This past month Tamara and I began actively exploring what our (as a couple) Jewish community opportunities might be in Los Angeles. Tamara already belongs to a Chabad community which she has been participating in for over a year now. It’s a very nice, friendly community however unfortunately it’s not the best place for me as a non-Orthodox Jew by choice, who isn’t interested at this point in doing a halachick conversion. Besides that I don’t think either of us feel it’s the best fit in terms of an environment for raising our (G-D willing) children with the values and attitudes we feel are most important.

While I was down last fall we did spend time checking out several reform communities but to be honest they were just too big and seemed a little bit on the impersonal side of things.

We are looking for more than just a place to go on Saturdays or for the High Holidays. We are looking for a community and social network we can plug into. You know a group of people that aren’t necessarily identically like us but who share our values, interests and Jewish predilections. Anyhow the good news is that we found a couple of really promising communities and both of us are pretty excited about it.

The first community is called Ikar and it’s a new young and groovy kinda place made up of mostly 20 and 30 something’s. The community is led by Rabbi Sharon Brous who is JTS trained and has been named by foreword as one of 2006’s most distinguished Jewish leaders. From what I gather the community has something of a Reconstructionist/Renewal vibe to it but they are unaffiliated. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about the unaffiliated status but the more I think about it the more I like it. That’s not to say that I’m against affiliation or anything but it’s nice to just be Jewish and community focused, without unnecessarily abiding by institutional party lines.

From what we’ve gathered they are a very progressive group of people who are interested in study, social action and community building. The only anticipated difficulty is going to be adjusting to their Shabbat services format. Although I’ve been told that they’re very traditional in terms of liturgy much of it is sung and they incorporate the use of drums and bells. Bottom line is if that’s our biggest problem we may have found a really great community.

Tamara got a chance to meet the Rabbi and seemed to be impressed with her.  Although I obviously haven’t met her I did get a chance to watch a short video of her which was impressive.

This post seems to have grown a little larger in size than I had planned so I think I’ll save the second candidate for another post.

Anyhow if anyone reading this is a member or has experience with Ikar please feel free to share your thoughts with me.

Up Date: here is an interesting Radio Interview with Rabbi Sharon Brous. Part 1 begins about 8 minutes in and Part 2 begins about 40:30 minutes into the show.

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I rediscovered the Matrix trilogy this weekend when I accidentally stumbled across two interesting documentaries on the series.

The first entitled “Returning to the Source - Philosophy and the Matrix” is an extremely interesting exploration of the many philosophical underpinnings contained within the trilogy. This documentary features interviews with numerous academics working in the fields of religion, philosophy and psychology, including interviews with one of my favorites Ken Wilber. Towards the end of this documentary there’s even a connection made between concepts presented in the matrix and the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah.

The second documentary entitled “The Roots of the Matrix” looks at how real world technologies such as artificial intelligence and computers are moving towards the ability to create an artificial world much like the one presented in the trilogy as the “ Matrix”.

Overall both are very interesting and worth checking out if you have the time.

Oh and as an added bonus I stumbled across a near DVD quality online version of the first film which can be found here. I’ve no idea how long it will be up and running so if you’re interested in checking it out, I recommend doing it sooner rather than later.

Be well

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What can I say after completing that last quiz I stumbled across this “What Kind of Jew are You” quiz and I just couldn’t help myself. See what you’ve started Tamara!

Yet another accurate snapshot of yours truly from the people over at beliefnet.

You scored 48, on a scale of 0 to 66. Here’s how to interpret your score:

0 - 10 Blueberry Bagel Jew. Read more about yourself.

11 - 30 Haroseth Jew. Read more about yourself.

31 - 48 Tzimmes Jew. Read more about yourself.

49 - 66 Lukshin Kugel Jew. Read more about yourself.

Like this Sabbath-evening fruit and sweet-potato side dish, your Jewish identity is highly traditional, even as it adapts with changing times. A basic recipe is supplemented with various individualistic flourishes. Judaism plays an integral role in your life, though your identity is not defined solely by it.

Read stories of interest to

• If You Can’t Find It, Create It: Ten Strategies to Transform Your Congregation
• A Wing and a Prayer: The author struggles with the meaning of prayer and emerges with a new understanding of it.
• Living in the Image of God: Jewish law envisions a future in which all human beings are treated as infinitely valuable, equal, and unique.
• On Writing for Permanence: A writer meditates on the role of the sofer–scribe–whose job ensures the continuity of vital Jewish texts.

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Tamara just blogged about this interesting quiz over on Beliefnet so I decided to head over and take it myself.

Can’t say that I’m surprised with my results because they certainly fit with the way I see myself and actually tie in quite nicely with a few of the comments I made to Jewish Atheist in my last post.

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The more I Learn about Rabbi Rami Shapiro the more I’m impressed with him. I think it’s because Rabbi Rami is the kind of person who is able to draw beautifully outside of the lines. Reading him I can’t help but think to myself here’s a guy who is an outsider but not in some sort of finger-pointing disgruntled way. Nope, he just comes off as a guy with the right balance of self-deprecation, humor, insight and honesty.

If you haven’t checked out his blog I highly recommend it. I mean you know it’s gotta be good when Steg is commenting on it.

Anyhow Rabbi Rami’s latest post explores the issue of what he’s referring to as Lukewarm Judaism. Although I’m not sure I agreed with it 100%. I would say that 99% of it hit the target in terms of where my thinking on the subject is these days.

Here are a few snippets from his latest post which I found to be rather interesting.

I agree with Michael: “watered down versions of religious faith fail.” Where I disagree is over the implication that Reform Judaism is watered down. Today’s Reform Judaism is actually thickening up. Traditional norms, rituals, and Hebrew liturgy are making just enough of a comeback as to thicken Reform into Conservatism Lite. What I would say is that lukewarm religion fails, and that contemporary Reform Judaism is definitely lukewarm.

I haven’t been around long enough to base my thinking on anything other than intuition and limited experience and although I agree with Rabbi Rami that Reform is indeed thickening up. I’m not certain that I agree that Reform Judaism is just lukewarm. There’s something about the way he phrased it that sounds too definite, too permanent and I’m not sure that I agree. The way I see it reform is doing exactly what it is supposed to do “Reforming” itself and I don’t think that necessarily makes it Conservative light.

The original Reform Judaism of the late 19th century was ice cold. It had bite. It stood for something. You either loved it or hated it. It was either genius or heresy. Today it is long forgotten as Conservative and Reform Judaisms slowly merge into a massive blob of tasteless porridge, Orthodoxy is dynamic, creative, hot, hard, and authentic. It is also homophobic, misogynist, and medieval.

I think it’s great how he’s characterized the polar oppositeness of these two traditions and I think that he’s right on the money. However he may have been a little bit unbalanced because although he’s right in pointing out how orthodoxy is indeed homophobic, misogynist and medieval he leaves out how Classical Reform was in many ways disrespectful, flat and intellectually dishonest. Having said that I’m not sure that he would disagree with my statements (not like I know him or anything) but it would’ve been nice if only for the sake of balance if he had also mentioned these things in his post.

We need a new Judaism. One that is a icy alternative to Orthodoxy’s blistering heat. One that blends the Neo-Hasidic fervor of Jewish Renewal with the theological daring of Mordecai Kaplan, and the religious humanism of Martin Buber. We need a Judaism unafraid to be deeply spiritual, contemplative, postmodern, scientific, soulful, and blessedly anarchistic. We need a Judaism of which Spinoza and Einstein could be proud.

Amen To That!!!

He is indeed right on the money with the above statement and reading it I couldn’t help but be struck by an overwhelming sense of synchronicity. What Rabbi Rami has written is a pithy summary of where my own thinking has found it’s self over the last couple of months.

Anyhow both this post and Rabbi Rami are certainly worth checking out.

Be well

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I know that Global Warming is a Myth and there is lots of evidence to back that fact up.

And yes I also know that the Global Warming “panic” is a recent creation of the liberal controlled media. I mean there certainly wasn’t any talk of this stuff on TV back in the 1950’s or anything. Yes this propaganda is indeed very dangerous but thank goodness for “Fair and Balanced news institutions” like FOX. Because we can all count on them to be true bastions of unbiased reporting that isn’t tied to any industrial corporate agenda.

Now don’t get me wrong I am not trying to place the blame on corporations or anything like that. After all everyone knows (or should know) that corporations are always reasonable, responsible entities and they certainly could never be seen as being psychopathically destructive. I mean that is just plain foolishness but I am sure someone will none the less try to make a documentary about it or something.

And to all those skeptics out there who have a hard time believing me about this big global warming lie, I say to you. Lets just take a look at history because I am sure you will see that big business would never do anything to cover up the truth, especially not when people are at risk.

We all know that the Tobacco Industry never lied, misled or purposely hid the dangers of smoking from the general public, in order to protect their interests.

Nor is there any evidence to support allegations that Car Companies would ever be involved in anything like destroying public access to alternatives such as electric cars. Come to think of it, its not like they (as in BIG, Car, Oil & Tire Businesses) have ever done anything to manipulate the public into becoming more dependant on their products.

What really upsets me about all this Global Warming bullshit is that it only serves to distract us from more pressing issues. We should be focusing on what is truly important like protecting the world from WMD’s or the essential work of bringing freedom to the Iraqi people.

Okay so on the off chance that someone reading this hasn’t caught on to the obvious yet. The above is indeed an attempt at satire.

I mean come on people the research has been done and the evidence is in. It’s time for us to start reflecting on what all of this means and I think Earth Day is an excellent time to start doing just that.

Yes there are those who insist on denying that there is anything to worry about and refer to all of this as The Great Global Warming Swindle. Fortunately or maybe unfortunately depending on your perspective, the types of arguments raised by many of the Climate Change deniers are for the most part easily dismissed when looked at more closely.

If you only watch one video referenced/linked in this post, let the following documentary be the one. Having said that it is much more striking if watched after having first seen The Great Global Warming Swindle video.

As far as I’m concerned enough evidence is in that now’s the time to start changing how we think about the planet and our relationship to it. Even if the case for Global Warming has been overstated (not something I personally believe) we’ve already seen enough to warrant not only concern but action. Hey if someone wants to continue being skeptical that’s fine but the time for denial is over. Even if it’s not the doom and gloom situation that some would have us believe many of the changes being suggested can only serve to make the world a better place. And that my friends is something that makes them worthy pursuits in and of themselves.

And on that note Happy Earth Day!

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Ok its really Will Farrell playing the role of G Dubya on TV but isn’t that better? I mean wouldn’t he be a better all around President?

Anyhow this is just my day before Earth Day warm-up post, so check back tomorrow for something a little more Tikkun Olam’ish on the subject.

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I’m not in any kind of reflective mood the last couple of days in fact I’m rather psychologically depleted at the moment. So I have nothing too insightful or even pseudo insightful to share but this is kind of cool.

Today I discovered and installed a little Windows hack that works with XP (sorry no vista) which allows you to add a folder size column to Windows Explorer. If you have a small hard drive like I do, space is always at a premium. This tool is really helpful for identifying larger volumes of unwanted junk and freeing up crucial hard drive space.

Best of all It’s absolutely free and a cinch to install.

Check it out and if anyone does download it and put it to use let me know what you think of it.

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Note: This post started off as a comment over here.

Last night as I was drifting off to sleep I was struck by what I suppose can be called a micro moment of dread. Events like the one which took place in Virginia yesterday have a powerful way of pulling the rug from under me. It’s easy living in Canada to delude oneself into thinking that ” here everything is safe” and that ” horrible things” only happen other places but this is far from the truth.

Every student and faculty member who went through that ordeal yesterday woke up I’m sure pretty much the same way I did. Thinking today was going to be another day. Some people excited and others dreading it but none of them expecting to find themselves, in the middle of a battle zone any time soon.

It’s baffling to me how we take things for granted and assume there’s always more time to fix things, to grow or to simply be. It also scares me that one person can become so ill that their disease spills out in a way that can cause so much destruction. In a way that within a few hours 30 plus lives come to an end. That the lives of hundreds of others including families, friends and those unfortunate enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, have been broadsided by this tragedy.

Maybe I’m just in the grips of a narcissistic Buddhist hangover but situations like this one make me realize how much I take for granted and how unappreciative I can be much of the time.

Looking back on my own reactions to yesterday I realize how much of a harsh and critical SOB I can be sometimes.

This morning I realized that yesterday I actually spent more time internally criticizing people for turning this horrible incident into a self-indulgently voyeuristic feast of suffering and carnage, than I did feeling empathy towards those involved in the incident. That’s not to say I didn’t feel bad because I did. In fact when I first heard the news, I had the mindfulness to stop what I was doing and quickly recite a short blessing. But the bottom line is that I spent more time in a place of judgment and arrogance than I did in a place of compassion and empathy. All in all I am just as voyeuristic the only difference it would seem is that I don’t look for tragedy to feed on. I instead seem to feast on what I perceive to be hypocrisy. That’s certainly no better behavior on my part and some might even say its worse.

So I suppose that out of all of this I’ve learned that…

Whenever I get into a judgmental mode it might be better to check my own behavior and thinking instead of finger-pointing.

I don’t want to selfishly detract from the pain and suffering that all of those involved must be enduring today and I know that this isn’t about me in the grand sense of things. However it certainly has been a loud wake-up call. Pointing out (among other things) how easy it is for me to waste time assuming that there’s always more of it (time that is) to undo any damage or catch up on what I’ve put off but the truth is, there’s just no guarantee of that.

I suppose that all of this has helped me to once again (because it’s a lesson I frequently forget) realize that although it’s easy to become judgmental and aggravated/frustrated by such situations. What is probably more appropriate is to approach such events with a sense of gratitude (for what we have in our lives) and compassion towards those who are suffering at the moment.

Anyhow I suppose I’ve rambled on long enough.

Be well

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This is just a quick follow-up to my earlier post today on what I see as the positive inroads currently being made by Progressive Judaism around the world. Actually I won’t lie it’s also something of a reply to Mottel’s comment on my last post.

The following is an interesting short video interview of an American visiting Poland’s Jewish community (presumably sometime in the last year or so). I’m not sure but I believe the person being interviewed is Rabbi Neil Katz a Reform rabbi from Texas.

It’s an interesting video and although it’s far from anything definitive in terms of Jewish revival in Poland, the rabbi does indeed paint an optimistic and promising picture of what’s taking place over there. All of which is just more fuel for my recent sense of optimism

Anyhow enjoy.

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