Orthodox Female Rabbis

I don’t know much about Torah but I instinctively find the notion of an ordained female Orthodox rabbi to be post-Orthodox aka outside of Orthodox Judaism.

The Orthodox Judaism I thought I knew prescribes very separate roles for men and women. It takes ten men to make a minyan. A woman can not be counted for a minyan. Almost all time-bound ritual commandments are binding upon men and not upon women.

How can a woman, who is not commanded, take a position of religious leadership over men, who are commanded to follow these commandments?

 

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An Education - My Favorite Movie Of 2009

This was my favorite movie of 2009. I was enraptured by it from the minute I read its plot summary: “A coming-of-age story about a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London, and how her life changes with the arrival of a playboy nearly twice her age.”

Today I had a woman tell me she saw the film and it left her unmoved.

So we talked and tried to figure out why I was moved and she wasn’t.

Then I said — maybe it’s a guy thing. Maybe guys — myself excluded of course because I am a Torah Jew — are just turned on by stories of the seduction of post-pubescent schoolgirls. They love stories about suave characters who can take an innocent girl and show her the world while wowing her parents and her friends.

I know that I identified all too readily with the girl’s admirer her age who just couldn’t cut it. He had no game. He was awkward and easy and her parents despised him and she couldn’t care two figs about him. No, she wanted the guy twice her age who had money and class and could show her the world.

The No-Demands Relationship

I’ve had one of these.

It’s been quite rare in my life.

I associate “relationship” with having to do a lot of things you don’t want to do. In exchange for this hard work, your partner has to do a lot of things she doesn’t want to do. You get to make demands on each. If you don’t want out, you can get fused and lose your own integrity.

That’s what I was used to.

Then along came a no-demands relationship. “I want you to come to shul with me,” I said.

“Why would you want me to do something I don’t want to do?” she said.

“Because that’s how I understand relationships,” I said.

And then I racked my brain for examples of when she had asked me to do things I didn’t want to do. And in a year together, I could not come up with a single example. For instance, even though she hated the beard, she never asked me to shave it.

Dennis Prager For President 2012

I’ve been waiting for Dennis Prager to run for president since 1989.

I’m excited that the big day is almost here.

I feel it in my bones. Dennis Prager is at the top of his game. He is as eloquent and clear-thinking as he has ever been. He seems filled with energy and drive.

People of the world, Dennis Prager is the change you’ve been waiting for.

From Townhall.com:

This past weekend, after President Obama addressed the annual retreat of Republican Members of the House, I, along with my Salem Radio colleague Hugh Hewitt, and John Fund of the Wall Street Journal, were also invited to address them.

I have never been as proud to be a Republican as I have this past year with your unanimity in opposing Obamacare and the other bills that would transform America. Please know — you need this feedback — that your having been able to stand together and do this has been a luminous moment in Republican Party history.

 

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Wall Street & Mortgages

On his radio show today, Dennis Prager talked to economist Tom Sowell, who published a book last year on the housing boom and bust (a revised edition of this book is coming out next month).

Tom: "The banks did not cause the housing crisis. This government caused the housing crisis. They caused it, first of all, by putting in restrictions that drove up the price of housing in special areas. Then seeing these local problems in places like coastal California, they came in with all kinds of national programs which reduced the requirements for getting a mortgage all over the country in the name of affordable housing, and they got lots folks out on a limb who could not pay off the mortgages they took out and the rest followed like dominos.

"The banks certainly did not want to create a situation in which they wouldn't get paid. It seems so obvious."

Dennis: Isn't the history of banks when they are irresponsible, such as the loans to Latin America a couple of decades ago, don't they know they'll be bailed out in any event?"

 

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Blogging As Self-Defense

I’ve created this elaborate blogging empire because I can’t stand feeling vulnerable.

I remember as a kid not getting invited to birthday parties. I remember the big kids dunking me under water and holding my head there for about ten seconds.

I hated that!

I vowed that I would grow and find ways to defend myself.

I wanted to find a way to penetrate any gathering. In eighth grade, I realized that journalism was my perfect entre into society. It was my press pass to life. I could penetrate any world, from pornography to Orthodox Judaism, by saying I was a writer.

Brilliant!

I tend to be uncomfortable in a crowd unless I’m a journalist or a photographer. Then I can be in the mix but keep a professional distance.

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I'm Learning To Be Gentle

I’ve often had therapists who told me to be a friend to myself. They told me to be gentle with myself.

I intellectually understood what they were saying, but I couldn’t practice it. I was filled with contempt for myself.

While I practiced contemptuous behavior towards myself, driving myself into illness, I inevitably practiced the same kind of contempt on others, socially isolating myself, and increasing my self-contempt.

I think we treat others as we treat ourselves. If we’re kind to ourselves, we’re more likely to be kind to others.

Anyway, I was sick all weekend but felt strong enough Monday to return to my Alexander Technique training. And as I was leaving the training, I phoned a girl and said, “I’m going to be gentle with myself this afternoon.