by Carl Howard | Feb 28, 2011 | Atheism and Religion, Blog Topics, Blogging Jewish Law
Final part of the series, previous parts here and here. Area: Non-observance Torah Problem: There are a large number of transgressions for which a Jew is to be excluded from the Jewish community. This could be problematic since it’s very divisive and there are so many...
by Carl Howard | Feb 23, 2011 | Atheism and Religion, Blog Topics, Blogging Jewish Law
A continuation from Monday’s post. Area: The Sotah (woman suspected of adultery, Num 5:11-31) Torah Problem: I’ve posted on this here and here), but basically the ritual is particularly misogynistic, allowing husbands free reign to bully and humiliate their wives in...
by Carl Howard | Feb 21, 2011 | Atheism and Religion, Blog Topics, Blogging Jewish Law
As I’ve posted before, I see a large part of Jewish law (at least when it was formed) as reconciling the Torah, with its barbaric and tribal mentality, with a more modern and (mostly) more humane outlook. When I was looking at the Torah for abridgement, I noticed this...
by Carl Howard | Feb 17, 2011 | Blog Topics, Charity and Philanthropy, Ethics, Philosophy, Resources, Food and Environment
I’ve noticed that with social causes people often passionately and vehemently support improvements that are marginal/token at best. At the same time, they might be [obliviously?] engaging in actions that are contributing to the problem much more than their token...
by Carl Howard | Feb 10, 2011 | Atheism and Religion, Blog Topics, Super-Abridged Bible
Chapters 1-11: Retelling and warnings The whole book is almost entirely a first-person speech by Moses that he imparts to prepare the Israelites to enter Israel and begin conquering it.(There is also some repetition of laws given before, I’ve omitted these giving only...
by Carl Howard | Jan 31, 2011 | Atheism and Religion, Blog Topics, Super-Abridged Bible
Chapters 1-10 (Some laws, Israel start their wanderings) YHWH tells Moses to perform a census of all war-fit men (age 20 and above). The Levites are not included since they’re in charge of YHWH’s Tabernacle. The numbers are listed, each tribe has about 30k-60k...
