I stumbled across this site this morning and thought it was worthy of preservation as a photo. I actually first noticed this phenomenon of light and shadow about two weeks ago while Tamara was here but had forgotten about it until this morning.

Anyhow it’s an interesting enough composition although I’m not 100% satisfied with the pictures I managed to snap. I just didn’t seem to quite capture the light however it’s not a bad shot, at least not in my opinion anyhow. Also this image has been cropped and cleaned up a little bit in Photoshop Elements 2.0

Technorati tags: Photo Post, Photography, Menorah, Sunlight, Shadow, Silhouette, Judaica

Listen to this podcast

Hey, just a quick post to share something I received from an e-mail list I belong to earlier this evening.

I’m not exactly certain who produced these but I believe they came from some sort of safety organization at of Israel.

The safety booklet has a really interesting section filled with tips on how to include children safely into the Passover cleaning activities. As for the coloring book to be honest I’m not sure that if I was a kid I would have really been into it but what do I know. Both books seem to be put together very well in terms of layout and design.

Anyhow enjoy.

Safety Booklet - http://rubenu.org/beitshemesh/pesachsafety.pdf

Coloring Book - http://rubenu.org/beitshemesh/coloringbook.pdf

Technorati tags: Passover Safety Tips, Passover Coloring Book, Pesach, Pesach Preperation

Listen to this podcast

Some of my more regular readers I’m sure have realized that my posting has dwindled in frequency over the last few weeks and actually down to nothing this week. Part of that is because Tamara was in town and we were just busy doing fun stuff and I didn’t get around to posting as much as I usually do. But this weekend I got a nasty case of food poisoning.

Food poisoning does indeed suck ass and for the first 24 hours of the illness my family seemed to think I was going to wind up in the hospital, however I managed to avoid that. I will spare everyone the gross details and suffice it to say, today (which is day four) although I’m not at 100% my body seems to be functioning more or less within normal parameters again. Yay for solid BM’s!!!

What appears to be the cause of all of this is an improperly washed bowl. You see I have this one big plastic bowl for eating kosher chicken on the occasions that I do treat myself to such food. I keep a kosher kitchen so I don’t mix my meat and dairy at all and actually only by pre-cooked chicken which I don’t heat up or refrigerate as not to have any cross-contamination accidents (no pun intended). Basically sometimes on Friday afternoon I’ll go and buy a pre-cooked chicken and I’ll eat it cold that evening out of my one chicken bowl.

Interestingly enough it wasn’t the chicken that actually got me rather it was my crappy dishwashing job. You see the chicken was purchased and eaten almost 3 weeks ago without incident. Roasted chickens of course are greasy and I just didn’t do a good enough job washing the bowl that I used before putting it away. So basically chicken germs had about two weeks to hang out in my bowl and do whatever it is they do. So last Shabbos I grab my bowl which I also use for salad (salad is Parve after all) and although I noticed a slight filmy grease on, it I opted to use the bowl without cleaning it. Later that evening I started to feel a little bit off so I went to bed early but awoke at 2:30 AM convulsing with the shivers. In fact so much so that the next morning every centimeter of my body ached like I had run a marathon.

It was an absolutely awful experience, to the point that I’ve decided to go off meat completely and back into the world of vegetarianism, which is a lifestyle I’ve been engaged in on and off most of my adult life anyhow. In general I don’t think eating animals is a very healthy thing and the chicken was something I often referred to as my crack habit. I am not suggesting that others shouldn’t eat chicken if they want to just that personally for a long time I’ve had ethical issues with it although over the last year and a half I’ve been turning a blind eye.

On the one hand I think it’s kind of lame that it took me going through this atrocious bout of food poisoning, in order for me to do what I “think is the right thing to do” but if that’s what it takes then I guess that’s what it takes.

The other cool thing about this experience is that although Tamara had just flown back home she was ready to hop right back on a plane fly across the continent again to Ottawa if I was going to be in the hospital. Of course my first thought to that is no you can’t do that we don’t have the money etc. etc. but the bottom line is as she put it ” if you had been admitted to the hospital, you would not have a choice, I would have been coming up”.

Now although I don’t really like “not having a choice” I must admit it’s nice to know that I have someone in my life who cares about me. Someone who cares about me so much that the first thought that crosses her mind when I’m sick is not about finance or the burden this places upon her, rather how quickly can she get here. What can say other than it’s nice to realize that I have someone like that in my life and I am very lucky.

So that’s about it for this update but if I keep feeling better I’m sure to do some more posting this week.

Be well

Listen to this podcast

I just stumbled across a post looking for something else and it’s pretty funny.

Here is a snippet.

Their god Allah is a desert god so they put their heads down on the groun’ t’be close t’him. OK, but why raise their butts? That is to insult Jesus and us Christians. They’re moonin’ God, boy, don’t you see that?”

You can read the entire post over here.

Listen to this podcast

Earlier this week somebody on my bloglines had a post with a dead link to video from what I’m assuming was a documentary clip about some problems that were taking place at Concordia University in 2002. I think it may have been one of the Barbarians posts which originally caught my attention and reminded me of this Montréal fiasco, but I can’t recall and I’m too lazy to try and figure it out.

Anyhow my interest was tweaked enough to go and track down the documentary about the demonstrations and resulting problems between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli student groups at Concordia. The documentary I found is entitled “Confrontation at Concordia” and is available for your viewing pleasure at the bottom of this post.

I remember watching the documentary when it first came out (probably on CBC news world or TV Ontario) as well is another one which was a little bit more balanced and objective in my opinion. It’s certainly worth watching if you’ve got an hour to spend because it points out some serious problems which took place five years ago at Concordia and the negative consequences it had on the campus Hillel. However having said that five years ago is a lifetime away in university years and I personally believe that things have changed a lot since the time the events covered in this documentary actually took place.

From watching this video it’s clear that there was a breakdown in student governance at Concordia. Basically the real problem as I see it is that left of center activist types got control of student government and shifted focus from student and education centered issues, instead opting for a more global and political agenda. Specifically it would seem that student government was strongly pro-Palestinian and pro-Iraq, therefore strongly opposed to both Israeli and American policy in the Middle East.

I think this is inappropriate to student politics and that although student government should encourage various student groups to actively pursue their agendas they themselves should not be directly supporting any one position. At least not outside of issues that are directly related to student academic life. Having said that a lot of right wing pro-Israeli types have hijacked the situation in order to promote their own views and to suggest that what took place at Concordia in 2002 was equivalent anti-Semitism, which is in my opinion inaccurate.

However, I’m going to digress and let those of you who watch the video for yourselves come to your own conclusions about what actually did or did not take place.

As always if you do watch the video I’d love to hear your thoughts. I would however ask that you please watch the videos before you comment, this way you know that you are making an informed comment.

Confrontation At Concordia - 1/5

Confrontation At Concordia - 2/5

Confrontation At Concordia -3/5

Confrontation At Concordia -  4/5

Confrontation At Concordia - PART 5 of 5

Listen to this podcast

Last night I came across “YouTube Video Download Tool“  over on www.techcrunch.com. It’s an interesting tool that allows you to download YouTube videos onto your hard drive for later viewing.

I actually haven’t tried it out myself yet but it does look promising. I think this tool will be useful for downloading content you want to keep and are at risk of losing access to because of violation of terms, copyright infringement or any other reason it might be taken down. It also may make it easier although I’m not sure, to burn YouTube videos to DVD.

Anyhow I thought it was worth sharing so here’s the link.

Listen to this podcast

Here’s another shot from our trip last week to the Museum of Civilization. The sculpture is entitled The Spirit of Haida Gwaii and you can read more about it by clicking on the link.

Listen to this podcast

I picked up G-D Is a Verb by Rabbi David A. Cooper last night. I don’t mean picked up as in purchased but rather as in, picked up off of my bookshelf for the first time in quite a while.

It’s a really great book although I seem to only be able to read it piecemeal but I know it’s a great book because my copy is littered with highlighting and margin notes throughout every section I’ve read thus far.

Anyhow this morning I picked up the book again and flew to a random page where I stumbled upon this quote.

Justice, it should be noted, in kabbalistic terminology, is compared to what other traditions call karma. That is to say, cosmic justice is the spiritual law that every action, Word, or thought reverberates throughout the universe.

This quote although it’s not the first time I’ve read it still resonates with me in a deep way. I’ve never been able to except the notion of some sort of creator father figure overseeing and judging every one of my actions as either good or bad. I’ve always viewed creation and spirituality as both being intrinsically organic processes and Rabbi Cooper’s quote captures that sentiment very well.

Only a man-made form of justice can be superimposed on a situation in a way that places a good or bad value judgment upon it and therefore can never be a true form of Spiritual Justice. Spiritual justice on the other hand is part of an organic and natural process which begins with the energy that radiates out from our thoughts and deeds in the same way that ripples do when a pebble is thrown into calm water. It is devoid of any superficial value judgments and instead simultaneously influences and is influenced by the creation of a vast and intricate web of interdependent cause-and-effects, stretching out through all of creation.

Anyhow it was an interesting quote and not an angle that I often see presented from a Jewish spiritual point of view, so I thought it was worth sharing with others.

Happy Sunday

Listen to this podcast

This week both the Jerusalem Post and Ynet had stories on the World Union  for Progressive Judaism’s 33rd International Convention being held in Jerusalem. Of particular interest were the announcements that the WUPJ is planning to expand their activities and programs in Israel and have demanded that the Prime Minister begin recognizing both Progressive/Reform Rabbis and those who convert under them.

According to Ynet

$100,000,000 would be invested in expanding the existing Reform framework in Israel. The aim is to break through to the Israeli public by giving religious, educational and cultural services and rabbinical training.

If this is the case it is in my opinion very good news indeed. I think it’s ridiculous that the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox have a monopoly over what is or is not and who is or is not Jewish. I’m certainly not against Orthodox Jews being allowed to determine definitions and practices for themselves. However in a modern and democratic society like Israel they should not be allowed to single-handedly determine religious issues for those outside of their own religious communities.

I personally as a Jew by choice (after much struggle & thought) refuse to be bound by their definition of what entails being a Jew and I have many Jewish friends who feel the same way and not just about conversion. I think it’s time for modern Jews both in and outside of Israel to stand up and begin pushing for what they believe is fair and right.

I don’t believe it’s going to be the Orthodox Rabbinate that is going to workout any lasting peace between the Palestinians and Israel. I don’t believe it’s the Orthodox Jews who are going to do what needs to be done in order to address women’s rights in Israel. And I certainly don’t believe it’s the Orthodox Jews who are going to create the legislation needed to protect the rights of gays and lesbians in Israel.

I personally find it sad that some Orthodox Jews are more concerned with returning to the ritual slaughter of animals, than they are in addressing their own violence towards women. It seems that some of these people are thinking that it’s okay to beat women on buses, because as long as lambs are being sacrificed, the Messiah will be a coming.

This IMO is utter nonsense and is not something which should be tolerated at all.

It’s hard to tell just how things are going to workout but I certainly think this recent announcement by the WUPJ is a huge step in the right direction, not to mention personally inspiring.

I for one don’t believe that the Orthodox should be marginalized to the point of irrelevance because their view and insights are an important part of the bigger picture but having said that I also refuse to allow them to marginalize me. I don’t want someone who thinks the world is 6000 years old deciding my religious identity or every aspect of my spiritual life.

Anyhow, I have a good feeling about things and it looks to me like the WUPJ is positioning itself in a way that’s going to help break through into the mainstream in Israel.

Be well

Listen to this podcast

Well I’ve learned a couple of things in the past week including the following.

One: It’s really hard for me to get around to doing proper posts when Tamara is here.

Two: Apparently people aren’t really interested in commenting on my Jesus related posts, LOL.

Anyhow Tamara is still here but I’ve managed to carve out a little time for myself in order to do a post or to and catch up on blog reading. So stay tuned for more blog posts later today and tomorrow.

It’s nice to have Tamara here and things are going well we’ve got a car, so we are able to get out and about despite the snow. Now speaking of the snow it’s actually been relatively mild and tolerable this past week. The weather has actually gone above zero several times and so Tamara hasn’t been overly traumatized by the Arctic climate that is Ottawa in March.

We’ve managed to check out the Museum of Civilization, which we have both already posted pictures from. While at the museum we also had a chance to see an IMAX (actually I think it was Omnimax) film which was probably my first in over 10 or 12 years. I can’t remember what it was called but it was about six beautiful natural environments including Tibet and Greenland. The cinematography was breathtaking and with that domed screen you literally got pulled into the images. It was truly amazing.

We also went to the movies one day and saw the Last King of Scotland starring Forest Whitaker. Wow, what an incredible film albeit a disturbing one. Forest certainly did a brilliant job playing Idi Amin it was truly chilling.

We got to spend an afternoon with my mother and stepfather which was quite enjoyable and we feasted on vegetarian lasagna that had corn in it. I love corn!

We also ran around and did errands which was fun to do as a couple.

Lastly and probably most importantly is that we managed to watch (thus far) 2 1/2 seasons of BattleStar Galactica. I knew that Tamara would like BattleStar Galactica but she’s actually really, really, really liking it, which is cool.

Anyhow that’s about it for now but I will be back.

Oh PS Thursday night I also got to spend a couple of hours revamping the blog and as you may or may not have noticed I’ve changed the look.

Okay well that’s it for now.

Listen to this podcast