In case you’re not the clubbing type, Girl Talk is an electro-mashup artist who’s quasi-illegal music takes samples from other people’s music and fuses it together with other samples, creating new and original art. An opening song from a Girl Talk set may include samples as far reaching [...]
Picture it: Limmud Weekend. Two summers ago. I’m at a retreat for Jewish adults and families. It’s like summer camp, for everyone. And at this very moment, I’m having a shouting match with a rabbi. I said, “Don’t you think, rabbi, that all the minhag and all the interpretations and Talmudic stuff detracts away [...]
This week’s torah portion is about rebellion. It’s about a guy named Korach who asks Moses the million dollar question: if everyone amongst the children of Israel is holy, a nation of priests, then why the hell are Moses and Aaron in charge of everything? In the end, Korach’s rebellion is put down by God [...]
There’s this urge when you become religious to buy every piece of Judaica possible. It’s a process that starts with simple jewelry, of course with chamsas and magen david on them. Then we move onto goofy tee shirts that say “matzah baller” or “I don’t roll on the Shabbos”. Eventually you start buying real Judaica, [...]
Before we even start on this one, anybody else do a double-take at the name of this week’s parsha/haftorah? Bechawhaa? I looked it up and discovered it means, “when you step up,” and is the first distinctive word in the parsha portion. Turns out that all the names [...]
