Shalom friends,
Rest assured that I am diving deep into my first topic for this blog, and I'm already learning some pretty amazing things. I can't wait to share it with you as soon as I'm able to wrap my brain around enough to make for both interesting reading and a somewhat coherent perspective/interpretation.
But in the meantime, I wanted to take a break and say thank you for the great ideas with which you showered me when I put out a call for ideas for what to name this fledgling project! It was tough to choose which one would become the new official blog name, but I am ready to reveal the winner...
Going forward, and thanks to the creativity of my friend and fellow Hebraeophile** Merav Fine, I'm going to call this blog "Jewbilation: for the love of all things Israelite." It's a pretty perfect title because it not only captures how I feel when writing and researching for this blog, but it also has hints of all of the wonderful and goofy components of Jewish-ness that I think are so great - the many names we have for ourselves, the diversity of who we are, and the fact that it just feels good to celebrate it all (and there's a tie to Biblical harvest practices, too - not too shabby!).
Many thanks, Merav! :)
**Not a real word. Yet.
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Topic 1 - He is the Golem/We are the Golem
The first topic that I want to write about is the role of the Golem as symbolic of a certain view of Jewish self-defense/reaction to powerlessness, and if or how the way we view the Golem has changed with the way we (the Jews) see ourselves and our own self-defense/reaction to powerlessness (real or perceived) today.
The topic was inspired by a conversation we had at a recent Torah study group held by a local synagogue about the Golem. The Golem, if you don't know, is a creature of Jewish mythology formed from mud who is given a human shape and, for the most part, performs the commands of his creator (he is for the most part devoid of his own thought or volition). The most famous version of the Golem story is the one about Rabbi Judah Loew ben Betzalel, the Chief Rabbi of Prague in the Middle Ages. Rabbi Loew, the story goes, created the Golem to protect the Jewish community from its many external threats. Other Golem stories sprang up in other Jewish communities of Europe throughout the Middle Ages.
Over the course of pouring over Biblical, Talmudic and modern texts looking at the origin of the Golem story, the rabbi leading our discussion made the comment that in the modern era, those who were part of the founding of the Israel Defense Forces chose to see themselves as the "new Golem" of the Jewish people - the new defender of the Jewish people. He said it almost as an after thought, but when he said it I could feel it grip me and refuse to let go. This subtle comment struck me with the sense that the tonal shift he described could symbolize something pretty significant about the ways in which Jewish communities think about themselves in relation to their surroundings, has or hasn't changed over the millennia. But what?
Here are some of the questions I think I'll explore with this topic:
1. How widespread was the Golem - was it a widely adopted practice for communities to make Golems, or are these stories about the Golem largely apocryphal?
2. How did this change of perspective on/approach to self-defense - from one in which Jews made an instrument of protection with their hands to one in which Jews physically took their protection into their own hands - intersect with changing ideas of Jewish destiny and the nature of the world?
3. (Or, really, 2b) What relationship exists between the view of the Golem and the emergence of the Enlightenment and a swing towards the scientific vs. mystical view of the world and its origins?
Now, like I've said, I'm giving myself a month to chew these over - some of these questions might be smaller or bigger than I'm imagining. Regardless, I'm excited to jump in!
The topic was inspired by a conversation we had at a recent Torah study group held by a local synagogue about the Golem. The Golem, if you don't know, is a creature of Jewish mythology formed from mud who is given a human shape and, for the most part, performs the commands of his creator (he is for the most part devoid of his own thought or volition). The most famous version of the Golem story is the one about Rabbi Judah Loew ben Betzalel, the Chief Rabbi of Prague in the Middle Ages. Rabbi Loew, the story goes, created the Golem to protect the Jewish community from its many external threats. Other Golem stories sprang up in other Jewish communities of Europe throughout the Middle Ages.
Over the course of pouring over Biblical, Talmudic and modern texts looking at the origin of the Golem story, the rabbi leading our discussion made the comment that in the modern era, those who were part of the founding of the Israel Defense Forces chose to see themselves as the "new Golem" of the Jewish people - the new defender of the Jewish people. He said it almost as an after thought, but when he said it I could feel it grip me and refuse to let go. This subtle comment struck me with the sense that the tonal shift he described could symbolize something pretty significant about the ways in which Jewish communities think about themselves in relation to their surroundings, has or hasn't changed over the millennia. But what?
Here are some of the questions I think I'll explore with this topic:
1. How widespread was the Golem - was it a widely adopted practice for communities to make Golems, or are these stories about the Golem largely apocryphal?
2. How did this change of perspective on/approach to self-defense - from one in which Jews made an instrument of protection with their hands to one in which Jews physically took their protection into their own hands - intersect with changing ideas of Jewish destiny and the nature of the world?
3. (Or, really, 2b) What relationship exists between the view of the Golem and the emergence of the Enlightenment and a swing towards the scientific vs. mystical view of the world and its origins?
Now, like I've said, I'm giving myself a month to chew these over - some of these questions might be smaller or bigger than I'm imagining. Regardless, I'm excited to jump in!
Thursday, March 10, 2016
What I think about all day...
For as long as I can remember, I've loved the stories of the Jews - our incredible history, the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and the role that history and collective memory have on our notions of who we are. Whenever I find myself in a bookstore, I always (consciously or unconsciously) gravitate to the sections where I can find books on Jewish-just-about-anything: history, philosophy, language, religion, etc. Even in academic settings, I couldn't/can't get enough of it - in college, my favorite research project was the one I did comparing how Hasidic Jewish and Amish communities respond to genetic diseases, and my main research in graduate school focused on how the notion of Jewish Peoplehood is currently being lassoed by Jewish communal organizations to forge community in a world where notions of Jewish identity are more fluid (and thus more ripe with possibility) than ever. What did I ask my parents for for my birthday? A cookbook examining modern notions of Jewish cooking (it's like all of my favorite things - Jewish history, food, books, pictures of food, and feeding people I love - wrapped up into one beautifully-bound volume. How could I not ask for that for my birthday??
I love learning deeply about topics related to the Jewish people - whenever my husband and I come home from a text study get-together hosted by a local synagogue, I always wonder whistfully (and audibly) "How hard would it be to get an honorary Ph.D in Jewish history? Can I just audit Jewish studies classes all day for fun?" Finally, after years of this, the other night he said to me "So then blog about it!"
He's right.
I'm going to use this space as a place to brain-dump about Jewish topics that fascinate me. I want to avoid turning this into a place where I make listicles about fun Jewish things - the internet is already really good at that - and instead use it as a place to dig deeper into ideas I find intriguing/confusing/perplexing. I want to keep my musings grounded in sources and fact as much as possible, and I welcome [constructive] comments and rigorous discussion. I want to give myself time to really do this right, so I'm going to plan for maybe a month to focus on a given topic. Maybe that's too little time, or too much - we'll see!
First of all, though, I kind of hate the working title that I have for the blog (Jew-storian? Really?) so I want to crowd-source. What would you, dear friend and reader, call this blog if you were naming it? I can't offer much in the way of a reward for the best title, other than the honor of naming rights and (if I know you and live close enough nearby) maybe some baked goods...
I love learning deeply about topics related to the Jewish people - whenever my husband and I come home from a text study get-together hosted by a local synagogue, I always wonder whistfully (and audibly) "How hard would it be to get an honorary Ph.D in Jewish history? Can I just audit Jewish studies classes all day for fun?" Finally, after years of this, the other night he said to me "So then blog about it!"
He's right.
I'm going to use this space as a place to brain-dump about Jewish topics that fascinate me. I want to avoid turning this into a place where I make listicles about fun Jewish things - the internet is already really good at that - and instead use it as a place to dig deeper into ideas I find intriguing/confusing/perplexing. I want to keep my musings grounded in sources and fact as much as possible, and I welcome [constructive] comments and rigorous discussion. I want to give myself time to really do this right, so I'm going to plan for maybe a month to focus on a given topic. Maybe that's too little time, or too much - we'll see!
First of all, though, I kind of hate the working title that I have for the blog (Jew-storian? Really?) so I want to crowd-source. What would you, dear friend and reader, call this blog if you were naming it? I can't offer much in the way of a reward for the best title, other than the honor of naming rights and (if I know you and live close enough nearby) maybe some baked goods...
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