘And if he shall at all change’? — It is to include [the exchange by] a woman, and as it is taught: Since the whole context [of exchanging] speaks only of the masculine gender, as it says: He shall not alter it nor change it, whence do you derive that the same applies to a woman? The text therefore states: ‘And if he shall at all change’, in order to include a woman. And whence does R. Meir derive that a woman [can effect an exchange]? — He derives it from the waw [‘and’]. And [what does] R. Judah [say to this]? — He does not interpret the waw. Now according to the view both of R. Meir and of R. Judah, the reason [why the law of substitution applies to a woman] is because Scripture expressly included the case of a woman, but if it had not included it, I might have thought that when she exchanged she was not punishable [with lashes].

Surely Rab Judah reported in the name of Rab and likewise a Tanna of the School of R. Ishmael taught: [Scripture says:] When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit; Scripture thus places woman on a par with man in respect of all the penalties mentioned in the Torah! — You might be under the impression this is the case only as regards a penalty which applies equally, both to the individual and the community, but there, since the penalty does not apply equally in all cases, for we have learnt: A community or partners cannot effect an exchange, therefore in the case of a woman also if she performed an exchange she would not be punishable [with lashes]. Hence we are informed [that this is not so]….

Soncino Translations at Halakhah.com from Talmudic Books:

Reformatted: Temurah (Substitution: 7 chapters, 34 folios) 46 Temurah - free

Original format: Temurah (Substitution: 7 chapters, 34 folios, 253 pages) Tmurah.PDF - free

Kindle! The Soncino Babylonian Talmud tractate Temurah - Kindle Edition - $.99

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Is Golfer Corey Pavin Jewish?

It's complicated. Yes, professional golfer Corey Pavin was born a Jew. But no, he does not practice Judaism. In religious practice he is a Born Again Christian. We don't understand how he can be a "Born Again" Christian since he was born a Jew. He is fervent in his Christianity, one of the few golfers who in interviews used to openly thank Jesus for his success on the tour.

Whatever his beliefs are now, in the Champions Tour's Allianz Championship last weekend, he made one of the most remarkable short iron shots we ever saw, a talented chip from an impossible lie up against a tree root.



Pavin is right handed but he reversed his eight iron and chipped left handed to within 5 feet of the pin. He then went on to win the tournament in a playoff. Blogger Jonathan Wall said of the stroke, "it probably ranks right up there with some of the best, and most clutch, recovery shots in the history of the game."

Here is the video clip - see at around 2:00 into the clip.



If we ever hit a shot like that one we might say a blessing like, “Blessed [art thou, O Lord, our God, King of the Universe,] who is good and does good.”

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What a Deal! Four Kindle Tractates for 99 cents - Soncino Babylonian Talmud Me'ilah Tamid Middoth and Kinnim

Step right up. What a Deal! Hot New Releases. Four Kindle Talmud Tractates for 99 cents.

Soncino Babylonian Talmud Me'ilah Tamid Middoth and Kinnim [Kindle Edition]

Kindle Product Description

ME'lLAH (Trespass): Treats of the laws of Sacrilege or making unlawful use of consecrated things, in accordance with Lev. 5:15-16. Six Chapters.

TAMID (the Continual Offering): Describes the Temple service, in connection with the daily morning and evening sacrifice, prescribed in Ex. 29:38-41, and Num. 28:2-8. Seven Chapters.

MIDDOTH (Dimensions): Contains the measurements and descriptions of the Temple, its courts, gates and halls and the Altar, and includes an account of the service of the priestly watches in the Temple. Five Chapters.

KINNIM (Bird nests): Gives the regulations for the offering of birds prescribed in expiation of certain offences and certain conditions of uncleanness (see Lev. 1:14; 5:7 and 12:8) and discusses the case in which birds belonging to different persons or to different offerings have become mixed up with one another. Three Chapters.

Wait! These books are outselling "God's Favorite Prayers"

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Is Nicki Minaj Jewish?

No, pop singer Nicki Minaj is not a Jew. She is multiracial -- of African, Trinidadian and Indo-Asian descent (Times).

She has riled up the Church with her song performance at the Grammy Awards.

Catholic League takes aim at Minaj

A leading Catholic activist group is upset with Nicki Minaj for her exorcism-themed performance at the Grammy Awards, condemning the rapper for the "vulgar" sexual undertones during her set.

The Super Bass hitmaker staged a bizarre performance art show at music's big night as she debuted her new song Roman Holiday at Los Angeles' Staples Center, surrounded by dancing choir boys and a man dressed up as a priest.

The show depicted the exorcism of her alter-ego, Roman - but the elaborate set has not been well-received by Bill Donahue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

In a post on the Catholic League's official website, Donahue brands Minaj a "fool" and describes his anger at one sexually suggestive part of the gig.

He writes, "Perhaps the most vulgar part was the sexual statement that showed a scantily clad female dancer stretching backwards while an altar boy knelt between her legs in prayer. Finally, Come All Ye Faithful was sung while a man posing as a bishop walked on stage; Minaj was shown levitating."

Donahue is blaming Grammy bosses for failing to put a stop to what he claims was a sacrilegious performance.

He adds, "None of this was by accident, and all of it was approved by The Recording Academy, which puts on the Grammys. Whether Minaj is possessed is surely an open question, but what is not in doubt is the irresponsibility of The Recording Academy. Never would they allow an artist to insult Judaism or Islam."

Bill Donohue, Please condemn "God's Favorite Prayers"

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Secular Israelis attack Haredim with nude Gauguin and Botticelli posters

A new escalation in the current culture wars -- poster wars -- in Israel.

Nude images hung in religious J'lem neighborhood

Haredi residents of Kiryat Yovel neighborhood in Jerusalem shocked to discover that paintings of nude women are hung on local bulletin boards – during Shabbat
Kobi Nahshoni

The Secular-haredi tensions over the exclusion of women reached new heights in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiryat Yovel where there is a growing haredi community. Local bulletin boards were recently pasted with pictures of women posing almost entirely in the nude.

The pictures were put up suring the Sabbath and included a caption that read: "The glorification of women." The haredi residents were horrified by the "abominable signs" but could not remove them because it was the holy day and doing so would involve desecrating the Sabbath.

Many signs were hung on the walls and fences of building sites in the neighborhood some with pictures of The Birth of Venus by Italian painter Botticelli, others featured the painting Two Tahitian Women by Painter Paul Gauguin.

The ANASH news website reported that the haredi residents were furious over the secular provocation which they claim, joins a series of acts of harassment against them. The secular struggle campaign headquarters made it clear they were not behind the acts – but were less than critical of the acts themselves.

Rutie Vazana, a religious resident of Kiryat Yovel told Ynet: "We immediately understood that (the acts were carried out) by the handful of secular residents campaigning against the neighborhood's "haredization."

Vazana believes beyond all doubt that the people behind the signs had no artistic or commercial intentions, their goal was to challenge the haredi population. In her opinion "it is clear that this was an intentional anti-haredi act."

She noted that as soon as Shabbat was out her husband and others removed the posters.

Ronit Gilboa from the secular struggle campaign headquarters in Kiryat Yovel said that she saw the posters in the neighborhood but had no information about the sources responsible.

Unlike the haredi residents, Gilboa found a positive aspect to the signs and said: "It was a nice decoration for the neighborhood – Gauguin and Botticelli. I'm not dissimulating; they really are beautiful works of art and are preferable to the Pashkevillim (haredi posters).

"This may be intentional secular provocation , but that's what the haredi residents do in the neighborhood every day – with their attempts to take over, their calls of 'Shabbos' and 'sluts' and by turning quiet synagogues into noisy yeshivas that operate from 5 am to midnight. The haredim have not realized that Kiryat Yovel will not surrender."

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