Jewish – Excerpted

Whereas barley beer and beer goddesses reigned supreme in the lowlands of Egypt and Mesopotamia, wine was the preferred fermented beverage in the upland regions of the southern Levant. The Holy Land is where two of the world’s major religions – Judaism and Christianity – originated, and their holy writings (“scriptures”) are a testament to the centrality of wine in faith and practice.

15 November 2020 Drew KaplanBeer

Whereas barley beer and beer goddesses reigned supreme in the lowlands of Egypt and Mesopotamia, wine was the preferred fermented beverage in the upland regions of the southern Levant. The Holy Land is where two[…]

The Mourner’s Kaddish “originated in a startlingly different theological landscape—one in which concern with post-mortem suffering and the responsibility of the living for the dead loomed large in belief and practice alike”

18 October 2020 Drew KaplanJewish

Whether the Mourner’s Kaddish was an overt response to the “Birth of Purgatory,” or whether both developments reflected broader, underlying tectonic shifts, it seems undeniable that the prayer that today functions as a means of[…]

“The public intellectual face of Modern Orthodoxy comes to look too much like the Haredi world, with whom we disagree profoundly on issues of gender and women’s place”

16 September 2020 Drew KaplanModern Orthodoxy

The public intellectual face of Modern Orthodoxy comes to look too much like the Haredi world, with whom we disagree profoundly on issues of gender and women’s place. More importantly, it widens the every growing[…]

“The tradition of blessing a person to live to 120 years, as a way of wishing someone long life, only began in the last few hundred years”

23 August 202022 August 2020 Drew KaplanJewish

The tradition of blessing a person to live to 120 years, as a way of wishing someone long life, only began in the last few hundred years. The term ad me’ah ve’esrim appears in responsa[…]

“A number of Rava’s rulings require intention as a necessary condition for establishing liability for both civil and ritual violations”

9 August 20209 August 2020 Drew KaplanAmoraim

Where early generations of Babylonian Amoraim employed a system of strict liability in deciding civil cases, sages of the third generation began to employ subjective considerations, but in an inconsistent manner. It was not until[…]

“The fourth century was a period of great innovation in the history of Talmudic jurisprudence and legal conceptualization”

9 August 20209 August 2020 Drew KaplanAmoraim

The fourth century was a period of great innovation in the history of Talmudic jurisprudence and legal conceptualization. Much of this may be attributed to the great fourth generation sage Rava, arguably the most creative[…]

“…the most morally instructive thing about studying the Nazis now: we can see how tightly the elimination of the Jews was bound to a hatred of cosmopolitanism”

16 July 2020 Drew KaplanAnti-Semitism

In the nineteenth century, they arrived, before anyone else, at an understanding that, in the new world of modernity, competitive advancement—doing well on exams—would provide an alternative to advancement through bloodlines. Why the Jews did[…]

“When you’re a member of the very society you’re reporting on, every word is laden with responsibility. Personal and professional are always mixed”

27 May 2020 Drew KaplanJournalism

In my eight years as an Orthodox journalist writing mainly about Orthodox life for non-Orthodox publications, I have lived this every day. When you’re a member of the very society you’re reporting on, every word[…]

“the Talmud only makes sense to the reader who has already read it; a first reading of the Talmud only happens during its second reading”

5 April 2020 Drew KaplanBabylonian Talmud

The Talmud is not a book to be read, but a book to do things with – not a book to think about but a book to think with; and beginning to read the Talmud[…]

“The term ma’aseh is the intrusion of real life events into the largely theoretical in hypothetical discourse of the Mishnah”

17 February 2020 Drew KaplanMishnah

The term ma’aseh is the intrusion of real life events into the largely theoretical in hypothetical discourse of the Mishnah. It introduces an event that happened in the past which has halakhic implications or ramifications[…]

Excerpted

Excerpts of Interest

Category: Jewish

The Mourner’s Kaddish “originated in a startlingly different theological landscape—one in which concern with post-mortem suffering and the responsibility of the living for the dead loomed large in belief and practice alike”

“The public intellectual face of Modern Orthodoxy comes to look too much like the Haredi world, with whom we disagree profoundly on issues of gender and women’s place”

“The tradition of blessing a person to live to 120 years, as a way of wishing someone long life, only began in the last few hundred years”

“A number of Rava’s rulings require intention as a necessary condition for establishing liability for both civil and ritual violations”

“The fourth century was a period of great innovation in the history of Talmudic jurisprudence and legal conceptualization”

“…the most morally instructive thing about studying the Nazis now: we can see how tightly the elimination of the Jews was bound to a hatred of cosmopolitanism”

“When you’re a member of the very society you’re reporting on, every word is laden with responsibility. Personal and professional are always mixed”

“the Talmud only makes sense to the reader who has already read it; a first reading of the Talmud only happens during its second reading”

“The term ma’aseh is the intrusion of real life events into the largely theoretical in hypothetical discourse of the Mishnah”