My view is that God Created a world that specifically allows for chaos. I am Influenced by Maimonides' understanding of evil: that is to say, what we call evil is the suffering that is either caused by natural events or is the natural outcome of our free will. Additionally, I believe God has chosen to be self-limited within Creation — hence the presence of chaos. This element of chaos allows for change and growth, for new species and new traits to arise, for artistic expression and new ideas. But that same chaotic space also allows for unwanted mutations, cancerous tumors, destructive events, and natural catastrophes. It is built into the very structure of this world, which is why God does not intervene to change it. It means that we live in a world where eight-year-olds can die of cancer. It also means that we live in a world where there are eight-year-olds. Evil, therefore, appears to be a necessary by-product of Creation, a Creation that includes free will. If we have the ability to choose to do good, we must also have the ability to choose to do evil. But the reverse must also be true: if we have the ability to choose evil, we must also have the ability to choose good.

Thinking about God: Jewish Views, Rabbi Kari H. Tuling

Zionists shondas fuck off

"Moses ben Maimon, commonly known as Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam, was a medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. In his time, he was also a preeminent astronomer and physician, serving as the personal physician of Saladin."

W

Born: 30 March or 6 April 1135, Possibly born 28 March or 4 April 1138, Córdoba, Almoravid Empire (present-day Spain)

Died: 12 December 1204, Fostat, Ayyubid Sultanate (present-day Egypt)

Notable work: Mishneh Torah, The Guide for the Perplexed

As Above So Below

We own what we are willing to share. That is tzedakah: charity as justice.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"tl, To Heal a Fractured World p.42

hey scholarly Jewish folks, I’m a queer non-binary ex-evangelical who still is interested in spirituality, especially what can be learned from doubt and uncertainty, and i’ve really loved and appreciated what bits of contemporary Jewish philosophy and theology I’ve heard! if anyone has resources they would like to share, I would deeply appreciate it ♥️

“… He should be among the pursued and not the pursuers, among those who accept humiliation but not among those who humiliate [others]”.

— Hilchot De’ot; Laws of Personality Development

When Max Horkheimer said "martyrs of christianity are martyrs because they hope in salvation in the afterlife, while the martyrs of judaism sacrifice themselves for their people"

That's it, that's the post

https://www.jtsa.edu/torah/healing-of-body-and-mind/

“Let not a person say in his heart that he is greater than his fellow, that he serves God with greater devekut [devotion], for he is just like the rest of the creatures created by God for the purpose of His service, and God gave his fellow intelligence just as God bestowed it on him. And [indeed] in what is he more important than a worm? For a worm also serves the Creator, may His name be blessed, with all its intelligence and strength, and Man is also a lowly worm, as is written in Psalm 22 [verse 7], ‘For I am a worm and not a man . . . ‘” (Sefer Baal Shem Tov, M’tzora, 9).

When the skin that normally marks the boundary between each of us and the rest of creation breaks down, the rest of the self may break with it. Ridges and crevices that appear in surfaces of flesh that are normally smooth may disrupt our sense of at-homeness in the world. We fear that discoloration on the outside of the body will signal to everyone we meet that something inside us is not right. We are discomfited, uneasy in that skin.

-Metzora Tazria

Calling everyone on Jumblr! Does anyone have any recs for primers on Jewish philosophy? Or introduction texts to different Jewish philosophers? Hillel? The Rambam? Anyone? I appreciate any and all answers. Im meeting with my rabbi soon and I’ll ask him but anything in the interim?

Something about Good Omens from a Jewish perspective, something about Crowley, about questions, something about how we are not in heaven, about how we get to decide the rules here on Earth, something about discussion, about wrestling with G-d, and something about how G-d is outnumbered and doesn't get a say, something about how "heaven" and "hell" don't really matter, about trying to make things better from the context of our lives, something about leaving the world a better place than you found it, something about drinking and enjoying life right here and now, something about "they tried to kill us and failed, let's eat".

I am of the DPxDC belief/headcanon that any variation of Danny who grew up poor in Gotham during his formative years before moving to Amity Park would not be friends with Sam without friction at first. It makes things more interesting and imo allows for more exploration of different themes plus character growth for Sam that she doesn't really go through in canon.

(this doesn't only apply to a DPDC au where Danny grew up in Gotham poor, but it was the first thing that I thought of where this might happen considering my Childhood Friends au.)

Now Sam's a compassionate girl, it's one of her defining character traits, but so is her hypocrisy and judgy-ness. She's the Not Like Other Girls' girl. This is in part of the show's narrative framing that makes her out like this, unfortunately though its still showing how she is as a character since its consistent enough to be part of her character description. There are also times where the show's depiction of her activism makes it look like she's performative about it. All of this makes her dynamic with a Danny who grew up poor in Gotham very interesting.

Anyways, Sam is aware of her privilege to an extent, but still has her blindspots - glaring ones, in some cases. Her self-righteous attitude would not go over well with a crime alley kid Danny. He'd like her, at first, but then she'd do something to make him mad - personally I think her judging people for not being vegan would annoy him the most, or at least would be the breaking point for him, because it was only recently that his family started actually being able to consistently put food on the table at all, good food nonetheless. And being vegan is expensive.

Any other behavior he noticed from her he'd slowly stop tolerating - her judging conventionally attractive girls and automatically assuming they're vapid and shallow for being feminine. Her anti-capitalist beliefs start coming off as superficial at worst, and Danny would eventually figure out that Sam either came from a family that was well off, or that she wasn't aware if her family was experiencing financial struggle.

He would still be friends with Tucker, but since Tucker imo is still friends with Sam, they'd still run into each other often enough to butt heads. Sam's got a nasty habit of refusing to take responsibility when she's wrong, but when Danny is arguing with her, and counterpointing her with stuff she can't retort back at without compromising her own beliefs, then forces her to start reflecting on herself. Especially when Tucker eventually starts siding with Danny and agreeing with him.

Does sam genuinely care about her beliefs and philosophies? Survey says yes. However that doesn't mean she's not ignorant, and she definitely is at times throughout the show (like when she released the purpleback gorilla thinking it 'wanted out of its enclosure' despite the fact that it was endangered and in an urban area) and I think it'd be a real fascinating dynamic between Danny and Sam to explore.

This isn't Sam hate btw, nor am I trying to make her out like "the worst person ever" bc she's not, i wanna make that explicitly clear. Sam Manson has a lot of positive traits about her but she also has an equal amount of negative traits that I think should be explored, she is not immune to the character development.

I think a lot of this 'religion is necessarily oppressive' stuff honestly is kind of like the confusion about ppl thinking that like, slavery and scientific racism and etc came about BECAUSE OF beliefs that Black people etc were not fully human rather than those beliefs -- those ARGUMENTS, really -- being JUSTIFICATIONS that were invented to allow white ppl to continue to engage in slavery which was at its core about economic exploitation. Like that most systemic bigotry serves a Useful Purpose to those in power and that's why it exists; the policies aren't put in place because of the beliefs. The cart isn't pulling the horse. Christian stuff was used to justify the same things that later, "scientific progress" was used to justify in the west (e.g. scientific racism, eugenics, etc. Very very very much rooted in the idea of certain beliefs and cultures as inherently more rational and forward thinking because BEING RATIONAL AND VALUING SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS WERE CULTURAL VALUES AT THE TIME.) (This does not say anything about Science. It says things about Institutes and power and oppression.)

Similarly, you see a lot of people saying "well religion is used to justify oppression by the people in power" and its like yes. Religion is not unique. Beliefs about what is true about the world -- ideology -- can always be used to do this and frequently is.

When there are common beliefs held by a majority of people in a given culture those beliefs will be used by the people in power to explain and justify the things they do to maintain power and control in society.

This isn't a function of religion. It's a function of power.

When people say "well, this religious rhetoric is/was used to justify misogynistic legal standards in this society" the answer is yep. And if it wasn't that it would be something else because that society had an investment in that specific kind of oppression of women. We have seen this morph into 'rational' 'scientific' explanations for women's inferiority and justifications for making women second class citizens once the cultural values swing more towards rationality and science, as well. Thats... regular.

Like... love to have a good faith convo about this with someone who doesn't get weird and reactionary about "Religious People" but sure not seeing much of that going on. Weirdly.

Anyway.

oh my god can ppl find a reason to ship/not ship something that’s in the middle of a ship war w/o trying to make out the other character to be the worst person in existence? honest to god it’s not that hard to say “this ship doesn’t work for me bcz of xyz” u rlly do not need to go “uhhh actually no it’s not character a that’s a horribly racist asshole who thinks SA is cool (that’s so stupid wtf, they barely did anything), its character b. did u not see how they [smallest thing possible]??? can’t believe the hypocrisy u have going on here…” like seriously PLEASE u do not have to justify urself to this level it just makes everything 10x more annoying

All are welcome! Jewish! Not Jewish! Kind of Jewish! Jewish-adjacent! All are welcome!

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In Jewish Tradition, the concept of 'sin' doesn't necessarily mean what you think it means: and it can be a transformational concept that helps us to become better versions of ourselves.

In Hebrew, the words often translated as "sin" does mean all of the negative things our culture associates with the word, but it also means so much more. Everything from a "misstep" or an "oops," to a spiritual moment to make amends and learn from this particular experience.

Come join Rabbi Gischner as we begin the spiritual process of reflecting on our year as we celebrate the first of Elul together, to reflect on who we have been and who we are becoming as we enter the new year of 5784 together.

The good we do does live after us, and it is by far the most important thing that does.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"tl, To Heal a Fractured World p.14

seriously considering learning to gif just so I can find a single gifset of magneto’s god-fearing man speech from x men (2000)

One of my favorite things about Judaism is like it knows accidents happen, it knows humans are messy little creechers who can totally do things they shouldn't even with the best of intentions. Like how the rabbis looked at Shabbat and were like "bro but what if you're holding a pen and start scribbling absentmindedly? I think you should avoid picking up pens on Shabbat just in case" like heck yeah humans aren't perfectly aware of what they're doing all the time and that doesn't mean they're evil it just means they need a little extra help. And it's our job to help each other and figure out systems to avoid mistakes.

And then like, if you accidentally pick up the pen, that's ok! You don't need to immediately drop it on the floor and let it lie there until next week! You can hold onto that until you're able to put it back where it belongs! I just love that the rules acknowledge this possibility and instead of shaming it just tells you "ok so you made a mistake, don't panic, let's try to fix it" like yes yes yes humans are incurably weird and messy, no good will come of denying that!