I highly recommend getting to know this site and the people that are running it if you are not already acquainted with them, The Institute of Anarchist Studies:
http://www.anarchist-studies.org/
You'll need to register on the link above.
They run an annual Renewing Anarchist Tradition Conference (RAT). Tapes of some of last year's lectures can be found on this link:
http://www.anarchist-studies.org/article/articleview/111/1/2
Info about the next RAT, which will be held at Goddard College in Plainfield, VT in late Sept-Oct 1, 2006 can be found on:
http://homemadejam.org/renew/currentconference.html
There are also free articles that you can download on the site.
As with all things, take what you need and leave the rest.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
"So I'm a damaged, incomplete human being. In other news, the sky is blue", is a heartbreaking statement that someone exquisitely articulated on a message board recently.
I responded:
That you do not, or worse, cannot, differentiate between being damaged and being imcomplete and that you take the two as both being as natural as the fact that the sky is blue is probably one of the most trenchant critiques of society that I have read.
This is precisely what the greatest Souls are engaged in life-long battles to change.
It's perfectly normal, natural, necessary and even desirable to be incomplete. It is criminal that we are all damaged as a matter of course. It is a horrific state of affairs that so many, like you, are blase about it.
Discussing this toward the end of changing the situation is a whole lot more important than the discussions of trifling matters that people who are currently living what are now considered alternative lifestyles are discussing.
Color this post dark blue.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
visualviolet@hotmail.com
I responded:
That you do not, or worse, cannot, differentiate between being damaged and being imcomplete and that you take the two as both being as natural as the fact that the sky is blue is probably one of the most trenchant critiques of society that I have read.
This is precisely what the greatest Souls are engaged in life-long battles to change.
It's perfectly normal, natural, necessary and even desirable to be incomplete. It is criminal that we are all damaged as a matter of course. It is a horrific state of affairs that so many, like you, are blase about it.
Discussing this toward the end of changing the situation is a whole lot more important than the discussions of trifling matters that people who are currently living what are now considered alternative lifestyles are discussing.
Color this post dark blue.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
visualviolet@hotmail.com
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Some Thoughts On Revision of the Death Penalty in Light of the Case of Stanley (Tookie) Williams
I consider the execution of Stanley (Tookie) Williams, despite the extenuating circumstances in his case, to be a horrendous breach of justice and the sending of a terrible message to the youngsters who he spent years of his life trying to save.
Perhaps, we might find some redress for this outrage by formulating a new program of rehabilitation for those sentenced to death based on his life's work.
I propose that a mandatory long sentence on death row should be required, I would say some twenty-five years, of a person sentenced to death. There would be no "sweetening" of this phase. The entire term would have to be served. During that period the prisoner would be required to become a model prisoner and undertake some kind of service that the community benefits from. Not everyone has the capability that Tookie had to initiate new programs and write books, but each would be required, to his or her own ability to undertake some sort of public service.
Near the end of that period the public would be presented with the relevant information about the case that a parole board might, to wit, the community service that the prisoner is rendering, the prisoner's progress, his or her credits and liabilities in character, behavior in prison, participation in rehabilitation and therapy, relations with other prisoners, expressions of remorse, etc.
The public would vote in a referendum whether or not to commute the execution to life imprisonment. Again, there would be no possibility for parole or release from maximum security prison. The required punishment for murders horrible enough to require the death penalty cannot be less than a life sentence of incarceration.
Alternatively, because the US is probably not prepared for so populist a social mechanism, the information about the prisoner could be presented to a parole board. This, however, has the disadvantage of the parole boards coming to decisions that are not in keeping with the will of the majority.
I realize that a referendum like this is more unwieldy than allowing a parole board to make the decision, but if we are going to have a more democratic system, the public must be more directly involved in the decision making process.
The prisoner would be required to continue serving the community in any way, shape or form that he or she can. Any marked recidivism on his or her part after the death sentence was commuted to life in prison would automatically revert the decision back to a death sentence.
Feedback is respectfully requested.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
I consider the execution of Stanley (Tookie) Williams, despite the extenuating circumstances in his case, to be a horrendous breach of justice and the sending of a terrible message to the youngsters who he spent years of his life trying to save.
Perhaps, we might find some redress for this outrage by formulating a new program of rehabilitation for those sentenced to death based on his life's work.
I propose that a mandatory long sentence on death row should be required, I would say some twenty-five years, of a person sentenced to death. There would be no "sweetening" of this phase. The entire term would have to be served. During that period the prisoner would be required to become a model prisoner and undertake some kind of service that the community benefits from. Not everyone has the capability that Tookie had to initiate new programs and write books, but each would be required, to his or her own ability to undertake some sort of public service.
Near the end of that period the public would be presented with the relevant information about the case that a parole board might, to wit, the community service that the prisoner is rendering, the prisoner's progress, his or her credits and liabilities in character, behavior in prison, participation in rehabilitation and therapy, relations with other prisoners, expressions of remorse, etc.
The public would vote in a referendum whether or not to commute the execution to life imprisonment. Again, there would be no possibility for parole or release from maximum security prison. The required punishment for murders horrible enough to require the death penalty cannot be less than a life sentence of incarceration.
Alternatively, because the US is probably not prepared for so populist a social mechanism, the information about the prisoner could be presented to a parole board. This, however, has the disadvantage of the parole boards coming to decisions that are not in keeping with the will of the majority.
I realize that a referendum like this is more unwieldy than allowing a parole board to make the decision, but if we are going to have a more democratic system, the public must be more directly involved in the decision making process.
The prisoner would be required to continue serving the community in any way, shape or form that he or she can. Any marked recidivism on his or her part after the death sentence was commuted to life in prison would automatically revert the decision back to a death sentence.
Feedback is respectfully requested.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Monday, December 12, 2005
Recommendation: The Books Published by AK PRESS
http://www.akpress.org/
I came across AK PRESS' web site "serendipitously" one night when I was searching for publications about, and hopefully by, Gustav Landauer. The contributions of Landauer, one of the greatest minds and hearts of the Anarchist Movement, were intentionally eclipsed for reasons that would constitute a digression to go into at length here. For our present purposes, suffice it to say that most of Landauer's writings are not extant or are unavailable and it is a rare privilege indeed to find those that are. I found a pamphlet containing Landauer's thoughts on Anarchism in his native Germany, in his own words, published by AK PRESS. Excited, I ordered it at once.
The pamphlet arrived today together with AK PRESS' 2005 Distribution Catalog and the New Titles for the Summer/Fall of 2005, which includes works on CDs.
I haven't spent this much time reading a catalog since my mother bought a facsimile of the first Sears & Roebuck Catalog. Neither have I wished I could buy as many items.
What can I say? I'm a stickler for excellence and authenticity when it comes to Socialism and Anarchism, being the scion of a family that were active in founding the American Socialist Party and HaShomer HaTza'ir (the furthest Left of the kibbutzim in Israel), strengthening unions, creating more humane conditions for workers and having a granduncle die fighting in the Spanish Civil War, which traveled from the US to voluntarily take part in. I know real Socialism and Anarchism from the wannabe, insincere, pseudo-hip lip service that passes itself off as Socialism and Anarchy nowadays. I have little tolerance for the latter, neither am I amused by the antics employed by various soi-disant "Anarchist" groups.
It is a delight to say that I am able to recommend the publications of AK PRESS wholeheartedly. (That is not to say that I agree with the content of every publication. Anarchism and Socialism are not monolithic. Yes, dissent is permitted!)
The publications produced by AK PRESS are the genuine article. They publish works by and about Michael Bakunin, Emma Goldman, Ben Reitman, Lucy Parsons and many other mothers and fathers of Socialism and Anarchism, as well as those of their authentic spiritual/moral and intellectual heirs.
The care taken by AK PRESS to produce a catalog that is well-written and not riddled with the orthographic and grammatical errors that are so ubiquitous nowadays that they are tacitly accepted, or worse, thought to be correct English, did not escape the notice and appreciation of this reviewer.
The number of publications they provide on the number of subjects they embrace as being part and parcel of Socialism and Anarchism is nothing less than astounding for a small cooperative that is celebrating its fifteen year in business. (Note: they call themselves a .org and not a .com). You will even find a very respectable selection of vegan recipe books.
Their publications are in the form of books, videos, DVDs and CDs. They ship by various methods to the US, Canada and the rest of the world.
With the arrival of your first purchase you will receive a chit good for a 20% discount on your next purchase.
Their lapse into silly consumerism, consisting of inane slogans and drawings of icons of the Socialist-Anarchist Movement on T-Shirts and the like, which is merchandise obviously geared for those who cannot plumb the depth of Socialist-Anarchist principles but intuit that it is somehow "kewl" to look as if they are for them, is offset by their very altruistic and sensitive policy of providing books to prisoners at a reduction of 30% from the list price, thus incurring a loss on the books. They also recommend not watching TV. That sage advice, if followed, would help to phase out the market for the T-shirts and other "gear" in the next generation immensely, thus providing proof that Socialism and Anarchism dissolves the state as new behaviors are assumed.
Whether you agree with Socialism and Anarchy, have not formed an opinion or are opposed to whatever extent, AK PRESS is the address for one-stop, on-line shopping for the best literature on the topic available.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
December 12, 2005
http://www.akpress.org/
I came across AK PRESS' web site "serendipitously" one night when I was searching for publications about, and hopefully by, Gustav Landauer. The contributions of Landauer, one of the greatest minds and hearts of the Anarchist Movement, were intentionally eclipsed for reasons that would constitute a digression to go into at length here. For our present purposes, suffice it to say that most of Landauer's writings are not extant or are unavailable and it is a rare privilege indeed to find those that are. I found a pamphlet containing Landauer's thoughts on Anarchism in his native Germany, in his own words, published by AK PRESS. Excited, I ordered it at once.
The pamphlet arrived today together with AK PRESS' 2005 Distribution Catalog and the New Titles for the Summer/Fall of 2005, which includes works on CDs.
I haven't spent this much time reading a catalog since my mother bought a facsimile of the first Sears & Roebuck Catalog. Neither have I wished I could buy as many items.
What can I say? I'm a stickler for excellence and authenticity when it comes to Socialism and Anarchism, being the scion of a family that were active in founding the American Socialist Party and HaShomer HaTza'ir (the furthest Left of the kibbutzim in Israel), strengthening unions, creating more humane conditions for workers and having a granduncle die fighting in the Spanish Civil War, which traveled from the US to voluntarily take part in. I know real Socialism and Anarchism from the wannabe, insincere, pseudo-hip lip service that passes itself off as Socialism and Anarchy nowadays. I have little tolerance for the latter, neither am I amused by the antics employed by various soi-disant "Anarchist" groups.
It is a delight to say that I am able to recommend the publications of AK PRESS wholeheartedly. (That is not to say that I agree with the content of every publication. Anarchism and Socialism are not monolithic. Yes, dissent is permitted!)
The publications produced by AK PRESS are the genuine article. They publish works by and about Michael Bakunin, Emma Goldman, Ben Reitman, Lucy Parsons and many other mothers and fathers of Socialism and Anarchism, as well as those of their authentic spiritual/moral and intellectual heirs.
The care taken by AK PRESS to produce a catalog that is well-written and not riddled with the orthographic and grammatical errors that are so ubiquitous nowadays that they are tacitly accepted, or worse, thought to be correct English, did not escape the notice and appreciation of this reviewer.
The number of publications they provide on the number of subjects they embrace as being part and parcel of Socialism and Anarchism is nothing less than astounding for a small cooperative that is celebrating its fifteen year in business. (Note: they call themselves a .org and not a .com). You will even find a very respectable selection of vegan recipe books.
Their publications are in the form of books, videos, DVDs and CDs. They ship by various methods to the US, Canada and the rest of the world.
With the arrival of your first purchase you will receive a chit good for a 20% discount on your next purchase.
Their lapse into silly consumerism, consisting of inane slogans and drawings of icons of the Socialist-Anarchist Movement on T-Shirts and the like, which is merchandise obviously geared for those who cannot plumb the depth of Socialist-Anarchist principles but intuit that it is somehow "kewl" to look as if they are for them, is offset by their very altruistic and sensitive policy of providing books to prisoners at a reduction of 30% from the list price, thus incurring a loss on the books. They also recommend not watching TV. That sage advice, if followed, would help to phase out the market for the T-shirts and other "gear" in the next generation immensely, thus providing proof that Socialism and Anarchism dissolves the state as new behaviors are assumed.
Whether you agree with Socialism and Anarchy, have not formed an opinion or are opposed to whatever extent, AK PRESS is the address for one-stop, on-line shopping for the best literature on the topic available.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
December 12, 2005
Monday, October 24, 2005
I'M AN IDEALIST, NOT AN EGO TRIPPER
It has happened entirely too many times that my writings have been construed as an attempt to overshadow the accomplishments of the others. I have been called "overbearing". I have been accused of trying to show others up. I never intended it that way. I am always astounded that anyone could possibly receive my writings in that vein. I'm very impressed and respectful of others' accomplishments and I tell them so.
I am not an ego tripper, but if I wasn't very sure of my ideas I wouldn't have the fortitude to disseminate them. I am an idealist. I write what I do in order to advance Human kind, not to make a name for myself. I am convinced that I have found some solutions to a great deal of suffering. My life is, was and will be dedicated to considering these matters. I have no idea how many experiences I forfeited in favor of thinking and writing the conclusions of my thoughts in order to better the lot of Human kind. I have no idea how much money I did not earn so that I may be free to help others in the only way that my abilities allow me to – to think and to write.
The desire to be of assistance to Human kind and the certainty that my ideas are liberating alone emboldens me to promulgate my ideas. My need to ameliorate Human suffering is that which gives me the strength to publicly suffer character assassination and vulgar, baseless accusations on the part of strangers again and again.
Someone called me a "hack". I have eschewed earning money from my writings all through the years in order to be free to write according to the lights of my own conscience. In fact, I have expended a good deal on the publication of my ideas.
Something terrible happened to people in the US during the intervening generation since my emigration from there. Too many Americans are filled with blind rage. This is true of people in other parts of the world as well, particularly those in the American sphere of influence. I attribute that to overall malnutrition, the using of various addictive substances, and exposure to the media.
Evidently many people think that the semi-anonymity of the internet gives them license to speak and behave in an unbridled manner. I'm sure they wouldn't dare carry on so with the people they encounter in real life.
I see being an intrepid proponent of alternative models for social mechanisms and structure as my calling.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
October 24, 2005
It has happened entirely too many times that my writings have been construed as an attempt to overshadow the accomplishments of the others. I have been called "overbearing". I have been accused of trying to show others up. I never intended it that way. I am always astounded that anyone could possibly receive my writings in that vein. I'm very impressed and respectful of others' accomplishments and I tell them so.
I am not an ego tripper, but if I wasn't very sure of my ideas I wouldn't have the fortitude to disseminate them. I am an idealist. I write what I do in order to advance Human kind, not to make a name for myself. I am convinced that I have found some solutions to a great deal of suffering. My life is, was and will be dedicated to considering these matters. I have no idea how many experiences I forfeited in favor of thinking and writing the conclusions of my thoughts in order to better the lot of Human kind. I have no idea how much money I did not earn so that I may be free to help others in the only way that my abilities allow me to – to think and to write.
The desire to be of assistance to Human kind and the certainty that my ideas are liberating alone emboldens me to promulgate my ideas. My need to ameliorate Human suffering is that which gives me the strength to publicly suffer character assassination and vulgar, baseless accusations on the part of strangers again and again.
Someone called me a "hack". I have eschewed earning money from my writings all through the years in order to be free to write according to the lights of my own conscience. In fact, I have expended a good deal on the publication of my ideas.
Something terrible happened to people in the US during the intervening generation since my emigration from there. Too many Americans are filled with blind rage. This is true of people in other parts of the world as well, particularly those in the American sphere of influence. I attribute that to overall malnutrition, the using of various addictive substances, and exposure to the media.
Evidently many people think that the semi-anonymity of the internet gives them license to speak and behave in an unbridled manner. I'm sure they wouldn't dare carry on so with the people they encounter in real life.
I see being an intrepid proponent of alternative models for social mechanisms and structure as my calling.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
October 24, 2005
Monday, October 17, 2005
BIRD FLEW, UH, FLU
I received the following message just the other day.
There is a lab in Safed that has the responsibility to check fordiseases in birds. If anyone finds any birds that are actingstrangely or are dead, please contact them. If the bird is dead theywill need to have it as soon as possible, it would be good to coverit with an upside down pail with a heavy rock on top or something sothat predators dont get it. Then call one of these numbers right awayand ask them to pick it up:_______________(numbers provided). Thanks.
In order to deal with my fear, I employed the age-old self-defense mechanism of sick humor. I made a few additions to the notification. My additions are in lilac:
LABORATORY TO CHECK BIRDS:
There is a lab in Tzfat that has the responsibility to check for diseases in birds. If anyone finds any birds that are acting strangely or are dead, or both, please contact them. Contact who? The lab or the birds? How does one make contact with birds that are acting strangely? These birds may be seriously psychotic. Are there avian psychiatrists? How do I contact dead birds? Are there mediums that do that sort of thing?
If the bird is dead they will need to have it as soon as possible. It would be good to cover it with an upside down pail. An upside down pail. Yeah, right. I always carry one in my back pocket. Put a heavy rock on top or something on top or something? What are the options? so that predators don't get it. A heavy rock. Uh huh. I always have one of those at the ready too. You never know when a predator will try to eat my pail and I'll have to protect my proprietary rights by bashing its skull in with a heavy rock. Then call one of these numbers right away, because you can't be sure that the bird will still be dead when they get there if you don't hurry and ask them to pick it up. Ask them to pick it up? That sounds pretty Jappy. Pick up what? The bird, the rock, the pail or the lab?
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
I received the following message just the other day.
There is a lab in Safed that has the responsibility to check fordiseases in birds. If anyone finds any birds that are actingstrangely or are dead, please contact them. If the bird is dead theywill need to have it as soon as possible, it would be good to coverit with an upside down pail with a heavy rock on top or something sothat predators dont get it. Then call one of these numbers right awayand ask them to pick it up:_______________(numbers provided). Thanks.
In order to deal with my fear, I employed the age-old self-defense mechanism of sick humor. I made a few additions to the notification. My additions are in lilac:
LABORATORY TO CHECK BIRDS:
There is a lab in Tzfat that has the responsibility to check for diseases in birds. If anyone finds any birds that are acting strangely or are dead, or both, please contact them. Contact who? The lab or the birds? How does one make contact with birds that are acting strangely? These birds may be seriously psychotic. Are there avian psychiatrists? How do I contact dead birds? Are there mediums that do that sort of thing?
If the bird is dead they will need to have it as soon as possible. It would be good to cover it with an upside down pail. An upside down pail. Yeah, right. I always carry one in my back pocket. Put a heavy rock on top or something on top or something? What are the options? so that predators don't get it. A heavy rock. Uh huh. I always have one of those at the ready too. You never know when a predator will try to eat my pail and I'll have to protect my proprietary rights by bashing its skull in with a heavy rock. Then call one of these numbers right away, because you can't be sure that the bird will still be dead when they get there if you don't hurry and ask them to pick it up. Ask them to pick it up? That sounds pretty Jappy. Pick up what? The bird, the rock, the pail or the lab?
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Thursday, October 13, 2005
WHAT'S A SOCIETY TO DO?
What do we do when we, as a Society, are confronted with a case like this?
http://tinyurl.com/8a6xm
What does "justice being served" mean in a case like this?
My initial response is:
From the story, as it was presented in the news, it is clear that these people knew full well that according to Israeli law that what they had done is considered a sexual crime against a minor. Whether or not they themselves considered it a perversion and a violation of the child's Human rights cannot be determined from the story. It is clear, however, that they knew that this is their society's view. They did, after all, use the behavior to incriminate one another in the course of their marital disputes.
My inclination is not to punish, per se, but to correct, which is what I think all effective punishment should be. Chances are the parents are victims of sexual predators in their childhood.The parents are very sick and, as in the case with all extreme illnesses, extreme methods of cure may be called for.
If we mete out harsh measures unwisely we become a depraved and brutal society. Punishment cannot be carried out in order to release our feelings of outrage. It has to be a corrective measure that helps the persons who veered off societal norms. It would be ironic indeed if, in being unwisely brutal toward sexual predators, we become perverted morally as a society.
And who will carry out the harsh punishment? In ancient Israel the Judges themselves had to mete out the punishments they recommended. They were, therefore, extremely careful not to have innocent blood on their hands and not to be unnecessarily harsh. Today there are professional executioners, jailers, psychiatrists, etc. who do the bidding of the judges who keep their hands "clean" of meting out the actual punishment.
I would call for them serving a term in a closed psychiatric facility and having to take part in one-on-one, family and group therapy. Thereafter, when they show marked improvement, they may be released on the proviso that they agree to having their libidos chemically reduced to the point where they are incapable of repeating these acts. This agreement on their part, in writing, should be made a condition of their release. I say this because there is an unusually high rate of recidivism amongst sexual offenders. A troubling case is a Canadian one: A man, who was a serial rapist from the age of 12 (no typo), has been in jail for decades. He is a model prisoner and is due for early release. Yet, he is still more sexually excited by rape scenes than by scenes involving consensual sex. The families of his victims are livid about, and terrified of, his impending early release and are doing everything they can to petition the Canadian justice system to reconsider the decision. Certainly, it cannot be assumed from the fact that he is a model prisoner that he will be a model member of society-at-large, or even a minimally functioning one. How he responds to sex scenes, is, IMO, far more indicative of future behavior when he is set free. When asked if he thinks that he will return to raping he answered honestly, saying that he doesn't know. He recommends setting him free to determine the matter.
I know that the chemicals that reduce the libido cause side-effects. I can see no way out of the moral quandary. It seems to be that we have to "violate" the human and societal rights of sexual offenders in order to protect society. It is preferable, IMO, that paedophiles be made into semi-zombies than that innocent children be made sexually maladapted and the sexual predators of tomorrow. It is better, IMO, that convicted rapists be made sterile than that they be able to rape again. Moreover, as rape is a crime of violence, not a sexual act per se, it is desirable, methinks, that convicted rapists be so drugged as not to be able to harm another being in any way as acondition of their release from closed institutions.I'd like to throw this one out for discussion.
This is a tough case and it's been put on our plate. This is not a theoretical discussion. This is a real case pending in the District Court of Tel Aviv.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
What do we do when we, as a Society, are confronted with a case like this?
http://tinyurl.com/8a6xm
What does "justice being served" mean in a case like this?
My initial response is:
From the story, as it was presented in the news, it is clear that these people knew full well that according to Israeli law that what they had done is considered a sexual crime against a minor. Whether or not they themselves considered it a perversion and a violation of the child's Human rights cannot be determined from the story. It is clear, however, that they knew that this is their society's view. They did, after all, use the behavior to incriminate one another in the course of their marital disputes.
My inclination is not to punish, per se, but to correct, which is what I think all effective punishment should be. Chances are the parents are victims of sexual predators in their childhood.The parents are very sick and, as in the case with all extreme illnesses, extreme methods of cure may be called for.
If we mete out harsh measures unwisely we become a depraved and brutal society. Punishment cannot be carried out in order to release our feelings of outrage. It has to be a corrective measure that helps the persons who veered off societal norms. It would be ironic indeed if, in being unwisely brutal toward sexual predators, we become perverted morally as a society.
And who will carry out the harsh punishment? In ancient Israel the Judges themselves had to mete out the punishments they recommended. They were, therefore, extremely careful not to have innocent blood on their hands and not to be unnecessarily harsh. Today there are professional executioners, jailers, psychiatrists, etc. who do the bidding of the judges who keep their hands "clean" of meting out the actual punishment.
I would call for them serving a term in a closed psychiatric facility and having to take part in one-on-one, family and group therapy. Thereafter, when they show marked improvement, they may be released on the proviso that they agree to having their libidos chemically reduced to the point where they are incapable of repeating these acts. This agreement on their part, in writing, should be made a condition of their release. I say this because there is an unusually high rate of recidivism amongst sexual offenders. A troubling case is a Canadian one: A man, who was a serial rapist from the age of 12 (no typo), has been in jail for decades. He is a model prisoner and is due for early release. Yet, he is still more sexually excited by rape scenes than by scenes involving consensual sex. The families of his victims are livid about, and terrified of, his impending early release and are doing everything they can to petition the Canadian justice system to reconsider the decision. Certainly, it cannot be assumed from the fact that he is a model prisoner that he will be a model member of society-at-large, or even a minimally functioning one. How he responds to sex scenes, is, IMO, far more indicative of future behavior when he is set free. When asked if he thinks that he will return to raping he answered honestly, saying that he doesn't know. He recommends setting him free to determine the matter.
I know that the chemicals that reduce the libido cause side-effects. I can see no way out of the moral quandary. It seems to be that we have to "violate" the human and societal rights of sexual offenders in order to protect society. It is preferable, IMO, that paedophiles be made into semi-zombies than that innocent children be made sexually maladapted and the sexual predators of tomorrow. It is better, IMO, that convicted rapists be made sterile than that they be able to rape again. Moreover, as rape is a crime of violence, not a sexual act per se, it is desirable, methinks, that convicted rapists be so drugged as not to be able to harm another being in any way as acondition of their release from closed institutions.I'd like to throw this one out for discussion.
This is a tough case and it's been put on our plate. This is not a theoretical discussion. This is a real case pending in the District Court of Tel Aviv.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Someone sent the following to me:
"This is a poem made up entirely of actual quotations from George W. Bush, arranged for "aesthetic" purposes, by Washington Post writer Richard Thompson. A wonderful poem like this is too good not to share.Ah, yes! A testament to literacy in the age of Every Child Left Behind!"
BUSH HAIKU
MAKE THE PIE HIGHER!
I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
And potential mental losses.
Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet
Become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pant leg of opportunity.
I know that the human being
And the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope,
Where our wings take dream.
Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
Make the pie higher!
The foregoing is not a demonstration of Bush's idiocy or lack of linguistic skills. This is painstakingly calculated mind muck. George Walker Bush, the President of the United States of America, does not "ad lib" or do "improv". Those who pull the strings that control this dummy's mouth are handsomely-remunerated, expert ventriloquists. That is why you do not see them working their "magic".
Every word that comes out of Bush's mouth is deliberately chosen by highly-trained specialists. They compose optimally efficacious formulations of words that create the mental images which elicit the desired psychological and emotional responses in those who listen to the speeches and comments Bush delivers.
Moreover, I contend that the quotes above were not "arranged for aesthetic reasons only". By repeating and disseminating the quotes above, the Washington Post is in collusion with the Bush administration, not in opposition to it. It will be the lampoon that will stick in people's memories, and that is their precise objective.
If you've ever read an article in one of the United States' "better" newspapers, most notably the New York Times, then you know that they say absolutely nothing. The articles are strings of incoherent sentences that produce fragmented thought. But they're written using a lot of high-falutin' language that creates the illusion of something very profound having been related by a very profound professional writer. Those who guard their reputations as intellectuals jealously do not dare admit that they didn't understand a damn thing that was written in those articles, lest they be thought not to be capable of plumbing the depths of the thought of the Times' "brilliant" journalists. They pretend not only to understand, but also agree, with the "substance" of the articles on pain of being banned from the august Society of New York intellectuals. But I tell you: he King of American Newspapers has no clothes on, and neither do the bonnie princes.
My husband, Daniel, and I were and having a grand old time reading the lines above and laughing - until we came to the "vulcanize society" line. I laughed at the obvious error and then stopped laughing, rather abruptly, realizing that I could not think of the correct word to replace the malapropism with. Turning to Daniel I said: " I know 'vulcanized' is not the correct word, but I can't remember what the correct word is." I had to rack my brain for about a minute to remember the word 'galvanize'.
In putting those lines in the President's mouth, and making people who have learned correct English laugh at them, the people who write Bush's speeches are causing the educated to remember this patois, thus wiping out and supplanting their memory of correct English with gobbledygook. They are being re-educated even as they chortle. Their minds are being washed even as they guffaw. They are being taught how not to induce coherent thought using language aptly. They willingly go along with the process because they enjoy the laugh and the feeling of hubris at laughing at the President. The pride that the intelligent take in their intelligence is that which is being used to dumb them down – and they're enjoying every minute of it.
Putting misstatements and malapropisms in the mouth of the President is tremendously effective on the less educated and the young whose vocabularies, use of language and modes of thought are in the formation stage. The President is the role model of the political conservatives and a figure whose words are oft-heard for all in the English-speaking world. His English will be emulated by those who respect him and will become the manner of self-expression even for those who do not respect him because it will become that which is most familiar to them.
This device for dumbing down of Americans , and the English-speaking world really, by placing patois in the mouth of the President of the United States of America is highly indeed.
Those properly schooled are forgetting that which they once learned, the young and the poorly-schooled accept the English of the President as the norm and the intelligentsia – who have always used reason expressed in language as their most formidable weapon against oppression, ignorance and irrationality, have been very effectively disarmed. In contrast to the degraded, and even incoherent, mode of speech and writing that is rapidly becoming the familiar norm, the intelligentsia sound increasingly incomprehensible, ridiculous even alien. Thus, even more than in generations gone by, those who need to hear the messages of the intelligentsia most are the most likely to reject them out-of-hand for seeming weird, being different and being incomprehensible. In those rare cases in which someone might be disposed to reading their writings, the laziness and inability to think cogently that thinking in patois causes, will douse the desire to consider deeply soon enough.
Bush's manner of speech is no joke, then, and certainly not impromptu. It is part of a carefully-devised program to dumb the English-speaking world down and we would be extremely foolish to allow ourselves to be led down the garden path to generalized inability to think coherently, laughing cooperatively all the way.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
"This is a poem made up entirely of actual quotations from George W. Bush, arranged for "aesthetic" purposes, by Washington Post writer Richard Thompson. A wonderful poem like this is too good not to share.Ah, yes! A testament to literacy in the age of Every Child Left Behind!"
BUSH HAIKU
MAKE THE PIE HIGHER!
I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
And potential mental losses.
Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet
Become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pant leg of opportunity.
I know that the human being
And the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope,
Where our wings take dream.
Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
Make the pie higher!
The foregoing is not a demonstration of Bush's idiocy or lack of linguistic skills. This is painstakingly calculated mind muck. George Walker Bush, the President of the United States of America, does not "ad lib" or do "improv". Those who pull the strings that control this dummy's mouth are handsomely-remunerated, expert ventriloquists. That is why you do not see them working their "magic".
Every word that comes out of Bush's mouth is deliberately chosen by highly-trained specialists. They compose optimally efficacious formulations of words that create the mental images which elicit the desired psychological and emotional responses in those who listen to the speeches and comments Bush delivers.
Moreover, I contend that the quotes above were not "arranged for aesthetic reasons only". By repeating and disseminating the quotes above, the Washington Post is in collusion with the Bush administration, not in opposition to it. It will be the lampoon that will stick in people's memories, and that is their precise objective.
If you've ever read an article in one of the United States' "better" newspapers, most notably the New York Times, then you know that they say absolutely nothing. The articles are strings of incoherent sentences that produce fragmented thought. But they're written using a lot of high-falutin' language that creates the illusion of something very profound having been related by a very profound professional writer. Those who guard their reputations as intellectuals jealously do not dare admit that they didn't understand a damn thing that was written in those articles, lest they be thought not to be capable of plumbing the depths of the thought of the Times' "brilliant" journalists. They pretend not only to understand, but also agree, with the "substance" of the articles on pain of being banned from the august Society of New York intellectuals. But I tell you: he King of American Newspapers has no clothes on, and neither do the bonnie princes.
My husband, Daniel, and I were and having a grand old time reading the lines above and laughing - until we came to the "vulcanize society" line. I laughed at the obvious error and then stopped laughing, rather abruptly, realizing that I could not think of the correct word to replace the malapropism with. Turning to Daniel I said: " I know 'vulcanized' is not the correct word, but I can't remember what the correct word is." I had to rack my brain for about a minute to remember the word 'galvanize'.
In putting those lines in the President's mouth, and making people who have learned correct English laugh at them, the people who write Bush's speeches are causing the educated to remember this patois, thus wiping out and supplanting their memory of correct English with gobbledygook. They are being re-educated even as they chortle. Their minds are being washed even as they guffaw. They are being taught how not to induce coherent thought using language aptly. They willingly go along with the process because they enjoy the laugh and the feeling of hubris at laughing at the President. The pride that the intelligent take in their intelligence is that which is being used to dumb them down – and they're enjoying every minute of it.
Putting misstatements and malapropisms in the mouth of the President is tremendously effective on the less educated and the young whose vocabularies, use of language and modes of thought are in the formation stage. The President is the role model of the political conservatives and a figure whose words are oft-heard for all in the English-speaking world. His English will be emulated by those who respect him and will become the manner of self-expression even for those who do not respect him because it will become that which is most familiar to them.
This device for dumbing down of Americans , and the English-speaking world really, by placing patois in the mouth of the President of the United States of America is highly indeed.
Those properly schooled are forgetting that which they once learned, the young and the poorly-schooled accept the English of the President as the norm and the intelligentsia – who have always used reason expressed in language as their most formidable weapon against oppression, ignorance and irrationality, have been very effectively disarmed. In contrast to the degraded, and even incoherent, mode of speech and writing that is rapidly becoming the familiar norm, the intelligentsia sound increasingly incomprehensible, ridiculous even alien. Thus, even more than in generations gone by, those who need to hear the messages of the intelligentsia most are the most likely to reject them out-of-hand for seeming weird, being different and being incomprehensible. In those rare cases in which someone might be disposed to reading their writings, the laziness and inability to think cogently that thinking in patois causes, will douse the desire to consider deeply soon enough.
Bush's manner of speech is no joke, then, and certainly not impromptu. It is part of a carefully-devised program to dumb the English-speaking world down and we would be extremely foolish to allow ourselves to be led down the garden path to generalized inability to think coherently, laughing cooperatively all the way.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
B & B & B
Thuh 'Merican gum-mint has formulated and produced a powerful new weapon to add to its arsenal employed in its never-ending war against lucidity and individuality.
The USians, encouraged by the results of the mandatory administration of Ritalin to schoolchildren whose indefatigable love of life and joyous enthusiasm was so disruptive and insufferable in public schools, will now be administering a new, experimental drug, which induces extreme apathy and euphoria, to children who are bright or caring, or, in the worst of cases, both.
Starting this school year, B & B & B will be administered to children deemed, according to rigorous testing, to be in dire need of being doped, uh, that is, calmed.
The administration of the drug will be on a mandatory basis, free-of-charge, to all children who were found to have IQs of at least 120 and/or evinced compassion or empathy to any degree whatsoever, in the course of the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health screening program. The screening, which is quite obviously worth every tax dollar spent in developing and implementing it, has proven scientifically that these children are extremely disturbed and potentially dangerous to society. They simply cannot be allowed to disrupt the flow of public school indoc…um, education. They must be controlled – for their own good and for the good of all decent White Christian folks.
The promising new drug will be marketed by the name of B & B & B, after the ideal personality that the drug is designed to induce in those who receive it – that of Barbara Bourbon-Bush.
The remarkable pharmacological innovation in the development of B & B & B is that preliminary testing has revealed that the efficacy of the drug is not only heightened substantially when it is taken together with pseudo-Liberal propagandistic tripe, popularly marketed as Red Bull, but that the two administered together increase suggestibility and enhance natural mimetic tendencies in the recipient.
The recommended initial starting dosage is one pony glass of B & B & B three-quarters of an hour before classes begin. According to the individual reaction of each child, the dosage may be increased to a shot glass, and, in cases of extreme incorrigibility, where the child continues to ask incisive and/or critical questions and/or evinces empathy and/or demonstrates any degree of non-acceptance of authority; a chaser of Red Bull can be recommended as well.
Um, say what? You say you have objections to your child taking an experimental soporific drug that will render him or her optimally socially malleable? Well, just try to "Just say no".
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Thuh 'Merican gum-mint has formulated and produced a powerful new weapon to add to its arsenal employed in its never-ending war against lucidity and individuality.
The USians, encouraged by the results of the mandatory administration of Ritalin to schoolchildren whose indefatigable love of life and joyous enthusiasm was so disruptive and insufferable in public schools, will now be administering a new, experimental drug, which induces extreme apathy and euphoria, to children who are bright or caring, or, in the worst of cases, both.
Starting this school year, B & B & B will be administered to children deemed, according to rigorous testing, to be in dire need of being doped, uh, that is, calmed.
The administration of the drug will be on a mandatory basis, free-of-charge, to all children who were found to have IQs of at least 120 and/or evinced compassion or empathy to any degree whatsoever, in the course of the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health screening program. The screening, which is quite obviously worth every tax dollar spent in developing and implementing it, has proven scientifically that these children are extremely disturbed and potentially dangerous to society. They simply cannot be allowed to disrupt the flow of public school indoc…um, education. They must be controlled – for their own good and for the good of all decent White Christian folks.
The promising new drug will be marketed by the name of B & B & B, after the ideal personality that the drug is designed to induce in those who receive it – that of Barbara Bourbon-Bush.
The remarkable pharmacological innovation in the development of B & B & B is that preliminary testing has revealed that the efficacy of the drug is not only heightened substantially when it is taken together with pseudo-Liberal propagandistic tripe, popularly marketed as Red Bull, but that the two administered together increase suggestibility and enhance natural mimetic tendencies in the recipient.
The recommended initial starting dosage is one pony glass of B & B & B three-quarters of an hour before classes begin. According to the individual reaction of each child, the dosage may be increased to a shot glass, and, in cases of extreme incorrigibility, where the child continues to ask incisive and/or critical questions and/or evinces empathy and/or demonstrates any degree of non-acceptance of authority; a chaser of Red Bull can be recommended as well.
Um, say what? You say you have objections to your child taking an experimental soporific drug that will render him or her optimally socially malleable? Well, just try to "Just say no".
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Friday, September 30, 2005
BEING TOLD IT'S TIME TO GO
Someone wrote the following to me on a message board that I tried desperately, and failed miserably, to become an accepted participant in for three years. I really should have left on my own, in fact I tried to innumerable times, but loneliness drove me back to where I did not want to be and where I was not wanted.
"Doreen,
Nietzsche also said, even though I aint to particularly fond of him
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he doesn't become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
"If God or whatever gave you the gift of being more intelligent than your average fellow human being then don't use that gift by separating yourself from them, putting yourself on a pedestal above them, dismissing them. ‘Cause what’s the point with that? If you do that then your high Intelligence has become a curse rather than a gift. There are, as I see it, more important human qualities than high intelligence. Compassion and empathy for example. To measure a person by his/hers IQ only is as wrong and silly as for example measuring a country’s greatness out of the size of its armed forces. High Intelligence is something you were borne with, one can say. It is nothing that you have worked hard for to achieve. To rank people out of qualities that came with birth is as wrong as wrong can be according to me. The true measure of a man/woman is how he/she treats someone who can do him/her absolutely no good, someone wise said. Don’t go looking for recognition Doreen. At least not here. There is really no need for it. What is written in your own book is all that should matter. But if you feel that it don’t, then it means that you are in doubt. And if so, then you should go somewhere and do some thinking cos’ you sure as hell aint gonna find any answers here."
I responded:
I understand your intentions in writing what you did and I appreciate them. Thank you for taking the time to write what you did.
There are a few inaccuracies in what you wrote, as should be expected after all we are only acquainted through this message board, but the general point you made about me "grinding water" here, as the Hebrew saying goes, is dead-on accurate.
No, I'm not insecure about my abilities. Those damned abilities have been the bane (and bulk) of my existence for as long as I remember myself.
I do not need recognition per se. Like every gifted person, I have a deep-abiding need to give away what I have. That something is very beautiful and it is not for everyone to receive. I am engaged in a continual search for those who I can share it with. They are very few and far between.
Most Human beings do behave monstrously, and yes, I have become all too much like them too often and I experience profound disgust when I see that in myself.
I am not afraid of staring into the abyss within. We are old and dear friends the inner abyss and I. It is the wellspring from whence all creativity comes. It is awesome rather than dreadful.
It is the abyss of being misunderstood that is so, well, abysmal and that which I dread. Isolation has been very aptly described as a "death-in-life experience without the "blessing" of unconsciousness" by the brilliant psychologist Dr. Miriam Adahan in her book IT'S ALL A GIFT.
Thank you for telling me that I really do need to shove off. It would be easier if I thought there was a peer group for me somewhere, but I know there is not. There is family and there is work and I know I should be turning more attention to them.
You are so very correct. Being as I am is more of a curse than a blessing, no one who was truly gifted ever said otherwise. I've had an interesting experience a few of times. Children with Down's syndrome sometimes stare at me. They seem to be regarding me with understanding and pity.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Someone wrote the following to me on a message board that I tried desperately, and failed miserably, to become an accepted participant in for three years. I really should have left on my own, in fact I tried to innumerable times, but loneliness drove me back to where I did not want to be and where I was not wanted.
"Doreen,
Nietzsche also said, even though I aint to particularly fond of him
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he doesn't become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
"If God or whatever gave you the gift of being more intelligent than your average fellow human being then don't use that gift by separating yourself from them, putting yourself on a pedestal above them, dismissing them. ‘Cause what’s the point with that? If you do that then your high Intelligence has become a curse rather than a gift. There are, as I see it, more important human qualities than high intelligence. Compassion and empathy for example. To measure a person by his/hers IQ only is as wrong and silly as for example measuring a country’s greatness out of the size of its armed forces. High Intelligence is something you were borne with, one can say. It is nothing that you have worked hard for to achieve. To rank people out of qualities that came with birth is as wrong as wrong can be according to me. The true measure of a man/woman is how he/she treats someone who can do him/her absolutely no good, someone wise said. Don’t go looking for recognition Doreen. At least not here. There is really no need for it. What is written in your own book is all that should matter. But if you feel that it don’t, then it means that you are in doubt. And if so, then you should go somewhere and do some thinking cos’ you sure as hell aint gonna find any answers here."
I responded:
I understand your intentions in writing what you did and I appreciate them. Thank you for taking the time to write what you did.
There are a few inaccuracies in what you wrote, as should be expected after all we are only acquainted through this message board, but the general point you made about me "grinding water" here, as the Hebrew saying goes, is dead-on accurate.
No, I'm not insecure about my abilities. Those damned abilities have been the bane (and bulk) of my existence for as long as I remember myself.
I do not need recognition per se. Like every gifted person, I have a deep-abiding need to give away what I have. That something is very beautiful and it is not for everyone to receive. I am engaged in a continual search for those who I can share it with. They are very few and far between.
Most Human beings do behave monstrously, and yes, I have become all too much like them too often and I experience profound disgust when I see that in myself.
I am not afraid of staring into the abyss within. We are old and dear friends the inner abyss and I. It is the wellspring from whence all creativity comes. It is awesome rather than dreadful.
It is the abyss of being misunderstood that is so, well, abysmal and that which I dread. Isolation has been very aptly described as a "death-in-life experience without the "blessing" of unconsciousness" by the brilliant psychologist Dr. Miriam Adahan in her book IT'S ALL A GIFT.
Thank you for telling me that I really do need to shove off. It would be easier if I thought there was a peer group for me somewhere, but I know there is not. There is family and there is work and I know I should be turning more attention to them.
You are so very correct. Being as I am is more of a curse than a blessing, no one who was truly gifted ever said otherwise. I've had an interesting experience a few of times. Children with Down's syndrome sometimes stare at me. They seem to be regarding me with understanding and pity.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Thursday, September 29, 2005
ב"ה
HEXED
This is utterly amazing! I was looking up something about game theory and found this on a site about the history of game theory.
0-500 AD
The Babylonian Talmud is the compilation of ancient law and tradition set down during the first five centuries A.D. which serves as the basis of Jewish religious, criminal and civil law. One problem discussed in the Talmud is the so called marriage contract problem: a man has three wives whose marriage contracts specify that in the case of this death they receive 100, 200 and 300 respectively. The Talmud gives apparently contradictory recommendations. Where the man dies leaving an estate of only 100, the Talmud recommends equal division. However, if the estate is worth 300 it recommends proportional division (50,100,150), while for an estate of 200, its recommendation of (50,75,75) is a complete mystery. This particular Mishna has baffled Talmudic scholars for two millennia. In 1985, it was recognised that the Talmud anticipates the modern theory of cooperative games. Each solution corresponds to the nucleolus of an appropriately defined game.
Links: http://tinyurl.com/5ylgl
http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~rrw1/talks/qtalk2.pdf
The only game theory discovered in the 20th Century was Anno Dominoes!
This is such poetic, noetic justice. John Nash is said to be a rabid anti-Semite.
One could spend a lifetime exploring the depth of this discussion of fairness and morality.
The problem is to be found in the BABYLONIAN TALMUD, Tractate Ketubot, Page 93a, et al.
תלמוד בבלי מסכת כתובות דף צג עמוד א
מי שהיה נשוי שלש נשים ומת, כתובתה של זו מנה ושל זו מאתים ושל זו שלש מאות, ואין שם אלא מנה - חולקין בשוה. היו שם מאתים, של מנה - נוטלת חמשים, של מאתים ושל שלש מאות - שלשה שלשה של זהב. היו שם שלש מאות, של מנה - נוטלת חמשים, ושל מאתים - מנה, ושל שלש מאות - ששה של זהב. וכן ג' שהטילו לכיס, פיחתו או הותירו כך הן חולקין.
גמ'. של מנה נוטלת חמשים, תלתין ותלתא ותילתא הוא דאית לה! אמר שמואל: בכותבת בעלת מאתים לבעלת מנה, דין ודברים אין לי עמך במנה: אי הכי, אימא סיפא: של מאתים ושל שלש מאות - שלש שלש של זהב, תימא לה: הא סלקת נפשך מינה! משום דאמרה לה: מדין ודברים הוא דסליקי נפשאי. היו שם שלש מאות וכו'. של מאתים - מנה, שבעים וחמשה הוא דאית לה! אמר שמואל: בכותבת בעלת שלש מאות לבעלת מאתים ולבעלת מנה דין ודברים אין לי עמכם במנה. רב יעקב מנהר פקוד משמיה דרבינא אמר: רישא בשתי תפיסות, וסיפא בשתי תפיסות; רישא בשתי תפיסות - דנפלו שבעין וחמשה בחד זימנא, ומאה ועשרים וחמשה בחד זימנא, סיפא בשתי תפיסות - דנפלו שבעים וחמשה בחד זימנא, ומאתים ועשרים וחמשה בחד זימנא. תניא: זו משנת רבי נתן; רבי אומר: אין אני רואה דבריו של רבי נתן באלו, אלא חולקות בשוה.
וכן שלשה שהטילו. אמר שמואל: שנים שהטילו לכיס, זה מנה וזה מאתים –
אוצרות ישראל גירסה 2, בהוצאות פרוייקט השו"ת
אוניברסיטת בר אילן 1972-2005
Do you see the moral implications of the problems shown in the .pdf link above and their imperfect solutions?
Do you see how, by imagining that the universe is described by classical math, one is urged on by classical math itself to transcend classical math in order to achieve greater justice than classical math allows?
Do you see that the definitions and laws of classical math are artifacts of a given mind set, but that mind set demands that we evolve into another, higher mind set that will generate a mathematics governed by more liberal and flexible laws?
Truly equitable solutions that are inclusive of other solutions are impossible using classical math because it is organized such that it demands that we transcend it or suffer with incomplete and unsatisfying solutions to problems.
Our minds generate their own evolution by creating universes governed by contradictory, limited and limiting, untenable laws that at some point become insufferable.
The Sages of the Talmud knew this and that is why they did not attempt to come to fair and equitable solutions to social problems using math. Rather, they deliberately handed down decisions that were calculated to urge people on to thinking more cooperatively and expansively.
My husband tells me that, in fact, the Gemara of this Mishna states that the decisions concerning each woman's inheritance handed down by the Judges were based on negotiations that the widows had had amongst themselves.
Absolutely MAGNIFICENT.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
HEXED
This is utterly amazing! I was looking up something about game theory and found this on a site about the history of game theory.
0-500 AD
The Babylonian Talmud is the compilation of ancient law and tradition set down during the first five centuries A.D. which serves as the basis of Jewish religious, criminal and civil law. One problem discussed in the Talmud is the so called marriage contract problem: a man has three wives whose marriage contracts specify that in the case of this death they receive 100, 200 and 300 respectively. The Talmud gives apparently contradictory recommendations. Where the man dies leaving an estate of only 100, the Talmud recommends equal division. However, if the estate is worth 300 it recommends proportional division (50,100,150), while for an estate of 200, its recommendation of (50,75,75) is a complete mystery. This particular Mishna has baffled Talmudic scholars for two millennia. In 1985, it was recognised that the Talmud anticipates the modern theory of cooperative games. Each solution corresponds to the nucleolus of an appropriately defined game.
Links: http://tinyurl.com/5ylgl
http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~rrw1/talks/qtalk2.pdf
The only game theory discovered in the 20th Century was Anno Dominoes!
This is such poetic, noetic justice. John Nash is said to be a rabid anti-Semite.
One could spend a lifetime exploring the depth of this discussion of fairness and morality.
The problem is to be found in the BABYLONIAN TALMUD, Tractate Ketubot, Page 93a, et al.
תלמוד בבלי מסכת כתובות דף צג עמוד א
מי שהיה נשוי שלש נשים ומת, כתובתה של זו מנה ושל זו מאתים ושל זו שלש מאות, ואין שם אלא מנה - חולקין בשוה. היו שם מאתים, של מנה - נוטלת חמשים, של מאתים ושל שלש מאות - שלשה שלשה של זהב. היו שם שלש מאות, של מנה - נוטלת חמשים, ושל מאתים - מנה, ושל שלש מאות - ששה של זהב. וכן ג' שהטילו לכיס, פיחתו או הותירו כך הן חולקין.
גמ'. של מנה נוטלת חמשים, תלתין ותלתא ותילתא הוא דאית לה! אמר שמואל: בכותבת בעלת מאתים לבעלת מנה, דין ודברים אין לי עמך במנה: אי הכי, אימא סיפא: של מאתים ושל שלש מאות - שלש שלש של זהב, תימא לה: הא סלקת נפשך מינה! משום דאמרה לה: מדין ודברים הוא דסליקי נפשאי. היו שם שלש מאות וכו'. של מאתים - מנה, שבעים וחמשה הוא דאית לה! אמר שמואל: בכותבת בעלת שלש מאות לבעלת מאתים ולבעלת מנה דין ודברים אין לי עמכם במנה. רב יעקב מנהר פקוד משמיה דרבינא אמר: רישא בשתי תפיסות, וסיפא בשתי תפיסות; רישא בשתי תפיסות - דנפלו שבעין וחמשה בחד זימנא, ומאה ועשרים וחמשה בחד זימנא, סיפא בשתי תפיסות - דנפלו שבעים וחמשה בחד זימנא, ומאתים ועשרים וחמשה בחד זימנא. תניא: זו משנת רבי נתן; רבי אומר: אין אני רואה דבריו של רבי נתן באלו, אלא חולקות בשוה.
וכן שלשה שהטילו. אמר שמואל: שנים שהטילו לכיס, זה מנה וזה מאתים –
אוצרות ישראל גירסה 2, בהוצאות פרוייקט השו"ת
אוניברסיטת בר אילן 1972-2005
Do you see the moral implications of the problems shown in the .pdf link above and their imperfect solutions?
Do you see how, by imagining that the universe is described by classical math, one is urged on by classical math itself to transcend classical math in order to achieve greater justice than classical math allows?
Do you see that the definitions and laws of classical math are artifacts of a given mind set, but that mind set demands that we evolve into another, higher mind set that will generate a mathematics governed by more liberal and flexible laws?
Truly equitable solutions that are inclusive of other solutions are impossible using classical math because it is organized such that it demands that we transcend it or suffer with incomplete and unsatisfying solutions to problems.
Our minds generate their own evolution by creating universes governed by contradictory, limited and limiting, untenable laws that at some point become insufferable.
The Sages of the Talmud knew this and that is why they did not attempt to come to fair and equitable solutions to social problems using math. Rather, they deliberately handed down decisions that were calculated to urge people on to thinking more cooperatively and expansively.
My husband tells me that, in fact, the Gemara of this Mishna states that the decisions concerning each woman's inheritance handed down by the Judges were based on negotiations that the widows had had amongst themselves.
Absolutely MAGNIFICENT.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
ב"ה
צרעת הבית – "Leprosy of the House"
Just what "leprosy of the house" is is a matter of age-old discussion.
Evidently the phenomenon was never clear because when one discovered what they thought was clearly צרעת הבית in their house during the time that the כהנים treated the affliction, they had to go to the כהן and say that it *seemed* to them that there was a plague in the house. As we learn: In Parshat Metzora (Lev. 14:35) we read with regard to the affliction of Tzara'at Habayit ("leprosy of the house") the following modus operandi: He to whom the building belongs shall come and tell the Priest, saying 'like an affliction appears appears in my house.' Rashi there seizes on the anomalous "like" phrasing and explicates: "Even if he is a scholar who knows it certainly to be an affliction , he should not determine the matter unequivocally to say 'an affliction, rather, 'like an affliction appears.' "
Some might think that it is merely a figurative, reifying description of a spiritual plague that sets into a home when its inhabitants sinned, particularly engaged in slander.
Some might think that the phenomenon once existed but no longer does.
Some might think that it is a matter beyond our current ability to understand.
I am not a כהן and it is certainly not my place to make a diagnosis, but when I saw the article below I said to myself: That might be what צרעת הבית ("leprosy of the house") is.
It may be a species of צרעת הבית that does not have to be diagnosed by a כהן, but which is an undeniable signal that something is very, very spiritually wrong that we can all see for ourselves. http://tinyurl.com/cbugh
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@...
צרעת הבית – "Leprosy of the House"
Just what "leprosy of the house" is is a matter of age-old discussion.
Evidently the phenomenon was never clear because when one discovered what they thought was clearly צרעת הבית in their house during the time that the כהנים treated the affliction, they had to go to the כהן and say that it *seemed* to them that there was a plague in the house. As we learn: In Parshat Metzora (Lev. 14:35) we read with regard to the affliction of Tzara'at Habayit ("leprosy of the house") the following modus operandi: He to whom the building belongs shall come and tell the Priest, saying 'like an affliction appears appears in my house.' Rashi there seizes on the anomalous "like" phrasing and explicates: "Even if he is a scholar who knows it certainly to be an affliction , he should not determine the matter unequivocally to say 'an affliction, rather, 'like an affliction appears.' "
Some might think that it is merely a figurative, reifying description of a spiritual plague that sets into a home when its inhabitants sinned, particularly engaged in slander.
Some might think that the phenomenon once existed but no longer does.
Some might think that it is a matter beyond our current ability to understand.
I am not a כהן and it is certainly not my place to make a diagnosis, but when I saw the article below I said to myself: That might be what צרעת הבית ("leprosy of the house") is.
It may be a species of צרעת הבית that does not have to be diagnosed by a כהן, but which is an undeniable signal that something is very, very spiritually wrong that we can all see for ourselves. http://tinyurl.com/cbugh
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@...
B"H
BAD, BADDER AND HELLIFIED
There is a line of specious reasoning that goes like this:
"Hey, I know I'm baaad. Since I know I'm bad and this person got just over on me, then he or she is even badder. This person is Evil, like E-vile, Man."
But it don't go so.
There are people that are so good that they are Hellified.
And if you understood what I just wrote and why I wrote it, you've gone beyond "good" and "bad" and you're going to live forever.
If you don't understand it, you're going to run into a few more people who look E-vile to you until you do.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
BAD, BADDER AND HELLIFIED
There is a line of specious reasoning that goes like this:
"Hey, I know I'm baaad. Since I know I'm bad and this person got just over on me, then he or she is even badder. This person is Evil, like E-vile, Man."
But it don't go so.
There are people that are so good that they are Hellified.
And if you understood what I just wrote and why I wrote it, you've gone beyond "good" and "bad" and you're going to live forever.
If you don't understand it, you're going to run into a few more people who look E-vile to you until you do.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
I wrote the following to a "senior statesman" of Mensa around the time that I resigned officially from the Society. He has been a Mensa member for some four decades. He is as moral as he is brilliant and has tried his utmost to steer the Society in the direction of moral self-government that is characterized by as little bureaucratic structure as possible – to very little avail.
Hillel, kHz, dB, and Humility.
What Have These in Common with Mensa?
Your most recent posts on M-Pol cause me considerable sadness and even shame for you.
Surely after all of the years that you are in Mensa you must realize that the vast majority of people who do well on those standardized tests that measure one's ability to think inconsequentially are morally average and some are even below average. Think about who the people who devised those tests are and you will have an encyclopaedia of information at your fingertips.
You have written about considering Mensa as a control group of subjects that you are performing an "experiment" on to see if people with IQ's about 150% of the average will act morally in tandem. I am reminded of the old joke about the experimenter who concludes that upon having its four legs cut off the frog can no longer hear the command "Jump!".
Apropos hearing: You have twice referred to the Sage Hillel in posts to the Yahoo! Group M-Pol. Amplifying the dB of the words of Hillel by quoting him now twice will avail you nothing when you speak to those people. His teachings are tens of thousands of kHz out of their moral hearing range. At most they will feel unsettling vibrations if you increase the amplitude, but they will not hear the words. They will not react with happy appreciation for being enlightened. They will react with anger and fear at having been unsettled. And why can they not understand such sentiments? It is because Hillel devoted himself to becoming as humble and as meek as one could - words not found in the M-Pol archives. Moreover, he drove anger from his heart entirely. Are you familiar with this famous story about Hillel?:
http://tinyurl.com/dsssl
The people in Mensa, as individuals, have not exerted themselves in the struggle against hubris, impatience, self-serving, etc. They have amassed data and this for the purpose of self-aggrandizement and advancement, not wisdom. You are speaking to people who are encrusted in egos they have cultivated for four decades and more. How can you reasonably expect them to act wisely, and in the interest of the Society, in tandem?
I lived on kibbutz for five years. I learned from the general assemblies held once every week that the sum total of morally averageness is a whole lotta moral averageness. The result of every general meeting I attended was either cacophony or a harmonic wave of amplified nothing.
It simply does not follow that because many of the moral giants of the world were brilliant that the brilliant are necessarily moral giants (and let's face it, most of the people in Mensa aren't exactly brilliant). Even people in Prometheus consider ethics only perfunctorily, because they think it is de rigueur for intellectuals to give a nod to such matters, not because the desire for justice and truth wrenches their guts.
You are addressing people who have drinking problems, people who openly and unashamedly admit that they came to Mensa for their own (not very noble) purposes, people who imagine themselves to be witches, i.e., people who, thank God deludedly, are trying to empower themselves by tapping into negative energy sources. Is it any wonder that their political behavior is what it is?! Do you really expect people like that to be decent enough to post a correction giving credit where it is really due? It may seem like basic decency to you, but it is not for them. No one seems to tarry putting up posts in their own defense.
It hurts me to see people write to you disrespectfully, with no reverence at all either for your age, your tenure or for that which you have endeavored to do during the decades during which you have been an active member of Mensa. I'm sure that recalling your achievements is not very pleasant for you. Have your exertions been rewarded with success? Will further exertions be rewarded with success?
They don't know what you're on about, and as I said above, increasing the dB level will avail you nothing if you speak in a moral range above their ability to hear.
I resigned from Mensa rather than allow myself to be excoriated, as you are being raked over the coals, for having the "arrogance" (the buzz word used by Mensans to shut people up when they speak out for the right) to evince the requisite self-confidence needed to express moral principles and adjure others to comport themselves in accordance with them. The members of the Society would have tried to drag me into the sophistry of "moral relativity".
While I respect your choice to remain in the Society and suffer the insult of those who do not begin to approximate you as a Man or as an intellect, your decision is inscrutable to me.
Peace,
Doreen
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Hillel, kHz, dB, and Humility.
What Have These in Common with Mensa?
Your most recent posts on M-Pol cause me considerable sadness and even shame for you.
Surely after all of the years that you are in Mensa you must realize that the vast majority of people who do well on those standardized tests that measure one's ability to think inconsequentially are morally average and some are even below average. Think about who the people who devised those tests are and you will have an encyclopaedia of information at your fingertips.
You have written about considering Mensa as a control group of subjects that you are performing an "experiment" on to see if people with IQ's about 150% of the average will act morally in tandem. I am reminded of the old joke about the experimenter who concludes that upon having its four legs cut off the frog can no longer hear the command "Jump!".
Apropos hearing: You have twice referred to the Sage Hillel in posts to the Yahoo! Group M-Pol. Amplifying the dB of the words of Hillel by quoting him now twice will avail you nothing when you speak to those people. His teachings are tens of thousands of kHz out of their moral hearing range. At most they will feel unsettling vibrations if you increase the amplitude, but they will not hear the words. They will not react with happy appreciation for being enlightened. They will react with anger and fear at having been unsettled. And why can they not understand such sentiments? It is because Hillel devoted himself to becoming as humble and as meek as one could - words not found in the M-Pol archives. Moreover, he drove anger from his heart entirely. Are you familiar with this famous story about Hillel?:
http://tinyurl.com/dsssl
The people in Mensa, as individuals, have not exerted themselves in the struggle against hubris, impatience, self-serving, etc. They have amassed data and this for the purpose of self-aggrandizement and advancement, not wisdom. You are speaking to people who are encrusted in egos they have cultivated for four decades and more. How can you reasonably expect them to act wisely, and in the interest of the Society, in tandem?
I lived on kibbutz for five years. I learned from the general assemblies held once every week that the sum total of morally averageness is a whole lotta moral averageness. The result of every general meeting I attended was either cacophony or a harmonic wave of amplified nothing.
It simply does not follow that because many of the moral giants of the world were brilliant that the brilliant are necessarily moral giants (and let's face it, most of the people in Mensa aren't exactly brilliant). Even people in Prometheus consider ethics only perfunctorily, because they think it is de rigueur for intellectuals to give a nod to such matters, not because the desire for justice and truth wrenches their guts.
You are addressing people who have drinking problems, people who openly and unashamedly admit that they came to Mensa for their own (not very noble) purposes, people who imagine themselves to be witches, i.e., people who, thank God deludedly, are trying to empower themselves by tapping into negative energy sources. Is it any wonder that their political behavior is what it is?! Do you really expect people like that to be decent enough to post a correction giving credit where it is really due? It may seem like basic decency to you, but it is not for them. No one seems to tarry putting up posts in their own defense.
It hurts me to see people write to you disrespectfully, with no reverence at all either for your age, your tenure or for that which you have endeavored to do during the decades during which you have been an active member of Mensa. I'm sure that recalling your achievements is not very pleasant for you. Have your exertions been rewarded with success? Will further exertions be rewarded with success?
They don't know what you're on about, and as I said above, increasing the dB level will avail you nothing if you speak in a moral range above their ability to hear.
I resigned from Mensa rather than allow myself to be excoriated, as you are being raked over the coals, for having the "arrogance" (the buzz word used by Mensans to shut people up when they speak out for the right) to evince the requisite self-confidence needed to express moral principles and adjure others to comport themselves in accordance with them. The members of the Society would have tried to drag me into the sophistry of "moral relativity".
While I respect your choice to remain in the Society and suffer the insult of those who do not begin to approximate you as a Man or as an intellect, your decision is inscrutable to me.
Peace,
Doreen
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Monday, September 26, 2005
ב"ה
COMMUNISM IS AN ANCIENT JEWISH CONCEPT
Our earliest record of Jews having lived communally comes from the time of Elisha the Prophet and there is every reason to believe that he inherited that tradition from his Teachers. We learn from the Book of Kings II that the followers of Prophets, called B'nei Nevi'im, the Spiritual children of Prophets, lived communally and took their meals communally.
Likewise, HaYachad, more commonly known as "the Essenes" (a sect of very pious Jews during the Second Temple Period) lived communally according to all contemporaneous reports of their way of life, their reports about themselves and from archaeological findings. They too took all their meals communally. A large communal dining hall was built for this specific purpose.
Thus, our records establish that Communism is a very ancient Jewish social system.
Marx could never have conceived of Communism had he not been thegrandson of a Rabbi. A bit less than one hundred years before the "Manifesto" was written by Marx and Engels, Rabbi Hillel Shklover, the grand-nephew and disciple of the famous Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Kremer (or Kramer), the Ga'on (Genius) of Vilna (1720-1797, see: http://tinyurl.com/ccwdh http://tinyurl.com/a9mzr http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilna_Ga'on ) wrote the very mystical work KOL HATOR (THE VOICE OF THE TURTLEDOVE, - the latter term being a name for Messiah as found in Song of Solomon 2:12).
Rabbi Shklover interpreted passages in the Bible to mean that the Messianic Age cannot come until there is economic equality in Israel and he was basing his interpretation on ancient sources.
By the time 1848 rolled around the Ga'on of Vilna was longthe most famous Rabbinic authority of that time frame. The Ga'on of Vilna is still considered one of the very greatest minds and Spirits that the Jewish people ever produced. To this day, his teachings are de rigueur from grade school on up to the highest levels of Rabbinic and Rabbinic Judicial study. Every Jew who studies Bible since the time of The Ga'on of Vilna learns his commentary on the Bible. It is well-nigh impossible that Marx was not influenced by The Genius' exegesis, as he became known as a prodigy in his earliest youth, from the age of seven actually, and amassed a huge following of devoted students.
Marx had to dress ancient Jewish ideas in Teutonic garments (most certainly, appealing to the philosophical authority of one George Wilhelm Freidrich Hegelserved as a more reliable endorsement in the minds of the Germans andEnglish than would appealing to the exegesis of one Rabbi Eliyahu benShlomo Zalman) in order to gain legitimacy in a xenophobic and anti-Semitic Europe, even as Freud didn't mention how many of his ideascame from the Zohar (one of the central works of Jewish mysticism).It must be mentioned that the Ga'on of Vilna based all of his Biblical studies on the Talmud (the compendium of the Oral Jewish tradition as passed down to and interpreted by the Pharisees of the Second Temple Period. It is considered the unquestionable body of Biblical exegesis based on ancient authority among Orthodox Jews to this day) and would not have made so categorical a statement about economic equality had he not found ample basis for doing so in the Bible as interpreted in the Talmud. The year that Hegel was born, The Ga'on of Vilna was a manof 50, surrounded by adoring students and renowned internationally in the European Jewish Diaspora. After his death he became equally famous in the Jewish Diasporas of North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, India and the Far East as well. No one in the Jewish world questioned or questions his brilliance or exegetical ability. No matter how assimilated and Western in his orientation Marx was, he could not have but come under the influence of Rabbinical thinking.
In classical Jewish thought economic equality in communal society is a sine qua non for the attainment of spiritual advancement, as the very desire to amass property and hold it to oneself reflects spiritual taint. However, communal living is not seen as an end in itself, or as the zenith of human achievement. It is meant to serve the mega-purpose of man's existence on earth, which is the revelation of God in the material world. In order to do this, Man is "clothed"in a physical body, which has its own needs. By supplying those needs in a pure and holy way: by eating as prescribed the tenants of one's spiritual culture, temperance in sexual relations, attending to agriculture and horticulture with loving-kindness, uprightness in business dealings, and by being as concerned with the welfare of one's fellows exactly as one is concerned with one's own, onepurifies one's own body as well as strengthens the vessels of physical existence to receive Godliness. Communism, as understood inJewish thought is the physical and cultural parallel of the spiritual quest - the attainment of the greatest good FOR ALL. As God imparts of Its Divine Knowledge freely, so we are to share our knowledge and all manners of wealth one with the other.
The ability to live according to the principles "LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF" and, as Rabbi Akiva taught during the time of the Second Temple: "What is mine is yours. This is the great central point of the entire Bible" is the sine qua non of communism. These are central Jewish teachings.
The fact that Marx presented Communism removed from its Jewish ground, which, no doubt, was a capitulation to European anti-Semitism, opened Communism to being arrogated entirely by Gentiles who, not knowing the Spiritual substrate of true Communism, without which it is impracticable, distorted Communism into being the basis not only of repressive regimes, but as yet another excuse for anti-Semitism.
In summary: There can nary be a greater absurd than the presumption of Gentiles who are not privy to the Geist of Communism to not only arrogate Communism, but to use it as an excuse to oppress Jewish People in ersatz Communist countries and excoriate the Jews in the State of Israel in the name of Communism.
Communism is the social invention of the Jewish People. It is the sine qua non for the establishment of a just society. It was our past it will be our future.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
COMMUNISM IS AN ANCIENT JEWISH CONCEPT
Our earliest record of Jews having lived communally comes from the time of Elisha the Prophet and there is every reason to believe that he inherited that tradition from his Teachers. We learn from the Book of Kings II that the followers of Prophets, called B'nei Nevi'im, the Spiritual children of Prophets, lived communally and took their meals communally.
Likewise, HaYachad, more commonly known as "the Essenes" (a sect of very pious Jews during the Second Temple Period) lived communally according to all contemporaneous reports of their way of life, their reports about themselves and from archaeological findings. They too took all their meals communally. A large communal dining hall was built for this specific purpose.
Thus, our records establish that Communism is a very ancient Jewish social system.
Marx could never have conceived of Communism had he not been thegrandson of a Rabbi. A bit less than one hundred years before the "Manifesto" was written by Marx and Engels, Rabbi Hillel Shklover, the grand-nephew and disciple of the famous Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Kremer (or Kramer), the Ga'on (Genius) of Vilna (1720-1797, see: http://tinyurl.com/ccwdh http://tinyurl.com/a9mzr http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilna_Ga'on ) wrote the very mystical work KOL HATOR (THE VOICE OF THE TURTLEDOVE, - the latter term being a name for Messiah as found in Song of Solomon 2:12).
Rabbi Shklover interpreted passages in the Bible to mean that the Messianic Age cannot come until there is economic equality in Israel and he was basing his interpretation on ancient sources.
By the time 1848 rolled around the Ga'on of Vilna was longthe most famous Rabbinic authority of that time frame. The Ga'on of Vilna is still considered one of the very greatest minds and Spirits that the Jewish people ever produced. To this day, his teachings are de rigueur from grade school on up to the highest levels of Rabbinic and Rabbinic Judicial study. Every Jew who studies Bible since the time of The Ga'on of Vilna learns his commentary on the Bible. It is well-nigh impossible that Marx was not influenced by The Genius' exegesis, as he became known as a prodigy in his earliest youth, from the age of seven actually, and amassed a huge following of devoted students.
Marx had to dress ancient Jewish ideas in Teutonic garments (most certainly, appealing to the philosophical authority of one George Wilhelm Freidrich Hegelserved as a more reliable endorsement in the minds of the Germans andEnglish than would appealing to the exegesis of one Rabbi Eliyahu benShlomo Zalman) in order to gain legitimacy in a xenophobic and anti-Semitic Europe, even as Freud didn't mention how many of his ideascame from the Zohar (one of the central works of Jewish mysticism).It must be mentioned that the Ga'on of Vilna based all of his Biblical studies on the Talmud (the compendium of the Oral Jewish tradition as passed down to and interpreted by the Pharisees of the Second Temple Period. It is considered the unquestionable body of Biblical exegesis based on ancient authority among Orthodox Jews to this day) and would not have made so categorical a statement about economic equality had he not found ample basis for doing so in the Bible as interpreted in the Talmud. The year that Hegel was born, The Ga'on of Vilna was a manof 50, surrounded by adoring students and renowned internationally in the European Jewish Diaspora. After his death he became equally famous in the Jewish Diasporas of North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, India and the Far East as well. No one in the Jewish world questioned or questions his brilliance or exegetical ability. No matter how assimilated and Western in his orientation Marx was, he could not have but come under the influence of Rabbinical thinking.
In classical Jewish thought economic equality in communal society is a sine qua non for the attainment of spiritual advancement, as the very desire to amass property and hold it to oneself reflects spiritual taint. However, communal living is not seen as an end in itself, or as the zenith of human achievement. It is meant to serve the mega-purpose of man's existence on earth, which is the revelation of God in the material world. In order to do this, Man is "clothed"in a physical body, which has its own needs. By supplying those needs in a pure and holy way: by eating as prescribed the tenants of one's spiritual culture, temperance in sexual relations, attending to agriculture and horticulture with loving-kindness, uprightness in business dealings, and by being as concerned with the welfare of one's fellows exactly as one is concerned with one's own, onepurifies one's own body as well as strengthens the vessels of physical existence to receive Godliness. Communism, as understood inJewish thought is the physical and cultural parallel of the spiritual quest - the attainment of the greatest good FOR ALL. As God imparts of Its Divine Knowledge freely, so we are to share our knowledge and all manners of wealth one with the other.
The ability to live according to the principles "LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF" and, as Rabbi Akiva taught during the time of the Second Temple: "What is mine is yours. This is the great central point of the entire Bible" is the sine qua non of communism. These are central Jewish teachings.
The fact that Marx presented Communism removed from its Jewish ground, which, no doubt, was a capitulation to European anti-Semitism, opened Communism to being arrogated entirely by Gentiles who, not knowing the Spiritual substrate of true Communism, without which it is impracticable, distorted Communism into being the basis not only of repressive regimes, but as yet another excuse for anti-Semitism.
In summary: There can nary be a greater absurd than the presumption of Gentiles who are not privy to the Geist of Communism to not only arrogate Communism, but to use it as an excuse to oppress Jewish People in ersatz Communist countries and excoriate the Jews in the State of Israel in the name of Communism.
Communism is the social invention of the Jewish People. It is the sine qua non for the establishment of a just society. It was our past it will be our future.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Sunday, September 25, 2005
VANITY UNFAIR
I don't read American magazines except very infrequently. I remembered Vanity Fair being a magazine of fluff that even in my youth I would have been embarrassed to have anyone see me read.
I went to the site and saw this: http://www.vanityfair.com/
Would any genuine and self-respecting Leftist write for a magazine that blatantly and uninhibitedly encourages vanity, and not just any vanity, but the vanity of conspicuous consumption? Has Hitchens lost it entirely writing for a magazine that shows a half naked Paris Hilton on the front cover? How can one move from writing for "a magazine of unconventional wisdom since 1865" (The Nation) to writing for a magazine that describes itself as "a unique mix of image and intellect"? Ain't no such animal as a unique mix of image and intellect. Intellect is that which pierces through the surface image into the underlying substrate of essence and truth.
As for Galloway: he is beneath ordinary contempt. He is the hired mouthpiece of dictators. 'Nuff said.
Are you familiar with the antics of the WOMBLES and similar groups who call themselves anarchists? Who would dare to claim that they do not exist for the express purpose of sullying and disgracing the great tradition of anarchism by making it look ridiculous?
How about the beautiful people of Berkeley demonstrating for who knows what?: http://tinyurl.com/cveub
Does anyone here realize you're being taken over the barrel?
Is there a one among you who realizes that you are practicing State-sanctioned, castrated, pseudo-"liberalism" in the true tradition of Phil Ochs' "Love Me, I'm a Liberal"? Is there a one among you who is capable of putting aside his or her hubris and realizing that you are being controlled by the very same people you think you are protesting against ?
In order to become true Leftists, true Anarchists you will have you leave the comfort of your armchairs and the sleaze of your watering holes and go out into the wilderness - the wilderness of independent thought, the wilderness of borderline poverty, the wilderness of social unacceptability, the wilderness of breaking party ranks when the party is clearly misguided and misguiding.
The Galloways and the Hitchens will not take you there. In fact, they are earning very handsome incomes to do their damnedest to make sure you never get there. How can you consider them leftists? With whom are they sharing their incomes? With you?
I'll give you a leg up. Read these people's works. Let them become role models for you to emulate. Let their spirit ignite your passion for truth and emancipation. Let their words permeate your consciousnesses and consciences: (with the exception of Chomsky who is a disgrace to the memory of his illustrious father Ze'ev (Wm. Chomsky):
http://tinyurl.com/cg7tm
We will most probably not be able to implement their social programme in our time. The time is not yet ripe for the translation of their noble vision into concrete reality. But do not let the embers of their memories die. Let them burn in your hearts and fuel your motivations. Pass them on to your children and your children's children. It will be their tomorrow, if not ours.
See also: "Commentary on the Galloway-Hitchens Debate" on this blog
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
I don't read American magazines except very infrequently. I remembered Vanity Fair being a magazine of fluff that even in my youth I would have been embarrassed to have anyone see me read.
I went to the site and saw this: http://www.vanityfair.com/
Would any genuine and self-respecting Leftist write for a magazine that blatantly and uninhibitedly encourages vanity, and not just any vanity, but the vanity of conspicuous consumption? Has Hitchens lost it entirely writing for a magazine that shows a half naked Paris Hilton on the front cover? How can one move from writing for "a magazine of unconventional wisdom since 1865" (The Nation) to writing for a magazine that describes itself as "a unique mix of image and intellect"? Ain't no such animal as a unique mix of image and intellect. Intellect is that which pierces through the surface image into the underlying substrate of essence and truth.
As for Galloway: he is beneath ordinary contempt. He is the hired mouthpiece of dictators. 'Nuff said.
Are you familiar with the antics of the WOMBLES and similar groups who call themselves anarchists? Who would dare to claim that they do not exist for the express purpose of sullying and disgracing the great tradition of anarchism by making it look ridiculous?
How about the beautiful people of Berkeley demonstrating for who knows what?: http://tinyurl.com/cveub
Does anyone here realize you're being taken over the barrel?
Is there a one among you who realizes that you are practicing State-sanctioned, castrated, pseudo-"liberalism" in the true tradition of Phil Ochs' "Love Me, I'm a Liberal"? Is there a one among you who is capable of putting aside his or her hubris and realizing that you are being controlled by the very same people you think you are protesting against ?
In order to become true Leftists, true Anarchists you will have you leave the comfort of your armchairs and the sleaze of your watering holes and go out into the wilderness - the wilderness of independent thought, the wilderness of borderline poverty, the wilderness of social unacceptability, the wilderness of breaking party ranks when the party is clearly misguided and misguiding.
The Galloways and the Hitchens will not take you there. In fact, they are earning very handsome incomes to do their damnedest to make sure you never get there. How can you consider them leftists? With whom are they sharing their incomes? With you?
I'll give you a leg up. Read these people's works. Let them become role models for you to emulate. Let their spirit ignite your passion for truth and emancipation. Let their words permeate your consciousnesses and consciences: (with the exception of Chomsky who is a disgrace to the memory of his illustrious father Ze'ev (Wm. Chomsky):
http://tinyurl.com/cg7tm
We will most probably not be able to implement their social programme in our time. The time is not yet ripe for the translation of their noble vision into concrete reality. But do not let the embers of their memories die. Let them burn in your hearts and fuel your motivations. Pass them on to your children and your children's children. It will be their tomorrow, if not ours.
See also: "Commentary on the Galloway-Hitchens Debate" on this blog
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
DEMENTIA
I am not a doctor and what I am about to write is based not on scientific research, but on personal observation.
I think that some forms of "dementia", those that are not the result of trauma, are the result of having lived in a state of denial for decades. I think that the people who develop dementia are those who trained their brains to forget and suppress that which they were not able or willing to deal with emotionally - until their brain was capable of nothing else.
I think, then, that "dementia" is an acquired illness that is preventable.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
I am not a doctor and what I am about to write is based not on scientific research, but on personal observation.
I think that some forms of "dementia", those that are not the result of trauma, are the result of having lived in a state of denial for decades. I think that the people who develop dementia are those who trained their brains to forget and suppress that which they were not able or willing to deal with emotionally - until their brain was capable of nothing else.
I think, then, that "dementia" is an acquired illness that is preventable.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
COMMENTARY ON THE GALLOWAY-HITCHENS DEBATE –
The Mason Hall, Baruch College Performing Arts Center, Manhattan on Sept 14, 2005
An audio of this debate can be found on the following site: http://tinyurl.com/czj5x
What clearly emerges from the Galloway-Hitchens debate is that neither of these men are either political virgins nor apt to eschew the advantages that a hefty income brings in favor of the poverty and obscurity that being pure ideologists demands. Perhaps we cannot expect them to, lest their words never be heard at all.
Neither Christopher Hitchens nor George Galloway is made of the ethereal stuff that constitutes the moral fiber of the genuine and absolutely devoted Leftists and anarchists of generations gone by and those who are imbued with their spirit today.
That being said, there are degrees of having "sold out" and compromised one's beliefs and, in my humble and correct opinion, Mr. George Galloway is by far the more reprehensible of the two.
I admire Christopher Hitchens for being able to say, "I erred" and "That is who I was then, this is who I am now"; for being strong enough to break ranks; for being able to take an eclectic stance and see various aspects of issues; for not following a unilateral political position down to the bitter, untenable and irrational end that any unilateral position inevitably leads to if followed religiously and unswervingly. Hitchens is intelligent and secure enough not to be caught up in the "consistency" mind game that all ideological cults demand their followers play, lest they begin to think independently and creatively and in a comprehensive manner.
Mr. Galloway is a whore. He is thoroughly morally repugnant. The description of him as a "carpetbagger" is evidently apt. He was a scrapper who came from nowhere and did whatever he had to do to get where he wanted to go. He put his admittedly impressive mouthpiece up for hire to those who need a mouthpiece most – those who have to be craftily misrepresented in order to give the appearance of even a modicum of respectability. No subterfuge is beneath his dignity. Mr. Hitchen's description of Galloway's techniques as "squalid maneuvers" is apt enough, but it does not begin to approximate the aptitude with which Galloway describes himself on his RESPECT site: "The mother of all one man shows."
See also: "Vanity Unfair" on this blog.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
The Mason Hall, Baruch College Performing Arts Center, Manhattan on Sept 14, 2005
An audio of this debate can be found on the following site: http://tinyurl.com/czj5x
What clearly emerges from the Galloway-Hitchens debate is that neither of these men are either political virgins nor apt to eschew the advantages that a hefty income brings in favor of the poverty and obscurity that being pure ideologists demands. Perhaps we cannot expect them to, lest their words never be heard at all.
Neither Christopher Hitchens nor George Galloway is made of the ethereal stuff that constitutes the moral fiber of the genuine and absolutely devoted Leftists and anarchists of generations gone by and those who are imbued with their spirit today.
That being said, there are degrees of having "sold out" and compromised one's beliefs and, in my humble and correct opinion, Mr. George Galloway is by far the more reprehensible of the two.
I admire Christopher Hitchens for being able to say, "I erred" and "That is who I was then, this is who I am now"; for being strong enough to break ranks; for being able to take an eclectic stance and see various aspects of issues; for not following a unilateral political position down to the bitter, untenable and irrational end that any unilateral position inevitably leads to if followed religiously and unswervingly. Hitchens is intelligent and secure enough not to be caught up in the "consistency" mind game that all ideological cults demand their followers play, lest they begin to think independently and creatively and in a comprehensive manner.
Mr. Galloway is a whore. He is thoroughly morally repugnant. The description of him as a "carpetbagger" is evidently apt. He was a scrapper who came from nowhere and did whatever he had to do to get where he wanted to go. He put his admittedly impressive mouthpiece up for hire to those who need a mouthpiece most – those who have to be craftily misrepresented in order to give the appearance of even a modicum of respectability. No subterfuge is beneath his dignity. Mr. Hitchen's description of Galloway's techniques as "squalid maneuvers" is apt enough, but it does not begin to approximate the aptitude with which Galloway describes himself on his RESPECT site: "The mother of all one man shows."
See also: "Vanity Unfair" on this blog.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
B"H
ZOMBIES
Zombies do exist. They are very real. There are people who are dead, though they think they are alive and so do others. They are the walking emotional dead who have become so apathetic, numb, tough and uncaring that they are dead inside. The phenomenon exists to degrees. It is not an all or nothing at all issue. We tend to think that someone is either dead or alive, but all life and death is a matter of degrees and emotional life and death is no exception to that universal rule. One can most certainly be partially emotionally dead and/or emotionally dead on one or some aspects of one's emotional level of being. In fact, most of us are. Though it is primarily the emotional structure that is affected, this is a moral/spiritual, not an emotional, phenomenon.
It is toward those people that industries aim their advertising. This and more, the entertainment industry as well as other industries, by violently accosting our emotions, senses, sensibilities and moral structures, intentionally create emotional numbness, atrophy and finally gangrene and death.
The fact that those who run businesses are entirely aware of the fact that the populace is emotionally traumatized and that they encourage and capitalize on that is proven by this article: http://tinyurl.com/8p3zg . Not only is our emotional pain being preyed upon cynically and manipulated to the purposes of the wealthy, note, if you will, that many of the colors are given the names of food. Thus, they tighten the double bind of wanting to be skinny enough to fit into fashions, yet being obsessed with food and associating it with emotional comfort more than the nourishing of the body.
When people are deadened emotionally their ability to experience subtle emotions is impaired, often obliterated entirely. All they can feel are the most intense thrills and sensations. The threshold is continuously being pushed higher by Western culture and the cash registers register every increment.
When we can no longer feel subtle and sublime emotion, but only the most visceral, we are no longer capable of morality, for the wellspring of morality is the rarified sublimity that is aroused in the heart. Those experiences are translated to magnificent visions by the mind. If we cannot feel the ethereal, we cannot envision a better and more just world.Near total indifference to the suffering of others does not come quickly or easily. It is a long, excruciating process that can take years or decades. Until people give up caring at all they flail pathetically to feel something, anything. Thus, they buy more, try more, collect experiences that they pay for dearly.
The people in the most advanced stages of this state can feel only one thrill - the thrill of power and that is why they clutch at it as they do and will go to any and all lengths not to relinquish it.
The stage beyond being able to feel only the thrill of power is the abyss of oblivion. Knowing that they have sold their Souls they dread this stage as they know it is their final end.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
ZOMBIES
Zombies do exist. They are very real. There are people who are dead, though they think they are alive and so do others. They are the walking emotional dead who have become so apathetic, numb, tough and uncaring that they are dead inside. The phenomenon exists to degrees. It is not an all or nothing at all issue. We tend to think that someone is either dead or alive, but all life and death is a matter of degrees and emotional life and death is no exception to that universal rule. One can most certainly be partially emotionally dead and/or emotionally dead on one or some aspects of one's emotional level of being. In fact, most of us are. Though it is primarily the emotional structure that is affected, this is a moral/spiritual, not an emotional, phenomenon.
It is toward those people that industries aim their advertising. This and more, the entertainment industry as well as other industries, by violently accosting our emotions, senses, sensibilities and moral structures, intentionally create emotional numbness, atrophy and finally gangrene and death.
The fact that those who run businesses are entirely aware of the fact that the populace is emotionally traumatized and that they encourage and capitalize on that is proven by this article: http://tinyurl.com/8p3zg . Not only is our emotional pain being preyed upon cynically and manipulated to the purposes of the wealthy, note, if you will, that many of the colors are given the names of food. Thus, they tighten the double bind of wanting to be skinny enough to fit into fashions, yet being obsessed with food and associating it with emotional comfort more than the nourishing of the body.
When people are deadened emotionally their ability to experience subtle emotions is impaired, often obliterated entirely. All they can feel are the most intense thrills and sensations. The threshold is continuously being pushed higher by Western culture and the cash registers register every increment.
When we can no longer feel subtle and sublime emotion, but only the most visceral, we are no longer capable of morality, for the wellspring of morality is the rarified sublimity that is aroused in the heart. Those experiences are translated to magnificent visions by the mind. If we cannot feel the ethereal, we cannot envision a better and more just world.Near total indifference to the suffering of others does not come quickly or easily. It is a long, excruciating process that can take years or decades. Until people give up caring at all they flail pathetically to feel something, anything. Thus, they buy more, try more, collect experiences that they pay for dearly.
The people in the most advanced stages of this state can feel only one thrill - the thrill of power and that is why they clutch at it as they do and will go to any and all lengths not to relinquish it.
The stage beyond being able to feel only the thrill of power is the abyss of oblivion. Knowing that they have sold their Souls they dread this stage as they know it is their final end.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
B"H
Does anybody else feel overwhelmed with sadness and a feeling of hopelessness by what is going on in the world? There is a German word for what I am referring to. It is called Weltschmerz. It is likened to depression, and many of the symptoms are like those of depression, but it is not depression exactly. Much depression is selfish. Many depressed people are depressed because of the conditions of their own lives, which are not as they would have them. They rage in impotent frustration at not being able to have what they want and feel is their due.
Some depressed people are channeling the feelings about events that occurred in their lives that they cannot bear to feel into depression. That kind of depression is really suppression.Weltschmerz is the pain of the altruistic, the pain that some feel for the Human condition as a whole. Weltschmerz is defined as world-weariness, but it can be so intensely painful that people have committed suicide from it. Let us put the World Wars aside and consider what life was like up until recently. There were certainly upheavals in the world. There was baseless hatred, poverty, local war, family violence, substance abuse...One could be harmed by a myriad of unexpected causes. There were natural catastrophes as well. But I do not remember catastrophes occurring with the frequency and intensity that they do today. One barely has time to begin to regain one's bearings after some cataclysm has occurred before the next one strikes without warning. Let's look at very recent history. There was the tsunami. There was Hurricane Katrina. During the three days that the settlements on the West Bank were being forcibly evacuated and demolished, which was a huge upheaval in Israel no matter what side of the political coin you are on that left thousands of families homeless and jobless; there was a plane crash, an earthquake and another plane crash. The Israeli army carried out the orders to evacuate the West Bank. They were instructed to use whatever force was necessary. They followed orders. No one believed that the army of Israel, which we thought was our army, a citizens' army, would turn on the citizenry. Overnight we realized that we are in a fascist state, that our soldiers are at the beck and call of corrupt politicians, that it is not an army to protect Israel. Our image of who we are as a nation dissolved into a slimy pool before our very eyes.In my own personal life during that period I discovered that my relatives in the States had done things and were capable of things I never dreamed they could do. I realized that all vestiges of love for family had gone the way of making money. Nothing else matters for them and they will literally sell out their own mothers down the river for a buck. There's more that I prefer not to share with the public. I, for one, am becoming disoriented by it all. All feelings of security are gone. Nothing makes sense anymore. I have lost interest in just about everything, except my most immediate family, because nothing seems to matter anymore. I feel frightened to put one foot in front of the other and just go on as though everything is alright. I'm not sure there is going to be anything to tread upon. The very ground is not assured us.I know that I sound angry and bitter too much of the time. I'ts not so much anger and bitterness as grief and fear for the world. My ability to reason has been compromised because so many things without rhyme or reason have occurred that my mind has been taken to the limits of where it can go and has been stretched beyond being able to snap back entirely. I do not move from one news item to the next sensational story forgetting all that came before. For me 9/11 is not forgotten, the tsunami is not forgotten, the evacuation of Gush Katif is not forgotten...the affect of each upheaval is cumulative for me. I used to believe without a shadow of a doubt that there was a chance to save and heal the world. I was once such a passionately idealistic young person. Was that not me who left everything familiar in the US to live on kibbutz 23 years ago? What a cruel disappointment the kibbutz was. I will never forget the first General Meeting of the kibbutz I attended when they discussed the fact that some members were using their private bank accounts for extra personal luxuries not as a matter of concern for the welfare of the collective, but as a matter of course and too bad for those who did not have a private bank account. I thought my Hebrew was faulty and that I did not understand correctly. Daniel, who was not yet my husband at the time, assured me that I had understood perfectly. I'm not sure of much of anything anymore except the love of my immediate family, but I know that I am grateful to have that. A young woman of 23 years old asked if she would be bitter like me at 40. That question saddened me so. At her age I was so sure that I was strong enough to weather anything and I was positive that the world would never defeat my Spirit. But in large measure - it has, I cannot deny this. I was so strong, so strong. If this could happen to me it can happen to anyone. What can I tell you, my dear young woman? What words of comfort can I give you honestly? If you care about the world to the core of your being, as I did and still do, you won't be bitter, although it might look that way to others, but you will probably be filled with a good deal of grief – and sometimes grief mimics madness.
Another point that needs expressing is the fact that the engineers of our societies intentionally keep the concept of Weltschmerz from the public. Anyone who feels depressed is made to feel that she or he is reacting only to the conditions of their own personal life or experiencing a "chemical imbalance". Read any of the literature about depression. None of it mentions the cruelty of society that we are exposed to. None of it mentions that we must witness others being ground into the dirt on an everyday basis.Society does not take the blame for the fact that depression and feeling of hopeless and helplessness are so widespread. We would better be able to deal with our own disappointments if we knew in our hearts that our societies were treating us fairly and doing their level best to make this world inhabitable for Human beings. Most people find all kinds of ways of avoiding what I feel because it is so horrific, so abysmal, but the one thing I cannot do is live a lie in denial.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Does anybody else feel overwhelmed with sadness and a feeling of hopelessness by what is going on in the world? There is a German word for what I am referring to. It is called Weltschmerz. It is likened to depression, and many of the symptoms are like those of depression, but it is not depression exactly. Much depression is selfish. Many depressed people are depressed because of the conditions of their own lives, which are not as they would have them. They rage in impotent frustration at not being able to have what they want and feel is their due.
Some depressed people are channeling the feelings about events that occurred in their lives that they cannot bear to feel into depression. That kind of depression is really suppression.Weltschmerz is the pain of the altruistic, the pain that some feel for the Human condition as a whole. Weltschmerz is defined as world-weariness, but it can be so intensely painful that people have committed suicide from it. Let us put the World Wars aside and consider what life was like up until recently. There were certainly upheavals in the world. There was baseless hatred, poverty, local war, family violence, substance abuse...One could be harmed by a myriad of unexpected causes. There were natural catastrophes as well. But I do not remember catastrophes occurring with the frequency and intensity that they do today. One barely has time to begin to regain one's bearings after some cataclysm has occurred before the next one strikes without warning. Let's look at very recent history. There was the tsunami. There was Hurricane Katrina. During the three days that the settlements on the West Bank were being forcibly evacuated and demolished, which was a huge upheaval in Israel no matter what side of the political coin you are on that left thousands of families homeless and jobless; there was a plane crash, an earthquake and another plane crash. The Israeli army carried out the orders to evacuate the West Bank. They were instructed to use whatever force was necessary. They followed orders. No one believed that the army of Israel, which we thought was our army, a citizens' army, would turn on the citizenry. Overnight we realized that we are in a fascist state, that our soldiers are at the beck and call of corrupt politicians, that it is not an army to protect Israel. Our image of who we are as a nation dissolved into a slimy pool before our very eyes.In my own personal life during that period I discovered that my relatives in the States had done things and were capable of things I never dreamed they could do. I realized that all vestiges of love for family had gone the way of making money. Nothing else matters for them and they will literally sell out their own mothers down the river for a buck. There's more that I prefer not to share with the public. I, for one, am becoming disoriented by it all. All feelings of security are gone. Nothing makes sense anymore. I have lost interest in just about everything, except my most immediate family, because nothing seems to matter anymore. I feel frightened to put one foot in front of the other and just go on as though everything is alright. I'm not sure there is going to be anything to tread upon. The very ground is not assured us.I know that I sound angry and bitter too much of the time. I'ts not so much anger and bitterness as grief and fear for the world. My ability to reason has been compromised because so many things without rhyme or reason have occurred that my mind has been taken to the limits of where it can go and has been stretched beyond being able to snap back entirely. I do not move from one news item to the next sensational story forgetting all that came before. For me 9/11 is not forgotten, the tsunami is not forgotten, the evacuation of Gush Katif is not forgotten...the affect of each upheaval is cumulative for me. I used to believe without a shadow of a doubt that there was a chance to save and heal the world. I was once such a passionately idealistic young person. Was that not me who left everything familiar in the US to live on kibbutz 23 years ago? What a cruel disappointment the kibbutz was. I will never forget the first General Meeting of the kibbutz I attended when they discussed the fact that some members were using their private bank accounts for extra personal luxuries not as a matter of concern for the welfare of the collective, but as a matter of course and too bad for those who did not have a private bank account. I thought my Hebrew was faulty and that I did not understand correctly. Daniel, who was not yet my husband at the time, assured me that I had understood perfectly. I'm not sure of much of anything anymore except the love of my immediate family, but I know that I am grateful to have that. A young woman of 23 years old asked if she would be bitter like me at 40. That question saddened me so. At her age I was so sure that I was strong enough to weather anything and I was positive that the world would never defeat my Spirit. But in large measure - it has, I cannot deny this. I was so strong, so strong. If this could happen to me it can happen to anyone. What can I tell you, my dear young woman? What words of comfort can I give you honestly? If you care about the world to the core of your being, as I did and still do, you won't be bitter, although it might look that way to others, but you will probably be filled with a good deal of grief – and sometimes grief mimics madness.
Another point that needs expressing is the fact that the engineers of our societies intentionally keep the concept of Weltschmerz from the public. Anyone who feels depressed is made to feel that she or he is reacting only to the conditions of their own personal life or experiencing a "chemical imbalance". Read any of the literature about depression. None of it mentions the cruelty of society that we are exposed to. None of it mentions that we must witness others being ground into the dirt on an everyday basis.Society does not take the blame for the fact that depression and feeling of hopeless and helplessness are so widespread. We would better be able to deal with our own disappointments if we knew in our hearts that our societies were treating us fairly and doing their level best to make this world inhabitable for Human beings. Most people find all kinds of ways of avoiding what I feel because it is so horrific, so abysmal, but the one thing I cannot do is live a lie in denial.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Saturday, September 03, 2005
B"H
WHAT CAUSED THE FLOOD IN NEW ORLEANS?
A Christian contends: "The Lord says: "Thou shall not lie with mankind as you lie with womankind". If you are gay, you are an abomination in the eyes of the Lord and he will seek you and destroy you."
I answered:
Our sages have taught that all of the sexual sins of S'dom (Sodom in English) an Ammorah (Gemorrah) were tolerated by God until widespread injustice and cruelty became the rule of the day in those cities. It was at that point that God said: "Enough!" and wiped them out both for their perversions but more for their injustice and cruelty. That is what happened in New Orleans and that is the reason why part of the "Bible belt" was hit with the flooding too, as someone rightfully pointed out. The "Bible belters" do nothing to ameliorate the suffering of those who are downtrodden by the capitalist system. That is a worse sin than sexual sins. Did you note that six-foot muddy waves washed over antebellum mansions that people still continued to enjoy living in? People still enjoyed the riches that were made on the backs of slaves. Their homes were made into muddy wrecks, which they always were on a moral/spiritual level. Now it shows on the physical level too.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
WHAT CAUSED THE FLOOD IN NEW ORLEANS?
A Christian contends: "The Lord says: "Thou shall not lie with mankind as you lie with womankind". If you are gay, you are an abomination in the eyes of the Lord and he will seek you and destroy you."
I answered:
Our sages have taught that all of the sexual sins of S'dom (Sodom in English) an Ammorah (Gemorrah) were tolerated by God until widespread injustice and cruelty became the rule of the day in those cities. It was at that point that God said: "Enough!" and wiped them out both for their perversions but more for their injustice and cruelty. That is what happened in New Orleans and that is the reason why part of the "Bible belt" was hit with the flooding too, as someone rightfully pointed out. The "Bible belters" do nothing to ameliorate the suffering of those who are downtrodden by the capitalist system. That is a worse sin than sexual sins. Did you note that six-foot muddy waves washed over antebellum mansions that people still continued to enjoy living in? People still enjoyed the riches that were made on the backs of slaves. Their homes were made into muddy wrecks, which they always were on a moral/spiritual level. Now it shows on the physical level too.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
B"H
WHY WE LOST GUSH KATIF
Someone on www.safed.co.il wrote:
Is hair Orvah or is it not? And should one hear Torah from someone who denies Torah ve-Halacha?
Todah Rabba!
I answered:
Would that people were nearly so scrupulous about the keeping of Hilkhot Mammonot as they are about judging others who do not cover their hair. Who causes more Human misery? The woman who does not cover her hair or the banks and the Ministry of Finance? Yet there are those who rail at the former because they do not have the courage to take on those who are the real destroyers of our People. Perhaps it is immodest to go without a head covering, but it is not cruel. Why don't you speak out against cruelties? What is your order of priorities.
No one is perfect and no one serves HaShem perfectly. If we were only to learn Torah from those who keep all of the תרי"ג Mitzvot we would learn from no one.
Are you sure that every woman who covers her hair is as scrupulous about giving tzaddakah as every woman who does not?
Doesn't anyone understand why we lost Gush Katif? Doesn't anyone understand that it was not so much because of the not keeping of some mitzvot, but of the keeping of a distortion of Torah - and that with judgement and bitterness toward the next one?
The people in Yesh"a paid the price for those who distort the Torah because they are those who are closest to the true Way. They are the ones who have the most hope of returning to the true Way. And so, HaShem shook them to their very foundations in order that they may think: "If we did everything right and everything turned out all wrong what happened?"
If they are willing to let go of the misconceptions that we have taken on during the galut and return to the true Way they will be shown the Old Way and will become a model for all of us.
They had to lose their homes and all that was precious to them for those who judge those who do not cover their hair, and who concern themselves with all matters picayune, even as they remain silent while our People are impoverished and downtrodden by the rich, powerful and cruel.
There are some who will counter my arguments, saying "מצוה גוררת מצוה". That is, if I do not cover my hair, then I do not do other mitzvot and if I did cover my hair then I would do other mitzvot.
To them I say: מצוה גוררת מצוה is not a generality, but a מצוה גוררת מצוה of the same kind.
At this point in my life the part of my character that I want to work on is compassion, courage and Wisdom. I try to do as many mitzvot of as I can that will lead me in those directions in the hope of doing more. From the question posed, and it was obviously posed by a woman who does cover her hair, then covering one's hair does not lead to Wisdom, compassion, courage to fight cruel organizations, giving others the benefit of the doubt, deep insight into another or being considerate of another's feelings. I'm quite sure that someone who was genuinely modest would not have written such a post either. Ergo, covering one's hair does not necessarily bring about even true modesty. Since all of the character traits I listed above are what I feel I need most at this point and I have not seen in my life that women who cover their hair achieve these characteristics on the basis of them covering their hair (although they may achieve those characteristics as a result of doing other mitzvot), I can confidently put covering my hair on a lower priority at this time in my development and work on what is most critical to me now.
P.S. The word is 'ervah'. Orvah is a female crow. Perhaps if you learn Torah and learn the Torah in לשון קדש it might change how you see things. I am not saying this "al srak". As a person reads Hebrew so they see everything. If you do not discern between ervah and "orvah" you will see the phenomenon in a distorted way as well.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
WHY WE LOST GUSH KATIF
Someone on www.safed.co.il wrote:
Is hair Orvah or is it not? And should one hear Torah from someone who denies Torah ve-Halacha?
Todah Rabba!
I answered:
Would that people were nearly so scrupulous about the keeping of Hilkhot Mammonot as they are about judging others who do not cover their hair. Who causes more Human misery? The woman who does not cover her hair or the banks and the Ministry of Finance? Yet there are those who rail at the former because they do not have the courage to take on those who are the real destroyers of our People. Perhaps it is immodest to go without a head covering, but it is not cruel. Why don't you speak out against cruelties? What is your order of priorities.
No one is perfect and no one serves HaShem perfectly. If we were only to learn Torah from those who keep all of the תרי"ג Mitzvot we would learn from no one.
Are you sure that every woman who covers her hair is as scrupulous about giving tzaddakah as every woman who does not?
Doesn't anyone understand why we lost Gush Katif? Doesn't anyone understand that it was not so much because of the not keeping of some mitzvot, but of the keeping of a distortion of Torah - and that with judgement and bitterness toward the next one?
The people in Yesh"a paid the price for those who distort the Torah because they are those who are closest to the true Way. They are the ones who have the most hope of returning to the true Way. And so, HaShem shook them to their very foundations in order that they may think: "If we did everything right and everything turned out all wrong what happened?"
If they are willing to let go of the misconceptions that we have taken on during the galut and return to the true Way they will be shown the Old Way and will become a model for all of us.
They had to lose their homes and all that was precious to them for those who judge those who do not cover their hair, and who concern themselves with all matters picayune, even as they remain silent while our People are impoverished and downtrodden by the rich, powerful and cruel.
There are some who will counter my arguments, saying "מצוה גוררת מצוה". That is, if I do not cover my hair, then I do not do other mitzvot and if I did cover my hair then I would do other mitzvot.
To them I say: מצוה גוררת מצוה is not a generality, but a מצוה גוררת מצוה of the same kind.
At this point in my life the part of my character that I want to work on is compassion, courage and Wisdom. I try to do as many mitzvot of as I can that will lead me in those directions in the hope of doing more. From the question posed, and it was obviously posed by a woman who does cover her hair, then covering one's hair does not lead to Wisdom, compassion, courage to fight cruel organizations, giving others the benefit of the doubt, deep insight into another or being considerate of another's feelings. I'm quite sure that someone who was genuinely modest would not have written such a post either. Ergo, covering one's hair does not necessarily bring about even true modesty. Since all of the character traits I listed above are what I feel I need most at this point and I have not seen in my life that women who cover their hair achieve these characteristics on the basis of them covering their hair (although they may achieve those characteristics as a result of doing other mitzvot), I can confidently put covering my hair on a lower priority at this time in my development and work on what is most critical to me now.
P.S. The word is 'ervah'. Orvah is a female crow. Perhaps if you learn Torah and learn the Torah in לשון קדש it might change how you see things. I am not saying this "al srak". As a person reads Hebrew so they see everything. If you do not discern between ervah and "orvah" you will see the phenomenon in a distorted way as well.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
Thursday, August 25, 2005
THE UNIVERSE IS OUT TO GET ME
The universe is out to get me. I know it is. It's all one huge, involved plot intended to intimidate and harass me.
I can hear what you're thinking. You think I'm being irrational. You think I'm being overly sensitive. You think I'm exaggerating. You think I'm being the 'p' word. You think I'm wrong. Well, I'm not. I know it's true and I can prove it.
How's this for proof? Sometimes my belongings are moved out of place. They simply aren't where I know I left them last. Somebody is obviously moving them, trying to pull a gaslight, trying to make me doubt my sanity. That's not the worst of it though. The universe is colluding with them. Facts: Whatever has been removed elsewhere is just exactly what I need most at that very instant and if and when I do find what has been hidden from me it is always, but always, in the very last place that I look for it. Now what are the chances of that happening in a universe that has been lined up fair and square? Huh?
I have more proof still that the universe has been designed to drive me to distraction by frustration. Supposedly, I'll get my way half of the time. Right? Nooooo. It never, but never, ever happens that things go my way 50% of the time because that only happens in an infinite number of trials. I'm never gonna get my infinite number of trials because I'm gonna be dead long before that.
Rigged, I tell you, rigged. It's been built to be maddening.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
The universe is out to get me. I know it is. It's all one huge, involved plot intended to intimidate and harass me.
I can hear what you're thinking. You think I'm being irrational. You think I'm being overly sensitive. You think I'm exaggerating. You think I'm being the 'p' word. You think I'm wrong. Well, I'm not. I know it's true and I can prove it.
How's this for proof? Sometimes my belongings are moved out of place. They simply aren't where I know I left them last. Somebody is obviously moving them, trying to pull a gaslight, trying to make me doubt my sanity. That's not the worst of it though. The universe is colluding with them. Facts: Whatever has been removed elsewhere is just exactly what I need most at that very instant and if and when I do find what has been hidden from me it is always, but always, in the very last place that I look for it. Now what are the chances of that happening in a universe that has been lined up fair and square? Huh?
I have more proof still that the universe has been designed to drive me to distraction by frustration. Supposedly, I'll get my way half of the time. Right? Nooooo. It never, but never, ever happens that things go my way 50% of the time because that only happens in an infinite number of trials. I'm never gonna get my infinite number of trials because I'm gonna be dead long before that.
Rigged, I tell you, rigged. It's been built to be maddening.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
ב"ה
HEBREW ALPHANUMERICS ׁ(גימטריא)
VS. NUMEROLOGY
I asked the following of someone whose intelligence I respect a great deal:
Question: I'd like to know if the following makes any sense to you. I'm asking you specifically for a number of reasons. You're both linguistically and mathematically gifted. You're not Jewish and you don't speak Hebrew fluently, but you are not disinclined toward Jews and do not dismiss Jewish learning out-of-hand. Finally, though you are prepared to consider matters that are considered "spiritual", rather than purely rational, you do not go so far off the beam as to become some sort of New Age kook. You understand the difference between the super-rational and the irrational, even though at first hearing they often sound very much the same to those steeped in rationalism and the former often degenerates into the latter in the minds and hearts of those not prepared morally to deal with the super-rational.
As background let me say that the Hebrew preposition כמו (pronounced c'mo) means 'as', 'like'' 'such as', 'as though'. It is shortened to the letter כ' (caf) when used as a conjunctive prefix, but the meaning is retained. Now, an ambiguity occurs when the letter כ' is the first letter in a radical. Is it merely functioning as a consonant that is the first letter in a radical? Is it functioning as a prefix? Is it functioning as an abbreviation of the word כמו, which is both a conjunctive and a preposition? I contend that we cannot know which function it serves, because it is serving all these functions concomitantly, but we can choose to relate to it as one or more or all of these functions.
The word for 'dog' in Hebrew is כלב, pronounced celev (I am wont to transliterate כּ' as a hard 'c', and not a 'k', as this letter better corresponds to the Hebrew כּ', which, as you can clearly see it is a mirror image of. I reserve the letter 'k' for transliteration of Hebrew letter ק'). The Hebrew word for 'heart' is לב, pronounced 'lev', (that this is the etymon of the word 'love' should be eminently clear). It has been said that the word כלב (celev) should be understood as meaning 'like a heart', a description of a dog's nature.
More background: In the passage below, which is an excerpt from a communication with an etymologist; I have employed the age old method of calculating Hebrew values called מספר קטן מספרי (Integral Reduced Value), as explicated on this site: http://www.inner.org/gematria/fourways.htm
Quoting myself: "You are clearly correct that כ(מו)לב, ce(mo)lev, is the etymon of the word lupus and its variant lobo. And yes, it is now commonly agreed upon that canis lupus, the grey wolf, is the primeval wild dog. But, why did the כ' drop off altogether? Why the 'b' to 'p' shift in the case of lupus? And where did the ס' sound in lupus come from?
I wondered if there was a way of deriving the word dog from כלב (celev) directly arithmetically.
Here it is: the letter כ' (caf), equaling 20, is 2 X 10. The letter ב', beit, of course is two. The letters כ' and ב' share the same reduced value (מספר קטן), i.e., two. The letter ל' (pronounced lamed), equaling 30, is 3 X 10. Therefore, its reduced value is 3. So, 2 [the גימטריא (gematria) of ב']+2 (the reduced value of כ')=4. That gives us the ד' (dalet) sound in dog. The reduced value of ל' (lamed) is three, as I said. That gives is the ל' (gimmel) sound in dog. The word dog transliterated into Hebrew has the same value, seven, as the integral reduced value of the word כלב (celev), the reduced values of the כ' and the ל' being 2 and 3 respectively and the actual value of ב' being 2.
I am not attempting to treat the vowel sounds in either the word dog or כלב. I do not think the vowels should be ignored. I just don't know what to do about them at this juncture, as the 'ô' dog does not correspond exactly to any of the vowels in Hebrew.
In order to educe the noun 'dog' from 'כלב' I had to employ מספר קטן מספרי (integral reduced value), which is necessarily dependent upon מספר קטן (modulus 9 or reduced value). Most assuredly, there is the need to employ מספר הכרחי (absolute value) and מספר סדורי (ordinal value) when analyzing the etymology of other words as well and, in all probability, a combination of them.
How do you respond to this? Does it seem to make sense? Is it intelligible? Does anything in it make you say: "Yes!" or at least "Maybe"? Be honest.
D2
The response I received was:
I'm no expert on any of this. But I have never encountered a form of 'numerology' which made sense to me. You asked me to be honest.
My explanation:
Numerology comes from other cultures' attempts to mimic the study of גימטריא (Hebrew alphanumerics) using their own alphabets and classical mathematics. It never worked. It couldn't work for more reasons than I can list and elucidate, even in brief, in the space of an e-mail. I have discussed many of these reasons in the bodies of a number of my works. Only using Hebrew techniques of reckoning numbers to analyze the Hebrew alphabet flies. Did you notice the fact that when computing integral reduced values the same value will be arrived at regardless of whether it is the absolute values, the ordinal values, or the reduced values that are being counted, as stated on the site I cited above? This is true for all of the letters including the אותיות סופיות (the final forms of those letters that have final forms, to wit: ך', ם', ן', ף', ץ'). This in itself is fantastic.
The word "numerology" should never have been applied to גימטריא (Hebrew alphanumerical analysis). It is one of the banes of my existence, as someone from the (very) old school of Hebrew alphanumerics that this has occurred. The appellation "numerology" was applied to attract wide public attention to the study when the New Agey stuff started to catch on like wildfire and the greenbacks started to get tossed around big time. Hebrew alphanumerics was never meant for the masses and most assuredly never intended to be used for commercial purposes. It is not a commodity. The making it into a commodity by watering it down to the point that it sounds just esoteric enough for the masses to revel in it, to my profoundest sorrow, has occurred on a widespread basis in recent times and the inevitable has occurred - those who might otherwise be able to do the real thing are turned off to it because it looks like snake oil.
If it were not called "numerology" would it smell any sweeter?
At this point I really do not know whether to take comfort in all those sayings about truth not being accepted initially being de rigueur and all those occurrences of people who shifted paradigms being taken for nut jobs or whether I really am just a half-crazy, and rather pathetic, fool wasting my time. It sure looks like it could fall either way at this point. Luckily for me, my ego has been battered to the point where I don't care all that much if I am deluded and I plod on anyway. If what I'm doing has value, others will enjoy it some day. If it is just my own delusion, then it is as good a way as any to keep myself busy and out of peoples' way. Considering these matters is as good a way to spend an incarnation as any I suppose.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
HEBREW ALPHANUMERICS ׁ(גימטריא)
VS. NUMEROLOGY
I asked the following of someone whose intelligence I respect a great deal:
Question: I'd like to know if the following makes any sense to you. I'm asking you specifically for a number of reasons. You're both linguistically and mathematically gifted. You're not Jewish and you don't speak Hebrew fluently, but you are not disinclined toward Jews and do not dismiss Jewish learning out-of-hand. Finally, though you are prepared to consider matters that are considered "spiritual", rather than purely rational, you do not go so far off the beam as to become some sort of New Age kook. You understand the difference between the super-rational and the irrational, even though at first hearing they often sound very much the same to those steeped in rationalism and the former often degenerates into the latter in the minds and hearts of those not prepared morally to deal with the super-rational.
As background let me say that the Hebrew preposition כמו (pronounced c'mo) means 'as', 'like'' 'such as', 'as though'. It is shortened to the letter כ' (caf) when used as a conjunctive prefix, but the meaning is retained. Now, an ambiguity occurs when the letter כ' is the first letter in a radical. Is it merely functioning as a consonant that is the first letter in a radical? Is it functioning as a prefix? Is it functioning as an abbreviation of the word כמו, which is both a conjunctive and a preposition? I contend that we cannot know which function it serves, because it is serving all these functions concomitantly, but we can choose to relate to it as one or more or all of these functions.
The word for 'dog' in Hebrew is כלב, pronounced celev (I am wont to transliterate כּ' as a hard 'c', and not a 'k', as this letter better corresponds to the Hebrew כּ', which, as you can clearly see it is a mirror image of. I reserve the letter 'k' for transliteration of Hebrew letter ק'). The Hebrew word for 'heart' is לב, pronounced 'lev', (that this is the etymon of the word 'love' should be eminently clear). It has been said that the word כלב (celev) should be understood as meaning 'like a heart', a description of a dog's nature.
More background: In the passage below, which is an excerpt from a communication with an etymologist; I have employed the age old method of calculating Hebrew values called מספר קטן מספרי (Integral Reduced Value), as explicated on this site: http://www.inner.org/gematria/fourways.htm
Quoting myself: "You are clearly correct that כ(מו)לב, ce(mo)lev, is the etymon of the word lupus and its variant lobo. And yes, it is now commonly agreed upon that canis lupus, the grey wolf, is the primeval wild dog. But, why did the כ' drop off altogether? Why the 'b' to 'p' shift in the case of lupus? And where did the ס' sound in lupus come from?
I wondered if there was a way of deriving the word dog from כלב (celev) directly arithmetically.
Here it is: the letter כ' (caf), equaling 20, is 2 X 10. The letter ב', beit, of course is two. The letters כ' and ב' share the same reduced value (מספר קטן), i.e., two. The letter ל' (pronounced lamed), equaling 30, is 3 X 10. Therefore, its reduced value is 3. So, 2 [the גימטריא (gematria) of ב']+2 (the reduced value of כ')=4. That gives us the ד' (dalet) sound in dog. The reduced value of ל' (lamed) is three, as I said. That gives is the ל' (gimmel) sound in dog. The word dog transliterated into Hebrew has the same value, seven, as the integral reduced value of the word כלב (celev), the reduced values of the כ' and the ל' being 2 and 3 respectively and the actual value of ב' being 2.
I am not attempting to treat the vowel sounds in either the word dog or כלב. I do not think the vowels should be ignored. I just don't know what to do about them at this juncture, as the 'ô' dog does not correspond exactly to any of the vowels in Hebrew.
In order to educe the noun 'dog' from 'כלב' I had to employ מספר קטן מספרי (integral reduced value), which is necessarily dependent upon מספר קטן (modulus 9 or reduced value). Most assuredly, there is the need to employ מספר הכרחי (absolute value) and מספר סדורי (ordinal value) when analyzing the etymology of other words as well and, in all probability, a combination of them.
How do you respond to this? Does it seem to make sense? Is it intelligible? Does anything in it make you say: "Yes!" or at least "Maybe"? Be honest.
D2
The response I received was:
I'm no expert on any of this. But I have never encountered a form of 'numerology' which made sense to me. You asked me to be honest.
My explanation:
Numerology comes from other cultures' attempts to mimic the study of גימטריא (Hebrew alphanumerics) using their own alphabets and classical mathematics. It never worked. It couldn't work for more reasons than I can list and elucidate, even in brief, in the space of an e-mail. I have discussed many of these reasons in the bodies of a number of my works. Only using Hebrew techniques of reckoning numbers to analyze the Hebrew alphabet flies. Did you notice the fact that when computing integral reduced values the same value will be arrived at regardless of whether it is the absolute values, the ordinal values, or the reduced values that are being counted, as stated on the site I cited above? This is true for all of the letters including the אותיות סופיות (the final forms of those letters that have final forms, to wit: ך', ם', ן', ף', ץ'). This in itself is fantastic.
The word "numerology" should never have been applied to גימטריא (Hebrew alphanumerical analysis). It is one of the banes of my existence, as someone from the (very) old school of Hebrew alphanumerics that this has occurred. The appellation "numerology" was applied to attract wide public attention to the study when the New Agey stuff started to catch on like wildfire and the greenbacks started to get tossed around big time. Hebrew alphanumerics was never meant for the masses and most assuredly never intended to be used for commercial purposes. It is not a commodity. The making it into a commodity by watering it down to the point that it sounds just esoteric enough for the masses to revel in it, to my profoundest sorrow, has occurred on a widespread basis in recent times and the inevitable has occurred - those who might otherwise be able to do the real thing are turned off to it because it looks like snake oil.
If it were not called "numerology" would it smell any sweeter?
At this point I really do not know whether to take comfort in all those sayings about truth not being accepted initially being de rigueur and all those occurrences of people who shifted paradigms being taken for nut jobs or whether I really am just a half-crazy, and rather pathetic, fool wasting my time. It sure looks like it could fall either way at this point. Luckily for me, my ego has been battered to the point where I don't care all that much if I am deluded and I plod on anyway. If what I'm doing has value, others will enjoy it some day. If it is just my own delusion, then it is as good a way as any to keep myself busy and out of peoples' way. Considering these matters is as good a way to spend an incarnation as any I suppose.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
I've Created Two New Sites and Will Create a New Etymology Blog
One of the sites is devoted to a unique approach to etymology - etymology utilizing the unique alphanumeric properties of Hebrew to educe the Hebrew etymon from words. The site can be found on:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/EtymFromAlphanumerics.html
The second site is called "Doreen Dotan's Miscellaneous Meanderings" and it is just exactly that.
It can be found on: http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MiscellaneousMeanderings.html
Some of the stuff there is serious, some isn't.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
One of the sites is devoted to a unique approach to etymology - etymology utilizing the unique alphanumeric properties of Hebrew to educe the Hebrew etymon from words. The site can be found on:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/EtymFromAlphanumerics.html
The second site is called "Doreen Dotan's Miscellaneous Meanderings" and it is just exactly that.
It can be found on: http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MiscellaneousMeanderings.html
Some of the stuff there is serious, some isn't.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Since you didn't ask....
Nobody bothered to ask how I am today, but had someone I just might have told the truth. My health is failing. My stamina is so low that it lies as a stagnant pool around my swollen ankles. My self-respect is probably buried somewhere under the floor tiles, but I have neither the strength nor the will to conduct an extensive dig for it. My sense of humor is in a coma. My libido is in an advanced state of rigor mortis.
Oh, and did I neglect to mention that my wit is dimming?
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Nobody bothered to ask how I am today, but had someone I just might have told the truth. My health is failing. My stamina is so low that it lies as a stagnant pool around my swollen ankles. My self-respect is probably buried somewhere under the floor tiles, but I have neither the strength nor the will to conduct an extensive dig for it. My sense of humor is in a coma. My libido is in an advanced state of rigor mortis.
Oh, and did I neglect to mention that my wit is dimming?
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Sunday, August 14, 2005
MAD WORLD
Someone recently wrote a lament about how the world has gone mad on a message board.
In actuality, this is not cause to lament, but rather to celebrate.
The mad world "out there" only exists in order to drive us within, wherein the Truth lies, wherein Life resides.
It is really a reason to celebrate when the world we see is totally mad, when there is no respite and no satisfaction to be had "out there".
The mind creates everything we see and experience. Those images are created for our ultimate best interest and that of every other Being in creation. When our minds are creating that which causes us intense sorrow, fear and hopelessness outwardly it is only because it is calling us Home, back within.
When we see pretty, enchanting and tempting images that is the time when the Soul is leading us down into the physical world further. This is one of the types of experiences that is called the descent for the sake of the ascent.
When the the images we see with our eyes turn ugly, though visceral emotions are aroused, in fact this is the time when we are being led out of our enchantment with illusion to a higher level of awareness and Being.
The outside world is breaking up not just for a few individuals but for our generation as a whole. It is rapidly becoming uninhabitable. I just read that an area the size of Germany and France together in Siberia is melting. Greenhouse gases will be released that will increase the warming trend (see: http://tinyurl.com/bs5v7).
Only those who know how to take refuge within are going to have where to go when the outer crust breaks up, when the tidal waves come, which is both imminent and inexorable.
It does not matter at all what the politicians are doing. It is of no moment whatsoever that the industrialists are corrupt. That is all for only one purpose - to make us realize that there is no hope and no salvation whatsoever in the "outside" world and to get us to turn within where the only refuge lies.
Don't concern yourselves at all with the images that your mind is generating. Be neither fascinated by, nor repelled, by them.
Look within. Now is the time for turning within, soon there will be no without and only those who have a world within will have where to set foot.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
Someone recently wrote a lament about how the world has gone mad on a message board.
In actuality, this is not cause to lament, but rather to celebrate.
The mad world "out there" only exists in order to drive us within, wherein the Truth lies, wherein Life resides.
It is really a reason to celebrate when the world we see is totally mad, when there is no respite and no satisfaction to be had "out there".
The mind creates everything we see and experience. Those images are created for our ultimate best interest and that of every other Being in creation. When our minds are creating that which causes us intense sorrow, fear and hopelessness outwardly it is only because it is calling us Home, back within.
When we see pretty, enchanting and tempting images that is the time when the Soul is leading us down into the physical world further. This is one of the types of experiences that is called the descent for the sake of the ascent.
When the the images we see with our eyes turn ugly, though visceral emotions are aroused, in fact this is the time when we are being led out of our enchantment with illusion to a higher level of awareness and Being.
The outside world is breaking up not just for a few individuals but for our generation as a whole. It is rapidly becoming uninhabitable. I just read that an area the size of Germany and France together in Siberia is melting. Greenhouse gases will be released that will increase the warming trend (see: http://tinyurl.com/bs5v7).
Only those who know how to take refuge within are going to have where to go when the outer crust breaks up, when the tidal waves come, which is both imminent and inexorable.
It does not matter at all what the politicians are doing. It is of no moment whatsoever that the industrialists are corrupt. That is all for only one purpose - to make us realize that there is no hope and no salvation whatsoever in the "outside" world and to get us to turn within where the only refuge lies.
Don't concern yourselves at all with the images that your mind is generating. Be neither fascinated by, nor repelled, by them.
Look within. Now is the time for turning within, soon there will be no without and only those who have a world within will have where to set foot.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
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