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Excerpts of Interest

Month: May 2014

“Death is no longer just a transparent formula; it has been hybridized with something worse: Business strategy”

16 May 201412 May 2014 Drew KaplanMovies

Amid rapid shifts in the media-buying public’s preferences, comic-book adaptations have proved incredibly lucrative for movie studios, practically becoming Hollywood’s main business model. They’re an ideal medium for an industry constantly looking for ways to[…]

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“Koheleth’s unconventional use of a religious vocabulary and his frequent citation of proverbial lore for his own special purposes are among the most unique elements of his style”

15 May 201430 April 2014 Drew KaplanKohelet

Koheleth’s unconventional use of a religious vocabulary and his frequent citation of proverbial lore for his own special purposes are among the most unique elements of his style. Robert Gordis, Koheleth – The Man and His World: A[…]

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“All sides have reasons to cling to the Two-State illusion”

15 May 201412 May 2014 Drew KaplanIsrael

All sides have reasons to cling to this illusion. The Palestinian Authority needs its people to believe that progress is being made toward a two-state solution so it can continue to get the economic aid[…]

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“It is…in wisdom literature that quotations play the most fundamental role…”

14 May 201430 April 2014 Drew KaplanKohelet

It is…in wisdom literature that quotations play the most fundamental role.  Here, there is no supernatural revelation, merely patient observation used as the basis of reasonable conclusions.  Each generation of Sages finds in the extant[…]

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“Efficiency, it seems, is overrated”

14 May 201412 May 2014 Drew KaplanUncategorized

In a recent study, we recruited people on their way into a busy, urban Starbucks with a $5 gift card.  We asked some customers to “have a genuine interaction with the cashier,” smiling, making eye[…]

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“it can be stated fairly and accurately that the law itself, without intention to do so, has created the circumstances that enable” agunot cases “to occur”

13 May 201430 April 2014 Drew KaplanHalakhah

Each time we hear of yet another heart-wrenching and infuriating agunah story, we tend to point an accusing finger at the Jewish legal system that has created these circumstances, in which spiteful, angry husbands can[…]

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Instead of Arguing About the Pew Survey, ask “how and where can Jewish experiences make the greatest possible contribution”

13 May 201412 May 2014 Drew KaplanJewish Community

The question should not be which interpretations of the survey are correct. Instead, we should ask, given what we know about ourselves from the survey, how and where can Jewish experiences make the greatest possible[…]

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The Book of Kohelet is “best described as a cahier or notebook, into which the author jotted down his reflections…”

12 May 201430 April 2014 Drew KaplanKohelet

…it is clear that the Book of Koheleth is not a debate, a dialogue, or a philosophical treatise.  It is best described as a cahier or notebook, into which the author jotted down his reflections[…]

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Kohelet “was struggling to use Hebrew or quasi-philosophic purposes, a use to which the language had not previously been applied”

12 May 201430 April 2014 Drew KaplanKohelet

The impact of Aramaic upon the syntax and vocabulary has already been discussed, while other elements of his style will be analyzed below.  At the very outset, it must be borne in mind that Koheleth[…]

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“as much as we are stymied by halachah in these awful agunah situations, we are thankful to halachah for having created the marriages and the families that so many of us enjoy”

11 May 201430 April 2014 Drew KaplanMarriage

There are indeed any number of ways that a couple and a rabbi can purposefully subvert the halachic validity of a marriage ceremony, and any one of these ways would be sufficient to obviate the[…]

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