We don't know (1) why the Vatican Insider reports this as news and (2) why they report the decision as "intended to cause controversy"? And why the picture of Jewish men in rain hats?In the Netherlands on Saturday orthodox Jews can go around without documents
The Supreme Court of the Netherlands has established a principle intended to cause controversy: religious obligation prevails over the law
Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City
In the Netherlands on Saturday orthodox Jews will go around without documents. In this case, the lay Supreme Court of the Netherlands has established a principle intended to cause controversy: religious obligation prevails over the law. So Orthodox Jews have been exempted from showing, at the request of the police, their identity card since this is in conflict with their religious beliefs. In fact, their religion forbids Orthodox Jews to take anything out of the house on the Sabbath. Therefore also their identity card....more
The Times article, "When Truisms are True" describes research on simple extrinsic factors that contribute to creative thinking.GRAY MATTER. When Truisms Are TrueHere is the money shot from the article:
By SUNTAE KIM, EVAN POLMAN and JEFFREY SANCHEZ-BURKS
WHAT ignites the engine of creativity? A popular metaphor in American business urges you to think “outside the box.” Folk wisdom advises that problem-solving is helped by thinking about something “on the one hand” and then “on the other hand.”
Is there any psychological truth to such metaphors for better thinking? Our research suggests that the answer is yes. When people literally — that is, physically — embody these metaphors, they generate more creative ideas for solving problems.
In another study, 40 undergraduates from the University of Michigan were asked to lift and hold a hand outstretched (as you might while addressing an audience from a stage). Some were asked to lift just one hand, while others were asked to switch between hands. While they were doing this, we asked them to generate novel uses for a new university complex. Among students who were allowed to switch hands — in other words, to think about a problem on “one hand” and then “on the other hand” — we found a nearly 50 percent increase in the number of uses generated.So as we would say, on the one hand, on the other hand, to think Talmudic, out-of-the-box you first need to have Halakhah, the box.
By showing that bodily experiences can help create new knowledge, our results further undermine the strict separation between mind and body — another box that has confined our thinking for a long time. In addition, although we’re only starting to grasp how catchphrases shape how people think, it’s possible to begin prescribing some novel suggestions to enhance creativity. For instance, if we’re performing a job that requires some “outside the box” thinking, we may have to avoid working in cubicles.
But we shouldn’t avoid cubicles altogether: to think outside the box, you first need a box.
On the face of it, "Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders" (just out from University of Wisconsin Press) is the story of how Jay Ladin, the author and an English professor at Yeshiva University in New York City, transitioned into living as Joy Ladin. But it's Ladin's relationship with Judaism that anchors this book and makes it stand out.So is transgender kosher? Because it is rabbis who determine what is kosher, the official answer to the that is no, transgender is not kosher. Here is more from the review that makes clear what the situation entails.
Several weeks after she was awarded tenure, in June 2007, Ladin told the dean at Stern that she was transitioning to become female. She was kept on the payroll but forbidden to set foot on campus until September 2008, when her attorneys demanded that she be allowed to return. Since New York City prohibits the firing of employees based on gender identity, legally Y.U. had to retain Ladin on its academic staff. On her first day back at Y.U., the New York Post snapped a photo of Ladin and then published it under the headline "YE-SHE-VA." Ladin was taken to task for "sporting pink lipstick, a tight purple shirt and a flirty black skirt." In fact the shirt was not tight and the knee-length skirt was far from immodest.
At Y.U., the distinction between male and female is as absolute as that between milhig (dairy) and fleishig (meat). You can tell whether a student is female or male from a mile away, since females wear skirts, never pants, and males wear skullcaps.
"Gender is so central to tradition-based communities such as Orthodox Judaism," Ladin writes, "that it is more or less impossible for those communities to accommodate people who can't be easily identified as male or female." Ladin points out that this rigidity is hardly limited to Orthodox Judaism -- the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, for instance, welcomes only those born female -- but within Orthodox Judaism, being trans is considered sinful and amoral.
Rabbi Moshe Tendler, a senior dean at the rabbinical school, as well as a professor of biology and medical ethics, told the Post, "He's not a woman. He's a male with enlarged breasts," pointedly referencing that Ladin had been taking progesterone and estrogen to feminize her appearance. "He's a person who represents a kind of amorality which runs counter to everything Yeshiva University stands for. There is just no leeway in Jewish law for a transsexual."...
