Humiliation

February 12, 2009 at 9:51 pm (Ethics)
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When is it ok to humiliate someone in public? When you feel wronged? When you know they are wrong and you are right? When they have done something that is obviously wrong? When they have humiliated someone else?

When?

Never. It is never acceptable to humiliate someone in public. From the Talmud, our forefathers have said “It is better for a person to cast himself into a fiery furnace than to humiliate somebody else in public.”

Do you think there is a time that it is ok?

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Community Online

July 28, 2008 at 10:07 pm (Uncategorized)
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Can you have a Jewish community online? What does that mean? Do you need to make minyan? If you never come in contact with one and another is that a community?

I am trying to make an online community in small steps. However, the basis of my community is Temple Shir Tikva and its members. Having a community that has already chosen to be together is the start of my online community.

I am looking to bridge the gap between place and time. Sounds so futuristic ;>

  • How difficult is it to meet some place after work?
  • How about on the week ends?
  • How difficult is it to find the time to meet?
  • How difficult is it for you to get to a certain location at a certain time?

As an adult it is very difficult to find that time and get to the right place for the things you want to do. My community has many educational opportunities in Shir Tikva, Wayland MA but that is not convenient for everyone.

We had the idea of exploring the format of the Talmud with topics and a pluralism of ideas online. We started 8 weeks ago studying the Talmud and quickly gained more than 80+ people participating. This occurred and I still have not invited everyone in out community.

It is so exciting. We have people from all over the world joining: Rwanda, Bermuda, Israel, California and other US states. I do not know if I have a community online but I do think that I have created a way for people to study that meets their needs.

If you are interested, let me know and I will send you the site.

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Where may a scholar not live?

July 9, 2008 at 9:47 pm (Uncategorized)
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A scholar may not live in a city that does not have the following ten things:

  1. a doctor,
  2. a craftsperson,
  3. a washhouse,
  4. a bathroom,
  5. available water such as from a river or spring,
  6. a synagogue,
  7. a teacher for children,
  8. a scribe,
  9. a tzedakah collector,
  10. and a court able to give out punishments.

Is this the Jewish definition of civilization or a community? It is interesting that there does not have to be anybody farming — the scholar can do that in his spare time.

So what does this mean? How do I interpret this? How do you define a community? Does it require a minyan (10 Jewish Adults)? What does this mean today? Can you have a community online? Can a community be online and physical?

Here is what myjewishlearning says: http://www.myjewishlearning.com/daily_life/About_Jewish_Daily_Life/HomeCommunity/Community.htm

“A talmid haham (Torah scholar) is not allowed to live in a city that does not have these 10 things:

  1. a beit din (law court) that metes out punishments;
  2. a tzedakah fund that is collected by two people and distributed by three;
  3. a synagogue;
  4. a bath house;
  5. a bathroom;
  6. a doctor;
  7. a craftsperson;
  8. a blood-letter;
  9. (some versions add: a butcher);
  10. and a teacher of children” (Sanhedrin 17b).

This is just like the 10 commandments. They differ depending on whose counting.

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Talmud for Today

June 3, 2008 at 6:54 am (Uncategorized)
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I was having my Friday Jewish and Christian book group. We were talking about a fabulous story in the Talmud. My Christian book group mate, Paul, asked what the Talmud was all about and how big it was. I described these very large books and the 70 something of them I saw in the book store. However, big the Talmud is, it took 600 years to write it and takes 7 and 1/2 years to read it, one page both sides each day. It is a large book.

The Torah is the written word of G-d given at Sinai and the Talmud is the Oral word of G-d passed down from Moses on Sinai. The Talmud is split between very specific rules about daily life and stories elucidating the missing pieces of the Torah or other stories to provide an explanation to a moral situation. The rules describe such events as the buying and selling of a good. You as a buyer should not buy a product way below its value. You the seller should not sell the product way above the know value. It continues by describing how long as a buyer you have before you forfeit your right to return the goods for money back. The whole section describes good merchant business practice and the rules by which you should live your lives.

As we walked out of the room Paul said, “I hope you only buy products of a living wage.” I said “excuse me” not hearing what he just said and not drawing the connection. Buy only products that the workers receive a living wage in their country.

Driving home in my car I was thinking about what Paul said. I think it is the correct thing to do for the moral and ethical Jew. What interested me more is the idea of creating a Renewal Talmud. A modern Talmud of current or present day issues. We could have a statement of the moral or ethical issue at hand and a pluralistic debate (like the Talmud). Take multiple viewpoints and write them around the issue in one place. Do not reconcile the positions. Just leave the discussion there and let people read and follow what’s right for them.

This would be a Talmud for Today, for the current world.

Articles of interest:
Talmud Study – PBS
Majority Rules - Talmud story translation

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