March 13, 2008 | 9:37 pm

Hip Hop Hoodios: ‘Shalom Obama’ Music Video

Posted by JewishJournal.com

I almost missed this one, but thanks to the JTA, here’s our favorite hip hoppers with ‘Shalom Obama!’

March 6, 2008 | 8:24 pm

Is that a dagger in your kaccha or are you here to see the Pope?

Posted by The Web Guy

American Sikh leaders won’t be able to party with the Pope on his U.S. visit next month because their religion requires them to always carry a dagger, or kirpaan (see photo). The Secret Service, responsible for Pope Benedict’s security, is just not comfortable with Sikh the Knife. Sikhism also mandates a comb, a bracelet, and special underwear, called kaccha.

I can’t tell whether the Sikh rule merely requires underwear in a culture that doesn’t otherwise wear skivvies, or these drawstring boxer shorts are the only type allowed.  Readers?

Anyhow, this brings the Sikhs into the holy underoo club which includes special tighty whitey Mormon temple garments and the tallit katan of the Orthodox.

Add to these the requirements for burqas, sheitls, special religious hats (or headscarves), and beards (usually not with headscarves), not to mention side-curls and dreadlocks, and it can get quite involved to be a observant servant of God.

It’s a tough job, I guess, but somebody’s got to do it!

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March 3, 2008 | 11:41 pm

VIDEO: Matisyahu live at Jewlicious in Long Beach

Posted by JewishJournal.com

“King without a crown” acoustic version.

Amazing kavanah!  I wonder if he was trippin’ like Moshe Rabbenu? 

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March 3, 2008 | 11:13 pm

Did Moshe Rabbenu meet YHWH at Sinai, or was he just tripping?

Posted by The Web Guy

A Hebrew University professor of psychology suggests Moses was high on psychotropic herbs those fateful days at Sinai, according to an article in Haaretz:

“And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the horn, and the mountain smoking.” Thus the book of Exodus describes the impressive moment of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.

The “perceiving of the voices” has been interpreted endlessly since these words were first written. When Professor Benny Shanon, professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reads the verse, he recalls a powerful hallucinatory experience he had when he visited the Amazon and drank a potion made from a plant called ayahuasca.

“One of the things that happens when you drink the potion is a visual experience created via sounds,” he says.

Shanon presents a provocative theory in an article published this week in the philosophy journal Time and Mind. The religious ceremonies of the Israelites included the use of psychotropic materials that can found in the Negev and Sinai, he says.

This, of course, is not what we learned in Hebrew school.  Damn pineal gland.

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March 3, 2008 | 5:04 pm

Sephardim are rational—Ashkenazim, not so much

Posted by JewishJournal.com

From an essay in Zeek—A Sephardic Answer to Modern Jewish Identity
By David Rabeeya:

” . . . Ashkenazic authorities traditionally have placed a “fence around the Torah,” enlarging restrictions in order to be sure not to risk breaking the original rules. At least in the past, however, Sephardi Jews did not add such extra restrictions, believing it was more important to trust in the intelligence and integrity of Jews to follow the laws as written. In general, Sephardim, as rationalists, tend to believe that individuals who are well-schooled in the tradition should have fairly wide latitude to judge principles for themselves.

Do little, but do right, could be said to be how many Sephardi Jews regard Jewish law. A Jew should try to follow the Jewish law, but he must not be controlled by inventions of religious leaders which could lead to fanaticism, radicalism and irrationality. . .

I turn into a Sephardi every Pesach. 

Maybe it’s time for a more permanent transformation!

—Dennis Wilen

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March 1, 2008 | 12:14 am

Top stories for the 29 days of February, 2008

Posted by The Web Guy

A potty-mouthed rabbi, a rockstar mom, and a shooting in Beverly Hills are among the top stories on JewishJournal.com this leap month.

Here they are, starting with the biggest story:

Super Tuesday: Jewish Primary by Raphael Sonenshein.  We liked this story so much that Raphe now has a blog: JewsChoose2008.

Bar-Rafael to ditch Israel by Dikla Kadosh.  Dikla’s blog post about the Sderot benefit show is also attracting a lot of attention.

Beverly Hills PD alleges Iranian Jewish man shot brother by Karmel Melamed.  Karmel’s Iranian American Jews blog has a world-wide following.

Chai Center rabbi explains ‘off the handle’ e-mails by Julie Gruenbaum Fax.  Julie also did a great job on our LimmudLA cover story.

Susanna Hoffs walks like a—

rockstar no, a mom

—rockstar/mom by Tom Teicholz.  His recent story about the Dylan exhibit at the Skirball is a must-read!

Hooray for Susanna Hoffs, I say.  Without her it would be nothing but politics, sex and violence.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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