#personal thoughts tag

[son-of-avraham]

Perhaps a controversial take, but I don't think the phrase "make nazis afraid again" actually reflects what often happened in real life both in history and in the current day. I've seen way too many comfortable, celebrated nazis who were and are nothing but unafraid and emboldened.

I feel a more accurate slogan would be "make nazis afraid."

[sitvanit]

כל ילד צריך זה מבוגר אחד שיאמין בו (יתקן אותו בשם המספר)

[lemonjew]

I was talking to someone the other day after shabbos dinner, and I realised that truly, my journey to judaism has nothing to do with my German heritage. nothing. My German heritage got me interested in the Holocaust, sure. But my interest and research into Judaism came from a different place entirely, which is that my soul was yearning and calling and nagging me. It came independently from my interest in the Holocaust and it came at a time where i was very obviously struggling with faith and religion and beliefs and i was searching for something and judaism. just. clicked. Even my partner says that it felt like everything suddenly made sense, suddenly fell into place. So, no, self-doubt, you are not converting to make yourself the victim in the equation. You are not converting to make up for the fact your greatgranddad was a party member and soldier for the Wehrmacht. You are not converting for or because of your heritage or nationality, you are converting because your neshama will not be at rest until you do. You could've been anything, and your neshama would still be calling you. It's ok.

~ 9 Iyyar 5783

[somethingwittyandweird]

A New Year’s Wishes

Just a few quick thoughts as the old calendar rolls around again. 2018′s been pretty alright to me in most ways. I’ve made plenty of good memories, but there have been a few that have hurt in ways I haven’t ever been hurt before. Habitually, I like to say I use these sorts of turns of fate as opportunities to learn for the future, and I can only hope that I’ve done so here, but chances are that I’ve got a few more mistakes yet to make. I’m not relishing that thought, but I think I’m willing to do it. And I hope that others who are in the same sort of situation will find the year to come offers the strength to take their challenges on also.

Enough vagueposting about my own woes, though. This next is the part that I’d say I care about others hearing.

Ultimately, my wish is that everyone finds some good to come in 2019. Whether it’s leaving behind something that’s weighed you down, or coming across some new blessing. Whatever form it comes in, I hope you can use it to hold onto when the light is a little harder to find.

Happy new year, everyone.

[son-of-avraham]

Jewish culture is exclaiming, "jesus christ!" at mild inconveniences

[son-of-avraham]

I think the difference between myself and other religious people is that I don't see saying "oh my g-d" as being disgraceful to His name. I see saying "oh my g-d" like you're trying to get g-d's attention so you can do this:

[son-of-avraham]

Spiritual seekers need one another as mirrors. A member of the Hopi nation once asked me about our holy days. I was telling him about Passover, our celebration of freedom, and Sukkot, our Feast of Tabernacles, and how they fit in with the cycles of the year. "I think I get it," he said finally. "You people don't want to be in slavery. And you want to pass this on to your children. But when you tell your kids on Passover, 'We have to go away from here; we can't stay here because it will cost us our freedom,' your kids will say, 'Yeah, but what are we going to eat?' So you teach them how to bake bread on stones, how to roast a lamb if you are hungry, how to find dandelion greens, and so on. When the kids ask, 'But where will we stay?' you show them how to build a lean-to, so they will have somewhere to live." An Indian perspective on the mitzvot to eat the Passover lamb with matzot and bitter herbs and to build a sukkah on Sukkot gave me a completely different insight into my own traditions.

-Jewish with Feeling, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. 2005, p. 198-199

[son-of-avraham]

I'm in many leftist spaces and I've seen many goyim in these spaces complaining about how often jews talk about leftist antisemitism.

The thing is that this is the consequence of claiming to be advocates or in support of another group of people - when you ostensibly prove you aren't for us, we're going to be harsher than we are to people who never pretended in the first place.

For an analogy, here's a similar situation: I am harsher toward "pro-trans" people who are transphobic than I am to people who are not. This is because the pro-trans person told me they were better than that. I am already aware that the anti-trans person is going to be anti-trans. Their anti-transness is self-evident. What isn't self-evident is a person who claims to be pro-trans and then proves otherwise.

This post is addressed toward leftist spaces because I occupy these spaces the most. It makes me wonder just how safe I am in these spaces when leftist begrudgingly acknowledge that this conversation keeps happening. I feel like a lot of leftists treat those of us who open these conversations like we're an "I left the left" rightist when... Most of us are still in leftist spaces. We have not left the left and through pretending we have, you absolve yourself the feeling of responsibility.