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The Importance of Fringes

September 7, 2010 By punktorah

Tzitzit, used by Creative Commons permission. Photo by 'AngerBoy'

(Originally posted here by our friend Ketzirah)

In the  traditional morning prayer service, it is a common practice to gather the fringes (tzitzit) of the prayer shawl into your left hand while saying the  Shema — the central statement of faith.  This practice came to mind after I read what I felt to be a poorly informed, fear-based blog post about Kohenet on Jewschool.  If you read this site, you know that Kohenet is my one of my spiritual homes and I spent 3.5 years in that program  earning the right to call myself a Kohenet.  Actually, if you read this site you probably know a lot more about the program than the author of that blog post.  But, I honestly don’ t wish to put any more energy there.

What I want to do is remind everyone that  fringes are sacred in Judaism.

“Speak to the children of Israel and say to them that they should make fringes on the wings of their garments throughout their generations, and they should put upon the fringe of the wing a thread of blue.  They will be fringes for you, and you will look at them and remember the desires of the Eternal your God, and you will not turn aside after your hearts or your eyes that you seek to feed.  Thus shall your remember my desires and be holy to the Infinite.  I, Adonai, am the Infinite who led you out of Egypt to be infinite to you. I, the Infinite, am your God.” (Num 15:38-41, as found in the Kohenet Siddur)

Fringes remind us of what is important in life.  What is the fringe also depends on your perspective.  To me, someone who is Orthodox is on the fringe.  The majority of Jews are not Orthodox.  When I see someone who is Orthodox, I feel as though they are my tzitzit.  I felt the same when I once attended Yom Kippur services at a Secular Humanist synagogue.  They are fringes on the other side.  There, I just wanted to feel a little more G!d(dess) in the experience and I was reminded of how much I treasure my own sense of spiritual connection.

Every religion has its fringes.  Every movement has its fringes. Every  art form has its fringes. Jews don’t, or shouldn’t, cut of their fringes.  They are sacred.  We gather them in with our left hand (the receptive hand) while we recite our most sacred statement of faith.  We gather them in with love because they are us, and they are there to teach us something.  They are there to offer us an opportunity. They are there to remind us what is sacred in life.

As we enter the  Days of Awe, I invite you to look more kindly on the fringes you encounter.  See them as the “thread of blue.”  Bless them for being the tzitzit of life and helping you connect more fully to the Infinite — however you experience it.

Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, Random (Feelin' Lucky?), Rants Tagged With: Counterculture, festival, fringes, holiday, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, kohenet, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, Priest, priestess, punktorah, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, rebel, Religion, temple, Torah, tzitzit

Parshah Ki Teitzei

August 23, 2010 By punktorah


More commandments in this Torah portion than any other. So this will be like a dvar on a dvar.

How do we make these commandments work in daily life? Two ways: taking the past and make yourself an extension of it. Saying to yourself, “this is the way it was back then, and so this is how we do it now”. This is Orthodoxy. The other way is to make your values the same as the Hebrews, making the Hebrews feminist, vegan-anarchists or whatever you may be.

Here’s the problem: we live in a different world than the Hebrews. Our values, and their values are completely different. And it’s important to recognize and celebrate those differences. Sometimes they were right, and sometimes our modern values are superior to theirs.

Bottom line: be yourself. And by the way, if you read this week’s Torah portion literally, don’t take any “beautiful captives”. They call that “abduction” and “human trafficking” now.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehDHZtdHfnM

Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud), Podcasts & Videos, Your Questions Answered Tagged With: bible, captives, Counterculture, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, ki teitzei, mitzvah, orthodox, parshah, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, Punk, punktorah, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, rebel, reform, Religion, Torah

OneShul: The First Completely Online Synagogue

August 17, 2010 By punktorah

PunkTorah is proud to announce the fund-raising launch for OneShul.org, the world’s first web-based, community run synagogue.

OneShul was inspired by group of PunkTorah volunteers who began meeting online to daven with one another, using PunkTorah’s recently released Indie Yeshiva Pocket Siddur (available online and through ModernTribe.com). With the popularity of this “DIY Prayer Service” came the idea for a virtual synagogue without borders, based on collective Jewish values and spiritual independence.

“Synagogues are shutting down for the same reason that brick-and-mortar business are closing,” says Executive Director Patrick Aleph. “People live online and if you believe in being where people are, then you need to be there, too.”

Says PunkTorah Creative Director and “Alterna-Rebbe” Michael Sabani, “OneShul is an open synagogue for all of us to congregate, learn, lead, and empower each other. Traditional Jewish organizations and leaders have said that real community can’t be achieved online, or as they see it, synthetically. We challenge that notion. We say that yes, real community means communicating with each other in a meaningful way and that can be done online. We are proving it right now.”

OneShul is “independent” meaning that it does not tow a party line to any of the established Jewish movements. Instead, by being community ran, participants get to decide what kind of minyanim to make, the style of worship, etc. PunkTorah hopes that OneShul will be a diverse place, where all Jewish opinions are appreciated.

OneShul has already seen major success with its live, interactive Afternoon Prayer Services and Jewish classes, led by different members of the PunkTorah community via UStream. PunkTorah hopes to expand OneShul into something much larger, providing Kabbalat Shabbat, more holiday services, an “indie yeshiva” of Jewish books and blogs that are written collaboratively by volunteers, spiritual counseling via skype, a mobile davening app for the iPhone/iPad, tzedakah and tikkun olam programs, OneShul outreach houses across the country, volunteering and internship opportunities for students interested in Jewish communal service, and a launching pad for the spiritual future of the New Jew community. “Everything that a physical synagogue has, but better,” says Aleph.

To make this happen, PunkTorah has launched a fundraising drive through IndieGoGo.com and plans to raise $5,000 to create the “synagogue of the future”.

With OneShul, PunkTorah is challenging the notion that community only exists in neighborhoods. Says Michael Sabani, “Which community is more real? The one where I show up once a week and sit next to what is essentially a stranger, say ‘Shabbat shalom’ and then leave? Or the one I am in constant contact with through Facebook and Skype, who I know I can turn to in a time of need?”

To learn more about PunkTorah’s OneShul project, visit www.indiegogo.com/oneshul

PunkTorah is a non-profit (501c3-pending) organization dedicated to independent Jewish spirituality, culture, learning and debate.

Press Contact: Patrick Aleph

Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, Jewish Media Reviews, Random (Feelin' Lucky?), Your Questions Answered Tagged With: bible, conservative, convert, Counterculture, daven, ger, holiday, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, mitzvah, mitzvot, orthodox, prayer, Punk, rebel, reform, Religion, shul, synagogue, temple, ten commandments, Torah

Parshat Shoftim: Quit Being a Power Nazi

August 12, 2010 By punktorah

“Justice, justice, you shall seek.” Parshat Shoftim is the Torah portion where we get to feel like Tikkun Olam-aholics and Social Justice Champions. The environmental crowd uses Shoftim to make the case for Al Gore’s livelihood and the LGBT crowd will surely use Shoftim to talk about the overturning of Prop 8, while the other side of the aisle will be screaming Fair Tax and War on Islamo-fascism at the top of their lungs. But let’s talk about something more interesting than politics.

Why is justice repeated twice in “justice, justice, you shall seek”? Isn’t it good enough to say, “seek justice” without the clever poetics?

The Jewish tradition is big on numbers and the number two has its own significance. Two, the Kabbalists believe, is the number for fellowship…and that seems to make sense. There are two parts to the Torah, oral and written, that are in fellowship with each other. One Torah isn’t “more right” than the other. They compliment each other. “Two people shall become one flesh”…how that’s fellowship. How about the two angels in Sodom and Gamorrah? Or the fact that we light two candles on Shabbat and that when a man studies in yeshiva, he studies with a partner?

This week’s Torah portion talks justice, but justice can’t be administered by one person. From the beginning, we learn what justice should be in fellowship. No one person, no matter how smart they are or just they are has all the right answers. Great things come from partnership.

Short and sweet, that’s the lesson of the week. Go with G-d and bring a friend!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wut_uOgdoDk

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud), Podcasts & Videos Tagged With: bible, Counterculture, darshan yeshiva, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, nazi, Parsha, parshah, parshat, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, Punk, punktorah, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, rebel, Religion, Torah

What Is Jewish Community?

August 6, 2010 By punktorah

What does community look like in the 21st Century?

Can you have a Jewish community online?

We say yes.

Tell us if you agree.

Or if you don’t!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3933T1a7aPQ

Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, Judaism & Belief, Podcasts & Videos, Your Questions Answered Tagged With: community, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, Counterculture, darshan yeshiva, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, online conversion, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, Punk, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, rebel, Religion, Torah

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