Does Torah ignore collateral damage?

 

Due to Google search idiosyncrasies, I have adjusted the spelling of certain words.

I am not a rabbi; I am a Christian studying the Bible. One of my frustrations is the modern tendency of Jews to claim righteousness from the law, but ignore some laws. (Christians do it, too, but I just read the Pentateuch.) I am OK with ignoring laws about ritual sacrifices, which the ancient Babylonians essentially ended with the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, but let's explore what's left.

My local Gannett newspaper published an opinion piece by author/activist Julianna Margulies on November 26 entitled, "Silence is loud from my friends who aren't Jewish". In general, columnists supportive of Israel extol the righteousness of Judaism. Consider that Israel is a "Jewish state" established in 1948 and admitted to the United Nations in 1949. Leon Kass therefore opined in the Wall Street Journal on November 24 that Israel is committed to the Jewish principles of "the prophets' demands for justice and regard for the other, and ... the law's concern with holiness." Jews stand for "good against evil", and Kass presumably believes Israel is "good".

Back to Margulies, she wrote that modern Jews fear not only the current threat to Israel, but also antisemitism in America and worldwide. She added that nobody else (i.e., Gentiles, without using the word but referring to them as friends) understands Jews' fears; nobody else remembers the Holocaust like Jews do.

Modern Jewish columnists seem to think the phrase "never forget", used by Margulies in her column, was invented after the Holocaust. In fact, the phrase originates with a militaristic verse in Deuteronomy 25.19: "...you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; do not forget." Deuteronomy is not a reminder about the persecution of Jews; it is a reminder to maintain the struggle against "Amalek", metaphorically, the other. Kass tried to distract us, but he did not suggest when we should have redacted the nasty parts of Scripture. The Hebrews occupied the promised land by killing everyone previously living there, and the Palestinians make the ridiculous claim today that Israel should give it back.

Margulies, in claiming a unique indignation, has apparently forgotten about the plight of Afghans, half of whom are undernourished and whose girls are prohibited from an education. Margulies forgets the deplorable slaughter of the men of Russia and Ukraine and the criminal destruction of Ukrainian towns and infrastructure. She forgets the atrocities currently ravaging towns in the Darfur region of Sudan. She forgets that half of Gaza is now uninhabitable at the hands of the I$$$$$$ Defense Fource ideeff), and Margulies presumably blames Paaaaaaaaaa suffering on H@@@@ and believes I$$$$$ can pull the triggers but feel no guilt and deserve no consequences. Certainly, I$$$$$ fights in self defense after the October 7 H@@@@ massacres, but no one really believes this is an existential battle. When H@@@@ reaches Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, the tactical nukes will come out and the Paaaaaaaaaa race will no longer be able to sustain itself.

The Pentateuch is all about judgement, atonement and punishment. The ideeff is inflicting extreme collateral damage and casualties, and as a Jewish state, Jewish citizens of I$$$$$ must make a choice: claim righteousness from their study of the law and accept the consequences, or deny judgement and responsibility for their actions. They can't claim both. If God walks before Jews in this war, as in the Pentateuch, then God is responsible, not H@@@@, and consequences will be enforced. The Hebrews did not slaughter the Egyptian firstborns during Passover; God did that (Exodus 12:12). If the ideeff pulls the trigger in 2023, Torah can't ignore it.

Imagining the transcendent spirit

 

I have been thinking more about the transcendence of the divine that manifests itself as the Holy Spirit. What is it that I felt in my head and heart as I recognized (in my previous post) the one spirit across different Bible narratives? I reflect on the notion of a "wind from God". In the case of Genesis 1 and creation, the wind is not a tropical breeze; it is a mighty wind keeping the void in check. Genesis does not refer to chaos, and indeed, NRSV rarely uses the word, so the wind must be keeping the chaos in check, right? I suppose there is not much to keep in check when there is only a "formless void", but there is "something". NRSV does NOT present creation as occurring ex nihilo (from nothing). When Genesis begins, the wind is already sweeping over the waters.

In any case, my impression of the transcendent spirit is not of a hurricane. I think what I feel is that the divine wind is what it needs to be at any given moment. For creation, it needs to be mighty and controlling. For the conception of Jesus in Luke 1, it needs to be a heavy, overshadowing atmosphere, even to the point of consciousness.

And for me? What is this spirit during a day in the life of me? When I am waking up to get ready for work, maybe a quick gust to jar me into activity. Later, when my lovely wife pulls some chocolate chip cookies out of the oven, it's a warm breeze that connects all the way back to her mother and my mother (who were saints, for sure).

Lord, let the wind blowing us be light and warm when we need comfort, and strong enough to push us to act when we discern a neighbor in need. Immanent and transcendent, now and forever, amen.

Hamas responsible but is Israel remorseful?

I read in an October, 2023 Wall Street Journal editorial by William McGurn that Hamas is morally responsible for the deaths of civilians because Hamas uses civilians as shields. I agree, but Israel pulls the trigger. Israel cuts of the water, food and power, and Israel drops the bombs. Therefore, I wonder if Israel is remorseful for killing babies and crippling hospitals. Israel should express remorse and describe plans for avoiding collateral damage. The USA does not strafe the Rio Grande to wipe out the migrants attempting to violate American borders. The USA feeds them.

gary.gocek.org redesign

And now my personal home page (gary.gocek.org) has been redesigned using a look-and-feel similar to the recently redesigned home page at gocek.org. Key goals were to be responsive and mobile-friendly. I fixed more Adsense syntax. The text content is now less wordy, and the images in the main body are small.

https://gary.gocek.org/

Home page redesign

 I redesigned the gocek.org home page to be more responsive and mobile-friendly. I fixed a bunch of external links that had changed, and fixed some Adsense syntax. For years, I made it known that I own gocek.org, gocek.net and gocek.com. All three addresses work the same, and in fact, gocek.net is the physically hosted address (org and com are mirrors). But from a branding perspective, I only care about gocek.org, so I have removed some text referring to the other domain extensions. And a few months ago, I added SSL, so use https instead of http. I added SSL because search engines have become less friendly to non-SSL sites, although I am not really sure why unless the site is doing e-commerce, which I am not.

https://www.gocek.org/ 

Lobster tails are complicated

 

Who would have thought that shopping for lobster tails would be complicated? Expensive, maybe, but it was indeed complicated. I am in the market for nine 8 ounce tails for a Christmas Eve dinner in Chicago. I live in Rochester, NY and will be flying to Chicago. 

I have run across three different types of lobster tails. As they are referred to in the continental United States: cold-water (North Atlantic such as Maine and Nova Scotia), warm-water (Carribbean), and Australian (rock or spiny lobster tails from langouste near North Australia). There are more, but in my shopping and research, these are the types I have came across.

Cold-water tails are preferred by Americans. Cold water reduces the saltiness of the meat, and the meat stays uniformly firm. The taste is not fishy and the color is uniformly white. The shell is uniformly reddish. Warm-water tails are saltier, the meat color varies, and the shells are spotty. Australian lobsters have no claws and are a blue-green color, and the tail meat can be stringy.

Tails are sold frozen, unless you get a whole, live lobster. I can get a frozen 8 ounce, cold-water tail for $36 per pound in Rochester, NY, i.e., $18 per tail. That's approximate, depending on the exact weight.

There are many online sellers of lobster tails. The best price I could find is $36 per tail. Frozen seafood is normally shipped overnight with dry ice. Dry ice emits a gas, so the shipping container must be ventilated, and the shippers have strict and expensive requirements. This makes online purchases very expensive. Unless a shopper lives in a very remote place but can somehow get overnighted deliveries, I am not sure why anyone would shop online for lobster tails. It is cheaper to drive a hundred miles one way to a market than to shop online.

The price of a cold-water tail at markets in Chicago is substantially more expensive than Rochester. I called several Chicago fish markets. If I could find an 8 ounce cold-water tail at all, it was over $25. The most reliable deal for acquiring 9 tails was listed at $65 per pound. For nine 8 oz. tails (assuming the shop would split a pre-wrapped package of two), that's $292, versus $162 in Rochester (where the shop promised a purchase of nine is possible). Big box stores carry lobster tails, but the tail size varies and the tails are usually "previously frozen", meaning frozen, thawed and refrozen.

If I purchase the tails in Rochester, I need to get them to Chicago. I could ship them with ice packs (without dry ice), and that would likely be reliable under normal conditions. But, it's December. Shipping anything in December is complicated. Even early in the month, weather delays can occur. Later in the month, shippers won't take responsibility for a frozen seafood shipment.

However, our airline allows traveling with frozen seafood. Wrap the tails in plastic, pack in a plastic container with blue-ice (not wet ice), and wrap the container in plastic. (Dry ice can be used with special packaging, but there is a $150 charge.) At home, I found an appropriate box and a gigantic, zip-lock travel bag. Door to door, the trip is six hours or less, which will be fine. We will "check" the bag in which the box will be packed, so the tails will be in the baggage compartment, which will be cool in December if not below freezing. Our airline does not accept responsibility for frozen seafood in checked bags, but it's a non-stop, 2 hour flight, so it is low risk that the bag could be lost.

We'll see if the controversy about white whales being endangered by lobster traps has any impact.

Liverpool High School 1970s Music & Drama Podcast

 

LHS 1970s Music & Drama Podcast