A Series of Random Thoughts

[debka_notion]

1. One of the relevant books I found for a paper I'm working on is by Rabbi Al Axelrod, the former Brandeis Hillel rabbi, whom I know as a very sweet man who chants haftarah abnormally slowly (but with lovely trope and a lovely voice, and trope that I just found out another friend of mine shares- I like it quite a bit better than the more common haftarah trope that has never quite hit me right). My respect for the gentleman, of whom I've otherwise heard rather mixed things, has raised considerably: even mostly skimming parts of his book make me aware of how thoughtful he is. It's also interesting to read what he had to say about the Brandeis of quite a while ago.

2. Another book I read for this project went as far as to say that Christians have higher rates of marital infidelity, abuse and something else than Jewish ones, which is why you shouldn't marry a gentile. While I'm not in favor of intermarriage myself, it has nothing to do with non-Jews being bad people. redlily aschill and I snarked.

3. Yesterday there were three completely naked men running down Rabb steps as I was walking to my Yiddish final. Not something I needed to see.

4. There are two words on my Aramaic quiz that continue to stump me.

5. Shaws is definitely more expensive than Hannafords, nee Victory. But they challah. And more other kosher goods. And I found out why it's so hard to buy kosher Balsamic vinegar. What I don't understand is why if boiling wine makes it no-longer wine and thus no longer a worry for use in pagan religious ritual, why wine or grape based vinegar is still hard to get hechshered. I mean, vinegar is no longer wine or grape juice or anything one would consider religiously valid as far as I know...

Comments

[belu.livejournal.com]

2) That's rather a leap there, from saying that Christians are bad in marriage to saying that all gentiles are bad in marriage. And based on geographical distributions of the divorce rate in this country, I'd be willing to speculate that it might be more accurate to say "Protestants" rather than "Christians". That's a slightly smaller leap, imo.

3) Aw. It's all in good fun. (Besides which, I'd be a bit surprised if you were so sheltered you'd never seen a naked human male before. Your family seemed relatively normal.)

5) If bacon bits can get hechshered, then you should be able to get anything in some form that can get hechshered.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

2. This guy ignores all non-Jews besides Chrisitians for the whole book. From many of the other things he wrote (see my other comment), he's pretty clearly incompetent. Not sure why the library has his book- maybe someone donated it?

3. Err- generally my parents may walk around in underwear when it's hot, but usually Mom more than Dad, and there isn't really full nudity. Dad bathed us when we were little, but htat was an age when you could fit one adult and both small children in the tub at once.

5. Yes, as long as you're ok with food made from assorted chemicals. But yeah- this is available, but it's darn hard to find. And pricy.