"If there is no flour there is no Torah; if there is no Torah, there is no flour." - Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah
An antagonist asked: Doesn't our Torah have enough commandments concerning helping the poor and the poor's welfare?
I answered: You sound as though there are so many that they are a burden to you. You should cherish those mitzvot above all others and those are the mitzvot that you should perform most assiduously.
Why do I say this? Because they are the mitzvot that are the conditions upon which all of the other mitzvot can be carried out.
"If there is no flour there is no Torah; if there is no Torah, there is no flour." - Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah
I'll quote that again: "If there is no flour there is no Torah; if there is no Torah, there is no flour." - Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah
That statement does not mean that there is no Torah only for those who have no flour. It means that there is no Torah for the ones hardening their hearts, or making of themselves luftmenschen, and not seeing to it that everyone has flour (and water, clothes, shoes, housing, inoculation, education and the conditions under which every individual can grow to her or his maximum Spiritual-Moral, mental, emotional and physical potential).
It is because I see the poor in this country becoming increasing beggared and more and more people falling into poverty, that I feel absolutely confident in saying there is no Torah in Israel. If there was one-third of the children in Israel would not be under the poverty line and they would not be going to school hiding the roll the have from others so that no one will see it has nothing on it, the elderly and infirmed would not be eating out of garbage cans and widows would not have their electricity turned off in the winter.
You stated: It seems to me, there are scores of commandments requiring compassion to the poor; forbidding oppressing the poor.
I responded: And are they being fulfilled? Are people as careful to do those mitzvot as they are when choosing their "glatt" chickens? No! They (maybe) give their 10% tzeddakah and a few hours of their time to help others, which only perpetuates the misery. They do not fulfill the commanment: Unloose the shackles of injustice. They do not go up against the system that creates and perpetuates poverty.
He went on to inquire: Why do we need a philosphy that is not rooted in Torah?
I responded: Do you not see that what I am saying is pure Torah? Shame on your teachers!
From the day that Avraham smashed his father's idols Judaism has been nothing but radical social transformation. Anyone who isn't smashing the idols that keep us in thrall, poor and subject to corrupt regimes is not of the covenant of Avraham, has not begun to understand what that covenant is.
Anarchy is not a philosophy from outside Torah. Anarchy is the mitzvot "concerning helping the poor and the poor's welfare" with the utmost punctiliousness and assiduousness.
Why do you think the old Jew blessed Rudolph Rocker after he helped the Jewish workers win their demands in a strike in 1912?
I once took a course with a rabbi on tzadakah. At one point he stated that there must always be poor people so that we can do the mitzvah of giving tzaddakah. I left his course and have not read a word that he has to say since. He went down to credibility zero with me when he said that. The cruelty that passes itself off as Torah in this generation is absolutely astounding.
We may be sure that even in a society of Anarcho-Communalism, in which all of our physical needs are provided for; there will be endless opportunities for us to give emotional tzaddakah; to help those who need us in numerable ways and to be helped by others in innumerable ways.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
A Jew Who Knew
Rudolph Rocker was a German non-Jew who devoted his life to ameliorating the conditions of the working poor Jews in London at the start of the 20th C.
He learned Yiddish so well that he became the editor of the Yiddish Anarchist papers Dos Fraye Vort (The Free Word), Der Arbeiter Freint (The Workers Friend) and Germinal.
For his efforts he was detained by the British for years as an "alien enemy of the state".
Shortly after leading Jewish sweatshop workers to victory in a 1912 strike he recalled:
"As I was walking along a narrow Whitechapel street, an old Jew with a long white beard stopped me outside his house, and said: “May God bless you! You helped my children in their need. You are not a Jew, but you are a man!” This old man lived in a world completely different from mine. But the memory of the gratitude that shone in those eyes has remained with me all these years." THE LONDON YEARS, the last page of Chapter 23 – Workers' Circle. The Great Strike.
In 1912, you may be sure, that an old Jew with a long white beard knew the halakhah.
How many Jews today can honestly say they would do for the Jews what the gentile German Rocker did?
Today, far too many Jews who fancy themselves Orthodox and knowledgeable in Torah would dismiss Rocker as a "sheigitz" or perhaps try to shame him publicly for being an "abominable" Anarchist, or proffer a description of his "touched" personality based on an astrological chart, or throw in his face that his father celebrated Christmas or speculate on his mental state or call him a "freak". (See the Yahoo! group "Tzfat" in order to understand to what I am referring.)
But we all know deep in our heart of hearts that the Jew with the long white beard who was already old in 1912 was the real thing. May God bless him as he blessed those who helped the (secular, Anarchistic) Jews, who he called his children, in their need.
And thank God for a gentile who bothered to learn Yiddish so he could help the Jews, who recorded the words of that old Jew, immortalizing him, so that the voice of true Judaism can still be heard today by Jews like me who yearn to hear it but so very rarely do.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Rudolph Rocker was a German non-Jew who devoted his life to ameliorating the conditions of the working poor Jews in London at the start of the 20th C.
He learned Yiddish so well that he became the editor of the Yiddish Anarchist papers Dos Fraye Vort (The Free Word), Der Arbeiter Freint (The Workers Friend) and Germinal.
For his efforts he was detained by the British for years as an "alien enemy of the state".
Shortly after leading Jewish sweatshop workers to victory in a 1912 strike he recalled:
"As I was walking along a narrow Whitechapel street, an old Jew with a long white beard stopped me outside his house, and said: “May God bless you! You helped my children in their need. You are not a Jew, but you are a man!” This old man lived in a world completely different from mine. But the memory of the gratitude that shone in those eyes has remained with me all these years." THE LONDON YEARS, the last page of Chapter 23 – Workers' Circle. The Great Strike.
In 1912, you may be sure, that an old Jew with a long white beard knew the halakhah.
How many Jews today can honestly say they would do for the Jews what the gentile German Rocker did?
Today, far too many Jews who fancy themselves Orthodox and knowledgeable in Torah would dismiss Rocker as a "sheigitz" or perhaps try to shame him publicly for being an "abominable" Anarchist, or proffer a description of his "touched" personality based on an astrological chart, or throw in his face that his father celebrated Christmas or speculate on his mental state or call him a "freak". (See the Yahoo! group "Tzfat" in order to understand to what I am referring.)
But we all know deep in our heart of hearts that the Jew with the long white beard who was already old in 1912 was the real thing. May God bless him as he blessed those who helped the (secular, Anarchistic) Jews, who he called his children, in their need.
And thank God for a gentile who bothered to learn Yiddish so he could help the Jews, who recorded the words of that old Jew, immortalizing him, so that the voice of true Judaism can still be heard today by Jews like me who yearn to hear it but so very rarely do.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Corruption in Israel
Five hundred people were surveyed by the Israeli branch of Transparency International.
Corruption, for the purpose of the study, is defined as "the use of political or other power for the advancement of personal interests".
The results, according to a report that appeared on Dec. 12, 2006 of "Kol HaIr", one of the local papers of Tzfat, edition 640, are the following:
66% said that the current gov't does not do enough to fight corruption.
55% said that corruption negatively affects their personal quality of life.
81% said that corruption negatively affects the business enviornment.
86% said that corruption negatively affects quality of gov't.
16% said they believe that the gov't actively encourages corruption.
4% admitted to giving bribes during the past year. (We can assume that this is a very small percentage of those who actually did give bribes. Admitting to doing so is admitting to committing a crime and most people will, understandably, be reluctant to do so, even on a supposedly anonymous survey.)
Add to these results, the recent finding that 92% of Israeli businesses do not conduct themselves in accordance with labor laws.
How, I ask you HOW, can Torah flourish in such an enviornment?
Take the most well-meaning, religious man. He gets up in the morning, does netilat yadayim...has his brakhot as he dresses...goes to shul, dons t'fellin...Learns a blat Gemorrah...
Then, he goes to work. Because he has, b'li ayin hara, a family he, if he's a salaried employee, will keep his mouth shut if he sees his boss cheating. He will do what he is told, even if it is not on the "up and up". He will let himself be abused by his boss who, 92 chances out of 100 on the average, is cheating him of what is coming to him.
If he's an independent, he has to compete with others in the field. He may have loans with the banks in astronomical figures and tens of thousands of shekels is held in escrow by his suppliers.
What does that do to him?
How can he have a crooked heart and tongue all day and then be pure when he sits down to learn Torah, or when he does a mitzvah?
That is what is called: "Ablution in a mikveh while holding a serpent."
First, and I'm going to keep pestering and nudging until this is understood, first we build a just society - then we can go about the business of learning and doing Torah as we should.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Five hundred people were surveyed by the Israeli branch of Transparency International.
Corruption, for the purpose of the study, is defined as "the use of political or other power for the advancement of personal interests".
The results, according to a report that appeared on Dec. 12, 2006 of "Kol HaIr", one of the local papers of Tzfat, edition 640, are the following:
66% said that the current gov't does not do enough to fight corruption.
55% said that corruption negatively affects their personal quality of life.
81% said that corruption negatively affects the business enviornment.
86% said that corruption negatively affects quality of gov't.
16% said they believe that the gov't actively encourages corruption.
4% admitted to giving bribes during the past year. (We can assume that this is a very small percentage of those who actually did give bribes. Admitting to doing so is admitting to committing a crime and most people will, understandably, be reluctant to do so, even on a supposedly anonymous survey.)
Add to these results, the recent finding that 92% of Israeli businesses do not conduct themselves in accordance with labor laws.
How, I ask you HOW, can Torah flourish in such an enviornment?
Take the most well-meaning, religious man. He gets up in the morning, does netilat yadayim...has his brakhot as he dresses...goes to shul, dons t'fellin...Learns a blat Gemorrah...
Then, he goes to work. Because he has, b'li ayin hara, a family he, if he's a salaried employee, will keep his mouth shut if he sees his boss cheating. He will do what he is told, even if it is not on the "up and up". He will let himself be abused by his boss who, 92 chances out of 100 on the average, is cheating him of what is coming to him.
If he's an independent, he has to compete with others in the field. He may have loans with the banks in astronomical figures and tens of thousands of shekels is held in escrow by his suppliers.
What does that do to him?
How can he have a crooked heart and tongue all day and then be pure when he sits down to learn Torah, or when he does a mitzvah?
That is what is called: "Ablution in a mikveh while holding a serpent."
First, and I'm going to keep pestering and nudging until this is understood, first we build a just society - then we can go about the business of learning and doing Torah as we should.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Some Facts to Ponder Before Channukah
I do not celebrate Channukah. I know that is very odd. Channukah is one of the most cherished holiday seasons in Judaism. It is considered a festival of light and a time of great joy celebrating the purification of the Second Temple and the reinstatement of the Temple Service.
I do not celebrate Channukah for the following reasons. The Maccabees were Priests, but they were not B'nie Tzadok. Only those Cohenim who are B'nei Tzaddok were entitled to be High Priests. The Maccabbim, who were Cohenim but not B'nei Tzaddok, expropriated the office of High Priest. This was only the first of their sins. They would eventually arrive at a level of depravity and degradation that the mind and heart can hardly fathom. It was because of their internecine power struggles within the family, which included murder and castrations of close family members, all of whom were Cohenim; their orgies with Gentiles in the Temple; their crowning themselves kings, which is forbidden for Cohenim to do that led to the destruction of the Temple and our galut. The period of their reign was the darkest period in Jewish history. There were more atrocities committed by them, but the heart is too rent to consider all of it. I am humiliated that an episode such as that is part of our history.
The Isi'im (the Dead Sea Sect) who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls were B'nei Tzaddok who left Yerushalayim in disgust as a result of these events.
The settled in Qumran, formed a communitarian society of common property and devoted themselves to the study and performance of Torah with the utmost assiduousness.
The Isi'im were lost to history at the end of the Second Temple period.
Thinking they were "out of the way" and not knowing that they had hid their writings in caves in Qumran, the redactors of the Talmud engaged is unbridled mendacity in their representations of who the B'nei Tzaddok were. They said that they rejected Oral Law, in addition to other besmirching.
For 2000 years all that was known about HaIsi'im was written about them in the Talmud.
And then, on the self-same day that the partition of Palestine was voted by the UN, the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls that was found by a Bedouin shepherd boy was sold to Yigal Yadin's father, Professor Eliezer Sukenik.
For the first time in 2000 years; HaIsi'im were able to speak for themselves. They wrote that they were a sect founded by B'nei Tzaddok who left Yerushalayim after it became so defiled by the Maccabbim that they could not longer conscience living there. They wrote about their community. But for the sake of this discussion, most importantly, they wrote about the Oral Law.
The redactors of the Talmud wrote that the B'nei Tzaddok did not believe in any Oral Law, that they followed the written Torah only.
But at Qumran T'fillin were found, and the contained the very same passages that are found in Rashi and Rebbenu Tam T'fellin, only in a different order. Carbon dating showed that they were well over 2000 years old.
One of the fragments of a scroll discusses how much water is needed for a proper mikveh.
Another passage discusses how far one may walk on Shabbat.
Another discusses how one may rescue someone who has fallen into a pit on Shabbat.
All of these matters are Oral Torah.
If you wish to read my writings on the Dead Sea Sect, HaYachad, as they called themselves, you can find them on the following web sites:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/index.html
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/essenes_my_writings.html
The redactors of the Talmud misrepresented the B'nei Tzaddok. They did so intentionally in order to become the sole representatives of Torah. They lied in order to establish their absolute authority.
That being the case we are not only free to, but absolutely must, call everything in the Talmud into question. We cannot believe that their intentions were pure about anything they wrote. Certainly, we would be foolish to reject all of the Talmud out-of-hand. But we are equally foolish to accept it uncritically and unquestioningly.
I think it is pertinent here to discuss a group of people who did try to live according to the written Law without an Oral Law – the Karaites.
They were excommunicated, in toto, from Judaism.
Do you know that Aaron ben Moshe ben Asher and his descendants, the House of Asher, those who fixed the version of HaMasorah HaT'veriani were Karaites? (See: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/benAsher.html). Everything we learn in Torah is thanks to the impeccable knowledge and the work of a long line of Karaites.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
I do not celebrate Channukah. I know that is very odd. Channukah is one of the most cherished holiday seasons in Judaism. It is considered a festival of light and a time of great joy celebrating the purification of the Second Temple and the reinstatement of the Temple Service.
I do not celebrate Channukah for the following reasons. The Maccabees were Priests, but they were not B'nie Tzadok. Only those Cohenim who are B'nei Tzaddok were entitled to be High Priests. The Maccabbim, who were Cohenim but not B'nei Tzaddok, expropriated the office of High Priest. This was only the first of their sins. They would eventually arrive at a level of depravity and degradation that the mind and heart can hardly fathom. It was because of their internecine power struggles within the family, which included murder and castrations of close family members, all of whom were Cohenim; their orgies with Gentiles in the Temple; their crowning themselves kings, which is forbidden for Cohenim to do that led to the destruction of the Temple and our galut. The period of their reign was the darkest period in Jewish history. There were more atrocities committed by them, but the heart is too rent to consider all of it. I am humiliated that an episode such as that is part of our history.
The Isi'im (the Dead Sea Sect) who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls were B'nei Tzaddok who left Yerushalayim in disgust as a result of these events.
The settled in Qumran, formed a communitarian society of common property and devoted themselves to the study and performance of Torah with the utmost assiduousness.
The Isi'im were lost to history at the end of the Second Temple period.
Thinking they were "out of the way" and not knowing that they had hid their writings in caves in Qumran, the redactors of the Talmud engaged is unbridled mendacity in their representations of who the B'nei Tzaddok were. They said that they rejected Oral Law, in addition to other besmirching.
For 2000 years all that was known about HaIsi'im was written about them in the Talmud.
And then, on the self-same day that the partition of Palestine was voted by the UN, the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls that was found by a Bedouin shepherd boy was sold to Yigal Yadin's father, Professor Eliezer Sukenik.
For the first time in 2000 years; HaIsi'im were able to speak for themselves. They wrote that they were a sect founded by B'nei Tzaddok who left Yerushalayim after it became so defiled by the Maccabbim that they could not longer conscience living there. They wrote about their community. But for the sake of this discussion, most importantly, they wrote about the Oral Law.
The redactors of the Talmud wrote that the B'nei Tzaddok did not believe in any Oral Law, that they followed the written Torah only.
But at Qumran T'fillin were found, and the contained the very same passages that are found in Rashi and Rebbenu Tam T'fellin, only in a different order. Carbon dating showed that they were well over 2000 years old.
One of the fragments of a scroll discusses how much water is needed for a proper mikveh.
Another passage discusses how far one may walk on Shabbat.
Another discusses how one may rescue someone who has fallen into a pit on Shabbat.
All of these matters are Oral Torah.
If you wish to read my writings on the Dead Sea Sect, HaYachad, as they called themselves, you can find them on the following web sites:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/index.html
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/essenes_my_writings.html
The redactors of the Talmud misrepresented the B'nei Tzaddok. They did so intentionally in order to become the sole representatives of Torah. They lied in order to establish their absolute authority.
That being the case we are not only free to, but absolutely must, call everything in the Talmud into question. We cannot believe that their intentions were pure about anything they wrote. Certainly, we would be foolish to reject all of the Talmud out-of-hand. But we are equally foolish to accept it uncritically and unquestioningly.
I think it is pertinent here to discuss a group of people who did try to live according to the written Law without an Oral Law – the Karaites.
They were excommunicated, in toto, from Judaism.
Do you know that Aaron ben Moshe ben Asher and his descendants, the House of Asher, those who fixed the version of HaMasorah HaT'veriani were Karaites? (See: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/benAsher.html). Everything we learn in Torah is thanks to the impeccable knowledge and the work of a long line of Karaites.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
DOING
Someone on a message board wrote the following to me:
"Let me know if you ever get off your duff in the periphery, and come down to the center of the country to actually DO something constructive regarding the things you write about. "
I answered:
There is a mystical Jewish teaching which holds that this world is called the World of Doing (or Action) - עולם העשיה in Hebrew.
It is the lowest of four worlds, each more rarified, sublime and vast than the one beneath it in the order of creation.
There is nothing in this world that is not doing. It cannot be otherwise.
To say to someone in this world that she or he is not doing something, is to misunderstand what doing is and the nature of the level of reality that we inhabit fundamentally.
Is not writing doing?
Is making people think not doing?
In this world even thinking is doing. It is an action in and of itself, even if it does not lead to further action.
My mother taught me when I was a child that the pen is mightier than the sword. I believe that to be true.
Writing is what I do and it is as much doing as another other activity in the World of Doing (or Action), which we inhabit.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Someone on a message board wrote the following to me:
"Let me know if you ever get off your duff in the periphery, and come down to the center of the country to actually DO something constructive regarding the things you write about. "
I answered:
There is a mystical Jewish teaching which holds that this world is called the World of Doing (or Action) - עולם העשיה in Hebrew.
It is the lowest of four worlds, each more rarified, sublime and vast than the one beneath it in the order of creation.
There is nothing in this world that is not doing. It cannot be otherwise.
To say to someone in this world that she or he is not doing something, is to misunderstand what doing is and the nature of the level of reality that we inhabit fundamentally.
Is not writing doing?
Is making people think not doing?
In this world even thinking is doing. It is an action in and of itself, even if it does not lead to further action.
My mother taught me when I was a child that the pen is mightier than the sword. I believe that to be true.
Writing is what I do and it is as much doing as another other activity in the World of Doing (or Action), which we inhabit.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
THE LEAVING FOR THE SAKE OF THE RETURN
One can keep kashrut out of a need to belong, keep Shabbat out of fear of what their family and neighbors will say and keep Taharat HaMisphachah out of desire for a place in the world to come... - all without loving HaShem with one's entire being.
But no one devotes their entire life to humanity, consistently over the period of a lifetime, unless they love HaShem completely and are devoted to HaShem in a way that the Orthodox can only feign being. That devotion need not be conscious, but it is there.
Am I conflated? Am I making a shatnez of Torah and secular ethics? In fact, there is nothing that I have written that is not pure Torah.
Ideally a Jew should keep the mitzvot and serve humanity. They do not only not contradict; they are supplementary one to the other.However, Judaism as it is currently taught and practiced, with all of the chumrot and minhagim that have been added to Torah (in contravention of the injunction not to add to Torah!) does not allow for the performance of both those mitzvot that bring down holiness into the physical plane and the social service aspects of Torah - both of which are essential and should be performed in such a way that they enable and advance one the other.
We have been taught in Chassidut about the principle of the descent for the purpose of the ascent.
In our times, time of darkness and blindness we are in need of a more radical cure for our moral-spiritual ills. We are in need of the leaving for the sake of the return.The only solution to the problem is to leave this farce that we are told is Torah and build a just society that is not based on greed and violence and power-hungriness. In such a society there will be no incentives for Rabbis who serve the power structure to distort Torah and make it into shackles and manacles that bind the mind, the heart and Soul. In such a society Torah can be rediscovered in its pristine purity because there won't be a power structure that will have interests in making the populace spiritual slaves and moral cripples.Torah has been so horribly misrepresented, so grossly misunderstood and so abused as an instrument of mind and behavior control that the only way to return to it is by leaving what we think is Torah, but is not.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
One can keep kashrut out of a need to belong, keep Shabbat out of fear of what their family and neighbors will say and keep Taharat HaMisphachah out of desire for a place in the world to come... - all without loving HaShem with one's entire being.
But no one devotes their entire life to humanity, consistently over the period of a lifetime, unless they love HaShem completely and are devoted to HaShem in a way that the Orthodox can only feign being. That devotion need not be conscious, but it is there.
Am I conflated? Am I making a shatnez of Torah and secular ethics? In fact, there is nothing that I have written that is not pure Torah.
Ideally a Jew should keep the mitzvot and serve humanity. They do not only not contradict; they are supplementary one to the other.However, Judaism as it is currently taught and practiced, with all of the chumrot and minhagim that have been added to Torah (in contravention of the injunction not to add to Torah!) does not allow for the performance of both those mitzvot that bring down holiness into the physical plane and the social service aspects of Torah - both of which are essential and should be performed in such a way that they enable and advance one the other.
We have been taught in Chassidut about the principle of the descent for the purpose of the ascent.
In our times, time of darkness and blindness we are in need of a more radical cure for our moral-spiritual ills. We are in need of the leaving for the sake of the return.The only solution to the problem is to leave this farce that we are told is Torah and build a just society that is not based on greed and violence and power-hungriness. In such a society there will be no incentives for Rabbis who serve the power structure to distort Torah and make it into shackles and manacles that bind the mind, the heart and Soul. In such a society Torah can be rediscovered in its pristine purity because there won't be a power structure that will have interests in making the populace spiritual slaves and moral cripples.Torah has been so horribly misrepresented, so grossly misunderstood and so abused as an instrument of mind and behavior control that the only way to return to it is by leaving what we think is Torah, but is not.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Genuine Religious Jews
Jews inspired by genuine Divine afflatus do not engage overmuch in ceremonies, nor do they speak in clichés, quoting others verbatim by rote.
They are not overly punctilious and scrupulous about ritual purity and they do not carry out formulaic actions obsessively-compulsively.
They do not care a whit about their own salvation and nothing they do is for the sake of ensuring an eternal place of rest and joy for themselves.
They act in, rather than speak of, love.
They do not wax pontifical or esoteric. They concern themselves with the needs of human beings qua human beings.
They do not sacrifice the material levels of our beings for the sake of the "spiritual" levels.
They do not profit from the encouraging and teaching of others to observe ritual.
They do not claim immaculate morality on the part of their teachers; neither do they claim that they their tradition or their teachers are infallible.
They do not set themselves up and judge and jury over humankind.
The only abomination they recognize is injustice and the misuse of power.
They need no social acceptance or group to be part to know what they should do or give them a sense of identity. They are strong enough to stand alone, all alone, if need be.
Their every action, the very purpose of their lives and their entire being is given over to the alleviation of the suffering of humankind.
Injustice is intolerable to them and they fight for justice for all no matter what the personal price they must pay for it.
Gustav Landauer, Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, Saul Alinsky, Martin Buber and Murray Bookchin were religious Jews. They carried within them the whole of Torah. The received and passed on the torch of the Prophets of Israel. This was true despite the protestations of some of them that they were atheists. It is recorded of Emma Goldman, the self-professed atheist Anarchist, that: "A rabbi who heard her lecture a large conference of clergymen on atheism probably came closer than the public to understanding her antireligious stand. "In spite of al Miss Goldman has said against religion", he announced, "she is the most religious person I know." (RED EMMA SPEAKS, An Emma Goldman Reader, Compiled and Edited by Alex Kates Shulman, Preface to Part Two; Published 1998 by Humanity Books, an imprint of Prometheus Books)
It is certainly be true that some Jews who adhere to the minutiae of Jewish Law may be true Orthodox Jews, but this is true if and only if they do so in addition to devoting their entire lives to the amelioration of the human condition and the alleviation of human suffering. Their performance of the minutiae of Jewish Law is not that which defines them at genuine Orthodox Jews. That is a mere appurtenance. Their devotion to justice is that which defines them as genuine Orthodox Jews.
Those who teach Jewish Law in such a way that it comes in lieu of acting in the world for the betterment of human kind; if it obviates doing so; if it becomes so all-demanding, time-consuming and burdensome that there is no strength or time for fighting injustice; if the observance of Jewish Law imparts the illusion of being absolutely right and just; if it attenuates the desire to right wrongs or puts off the doing so for the Mashiach to take care of; if it brings one to believe that each of us has only to tend to our own imperfections – then we may be entirely sure that what we have is not Judaism at all, but an ersatz, painstakingly deliberately fabricated and purposefully promulgated in order to confound us, to keep our energies invested in that which will avail nothing and deflect us from our duties by nefarious interests.
A great deal of money, ink and blood is being poured in order to keep Jews distracted from our true purpose and our true values. This is as true of the religious segments of our society as it is of the secular segments. The only difference is the methods being employed in order to dissipate our energies.
History has proven that Jews who are devoted to justice en masse are invincible. It is then that HaShem performs miracles for us.
Every effort is being made, in the religious and secular worlds alike, to prevent us from knowing who we truly are, what our purpose in creation is, from mobilizing in unison, reaching a critical mass of power and changing the course of the world. We can do it. We have done so before. If we were not capable of changing the world, so much investment would not be being invested in atomizing us and reducing our strength.
Do not be fooled. Do not be misled. Do not be bought. Do not be enthralled. Do not be enticed. Do not be led astray.
We Jews were put here for the sake of participating in the creation of a just world with every other and for every other sentient being.
Let nothing, but nothing, be it pseudo-religious principles or iPods and other things that go beep in the night steer you away from what you are and what your designated tasks are.
The Hebrew version of this essay is to be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/yfnud6
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Jews inspired by genuine Divine afflatus do not engage overmuch in ceremonies, nor do they speak in clichés, quoting others verbatim by rote.
They are not overly punctilious and scrupulous about ritual purity and they do not carry out formulaic actions obsessively-compulsively.
They do not care a whit about their own salvation and nothing they do is for the sake of ensuring an eternal place of rest and joy for themselves.
They act in, rather than speak of, love.
They do not wax pontifical or esoteric. They concern themselves with the needs of human beings qua human beings.
They do not sacrifice the material levels of our beings for the sake of the "spiritual" levels.
They do not profit from the encouraging and teaching of others to observe ritual.
They do not claim immaculate morality on the part of their teachers; neither do they claim that they their tradition or their teachers are infallible.
They do not set themselves up and judge and jury over humankind.
The only abomination they recognize is injustice and the misuse of power.
They need no social acceptance or group to be part to know what they should do or give them a sense of identity. They are strong enough to stand alone, all alone, if need be.
Their every action, the very purpose of their lives and their entire being is given over to the alleviation of the suffering of humankind.
Injustice is intolerable to them and they fight for justice for all no matter what the personal price they must pay for it.
Gustav Landauer, Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, Saul Alinsky, Martin Buber and Murray Bookchin were religious Jews. They carried within them the whole of Torah. The received and passed on the torch of the Prophets of Israel. This was true despite the protestations of some of them that they were atheists. It is recorded of Emma Goldman, the self-professed atheist Anarchist, that: "A rabbi who heard her lecture a large conference of clergymen on atheism probably came closer than the public to understanding her antireligious stand. "In spite of al Miss Goldman has said against religion", he announced, "she is the most religious person I know." (RED EMMA SPEAKS, An Emma Goldman Reader, Compiled and Edited by Alex Kates Shulman, Preface to Part Two; Published 1998 by Humanity Books, an imprint of Prometheus Books)
It is certainly be true that some Jews who adhere to the minutiae of Jewish Law may be true Orthodox Jews, but this is true if and only if they do so in addition to devoting their entire lives to the amelioration of the human condition and the alleviation of human suffering. Their performance of the minutiae of Jewish Law is not that which defines them at genuine Orthodox Jews. That is a mere appurtenance. Their devotion to justice is that which defines them as genuine Orthodox Jews.
Those who teach Jewish Law in such a way that it comes in lieu of acting in the world for the betterment of human kind; if it obviates doing so; if it becomes so all-demanding, time-consuming and burdensome that there is no strength or time for fighting injustice; if the observance of Jewish Law imparts the illusion of being absolutely right and just; if it attenuates the desire to right wrongs or puts off the doing so for the Mashiach to take care of; if it brings one to believe that each of us has only to tend to our own imperfections – then we may be entirely sure that what we have is not Judaism at all, but an ersatz, painstakingly deliberately fabricated and purposefully promulgated in order to confound us, to keep our energies invested in that which will avail nothing and deflect us from our duties by nefarious interests.
A great deal of money, ink and blood is being poured in order to keep Jews distracted from our true purpose and our true values. This is as true of the religious segments of our society as it is of the secular segments. The only difference is the methods being employed in order to dissipate our energies.
History has proven that Jews who are devoted to justice en masse are invincible. It is then that HaShem performs miracles for us.
Every effort is being made, in the religious and secular worlds alike, to prevent us from knowing who we truly are, what our purpose in creation is, from mobilizing in unison, reaching a critical mass of power and changing the course of the world. We can do it. We have done so before. If we were not capable of changing the world, so much investment would not be being invested in atomizing us and reducing our strength.
Do not be fooled. Do not be misled. Do not be bought. Do not be enthralled. Do not be enticed. Do not be led astray.
We Jews were put here for the sake of participating in the creation of a just world with every other and for every other sentient being.
Let nothing, but nothing, be it pseudo-religious principles or iPods and other things that go beep in the night steer you away from what you are and what your designated tasks are.
The Hebrew version of this essay is to be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/yfnud6
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Friday, December 01, 2006
I BELIEVE
Clearly, we cannot know the whys and wherefores of that which transpires and, if we notice, as we advance on our path the experiences we have become more and more complex and confusing. As I grow older I understand less and less. It seems to me that this common experience is a process of aging that involves the surrendering of the will to conquer the world with our minds to HaShem. Eventually we will surrender everything to HaShem. First we must surrender our desire to know - which is really a desire to conquer.
I believe we are not intended to understand HaShem, not because HaShem could not make us understand if It willed that we would, but because we are being tested to see how we react to that which occurs which defies human understanding.
I believe that it is observed on high if we gaze upon the death and destruction of others and condemn those who suffered for some sin either of their own or, worse, others. I believe we are being observed to see if we are smug in believing that we are chosen. Do we interpret this as superiority or do we understand it as an imperative to serve humankind?
I believe that the Torah, as it presents itself to our every day, constricted consciousness, is a test. It is impossible to observe every mitzvah and to believe every tenet. I believe we are being observed to see what we adopt and what we reject, what we do and what we don't, what we believe about ourselves and what we believe about all of humanity.
HaShem, I believe, wants us to struggle and grapple with what is written in Torah, knowing that none of us accept and do it all. What do we cherish? What do we overlook? What do we stress? What do we minimize? All this, I believe, is telling about who we are and is being observed.
I believe that HaShem rejoices when we refuse to carry out the condemnations in Torah, which I believe are planted therein to see if we find that fruit sweet or bitter. I believe when we encounter the tests in Torah and we cry out to God: If that is what You expect of me, then send me to hell! I'll have no part of any World to Come if those are the conditions! - that God says בני נצחוני! –" My children have conquered me!" - in the sense that my children have seen past the words into My heart, they have passed the tests I set before them.
I believe that those who stress the strictures of Torah are not kind and good people, despite their having learned the clichés and giving lip service to love and devotion. I believe our attitudes and actions are being observed.
Shabbat Shalom,
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Clearly, we cannot know the whys and wherefores of that which transpires and, if we notice, as we advance on our path the experiences we have become more and more complex and confusing. As I grow older I understand less and less. It seems to me that this common experience is a process of aging that involves the surrendering of the will to conquer the world with our minds to HaShem. Eventually we will surrender everything to HaShem. First we must surrender our desire to know - which is really a desire to conquer.
I believe we are not intended to understand HaShem, not because HaShem could not make us understand if It willed that we would, but because we are being tested to see how we react to that which occurs which defies human understanding.
I believe that it is observed on high if we gaze upon the death and destruction of others and condemn those who suffered for some sin either of their own or, worse, others. I believe we are being observed to see if we are smug in believing that we are chosen. Do we interpret this as superiority or do we understand it as an imperative to serve humankind?
I believe that the Torah, as it presents itself to our every day, constricted consciousness, is a test. It is impossible to observe every mitzvah and to believe every tenet. I believe we are being observed to see what we adopt and what we reject, what we do and what we don't, what we believe about ourselves and what we believe about all of humanity.
HaShem, I believe, wants us to struggle and grapple with what is written in Torah, knowing that none of us accept and do it all. What do we cherish? What do we overlook? What do we stress? What do we minimize? All this, I believe, is telling about who we are and is being observed.
I believe that HaShem rejoices when we refuse to carry out the condemnations in Torah, which I believe are planted therein to see if we find that fruit sweet or bitter. I believe when we encounter the tests in Torah and we cry out to God: If that is what You expect of me, then send me to hell! I'll have no part of any World to Come if those are the conditions! - that God says בני נצחוני! –" My children have conquered me!" - in the sense that my children have seen past the words into My heart, they have passed the tests I set before them.
I believe that those who stress the strictures of Torah are not kind and good people, despite their having learned the clichés and giving lip service to love and devotion. I believe our attitudes and actions are being observed.
Shabbat Shalom,
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
By: Daniel McGrory and Tony Halpin
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2473385_1,00.html
Poisoned Spy Visited Israel with Oil Dossier
"A dossier drawn up by Alexander Litvinenko on the Kremlin’s takeover of the world’s richest energy giant will be given to Scotland Yard today as police investigate the former KGB spy’s secret dealings with some of Russia’s richest men.
It emerged yesterday that Mr Litvinenko travelled to Israel just weeks before he died to hand over evidence to a Russian billionaire of how agents working for President Putin dealt with his enemies running the Yukos oil company.
He passed this information to Leonid Nevzlin, the former second-in-command of Yukos, who fled to Tel Aviv in fear for his life after the Kremlin seized and then sold off the $40 billion (£21 billion) company…"
By Doreen Ellen Bell Dotan:
Traces of Radioactive Matzah Ball in Berezovsky's Stomach
Traces of a radioactive matzah ball, which was prepared with the blood of Christian children, was found in the Russian Berezovsky's stomach.
It is known that the jet-setting Russian spy, who hob-nobbed with multi-billionaires, flew frequently to Israel to visit his favorite restaurant, which serves Borscht, Gefilte Fish and Chicken Soup with Matzah Balls in Tel Aviv and it is known that he supped at the elegant restaurant just days before he died.
Scotland Yard has discovered strychnine in the boiled chicken, mercury in the Gefilte Fish and cyanide in the Borscht at the restaurant.
Scotland Yard's sleuths are not sure, but they think there may be a link between the odd findings at the restaurant and Berezovsky's untimely and suspicious death just days before he was supposed to hand over top, top, top secret and sensitive documents that would have the utmost impact on revealing the truth about the Elders of Zion and international oil dealing.
The journalists who provided the breaking story above, and no doubt the BBC, will let you in on the rest of the sordid details.
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2473385_1,00.html
Poisoned Spy Visited Israel with Oil Dossier
"A dossier drawn up by Alexander Litvinenko on the Kremlin’s takeover of the world’s richest energy giant will be given to Scotland Yard today as police investigate the former KGB spy’s secret dealings with some of Russia’s richest men.
It emerged yesterday that Mr Litvinenko travelled to Israel just weeks before he died to hand over evidence to a Russian billionaire of how agents working for President Putin dealt with his enemies running the Yukos oil company.
He passed this information to Leonid Nevzlin, the former second-in-command of Yukos, who fled to Tel Aviv in fear for his life after the Kremlin seized and then sold off the $40 billion (£21 billion) company…"
By Doreen Ellen Bell Dotan:
Traces of Radioactive Matzah Ball in Berezovsky's Stomach
Traces of a radioactive matzah ball, which was prepared with the blood of Christian children, was found in the Russian Berezovsky's stomach.
It is known that the jet-setting Russian spy, who hob-nobbed with multi-billionaires, flew frequently to Israel to visit his favorite restaurant, which serves Borscht, Gefilte Fish and Chicken Soup with Matzah Balls in Tel Aviv and it is known that he supped at the elegant restaurant just days before he died.
Scotland Yard has discovered strychnine in the boiled chicken, mercury in the Gefilte Fish and cyanide in the Borscht at the restaurant.
Scotland Yard's sleuths are not sure, but they think there may be a link between the odd findings at the restaurant and Berezovsky's untimely and suspicious death just days before he was supposed to hand over top, top, top secret and sensitive documents that would have the utmost impact on revealing the truth about the Elders of Zion and international oil dealing.
The journalists who provided the breaking story above, and no doubt the BBC, will let you in on the rest of the sordid details.
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Friday, November 24, 2006
I've begun another web site. Yes, yes, yet another.
I had no choice. This topic must be aired.
The site is called Critique of Judaism and is to be found on the following URL:
http://tinyurl.com/yed5pe
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
I had no choice. This topic must be aired.
The site is called Critique of Judaism and is to be found on the following URL:
http://tinyurl.com/yed5pe
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Traces of Child Sacrifice in Orthodox Judaism
Traces of Child Sacrifice in Orthodox Judaism The original article, entitled הכוח להתמודד, להמשיך ולהתחזק, which appeared in גיליון מס' 1037 of שיחת השבוע on November 17, 2006 can be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/yh3mtw.
The Hebrew version of this essay, entitled: אבק זבח ילדים ביהדות חרדית can be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/ssy5a.
Yet more articles and a video can be found on the following site: http://tinyurl.com/yffen4 .
As reported in the article, eight-year-old Chiah-Muska Attiyah of blessed memory, daughter of Rabbi Victor Attiyah and his wife Devorah, was playing with matches in the back yard of their home. Some dried schach (the covering of the succah, which is usually highly flammable dried, thin branches, leaves and the like) in the yard caught fire, as did the girl's dress. Her younger brother told her to take the dress off. She refused to take the burning dress off even as she was engulfed in flames because "it's not modest". "It's not modest" is a formula that is drilled into the heads of Orthodox girls from the time they are three years old. From that age they begin to wear dresses that cover their knees by a few inches, with high necklines, long sleeves and opaque stockings. They are taught to dress and undress under a blanket. If their dress goes over their knee while sitting, running, playing - anything they are reprimanded: "It's not modest!" Modesty for an Orthodox girl is everything.
Chiah Mushka died.
She died because the lesson of being modest was drilled into her more than the overriding principle that saving a life, including her own, precludes all else. Her younger brother did know that either because as a boy he was better schooled than she or because, still being so young, he was reacting with natural common sense. God only knows the effect the experience had on her brother. The worst of it is that neither her father, the head of the Chaba"d house in Kiryat Arba-Chevron, nor his community and large circle of friends seem to have learned anything from the terrible incident. As we see from the site above, Rabbi Attiyah addressed an audience of 600 girls wherein he praised the virtue of modesty. He said nothing about his daughter not understanding the virtue of modesty properly or that saving one's life takes precedence over being modest.
Rather than asking himself if his understanding of Jewish Law and the way he was promulgating it is incorrect; the Rabbi is digging in his heels and building a large school in his daughter's honor wherein they will disseminate the self-same teachings. There isn't the merest hint that the teachings of female modesty in the school being built in her memory will be revised from the way in which she was taught. There is no intimation in the incident, as reported, that either the family of the child, Chiah-Mushka Attiyah, of blessed memory, or any of the thousands of people who attended the funeral and contacted the family during the mourning period thereafter see this as anything other than a story of the ultimate "self-sacrifice" for the sake of the grand principle of female modesty. She is being hailed as a precocious paragon of female Orthodox Jewish virtue. It is a perversion of our religion to think that it is in any ways right that a child should die for the sake of modesty. There are only three mitzvot that a Jew who is ben or bat mitzvah must die rather than commit: They are: incest, idol worship and the shedding of innocent blood – known by the acronym גע"ש.
If there be among you anyone who might think that an eight-year-old engulfed in flames taking off her dress in front of her younger brother constitutes the sin of incest, consider that in the time that she said: "It's not modest!", she could have said: "Turn away!"
There is an element of child sacrifice in this incident that is blood chilling and wholly inimical to Judaism as I learned it. There was always a strain of this type of approach in Judaism, but it was a strain and nothing more. The vast majority of Orthodox Jews were rational and common sensical. That was even true among those who learned the Kabbalah. I remember Jews as being very rational from my childhood, speaking of "luftmenschkeit" with utter disdain. This fanaticism is now the norm in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish world.
This fanaticism is growing and becoming more dangerous, even fatal. We see the execrable violence in Orthodox/non-Orthodox relations. We see it in factional violence even within the same group of Orthodox Jews. We now see it in the death of children who have not even attained the age of being b'nei and b'not mitzvah.
I recall two stories of extreme modesty in women, two women who are held up as models of the modesty. The first is that of a woman by the name of Kimchit, the story of whom is related here: http://tinyurl.com/y4w23u . Note that the site says of Kimchit: "She was rewarded with seven sons who served as High Priests. We see from this story that a woman’s covering her hair in private is highly praiseworthy." Let's examine these comments. Is having seven sons who were High Priests a reward? The High Priesthood was an office for life from the time it was assumed. In order for a High Priest to be replaced by another he had to die or be otherwise incapacitated or found incapable or unworthy to continue the function. It is not a natural state that in the space of the lifetime of seven brothers they all serve as High Priests. Clearly, something is very wrong in this story. Indeed, the Talmud relates an explanation of this story that appears contrived and unconvincing, as we see here: http://tinyurl.com/yaoulz . Moreover, it is said that other women likewise did not let the beams of their house "see" their hair. Surely there was another reason why all seven of Kimchit's sons become High Priests. The text would have us understand that she did something meritorious in addition to being very careful about covering her hair. Perhaps the fact that those seven men grew up in a home in which the wrong aspects of Torah were overly stressed contributed to the fact that they did not serve as High Priests in a normal, natural way. Perhaps a woman being so punctilious about covering her hair in private that the "walls of her house do not "see" her hair is not so "praiseworthy" after all. Perhaps it is unhealthy fanaticism, which always comes at the expense of doing mitzvoth correctly and putting the emphasis on serving humanity.
The second story of a model of female modesty is that of a woman who pinned her dress to her legs so that when she was dragged through the streets to her death by horses no one would see her legs. The story, entitled "שלש מתנות", part 3, by י"ל פרץ can be found in Hebrew on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/yn27u9 . This is a story that recounts a grown woman, a woman who is bat mitzvah. She was designated for death in the brutal way described immediately above by Gentile authorities. Rather than give them the satisfaction of seeing her utterly humiliated, she pinned her dress to the flesh of her legs so that they would not be seen. Obviously, that must have been very painful. It was a brave and noble act of defiance and retaining her dignity to the last.
Eight-year-old Chiah-Mushka Attiyah, of blessed memory, was in no way in the same position. She could have and should have taken off her dress. She would have in no way been compromising her self. She made the ultimate compromise of herself for nothing, for absolutely nothing – because she was incorrectly educated in Jewish Law. God protect us if this is what "Ufaratztah" (the spreading of Jewish teaching and practice) means. May God prevent the spreading of such "teaching" of such "Chassidus" (piety; devotion; virtue; Hassidism). Please do not misunderstand me.
It is of no especial import that the family is Chaba"d. It could have happened in any ultra-Orthodox family. In fact, most of the Orthodox who have heard this story seem to think that as regrettable and tragic as it is, it was unavoidable and that the girl did the right thing.I am convinced that Rabbi and Rebbetzen Attiyah are lovely and loving people. I am sure that there intentions are only good. The problem is that they are terribly misled. Herein lies the problem with Judaism today - the confusion, the ignorance, the reversal of priorities and the superstition that passes for halakhah.
This story haunts me for many reasons.
Looking at the pictures of the lovely children Chiah Mushke, of blessed memory, and her siblings on the site (http://www.chabad-hebron.com/345.html) we see healthy, happy children. They are immaculately clean. They are well dressed. There isn't a spot on their clothes, not so much as a wrinkle. Not one hair is out of place. They are obviously the recipients of great love and devotion. They also obviously love one another profoundly. There isn't the merest hint of neglect.
There is no doubt in my mind that the girls were educated to overweening צניעות (modesty) out of the sincere desire to protect them. The problem is, צניעות (modesty) seems to have been used as a kind of fetish and the *only* fence of protection. They were obviously not taught the whole battery of survival skills that we all need.
Chiah Mushke was playing with matches, which there is every reason to assume that she knew was forbidden. From this we learn that she had the spunk to be a bit naughty.
So, why was she not a bit "naughty" enough to go against Torah to save her life, assuming she did not know that פקוח נפש (saving a life) is a מצוה (mitzvah, commandment, good deed), and not an עברה (sin, transgression)?
Why was the will to survive so attenuated in this child? Was it a function of her education as an ultra-Orthodox female child, education geared toward creating women who will be utterly devoted to others, never thinking of their own welfare. I am apt to think that this occurred as a result of a wholly distorted concept of בטול (self-effacement, negation of the ego) and that is the reason why this story haunts me so.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Traces of Child Sacrifice in Orthodox Judaism The original article, entitled הכוח להתמודד, להמשיך ולהתחזק, which appeared in גיליון מס' 1037 of שיחת השבוע on November 17, 2006 can be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/yh3mtw.
The Hebrew version of this essay, entitled: אבק זבח ילדים ביהדות חרדית can be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/ssy5a.
Yet more articles and a video can be found on the following site: http://tinyurl.com/yffen4 .
As reported in the article, eight-year-old Chiah-Muska Attiyah of blessed memory, daughter of Rabbi Victor Attiyah and his wife Devorah, was playing with matches in the back yard of their home. Some dried schach (the covering of the succah, which is usually highly flammable dried, thin branches, leaves and the like) in the yard caught fire, as did the girl's dress. Her younger brother told her to take the dress off. She refused to take the burning dress off even as she was engulfed in flames because "it's not modest". "It's not modest" is a formula that is drilled into the heads of Orthodox girls from the time they are three years old. From that age they begin to wear dresses that cover their knees by a few inches, with high necklines, long sleeves and opaque stockings. They are taught to dress and undress under a blanket. If their dress goes over their knee while sitting, running, playing - anything they are reprimanded: "It's not modest!" Modesty for an Orthodox girl is everything.
Chiah Mushka died.
She died because the lesson of being modest was drilled into her more than the overriding principle that saving a life, including her own, precludes all else. Her younger brother did know that either because as a boy he was better schooled than she or because, still being so young, he was reacting with natural common sense. God only knows the effect the experience had on her brother. The worst of it is that neither her father, the head of the Chaba"d house in Kiryat Arba-Chevron, nor his community and large circle of friends seem to have learned anything from the terrible incident. As we see from the site above, Rabbi Attiyah addressed an audience of 600 girls wherein he praised the virtue of modesty. He said nothing about his daughter not understanding the virtue of modesty properly or that saving one's life takes precedence over being modest.
Rather than asking himself if his understanding of Jewish Law and the way he was promulgating it is incorrect; the Rabbi is digging in his heels and building a large school in his daughter's honor wherein they will disseminate the self-same teachings. There isn't the merest hint that the teachings of female modesty in the school being built in her memory will be revised from the way in which she was taught. There is no intimation in the incident, as reported, that either the family of the child, Chiah-Mushka Attiyah, of blessed memory, or any of the thousands of people who attended the funeral and contacted the family during the mourning period thereafter see this as anything other than a story of the ultimate "self-sacrifice" for the sake of the grand principle of female modesty. She is being hailed as a precocious paragon of female Orthodox Jewish virtue. It is a perversion of our religion to think that it is in any ways right that a child should die for the sake of modesty. There are only three mitzvot that a Jew who is ben or bat mitzvah must die rather than commit: They are: incest, idol worship and the shedding of innocent blood – known by the acronym גע"ש.
If there be among you anyone who might think that an eight-year-old engulfed in flames taking off her dress in front of her younger brother constitutes the sin of incest, consider that in the time that she said: "It's not modest!", she could have said: "Turn away!"
There is an element of child sacrifice in this incident that is blood chilling and wholly inimical to Judaism as I learned it. There was always a strain of this type of approach in Judaism, but it was a strain and nothing more. The vast majority of Orthodox Jews were rational and common sensical. That was even true among those who learned the Kabbalah. I remember Jews as being very rational from my childhood, speaking of "luftmenschkeit" with utter disdain. This fanaticism is now the norm in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish world.
This fanaticism is growing and becoming more dangerous, even fatal. We see the execrable violence in Orthodox/non-Orthodox relations. We see it in factional violence even within the same group of Orthodox Jews. We now see it in the death of children who have not even attained the age of being b'nei and b'not mitzvah.
I recall two stories of extreme modesty in women, two women who are held up as models of the modesty. The first is that of a woman by the name of Kimchit, the story of whom is related here: http://tinyurl.com/y4w23u . Note that the site says of Kimchit: "She was rewarded with seven sons who served as High Priests. We see from this story that a woman’s covering her hair in private is highly praiseworthy." Let's examine these comments. Is having seven sons who were High Priests a reward? The High Priesthood was an office for life from the time it was assumed. In order for a High Priest to be replaced by another he had to die or be otherwise incapacitated or found incapable or unworthy to continue the function. It is not a natural state that in the space of the lifetime of seven brothers they all serve as High Priests. Clearly, something is very wrong in this story. Indeed, the Talmud relates an explanation of this story that appears contrived and unconvincing, as we see here: http://tinyurl.com/yaoulz . Moreover, it is said that other women likewise did not let the beams of their house "see" their hair. Surely there was another reason why all seven of Kimchit's sons become High Priests. The text would have us understand that she did something meritorious in addition to being very careful about covering her hair. Perhaps the fact that those seven men grew up in a home in which the wrong aspects of Torah were overly stressed contributed to the fact that they did not serve as High Priests in a normal, natural way. Perhaps a woman being so punctilious about covering her hair in private that the "walls of her house do not "see" her hair is not so "praiseworthy" after all. Perhaps it is unhealthy fanaticism, which always comes at the expense of doing mitzvoth correctly and putting the emphasis on serving humanity.
The second story of a model of female modesty is that of a woman who pinned her dress to her legs so that when she was dragged through the streets to her death by horses no one would see her legs. The story, entitled "שלש מתנות", part 3, by י"ל פרץ can be found in Hebrew on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/yn27u9 . This is a story that recounts a grown woman, a woman who is bat mitzvah. She was designated for death in the brutal way described immediately above by Gentile authorities. Rather than give them the satisfaction of seeing her utterly humiliated, she pinned her dress to the flesh of her legs so that they would not be seen. Obviously, that must have been very painful. It was a brave and noble act of defiance and retaining her dignity to the last.
Eight-year-old Chiah-Mushka Attiyah, of blessed memory, was in no way in the same position. She could have and should have taken off her dress. She would have in no way been compromising her self. She made the ultimate compromise of herself for nothing, for absolutely nothing – because she was incorrectly educated in Jewish Law. God protect us if this is what "Ufaratztah" (the spreading of Jewish teaching and practice) means. May God prevent the spreading of such "teaching" of such "Chassidus" (piety; devotion; virtue; Hassidism). Please do not misunderstand me.
It is of no especial import that the family is Chaba"d. It could have happened in any ultra-Orthodox family. In fact, most of the Orthodox who have heard this story seem to think that as regrettable and tragic as it is, it was unavoidable and that the girl did the right thing.I am convinced that Rabbi and Rebbetzen Attiyah are lovely and loving people. I am sure that there intentions are only good. The problem is that they are terribly misled. Herein lies the problem with Judaism today - the confusion, the ignorance, the reversal of priorities and the superstition that passes for halakhah.
This story haunts me for many reasons.
Looking at the pictures of the lovely children Chiah Mushke, of blessed memory, and her siblings on the site (http://www.chabad-hebron.com/345.html) we see healthy, happy children. They are immaculately clean. They are well dressed. There isn't a spot on their clothes, not so much as a wrinkle. Not one hair is out of place. They are obviously the recipients of great love and devotion. They also obviously love one another profoundly. There isn't the merest hint of neglect.
There is no doubt in my mind that the girls were educated to overweening צניעות (modesty) out of the sincere desire to protect them. The problem is, צניעות (modesty) seems to have been used as a kind of fetish and the *only* fence of protection. They were obviously not taught the whole battery of survival skills that we all need.
Chiah Mushke was playing with matches, which there is every reason to assume that she knew was forbidden. From this we learn that she had the spunk to be a bit naughty.
So, why was she not a bit "naughty" enough to go against Torah to save her life, assuming she did not know that פקוח נפש (saving a life) is a מצוה (mitzvah, commandment, good deed), and not an עברה (sin, transgression)?
Why was the will to survive so attenuated in this child? Was it a function of her education as an ultra-Orthodox female child, education geared toward creating women who will be utterly devoted to others, never thinking of their own welfare. I am apt to think that this occurred as a result of a wholly distorted concept of בטול (self-effacement, negation of the ego) and that is the reason why this story haunts me so.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
WHAT IF EVERYTHING YOU BELIEVE IS A LIE?
"What if everything you believe is a lie?" - I found that question posed to the public on a site. I think it was meant to freak people out or get them to think as the person who asked the question would like them to, assuming the way s/he thinks is The Truth.
A long time ago I stated that I take no unilateral, absolute positions on any issue. I have no social or emotional need to adopt a position and cling to it at all cost in order to fit into a social group.
That, I believe, is why most people cling tenaciously to their opinions - fear of isolation. Most people hinge the satisfaction of their innate gregarious natures upon the adoption of a value system. They are willing to sacrifice their independence of thought and position-taking for the sake of acceptance. I will not make this sacrifice. I never did.
I have been accused of being "schizo" by people who hold desperately to one given way of thinking or another due to the fact that my way of thinking is eclectic, syncretistic and, above all, tentative at any given time, always subject to change when confronted by reasoning that seems more comprehensive or otherwise superior.
Some understand that that it is positive, the mark of a truly open mind, rather than a sign of pathology.
I (tentatively :0) think the following quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald is brilliant: "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. "
As my mother used to quote Shakespeare saying: "This above all,--to thine own self be true;", the remainder of the quote being: "and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." (Hamlet, Prince of Denmark)
Loyalty, whether it be to ideas, ideals or to persons is a very great value and virtue, but, IMO, allowing oneself to grow and evolve toward more comprehensive understanding, which allows us to love on a higher level, is greater and often that involves the moving on and away from that which and whom we cherished.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
"What if everything you believe is a lie?" - I found that question posed to the public on a site. I think it was meant to freak people out or get them to think as the person who asked the question would like them to, assuming the way s/he thinks is The Truth.
A long time ago I stated that I take no unilateral, absolute positions on any issue. I have no social or emotional need to adopt a position and cling to it at all cost in order to fit into a social group.
That, I believe, is why most people cling tenaciously to their opinions - fear of isolation. Most people hinge the satisfaction of their innate gregarious natures upon the adoption of a value system. They are willing to sacrifice their independence of thought and position-taking for the sake of acceptance. I will not make this sacrifice. I never did.
I have been accused of being "schizo" by people who hold desperately to one given way of thinking or another due to the fact that my way of thinking is eclectic, syncretistic and, above all, tentative at any given time, always subject to change when confronted by reasoning that seems more comprehensive or otherwise superior.
Some understand that that it is positive, the mark of a truly open mind, rather than a sign of pathology.
I (tentatively :0) think the following quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald is brilliant: "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. "
As my mother used to quote Shakespeare saying: "This above all,--to thine own self be true;", the remainder of the quote being: "and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." (Hamlet, Prince of Denmark)
Loyalty, whether it be to ideas, ideals or to persons is a very great value and virtue, but, IMO, allowing oneself to grow and evolve toward more comprehensive understanding, which allows us to love on a higher level, is greater and often that involves the moving on and away from that which and whom we cherished.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Pederasty in Ancient Greece
For a discussion of the topic please see: http://tinyurl.com/yhjvbp
The subject of Pederasty in ancient Greece came to my attention recently and caused me to reevaluate my thinking about bisexuality among men, while affirming my thinking on bisexuality as experienced and practiced by women.
Before reading about Pederasty in ancient Greece and based only on my observations of society in our times and in the recent past; I came to the conclusion that bisexuality is not only more prevalent among women than among men, but also perhaps more natural to their nature.
In the light of what I have learned about Pederasty, as practiced in ancient Greece by men and analogous behavior among women; it now seems to me that bisexuality is the norm for both sexes and will be the commonly practiced form of sexuality in the absence of societal pressures to be otherwise.
Note: Pederasty is not Pedophilia, even though it would not accord with ages of consent in conservative countries like the US. Herein we are discussing relationships between mature men and young men or adolescent boys, not between pubescent adults and pre-pubescent children, which I consider a gross form of abuse, wholly unnatural and thus a serious crime against nature.
Ancient Greece was a society in which Pederasty was not only considered normal or desirable, it was considered essential for the full development of the citizen. The Wikipedia article describes the phenomenon thusly: "The erastes-eromenos (the older lover-young object of his love, my parentheses) relationship was fundamental to the Classical Greek social and educational system, had its own complex social-sexual etiquette and was an important social institution among the upper class."
We note a number of elements of ancient Greek Pederasty.
First, it was not an abusive relationship, but one of love. I mention this because today the definition of Pederasty includes any type of mature-youthful homosexual relationship, including violent and otherwise abusive ones.
It was tremendously widespread in ancient Greece, truly a societal norm, which assumed various forms in accordance with the various cultures of the various City-States.
Ancient Greek art depicts the eromenoi (the term used for the "beloved" youth, the objects of love of the mature men) as physically well-developed. They are clearly fully sexually mature, quite muscularly developed and, admittedly in some but not all cases, in their full height.
The statues and art of ancient Greece teach us that neither the erastes nor the eromenos look "queer". They practiced homosexual relationships freely, but were very male in appearance, behavior, emotional make-up and thought patterns.
The Pederasty was in addition to, not instead of, relationships with women in which men were married and had children. As the Wikipedia article states: "The Greeks considered it normal for any man to be drawn to the beauty of a boy - just as much if not more than to that of a woman."
It is important to consider the implications of the fact that the practice was extremely widespread. It is impossible that an entire culture was based on an unnatural sexuality. That is to say, that in a culture in which homosexual expression of love is not forbidden, it will arise spontaneously, be widespread and exist side-by-side with heterosexual expression of love. The article also states: "Analogous relations between Greek women and adolescent girls have been reported by Plutarch, Xenophon and others." Bisexuality seems to be the norm for humans if not suppressed, that being, as I have (tentatively) concluded, as true for men as for women.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
For a discussion of the topic please see: http://tinyurl.com/yhjvbp
The subject of Pederasty in ancient Greece came to my attention recently and caused me to reevaluate my thinking about bisexuality among men, while affirming my thinking on bisexuality as experienced and practiced by women.
Before reading about Pederasty in ancient Greece and based only on my observations of society in our times and in the recent past; I came to the conclusion that bisexuality is not only more prevalent among women than among men, but also perhaps more natural to their nature.
In the light of what I have learned about Pederasty, as practiced in ancient Greece by men and analogous behavior among women; it now seems to me that bisexuality is the norm for both sexes and will be the commonly practiced form of sexuality in the absence of societal pressures to be otherwise.
Note: Pederasty is not Pedophilia, even though it would not accord with ages of consent in conservative countries like the US. Herein we are discussing relationships between mature men and young men or adolescent boys, not between pubescent adults and pre-pubescent children, which I consider a gross form of abuse, wholly unnatural and thus a serious crime against nature.
Ancient Greece was a society in which Pederasty was not only considered normal or desirable, it was considered essential for the full development of the citizen. The Wikipedia article describes the phenomenon thusly: "The erastes-eromenos (the older lover-young object of his love, my parentheses) relationship was fundamental to the Classical Greek social and educational system, had its own complex social-sexual etiquette and was an important social institution among the upper class."
We note a number of elements of ancient Greek Pederasty.
First, it was not an abusive relationship, but one of love. I mention this because today the definition of Pederasty includes any type of mature-youthful homosexual relationship, including violent and otherwise abusive ones.
It was tremendously widespread in ancient Greece, truly a societal norm, which assumed various forms in accordance with the various cultures of the various City-States.
Ancient Greek art depicts the eromenoi (the term used for the "beloved" youth, the objects of love of the mature men) as physically well-developed. They are clearly fully sexually mature, quite muscularly developed and, admittedly in some but not all cases, in their full height.
The statues and art of ancient Greece teach us that neither the erastes nor the eromenos look "queer". They practiced homosexual relationships freely, but were very male in appearance, behavior, emotional make-up and thought patterns.
The Pederasty was in addition to, not instead of, relationships with women in which men were married and had children. As the Wikipedia article states: "The Greeks considered it normal for any man to be drawn to the beauty of a boy - just as much if not more than to that of a woman."
It is important to consider the implications of the fact that the practice was extremely widespread. It is impossible that an entire culture was based on an unnatural sexuality. That is to say, that in a culture in which homosexual expression of love is not forbidden, it will arise spontaneously, be widespread and exist side-by-side with heterosexual expression of love. The article also states: "Analogous relations between Greek women and adolescent girls have been reported by Plutarch, Xenophon and others." Bisexuality seems to be the norm for humans if not suppressed, that being, as I have (tentatively) concluded, as true for men as for women.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Thursday, November 02, 2006
A political short story for Hallowe'en.
Hillary is taking part in a seance trying to contact Eleanor Roosevelt, another one of the political greats with whom she is certain she shares an eternal spiritual bond. "Come to me Eleanor! Speak to me, Eleanor! Speak! I summon thee from the grave! I command thee to speak to me!"
The candles begin to flicker wildly. The chandeliers rattle. The carpet on the wall begins to wave. A crystal vase on a table shakes violently making its way of the edge of table and shatters on the marble floor. But nary is a voice heard.
So, they get out the oija board and the letters spell out: "Bugger off, Hillary. I don't speak with the likes of you."
Doreen Ellen-Bell Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Hillary is taking part in a seance trying to contact Eleanor Roosevelt, another one of the political greats with whom she is certain she shares an eternal spiritual bond. "Come to me Eleanor! Speak to me, Eleanor! Speak! I summon thee from the grave! I command thee to speak to me!"
The candles begin to flicker wildly. The chandeliers rattle. The carpet on the wall begins to wave. A crystal vase on a table shakes violently making its way of the edge of table and shatters on the marble floor. But nary is a voice heard.
So, they get out the oija board and the letters spell out: "Bugger off, Hillary. I don't speak with the likes of you."
Doreen Ellen-Bell Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Reasons Not to Live in Tzfat (Safed), Or Anywhere Else in Israel for that Matter
--- In Tzfat@yahoogroups.com, "flakfire" wrote:>> Sabras are only at their best when their backs are really against the > wall.
I wrote:
You might add the inability to rethink our mythology about ourselves or be confused by the facts to your list.
You just lived through a war in which the Israelis were most certainly not at their best, but you persist in repeating the old cliches that give you an illusory sense of security.
That is one of the most obiquitous and serious problems in Israeli society.
flakfire wrote:
Otherwise, they are generally quite paltry and mediocre: blase, over-> confident, arrogant, ungrateful, easily sidetracked and none too smart!
I wrote:
Speak in the second person plural. Why do you exempt yourself?
flakfire wrote:
And that includes ALL Sabras: Jews, Arabs, left wing, right wing, charedi, frum (religious), professors, professionals, chilloni (secular)....! If it wasn't for the constant threat from the outside plus the constant stream of > new immigrant Jews, Israel would quickly degenerate into a farrago!
I wrote:
The way you use the term 'ferrago' is a malapropism. Your other IDs use malapropisms in the very same way. Ditto for the run on descriptions and overly emotional exclamation marks.
Can we get real? Perhaps that's a funny question to pose in a response to someone who posts with an alias (or two, or three...)
Can we admit that we have failed miserably?
We have not created a society that is in any wise superior to that of the Gentiles.
We do not exceed the Gentiles in average IQ in Israel, as we do in the Diaspora. (The average IQ of American Jews is 117. For Ethiopian Israeli Jews it is 105-110. For Ashkenazi Israeli Jews it is 100. For Mizrahi Israeli Jews it is 88). Our political system is not superior to the Gentiles'. Our judicial system is not superior to theirs. Our quality of living is not superior to theirs. We have not created a society that is more peaceful than theirs, more cultured, more interesting - in short, more anything. Let's not even talk about statistics of road accidents. We have a better system of medicine than does the US, but it is inferior to that of Gentile countries that likewise have socialized systems of medicine.
We are mediocre in every way, in every sphere.
Scientists who have talent are working for foreign research and many of them beat a permanent path out of here.
In all spheres there is a brain drain out of the country.
Certainly we are not proving either to ourselves or to the world that we are chosen.
We, in becoming a nation with a state, lost everything we once were. We also lost the respect and the awe of the nations.
We are sending our boys to die for the myths we want to believe about ourselves.
It doesn't matter that we have a nuclear arsenal. We can't use it without making mushroom soup of ourselves too. We are smack dab in the Middle East. So, if someone thinks that is a reason to have a state, they are dead wrong.
More than terrorist bombs, our illusions and delusions are blowing up all around us.
The only thing we do well is be second fiddle in others' countries.
When we are not in the driver's seat we make great driving instructors. Those who can't do teach.
I heard of a man who arrived here from Morocco as a child. He had a fistukia (a stand for nuts and snacks) that he barely made a living from. One day he decided to try his luck in Morocco. He became a successful businessman there. The same man who could hardly run a fistukia here ran a corporation in Morocco. The only difference was the location.
The only sane way to go is to realize that we are entertaining very dangerous illusions and delusions about ourselves. The foremost among them is that we are fit to run a state of our own.
I say we face the reality that we are making a total mess of our ersatz state and that we are at the point of losing control totally. I say the smartest way to go is to cut our losses, pack up and go back to wherever we came from and salvage whatever we can of what Jewry once was.
This country will go out , either with a bang or a wimper, if we persist in the belief that we are the holy People in the holy Land and that everything we do is blessed.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
--- In Tzfat@yahoogroups.com, "flakfire" wrote:>> Sabras are only at their best when their backs are really against the > wall.
I wrote:
You might add the inability to rethink our mythology about ourselves or be confused by the facts to your list.
You just lived through a war in which the Israelis were most certainly not at their best, but you persist in repeating the old cliches that give you an illusory sense of security.
That is one of the most obiquitous and serious problems in Israeli society.
flakfire wrote:
Otherwise, they are generally quite paltry and mediocre: blase, over-> confident, arrogant, ungrateful, easily sidetracked and none too smart!
I wrote:
Speak in the second person plural. Why do you exempt yourself?
flakfire wrote:
And that includes ALL Sabras: Jews, Arabs, left wing, right wing, charedi, frum (religious), professors, professionals, chilloni (secular)....! If it wasn't for the constant threat from the outside plus the constant stream of > new immigrant Jews, Israel would quickly degenerate into a farrago!
I wrote:
The way you use the term 'ferrago' is a malapropism. Your other IDs use malapropisms in the very same way. Ditto for the run on descriptions and overly emotional exclamation marks.
Can we get real? Perhaps that's a funny question to pose in a response to someone who posts with an alias (or two, or three...)
Can we admit that we have failed miserably?
We have not created a society that is in any wise superior to that of the Gentiles.
We do not exceed the Gentiles in average IQ in Israel, as we do in the Diaspora. (The average IQ of American Jews is 117. For Ethiopian Israeli Jews it is 105-110. For Ashkenazi Israeli Jews it is 100. For Mizrahi Israeli Jews it is 88). Our political system is not superior to the Gentiles'. Our judicial system is not superior to theirs. Our quality of living is not superior to theirs. We have not created a society that is more peaceful than theirs, more cultured, more interesting - in short, more anything. Let's not even talk about statistics of road accidents. We have a better system of medicine than does the US, but it is inferior to that of Gentile countries that likewise have socialized systems of medicine.
We are mediocre in every way, in every sphere.
Scientists who have talent are working for foreign research and many of them beat a permanent path out of here.
In all spheres there is a brain drain out of the country.
Certainly we are not proving either to ourselves or to the world that we are chosen.
We, in becoming a nation with a state, lost everything we once were. We also lost the respect and the awe of the nations.
We are sending our boys to die for the myths we want to believe about ourselves.
It doesn't matter that we have a nuclear arsenal. We can't use it without making mushroom soup of ourselves too. We are smack dab in the Middle East. So, if someone thinks that is a reason to have a state, they are dead wrong.
More than terrorist bombs, our illusions and delusions are blowing up all around us.
The only thing we do well is be second fiddle in others' countries.
When we are not in the driver's seat we make great driving instructors. Those who can't do teach.
I heard of a man who arrived here from Morocco as a child. He had a fistukia (a stand for nuts and snacks) that he barely made a living from. One day he decided to try his luck in Morocco. He became a successful businessman there. The same man who could hardly run a fistukia here ran a corporation in Morocco. The only difference was the location.
The only sane way to go is to realize that we are entertaining very dangerous illusions and delusions about ourselves. The foremost among them is that we are fit to run a state of our own.
I say we face the reality that we are making a total mess of our ersatz state and that we are at the point of losing control totally. I say the smartest way to go is to cut our losses, pack up and go back to wherever we came from and salvage whatever we can of what Jewry once was.
This country will go out , either with a bang or a wimper, if we persist in the belief that we are the holy People in the holy Land and that everything we do is blessed.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Carpe Diem! - Hallowe'en that is.
One day a year only you too can be a Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan look-alike. Well, almost. There'll always only be the one and only genuine article.
With a little help of a cheap, um, I mean, economically-savvy, wig you can approximate the world-renowned Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan uniqueness, magnificence, splendor and elegance. OK. Maybe none of that. But you can get a wig in your price range that'll afford you some of that famous "look" that is so jealously sought after.
WOW! The Whole Scotland Yard of It - That's as Close as You're Ever Going to Come to the Real McCoy: http://tinyurl.com/y3ssjh
http://tinyurl.com/y5sh2b
http://tinyurl.com/y2s48l
This One Actually Looks Something Like My Hair: https://www.magicmakers.com/retail/wigs/xlong_grey_wig.html
HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!
One day a year only you too can be a Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan look-alike. Well, almost. There'll always only be the one and only genuine article.
With a little help of a cheap, um, I mean, economically-savvy, wig you can approximate the world-renowned Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan uniqueness, magnificence, splendor and elegance. OK. Maybe none of that. But you can get a wig in your price range that'll afford you some of that famous "look" that is so jealously sought after.
WOW! The Whole Scotland Yard of It - That's as Close as You're Ever Going to Come to the Real McCoy: http://tinyurl.com/y3ssjh
http://tinyurl.com/y5sh2b
http://tinyurl.com/y2s48l
This One Actually Looks Something Like My Hair: https://www.magicmakers.com/retail/wigs/xlong_grey_wig.html
HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Doreen Dotan's Miscellaneous Meanderings
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MiscellaneousMeanderings.html
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MiscellaneousMeanderings.html
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Friday, September 29, 2006
What is Anarchistic Judaism?
This question was recently posed to me. The article on the link below is my level best tentative response, in so far as I am currently able to answer this very difficult question.
http://tinyurl.com/syelf
The Hebrew version of this essay entitled, not surprisingly,
?מהי יהדות אנרכיסטית is to be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/ulcan
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
This question was recently posed to me. The article on the link below is my level best tentative response, in so far as I am currently able to answer this very difficult question.
http://tinyurl.com/syelf
The Hebrew version of this essay entitled, not surprisingly,
?מהי יהדות אנרכיסטית is to be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/ulcan
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Monday, September 18, 2006
Possible Way to Defeat Radical Islam
As background to this post, I'd like to turn the readers' attention to an absolutely stunning video entitled "Obsession". If you have not seen it; I recommend that you set aside one hour and seventeen minutes and see some of the most nitty-gritty footage of radical Islam ever assembled. The video is to be found on this URL:http://tinyurl.com/sxkov
I discussed the Obsession video with others.They watched part of it and want to see the rest when they have time.
One of them, kidding, said: "Guess we'll have to become Muslims."
A light went on when he said that.
YES!
That may just be the only way to beat them.
Just as they have infiltrated our countries; we must infiltrate their Islam by "converting" and destroy if from within.
With a flood of phony converts who undermine Islam from within we can destroy Islam. Their "religion" will never be the same if millions of Western people intent on uprooting Islam feign conversion.
I believe that the churches weakened themselves by forcing conversion.
There were many converts who talked the talk, but they never were Christians inside and their mass effect over generations weakened the power structure of the churches.
As we know, any Jewish "Conversos" who were forcibly converted in Spain and Portugal pretended to be Catholics, but they undermined the religion and secretly passed Jewish teachings on to their children and they to their children and so on. Today there are families in the Spanish-speaking world who were converted over 500 years ago to Catholicism by force who are returning to their Jewish roots.
Armed warfare with Islam is impossible. They are in every country and their armies are massive.
The only way to beat them is from within.
Understand that I mean this as a last resort. I am certainly not running off to my nearest mosque for a quicky conversion, but if Armeggedon comes; I think this may be the best way to deal with the situation.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
__________________
As background to this post, I'd like to turn the readers' attention to an absolutely stunning video entitled "Obsession". If you have not seen it; I recommend that you set aside one hour and seventeen minutes and see some of the most nitty-gritty footage of radical Islam ever assembled. The video is to be found on this URL:http://tinyurl.com/sxkov
I discussed the Obsession video with others.They watched part of it and want to see the rest when they have time.
One of them, kidding, said: "Guess we'll have to become Muslims."
A light went on when he said that.
YES!
That may just be the only way to beat them.
Just as they have infiltrated our countries; we must infiltrate their Islam by "converting" and destroy if from within.
With a flood of phony converts who undermine Islam from within we can destroy Islam. Their "religion" will never be the same if millions of Western people intent on uprooting Islam feign conversion.
I believe that the churches weakened themselves by forcing conversion.
There were many converts who talked the talk, but they never were Christians inside and their mass effect over generations weakened the power structure of the churches.
As we know, any Jewish "Conversos" who were forcibly converted in Spain and Portugal pretended to be Catholics, but they undermined the religion and secretly passed Jewish teachings on to their children and they to their children and so on. Today there are families in the Spanish-speaking world who were converted over 500 years ago to Catholicism by force who are returning to their Jewish roots.
Armed warfare with Islam is impossible. They are in every country and their armies are massive.
The only way to beat them is from within.
Understand that I mean this as a last resort. I am certainly not running off to my nearest mosque for a quicky conversion, but if Armeggedon comes; I think this may be the best way to deal with the situation.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
__________________
Ontological Anarchy, Quantum Physics and Judaism
As background to Ontological Anarchy please see:
http://tinyurl.com/mxyrl
Having considered the concepts of Ontological Anarchy and Quantum Physics, at least briefly; we can now tie them to Judaism.
It might seem that if we accept that Anarchy is ontological then we have to reject the set Laws in Torah. Or, if we accept that the universe is ruled by the Laws in Torah, then we cannot posit ontological Anarchy.
One or the other needs to go. Right? I think not.
Remember that all of the letters in Hebrew are numerical values. Since numerical values all have an infinite number of substitution values; it is true that there is always an infinite number of alternative, equivalent readings of the Torah effective.
See: The Imperative of Moral Mathematics
http://tinyurl.com/6o3no
-and-
ALEPH – The Unending One
http://tinyurl.com/zghyg
In other words, we have to start to think of that which is written in Torah in a "quantum" manner, to describe the thinking in modern jargon. We are used to thinking of Torah "collapsed" into one possibility of reading/computation, but in reality it is in infinite states of reading/computation and availing itself of infinite interpretation always. It is we who solidify it into one state when we observe it in a state of mochin katnut (restricted consciousness in Aramaic), even as we do the very same to the physical world when we train our consciousness on it.
As background to the following discussion please see:
Anarchy and the Spiritual Quest
http://tinyurl.com/mr9pk
Our consciousness is, in large part, predicated upon our interactions with others in society. As we relate to one another, so we conceptualize and take cognizance of the phenomena presented to our consciousness, or more correctly, take cognizance of the fact that our consciousness is producing that which is presented to it. It is generally accepted that how we use language determines our consciousness, that consciousness is a function of linguistics. Looking deeper into the matter; it will become apparent that our language is nothing other than memeplexes - that is our conceptual inheritance, the ways in which we were taught from infancy to relate to other human beings, as those who came before us did. Among the media of exchange of this information are language; observable behavior among people: caring or indifference, deference to some, lack of respect for others, addressing some by their titles, addressing others by their proper names, not addressing some at all and so on; the way in which we relate to others' material substance.
If we wish to perceive תורה in its "quantum" majesty, if we wish to the following passage from Henry David Thoreau's WALDEN to apply to us, as תורה-living Jews: "He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings" ; it is imperative that we build a society that allows us to relate to one another in far more cooperative, expansive, creative ways.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
dandor@013.net - עברית
As background to Ontological Anarchy please see:
http://tinyurl.com/mxyrl
Having considered the concepts of Ontological Anarchy and Quantum Physics, at least briefly; we can now tie them to Judaism.
It might seem that if we accept that Anarchy is ontological then we have to reject the set Laws in Torah. Or, if we accept that the universe is ruled by the Laws in Torah, then we cannot posit ontological Anarchy.
One or the other needs to go. Right? I think not.
Remember that all of the letters in Hebrew are numerical values. Since numerical values all have an infinite number of substitution values; it is true that there is always an infinite number of alternative, equivalent readings of the Torah effective.
See: The Imperative of Moral Mathematics
http://tinyurl.com/6o3no
-and-
ALEPH – The Unending One
http://tinyurl.com/zghyg
In other words, we have to start to think of that which is written in Torah in a "quantum" manner, to describe the thinking in modern jargon. We are used to thinking of Torah "collapsed" into one possibility of reading/computation, but in reality it is in infinite states of reading/computation and availing itself of infinite interpretation always. It is we who solidify it into one state when we observe it in a state of mochin katnut (restricted consciousness in Aramaic), even as we do the very same to the physical world when we train our consciousness on it.
As background to the following discussion please see:
Anarchy and the Spiritual Quest
http://tinyurl.com/mr9pk
Our consciousness is, in large part, predicated upon our interactions with others in society. As we relate to one another, so we conceptualize and take cognizance of the phenomena presented to our consciousness, or more correctly, take cognizance of the fact that our consciousness is producing that which is presented to it. It is generally accepted that how we use language determines our consciousness, that consciousness is a function of linguistics. Looking deeper into the matter; it will become apparent that our language is nothing other than memeplexes - that is our conceptual inheritance, the ways in which we were taught from infancy to relate to other human beings, as those who came before us did. Among the media of exchange of this information are language; observable behavior among people: caring or indifference, deference to some, lack of respect for others, addressing some by their titles, addressing others by their proper names, not addressing some at all and so on; the way in which we relate to others' material substance.
If we wish to perceive תורה in its "quantum" majesty, if we wish to the following passage from Henry David Thoreau's WALDEN to apply to us, as תורה-living Jews: "He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings" ; it is imperative that we build a society that allows us to relate to one another in far more cooperative, expansive, creative ways.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
dandor@013.net - עברית
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Israel is a Democracy! Right?
Israel most certainly is a democracy and a beaut of one it is too. In the space of this essay we will define democracy properly and it will become painfully apparent just how democratic the State of Israel is.
In order to make clear what democracy is, I should like to share the following with the reader:
There was once a particularly well done and disturbing episode of The Twilight Zone on American television. In an imagined 'future' there were some five or six state-sanctioned physical and mental types for each both men and women. Everyone had to undergo the operations necessary to become one of these types. The choice of which type to become was free, but the types were set. Each of the types were considered physically perfect and deemed mentally and emotionally desirable in this futuristic society. There was one young woman who, though physically plain and quirkily imperfect, didn't want to become one of the state-sanctioned types. She accepted herself as she was and didn't think that becoming another doll-like mannequin would be an improvement. She was subjected to a great deal of social temptation to become one of the state-sanctioned types. She was told that it was to her benefit to undergo the operations and those benefits were described, tantalizingly, to her. Yet, she persisted in wishing to remain herself. She was afterward cajoled, then she was ridiculed. As she persisted in holding her ground, ridicule turned to pressure, to making her feel isolated and unwanted and ultimately to threats. Yet, she held out and did not undergo the operation. It was explained to her 'rationally' that she was being unreasonable, irrational and unnecessarily iconoclastic. She was cajoled. She was told that she was being a troublemaker. She was told that she was, incidentally, rather repulsive physically as well. She was told that after undergoing the operations and becoming perfect in every way she would be happy that she did. Every manner of social pressure was heaped upon the young woman for the "crime" of wishing to be and remain herself.Finally, she did break and in the chilling last scene of the episode she is seen standing in front of a mirror, admiring her new-found perfection, every vestige of her interesting individuality completely lost. It could be inferred from that last scene that all of the others who had become state-sanctioned types had also once been individualistic, had tried to defend their own being and integrity insofar as they were able to, but they broke under "democratic" pressure to be like everyone else.That episode was aired when I was about ten years old. It had a tremendous impact on me and even at that young age I was able to understand that it was an only slightly hyperbolic description of the American society that I was living in. I understood that this was the maximum amount of freedom that was allowed to me and to the people around me by the American regime - we were allowed to 'choose' to become one of a limited number of state-sanctioned types.
You may say: "But we citizens and denizens of democracies can be vociferously critical of our governments. We can say and write what we think publicly without being censured or fear for our freedom and welfare."
I answer: Indeed. Have you ever noticed that the dissenters in democratic societies level the same criticisms, employing the same cliché phraseology, adopt the same modes of comportment and so on. There are state-sanctioned expressions of dissent. They are not only harmless to the government; they serve it by giving people the illusion that they are voicing critique. In fact, the critiques they level are mere parroting of that which they hear in the media in exactly the way in which they hear them in the media. That is to say, those "critiques" have been OK'ed by the powers that prevail. If a real critic of society, expressing original thoughts and employing original phraseology voices his or her opinion she or may be sure that she or he will be anathematized at the very least, first and foremost by the brainwashed masses of democracy, then jailed and isolated from "decent" people by those bodies who receive their salaries from the Plutocrats who are running this ersatz "democracy" to preserve "law and order" at the worst.
Democracy, in truth, is the mass illusion of personal and societal freedom created by the "manufacturing of consent" and the "engineering of consent" as developed by such "engineers of public opinion" as Walter Lippmann, Edward Bernays. Their equally nefarious, reptilian spawn, the "shapers of public opinion" continue their work to this day, having refined their techniques. It is they who are hired by the Plutocrats that run society to train the masses to think and behave as the Plutocrats wish them to. I should mention at this juncture that Edward Bernays was not only a nephew of Sigmund Freud, he was also an admirer of Ivan Pavlov, whose techniques he incorporated into his "engineering of consent".
As Edward Bernays expounds chillingly in his book PROPAGANDA, published in 1929, once individuals with some leadership skills and organizational abilities have been inculcated with the values, tastes and attitudes that the ruling classes wish the masses to be inculcated with to the extent that they think those values, tastes and attitudes are their own and arise from their own free will and inclinations; they will influence others to think similarly. A free .pdf download of PROPAGANDA and my book review in English on: http://www.crimsonbird.com/history/propaganda.htm .
Democracy capitalizes on human gregariousness and need for belonging. We humans are biologically, psychologically and emotionally constituted to be part of a group. Most of us experience the need to be loved, to be respected, to have as much status as we are able to accrue to ourselves and to belong as imperatives.
Democracy threatens us with alienation and isolation if we do not adopt acceptable behavior, speech and attitudes.
Democracy is the tyranny of the ubiquitous, immense, inchoate masses that have been conditioned to perceive the true dissenter as an alien and a threat that must be eradicated and whose behavior and reactions have been "engineered" and "manufactured" by the "engineers of public opinion" in the employ of the Plutocrats to beat the individualist into submission.
Only the 'hold-outs' are the true and genuine and can ever be free. Those who cannot be tempted, cajoled, ridiculed, insulted or threatened into submission and giving up what they are are those who are free. They are the ones who smash the idols (even if they are being made in our own fathers' workshops) and who slaughter the sacred cows (of the mind – let there be no misunderstands of my intentions in writing this). Abbey Hoffman is quoted as having said: "Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburgers." Playful nose-snubbing, rather than strident ranting, at the establishment is the hallmark of the true dissident. Their ability to be playful derives from the fact that they were not broken as children by the "free" public school system.
The truly free can never be a state-sanctioned type. The person of integrity bends to no social lie - no matter what the reward of doing so may be, no matter what the punishment of not doing so may be. It is for that reason that dissenters are, always have been and always will be the objects of public derision and private envy.
The best piece of advice that I can extend to Israelis is to turn off your radios and television sets. It is astonishing how these media of mass hypnosis, opinion forming and emotion arousing are ubiquitous in this country, even by Western standards. One can nary go into a waiting room without a TV being situated there "for entertainment" and to "give you something to do while waiting". Every cab driver and bus driver feels compelled to have the radio droning in the background continuously. In every supermarket the talking head blather on and on and... Big Brother is Big Brother even if it shimmies and shakes and sings and is presented to us in too, too bright colors and cutesy, catchy slogans and jingles. We do not need distraction from ourselves. We do not need to be told what to think, what is right and what is wrong, what is beautiful, what is desirable, what we must buy. We most certainly do not need to have our emotions artificially aroused by media that entice us onto a daily rollercoaster of alternate fear, sexual excitation, anger, feelings of superiority, feelings of inferiority, feelings of helplessness and what not.
Turn those damned machines off and read a book. Better yet, think for yourself. You will find that your mind is vastly more interesting that anything that can be staged and scripted for you in the media.
What is the alternative to "democracy"? True Anarchy, as described on the following URL: http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/AuthenticAnarchyHEB.htm
The Hebrew version of this article is to be found on:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/IsraelDemocracyRightHEB.htm
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Yisra'el
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Israel most certainly is a democracy and a beaut of one it is too. In the space of this essay we will define democracy properly and it will become painfully apparent just how democratic the State of Israel is.
In order to make clear what democracy is, I should like to share the following with the reader:
There was once a particularly well done and disturbing episode of The Twilight Zone on American television. In an imagined 'future' there were some five or six state-sanctioned physical and mental types for each both men and women. Everyone had to undergo the operations necessary to become one of these types. The choice of which type to become was free, but the types were set. Each of the types were considered physically perfect and deemed mentally and emotionally desirable in this futuristic society. There was one young woman who, though physically plain and quirkily imperfect, didn't want to become one of the state-sanctioned types. She accepted herself as she was and didn't think that becoming another doll-like mannequin would be an improvement. She was subjected to a great deal of social temptation to become one of the state-sanctioned types. She was told that it was to her benefit to undergo the operations and those benefits were described, tantalizingly, to her. Yet, she persisted in wishing to remain herself. She was afterward cajoled, then she was ridiculed. As she persisted in holding her ground, ridicule turned to pressure, to making her feel isolated and unwanted and ultimately to threats. Yet, she held out and did not undergo the operation. It was explained to her 'rationally' that she was being unreasonable, irrational and unnecessarily iconoclastic. She was cajoled. She was told that she was being a troublemaker. She was told that she was, incidentally, rather repulsive physically as well. She was told that after undergoing the operations and becoming perfect in every way she would be happy that she did. Every manner of social pressure was heaped upon the young woman for the "crime" of wishing to be and remain herself.Finally, she did break and in the chilling last scene of the episode she is seen standing in front of a mirror, admiring her new-found perfection, every vestige of her interesting individuality completely lost. It could be inferred from that last scene that all of the others who had become state-sanctioned types had also once been individualistic, had tried to defend their own being and integrity insofar as they were able to, but they broke under "democratic" pressure to be like everyone else.That episode was aired when I was about ten years old. It had a tremendous impact on me and even at that young age I was able to understand that it was an only slightly hyperbolic description of the American society that I was living in. I understood that this was the maximum amount of freedom that was allowed to me and to the people around me by the American regime - we were allowed to 'choose' to become one of a limited number of state-sanctioned types.
You may say: "But we citizens and denizens of democracies can be vociferously critical of our governments. We can say and write what we think publicly without being censured or fear for our freedom and welfare."
I answer: Indeed. Have you ever noticed that the dissenters in democratic societies level the same criticisms, employing the same cliché phraseology, adopt the same modes of comportment and so on. There are state-sanctioned expressions of dissent. They are not only harmless to the government; they serve it by giving people the illusion that they are voicing critique. In fact, the critiques they level are mere parroting of that which they hear in the media in exactly the way in which they hear them in the media. That is to say, those "critiques" have been OK'ed by the powers that prevail. If a real critic of society, expressing original thoughts and employing original phraseology voices his or her opinion she or may be sure that she or he will be anathematized at the very least, first and foremost by the brainwashed masses of democracy, then jailed and isolated from "decent" people by those bodies who receive their salaries from the Plutocrats who are running this ersatz "democracy" to preserve "law and order" at the worst.
Democracy, in truth, is the mass illusion of personal and societal freedom created by the "manufacturing of consent" and the "engineering of consent" as developed by such "engineers of public opinion" as Walter Lippmann, Edward Bernays. Their equally nefarious, reptilian spawn, the "shapers of public opinion" continue their work to this day, having refined their techniques. It is they who are hired by the Plutocrats that run society to train the masses to think and behave as the Plutocrats wish them to. I should mention at this juncture that Edward Bernays was not only a nephew of Sigmund Freud, he was also an admirer of Ivan Pavlov, whose techniques he incorporated into his "engineering of consent".
As Edward Bernays expounds chillingly in his book PROPAGANDA, published in 1929, once individuals with some leadership skills and organizational abilities have been inculcated with the values, tastes and attitudes that the ruling classes wish the masses to be inculcated with to the extent that they think those values, tastes and attitudes are their own and arise from their own free will and inclinations; they will influence others to think similarly. A free .pdf download of PROPAGANDA and my book review in English on: http://www.crimsonbird.com/history/propaganda.htm .
Democracy capitalizes on human gregariousness and need for belonging. We humans are biologically, psychologically and emotionally constituted to be part of a group. Most of us experience the need to be loved, to be respected, to have as much status as we are able to accrue to ourselves and to belong as imperatives.
Democracy threatens us with alienation and isolation if we do not adopt acceptable behavior, speech and attitudes.
Democracy is the tyranny of the ubiquitous, immense, inchoate masses that have been conditioned to perceive the true dissenter as an alien and a threat that must be eradicated and whose behavior and reactions have been "engineered" and "manufactured" by the "engineers of public opinion" in the employ of the Plutocrats to beat the individualist into submission.
Only the 'hold-outs' are the true and genuine and can ever be free. Those who cannot be tempted, cajoled, ridiculed, insulted or threatened into submission and giving up what they are are those who are free. They are the ones who smash the idols (even if they are being made in our own fathers' workshops) and who slaughter the sacred cows (of the mind – let there be no misunderstands of my intentions in writing this). Abbey Hoffman is quoted as having said: "Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburgers." Playful nose-snubbing, rather than strident ranting, at the establishment is the hallmark of the true dissident. Their ability to be playful derives from the fact that they were not broken as children by the "free" public school system.
The truly free can never be a state-sanctioned type. The person of integrity bends to no social lie - no matter what the reward of doing so may be, no matter what the punishment of not doing so may be. It is for that reason that dissenters are, always have been and always will be the objects of public derision and private envy.
The best piece of advice that I can extend to Israelis is to turn off your radios and television sets. It is astonishing how these media of mass hypnosis, opinion forming and emotion arousing are ubiquitous in this country, even by Western standards. One can nary go into a waiting room without a TV being situated there "for entertainment" and to "give you something to do while waiting". Every cab driver and bus driver feels compelled to have the radio droning in the background continuously. In every supermarket the talking head blather on and on and... Big Brother is Big Brother even if it shimmies and shakes and sings and is presented to us in too, too bright colors and cutesy, catchy slogans and jingles. We do not need distraction from ourselves. We do not need to be told what to think, what is right and what is wrong, what is beautiful, what is desirable, what we must buy. We most certainly do not need to have our emotions artificially aroused by media that entice us onto a daily rollercoaster of alternate fear, sexual excitation, anger, feelings of superiority, feelings of inferiority, feelings of helplessness and what not.
Turn those damned machines off and read a book. Better yet, think for yourself. You will find that your mind is vastly more interesting that anything that can be staged and scripted for you in the media.
What is the alternative to "democracy"? True Anarchy, as described on the following URL: http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/AuthenticAnarchyHEB.htm
The Hebrew version of this article is to be found on:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/IsraelDemocracyRightHEB.htm
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Yisra'el
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Friday, September 15, 2006
Ontological Anarchy
Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey) is a genius, in my humble and correct opinion. Like most people who get to the frontiers of consciousness, he sometimes drifts off into deep space and gets ridiculous. That goes with the (lack of) territory. I don't agree with a lot of the things that he writes and I certainly don't follow him around on his various trips into inner and outer space. He's a member of NAMbLA. I do not know if he practices paedophilia or non-violent paederasty. I have no problem with the latter. To my mind, the age of consent should be when both puberty and a reasonable awareness of what the ramifications of a pubescent person engaging in sexual and emotional intercourse with another pubescent person commences. This is obviously very individual and no law can possibly regulate it.
At any rate, Wilson/Bey wrote an essay entitled: "Quantum Mechanics & Chaos TheoryAnarchist Meditations on N. Herbert'sQuantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics"
that impressed me, which is to be found on this URL:
http://www.hermetic.com/bey/quantum.html
While I do not agree with his timeline of human development, I think there has been a lot of overlap and at any given time all forms were present to one extent or another; I must certainly do agree with his thesis that our societal relationships impact on how and what we are able to perceive and vice versa.
I agree with Wilsom entirely that Anarchy is Ontological. The political and social aspects of Anarchy are expressions of Ontological Anarchy on the human level.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey) is a genius, in my humble and correct opinion. Like most people who get to the frontiers of consciousness, he sometimes drifts off into deep space and gets ridiculous. That goes with the (lack of) territory. I don't agree with a lot of the things that he writes and I certainly don't follow him around on his various trips into inner and outer space. He's a member of NAMbLA. I do not know if he practices paedophilia or non-violent paederasty. I have no problem with the latter. To my mind, the age of consent should be when both puberty and a reasonable awareness of what the ramifications of a pubescent person engaging in sexual and emotional intercourse with another pubescent person commences. This is obviously very individual and no law can possibly regulate it.
At any rate, Wilson/Bey wrote an essay entitled: "Quantum Mechanics & Chaos TheoryAnarchist Meditations on N. Herbert'sQuantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics"
that impressed me, which is to be found on this URL:
http://www.hermetic.com/bey/quantum.html
While I do not agree with his timeline of human development, I think there has been a lot of overlap and at any given time all forms were present to one extent or another; I must certainly do agree with his thesis that our societal relationships impact on how and what we are able to perceive and vice versa.
I agree with Wilsom entirely that Anarchy is Ontological. The political and social aspects of Anarchy are expressions of Ontological Anarchy on the human level.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Monday, September 11, 2006
Anecdote: The Day I Became a "Real" Israeli in the Shuq (Market)
I wrote the following to a woman who grew up in England. She contends that she is dismayed at the prejudice she sees in England "of late". I explained to her that prejudice has always been rife in England and that if she did not see it it is probably because she grew up in a demographically heterogeneous area.
Her riposte was that once when her family were on vacation her brothers spent the day playing with a little Pakistani boy.
I answered:
In order to make my point clear; I'll offer an anecdote.
Here in Israel we have open market days once a week called the shuq. Typically, food is a good deal cheaper in the shuq than in stores. The produce is also farm-fresh. One of the reasons that some of the foodstuffs are cheaper is because they come in bulk and are weighed out to the customer, rather than being pre-packaged. The fact that the foods are in bulk, and in large, open containers, sacks or boxes makes it easy for people to just reach in and taste the wares: dried fruits, cookies, sweets, etc. For many years I found the idea of taking from food that countless people reached into and ate from (sometimes more than one taste) extremely off-putting. Gradually, I got over the queasiness as I realized that no one around me seemed to be suffering any ill effects from the practice. One day when I was in the market I reached into a bag and took one of the types of cookie I intended to buy and ate it. Delighted with my new level of integration into Israeli society; when I got I said to my son: "Today I became a real Israeli. I ate from one of the open boxes of cookies in the shuk (market)!" He looked at me levelly and said: "You're still not a real Israeli, Mom. You'll be a real Israeli when you do it and never give it a thought." And so I say to you: You will be a really unprejudiced person when you do not preface the children that your brothers played with as "Pakistani" or whatever other than English preface you put to them, just as you do not say: "My brothers played with English children".
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
I wrote the following to a woman who grew up in England. She contends that she is dismayed at the prejudice she sees in England "of late". I explained to her that prejudice has always been rife in England and that if she did not see it it is probably because she grew up in a demographically heterogeneous area.
Her riposte was that once when her family were on vacation her brothers spent the day playing with a little Pakistani boy.
I answered:
In order to make my point clear; I'll offer an anecdote.
Here in Israel we have open market days once a week called the shuq. Typically, food is a good deal cheaper in the shuq than in stores. The produce is also farm-fresh. One of the reasons that some of the foodstuffs are cheaper is because they come in bulk and are weighed out to the customer, rather than being pre-packaged. The fact that the foods are in bulk, and in large, open containers, sacks or boxes makes it easy for people to just reach in and taste the wares: dried fruits, cookies, sweets, etc. For many years I found the idea of taking from food that countless people reached into and ate from (sometimes more than one taste) extremely off-putting. Gradually, I got over the queasiness as I realized that no one around me seemed to be suffering any ill effects from the practice. One day when I was in the market I reached into a bag and took one of the types of cookie I intended to buy and ate it. Delighted with my new level of integration into Israeli society; when I got I said to my son: "Today I became a real Israeli. I ate from one of the open boxes of cookies in the shuk (market)!" He looked at me levelly and said: "You're still not a real Israeli, Mom. You'll be a real Israeli when you do it and never give it a thought." And so I say to you: You will be a really unprejudiced person when you do not preface the children that your brothers played with as "Pakistani" or whatever other than English preface you put to them, just as you do not say: "My brothers played with English children".
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Monday, August 28, 2006
Let It Be Known
Let it be known outside of Israel that:
1) 1000 of the 5000 meals that were donated by a charity went unaccounted for every day. The worker at the Municipality who was in charge of distribution told local reporters that he was told to put the 1000 meals aside daily and to leave no written record as to having received them.
2) A truck load full of air conditioners that were donated for the poorly-ventilated, sweltering bomb shelters vanished into, well, thin air.
3) Ditto for the TVs that were donated. In contradistinction, the workers of the Municipality (that is, the 17 out of 350 who didn't desert the city entirely) arranged deluxe, "VIP" shelters for themselves, replete with color TV, A/C and Internet.
4) The free days in hotels, including free meals, that were donated by the hotels themselves and were specifically designated for the infirm and elderly first and foremost were, instead, used by workers in the Municipality. As the result of not getting one of those rooms, one woman whose 8-year-old handicapped, wheelchair-bound daughter, who must be kept in sterile conditions, contracted an infection and had to be hospitalized. Some relative of some worker of the City got the room that little girl should have had. No matter, eventually she got a nice room - in the hospital.
5) A huge number of disposable diapers that was donated likewise disappeared. What the hell can someone do with tons of nappies??? As a result of most of the Municipality workers running for the own lives and leaving us here to die, the army sent in a regiment of reserve soldiers to run the city. They did an exemplary job of handling the exigencies, but the potential peril of the precedent of being deserted by the democratically-elected government of the city and being governed almost entirely by high-ranking officers in the army need not be elaborated upon.
Tzfat has been dubbed "The Ignominy of the Galilee" in the national press.
I am LIVID and despite the fact that I have been advised by frightened citizens that if I do not shut up; I run the risk of arrest and possibly being jailed, I will not shut up.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Let it be known outside of Israel that:
1) 1000 of the 5000 meals that were donated by a charity went unaccounted for every day. The worker at the Municipality who was in charge of distribution told local reporters that he was told to put the 1000 meals aside daily and to leave no written record as to having received them.
2) A truck load full of air conditioners that were donated for the poorly-ventilated, sweltering bomb shelters vanished into, well, thin air.
3) Ditto for the TVs that were donated. In contradistinction, the workers of the Municipality (that is, the 17 out of 350 who didn't desert the city entirely) arranged deluxe, "VIP" shelters for themselves, replete with color TV, A/C and Internet.
4) The free days in hotels, including free meals, that were donated by the hotels themselves and were specifically designated for the infirm and elderly first and foremost were, instead, used by workers in the Municipality. As the result of not getting one of those rooms, one woman whose 8-year-old handicapped, wheelchair-bound daughter, who must be kept in sterile conditions, contracted an infection and had to be hospitalized. Some relative of some worker of the City got the room that little girl should have had. No matter, eventually she got a nice room - in the hospital.
5) A huge number of disposable diapers that was donated likewise disappeared. What the hell can someone do with tons of nappies??? As a result of most of the Municipality workers running for the own lives and leaving us here to die, the army sent in a regiment of reserve soldiers to run the city. They did an exemplary job of handling the exigencies, but the potential peril of the precedent of being deserted by the democratically-elected government of the city and being governed almost entirely by high-ranking officers in the army need not be elaborated upon.
Tzfat has been dubbed "The Ignominy of the Galilee" in the national press.
I am LIVID and despite the fact that I have been advised by frightened citizens that if I do not shut up; I run the risk of arrest and possibly being jailed, I will not shut up.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
A New Invention in Honor of Tzfat
Tzfat's (Safed's) having been dubbed "The Ignominy of the Galilee" in the national press, is the afflatus for a new gadget I've developed that will prove to be very useful for the residents of Tzfat.
A patent is already pending. So, no one better even think of stealing it.
It is called the Ignominometer.
It is a special cuff to measure the elevation of one's blood pressure in response to the anger as a result of, or the lowering of one's blood pressure in response to the shame of, the various degrees of ignominy which Tzfat is characterized by at any given moment.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Tzfat's (Safed's) having been dubbed "The Ignominy of the Galilee" in the national press, is the afflatus for a new gadget I've developed that will prove to be very useful for the residents of Tzfat.
A patent is already pending. So, no one better even think of stealing it.
It is called the Ignominometer.
It is a special cuff to measure the elevation of one's blood pressure in response to the anger as a result of, or the lowering of one's blood pressure in response to the shame of, the various degrees of ignominy which Tzfat is characterized by at any given moment.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
הממשלה הוכיחה כי היא מיותרת
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MysticalAnarchyII.html
דורין אלן בל-דותן,צפת
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MysticalAnarchyII.html
דורין אלן בל-דותן,צפת
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Sunday, August 27, 2006
The Israeli Government Proved Itself to be Superfluous
The local government of the city of Tzfat (Safed) and, to a far lesser extent, the national government collapsed during the war. The local government of the city of Tzfat was simply non-existent.
Here in Tzfat only 17 of the 350 workers in the Municipality remained in the city during the war.
Reserve soldiers had to be brought in to see to it that the special needs of the city were taken care of. That is to say, that the supposedly democratic local government of the city of Tzfat deserted us and we were run militarily for a month. The precedent is so potentially dangerous that I need not elaborate.
In their absence the Municipality proved that they are superfluous. We simply do not need them. They are not even parasites. They are superfluous. They have realized their worst nightmare as politicians. They are not only not wanted, they are needed, not in the least.
There are many citizen-run organizations that can easily be modified slightly in order to become the bodies that take care of all of the functions of this city.
Milgam, Inc., the company that provides our water in Tzfat, is not a municipal agency. They are a private company. Our gas is provided by private companies. Although the electric company is a government company; it could be modified to be a worker-run collective with concerted effort.
Instead of the charity organizations, of which we have a very respectable number here in Tzfat, being organized to pick up where the government leaves off and, in so doing, perpetuate, rather than alleviate, poverty; they can be modified to be the bodies that care for the various needs of the residents of Tzfat.
If the charity organizations became the organizations and agencies that provide necessaries to all, not merely giving hand-outs to the needy, we would be able to eradicate indigence, as befits Jews. We would all have our needs provided for truly. Imagine no one having to beg for their subsistence. Imagine no one being punished with poverty for the "crime" of being aged, handicapped, widowed, orphaned or unemployable for whatever the reason. We can do better vastly better for ourselves and one another than can the government National Insurance Agency!
Instead of turning to the city for every need and want big and small be must learn to rely upon ourselves and upon one another. The concept is called Mutual Aid. We trade that which we can provide for that which we need. We become as maximally self-reliant as possible and create a culture of cooperative sharing.
There is nothing that the Municipality is doing for us that we cannot do far more efficiently, promptly, cost-effectively, fairly, caringly and honestly ourselves – and in a far more personalized manner, providing the services such that they fit individual needs and not strapping every citizen to a procrustean bed.
It is high time that the Israeli public was weaned from the co-dependent addiction and sickness of turning to the government only to get nothing but a kick in the teeth and then turning to the government again for comfort because they have been kicked in the teeth....
Since the Municipality of Tzfat was the first in the country to collapse utterly, it devolves upon Tzfat to become the premier model city for self-government on the part of the residents.
We can supplant the Municipality and take over every one of their functions. All we have to do is believe in ourselves and in one another and organize.
Let's send the workers of the Municipality of the City of Tzfat on a permanent vacation to Eilat!
Both the Hebrew and the English versions of this essay can be found on the following site:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MysticalAnarchyII.html
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
The local government of the city of Tzfat (Safed) and, to a far lesser extent, the national government collapsed during the war. The local government of the city of Tzfat was simply non-existent.
Here in Tzfat only 17 of the 350 workers in the Municipality remained in the city during the war.
Reserve soldiers had to be brought in to see to it that the special needs of the city were taken care of. That is to say, that the supposedly democratic local government of the city of Tzfat deserted us and we were run militarily for a month. The precedent is so potentially dangerous that I need not elaborate.
In their absence the Municipality proved that they are superfluous. We simply do not need them. They are not even parasites. They are superfluous. They have realized their worst nightmare as politicians. They are not only not wanted, they are needed, not in the least.
There are many citizen-run organizations that can easily be modified slightly in order to become the bodies that take care of all of the functions of this city.
Milgam, Inc., the company that provides our water in Tzfat, is not a municipal agency. They are a private company. Our gas is provided by private companies. Although the electric company is a government company; it could be modified to be a worker-run collective with concerted effort.
Instead of the charity organizations, of which we have a very respectable number here in Tzfat, being organized to pick up where the government leaves off and, in so doing, perpetuate, rather than alleviate, poverty; they can be modified to be the bodies that care for the various needs of the residents of Tzfat.
If the charity organizations became the organizations and agencies that provide necessaries to all, not merely giving hand-outs to the needy, we would be able to eradicate indigence, as befits Jews. We would all have our needs provided for truly. Imagine no one having to beg for their subsistence. Imagine no one being punished with poverty for the "crime" of being aged, handicapped, widowed, orphaned or unemployable for whatever the reason. We can do better vastly better for ourselves and one another than can the government National Insurance Agency!
Instead of turning to the city for every need and want big and small be must learn to rely upon ourselves and upon one another. The concept is called Mutual Aid. We trade that which we can provide for that which we need. We become as maximally self-reliant as possible and create a culture of cooperative sharing.
There is nothing that the Municipality is doing for us that we cannot do far more efficiently, promptly, cost-effectively, fairly, caringly and honestly ourselves – and in a far more personalized manner, providing the services such that they fit individual needs and not strapping every citizen to a procrustean bed.
It is high time that the Israeli public was weaned from the co-dependent addiction and sickness of turning to the government only to get nothing but a kick in the teeth and then turning to the government again for comfort because they have been kicked in the teeth....
Since the Municipality of Tzfat was the first in the country to collapse utterly, it devolves upon Tzfat to become the premier model city for self-government on the part of the residents.
We can supplant the Municipality and take over every one of their functions. All we have to do is believe in ourselves and in one another and organize.
Let's send the workers of the Municipality of the City of Tzfat on a permanent vacation to Eilat!
Both the Hebrew and the English versions of this essay can be found on the following site:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MysticalAnarchyII.html
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
"People are Nothing But Sheep! They are Nothing But Lemmings!"
So the brainwashed, who are the unpaid, inadvertent agents of brainwashing, in turn say - a countless number of times every day just about everywhere.
I say:
We see in small children two tendencies:
1) to be original, individual and individualistic
2) to be like those they admire
They can, depending upon how they are educated, go either way. We are educated, forcibly, such that the sheep-like tendency is fostered. We are broken in the public schools by means that would be considered mental, emotional and physical torture if they were appraised honestly.
Like Pat Benetar sang: "Hell is for Children".
After being stunted, stultified, crippled and truncated we are told that we can't be set free because people are lemmings and sheep-like. Those who claim that "people are nothing but sheep and lemmings" are merely, and mindlessly, repeating what they have been told about themselves and what they have heard everyone else being told about themselves and telling one another all their lives. They are reinforcing the brainwashing.
Fight like hell to break out of the vicious cycle of repeating to yourself that you and everyone around you are incapable of independent thought and action!
The reader might be interested in looking into the educational system of one Francisco Ferrer. His theories of education served as the basis of what was called "Modern Schools" in a number of countries, including the US. There are accounts of ex-students of his school in New Jersey on the net. They remember being free, creative and, above all, happy children.
As one might expect, he was put to death for being a radical in his native Spain. Setting people free is a dangerous avocation.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
So the brainwashed, who are the unpaid, inadvertent agents of brainwashing, in turn say - a countless number of times every day just about everywhere.
I say:
We see in small children two tendencies:
1) to be original, individual and individualistic
2) to be like those they admire
They can, depending upon how they are educated, go either way. We are educated, forcibly, such that the sheep-like tendency is fostered. We are broken in the public schools by means that would be considered mental, emotional and physical torture if they were appraised honestly.
Like Pat Benetar sang: "Hell is for Children".
After being stunted, stultified, crippled and truncated we are told that we can't be set free because people are lemmings and sheep-like. Those who claim that "people are nothing but sheep and lemmings" are merely, and mindlessly, repeating what they have been told about themselves and what they have heard everyone else being told about themselves and telling one another all their lives. They are reinforcing the brainwashing.
Fight like hell to break out of the vicious cycle of repeating to yourself that you and everyone around you are incapable of independent thought and action!
The reader might be interested in looking into the educational system of one Francisco Ferrer. His theories of education served as the basis of what was called "Modern Schools" in a number of countries, including the US. There are accounts of ex-students of his school in New Jersey on the net. They remember being free, creative and, above all, happy children.
As one might expect, he was put to death for being a radical in his native Spain. Setting people free is a dangerous avocation.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
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