Posted on February 25th, 2007 by cyberdov
Big news in the NYT today - reproduced here for those who do not have access to the NYT archives.
February 25, 2007
On Baseball
A Whole New Ballgame for Blomberg
By MURRAY CHASS
Starting a new career is difficult enough, but doing it without the staples of one’s life? That may be asking too much.
“They have to have pastrami, corned beef and brisket,†Ron Blomberg said. “A guy I talked to said they don’t have it over there. He said bagels aren’t the same as in America. Does that mean I’m going to have to FedEx all my food from America? That’s the only way I’d eat.â€
Blomberg, whose claim to fame besides eating is that he was the major leagues’ first designated hitter in 1973, was thinking ahead to his first job as manager of a baseball team. In June he will manage the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox in the inaugural season of the Israel Baseball League.
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Posted on February 21st, 2007 by cyberdov
Elan and I spent last weekend in Chicago and St. Louis on a college campus tour (U of Chicago, Northwestern, and WashU). On the way we visited Abe Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield, IL. Lincoln sure knew how to deliver a speech! In addition to the Gettysburg Address, there was a plaque with the text of [...]
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Posted on February 21st, 2007 by cyberdov
Seems like everyone is caught up in the TV hit “24″ - including one of my favorite bloggers, the ADDeRabbi. Daphna is a big fan and I have taken to watching it with her. Last weekend I read a piece in the New Yorker which raised some concerns, notably that this is the first popular [...]
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Posted on February 20th, 2007 by cyberdov
Just returned from a trip to the midwest to check out some colleges with Elan (University of Chicago, Northwestern, and Washington University in St. Louis). All have small but active and enthusiastic orthodox communities, within a large Jewish population. I had an interesting discussion with Rabbi Avi Katz Orlow, at WUSTL. The model at most [...]
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Posted on February 9th, 2007 by cyberdov
Note: After I wrote this on Saturday night but before I posted it (which I customarily do on Fridays), I saw the same Cassuto idea referred to - with much discussion - on the DovBear blog.
Robert Alter (paraphrasing Cassuto, in a footnote to his translation of the Pentateuch) points out the episode of Yitro’s advice [...]
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Posted on February 7th, 2007 by cyberdov
http://schmoozed.lookstein.org/2007/02/ethics-and-halacha.html
What caught my attention is not so much the case itself, but the divide he noticed in the people he asked. Check it out.
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Posted on February 4th, 2007 by cyberdov
Hat tip to Daphna for Googling “Rex Grossman Jewish” (Rex Grossman is the QB for the Chicago Bears) and finding this site in the #2 spot: http://rexgrossmanisnotjewish.com.
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Posted on February 4th, 2007 by cyberdov
Recently I wrote about episodes in Bereisheet that are alluded to in Shemot. Henry Kamioner pointed out another one of these to me. Compare the process of leaving Egypt with Yaakov’s escape from Lavan:
Breisheet 31:22 - ‘and it was told (vayugad) to Lavan … that Yaakov had fled (barach); Shemot 14:5 - ‘and it [...]
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Posted on February 2nd, 2007 by cyberdov
The usual pattern of Benei Yisrael in the desert is that they disobey God in some way, God gets angry, punishes them, and ultimately forgives them (usually after intervention by Moshe). So I noted with surprise that there is a different approach taken regarding Shabbat and the Manna. Here, the people are told not to collect Manna on Shabbat (Shemot 16:26); some do so anyway (16:27); God lectures them (16:28-29); and they stop (16:30)! End of story. No plagues, no threats to wipe them out. Essentially, the people are allowed to come around on their own, without being frightened into compliance.
I wonder why this approach is not employed more often, especially in light of its apparent success.
If you belong to the Delafield Jewish Center, you may be interested in my homiletic conclusion…
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Posted on February 1st, 2007 by cyberdov
Tongue-in-cheek, but clever (From: Adderabbi, and Moishe Potemkin in a comment):
When it came to the plague of lice, the Egyptian magicians said ‘etzba Elokim hi’. This is normally translated ‘it is the finger of God’. If I was doing the translating (and was given poetic/Midrashic license) I would translate it as ‘God is giving us [...]
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