Odds & Ends

HIRBET QEIYAFA, Israel, Oct. 30, 2008An Israeli archaeologist has discovered what he believes is the oldest known Hebrew inscription on a 3,000-year-old pottery shard ˍ a find that suggests Biblical accounts of the ancient Israelite kingdom of David could have been based on written texts.A teenage volunteer discovered the curved shard bearing five lines of faded characters in July in the ruins of an ancient town on a hilltop south of Jerusalem. Yossi Garfinkel, the Israeli archaeologist leading the excavations at Hirbet Qeiyafa, released his conclusions about the writing Thursday after months of study.He said the relic is strong evidence that the ancient Israelites were literate and could chronicle events centuries before the Bible was written. This could suggest that some of the Bible's accounts were based on written records as well as oral traditions ˍ adding credence to arguments that the Biblical account of history is more than myth.The…

Today, November 2, the Balfour Declaration is 91 years old. It was the crucial first official recognition of Jewish national aspirations. Although the declaration itself had little legal status, it was later incorporated into the Sèvres peace treaty with Turkey and the Mandate for Palestine, adopted unanimously by the League of Nations in the San Remo Resolution of 1920. This lent Zionism a legitimacy enjoyed by few national movements before or since. Perhaps most astonishing today, the leader of the Arab movement, King Faisal, supported the declaration when it was referred to in the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement of 1919. Although many have since attempted to deny the central nature of the document and its relationship to the Mandate, that's not how its British drafters saw things. In fact, as stated in the 1937 Royal Commission Report, "the primary purpose of the Mandate, as expressed in its preamble and its articles, is…

The Walking With series is an adult education course comprising twelve learning units.The course material below opens and read with Adobe Reader. Use as you wish. If you don't have the FREE Adobe Reader in your computer, download it by clicking Walking With series has been created by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in partnership with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Rabbinical Assembly, the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, and the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs. It has been made possible by the generous support of the Held Foundation, and is dedicated to the memory of Louise and Harold Held. [U1] Social Justice - An Introduction [U2] The Prophets and Social Justice [U3] The Ethical Impulse in Rabbinic Judaism [U4] A Torah of Justice - A View from the Right? [U5] A Torah of Justice - A View from the Left? [U6] Environment [U7] Social Justice and the World of Business [U8] Am I…

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Hagbah Properly raising the Torah Traditionally, one of the most important yet overlooked of all Torah honors is Hagbah, the raising of the Torah after the last aliyah. For Men's Club members (and others, web master), especially for those on the larger side of average, this honor is the one that they are often chosen to perform, but without any assistance or instruction. There is no hebrew/english ''crib card'' like the one for aliyot, no instructions in the siddur, only the fear of dropping a Torah in public. While not the easiest of aliyot, Hagbah has it's tricks and a few tips can make it an easy way to show your expertise in the rituals of the service. A few points: Who: Hagbah can be done by any Jew - Cohen, Levy or Israel What: Lifting the Torah from the reader's table and carrying it vertically for a short distance,…

During the month of Elul — the 29-day atonement period that falls in September this year and is meant to prepare Jews for the Days of Awe — a growing number of synagogues and Jewish groups are using the Internet as a tool to help Jews reflect. From Southern California to New York City, some congregations and Jewish activists have created Web-based programs in an effort to engage their constituents in the process of soul-searching. Using the Internet as a tool of High Holy Day reflection is the latest example of the expansion of Jewish life on the Web. In the case of Elul, the Internet is being tapped as a way to engage a broader swath of Jews in holiday preparation, as well as to help foster a stronger sense of community. Still, some observers — even proponents of the technology’s fusion with Judaism — note that there is…

If you ever wondered which are the most read articles on this website, below are the top 12, including the date of posting and the number of readers. These articles have the advantage of being posted from the earliest days of the website redesign and have had the most exposure. Keep in mind that these numbers include visitors from all around the world! To make the statistics more interesting, the "Most Popular" list on the Home page was redesigned to be the "Most Popular in the Last Two Months". Now you can see which articles have been most popular recently. If you linger with your cursor on a title, you will see a small pop-up with the number of readers. Have a look.1  About TBS (2007-08-01 21:32:33)  2051 2  Contribute (2007-08-16 12:37:51)  971 3  Men's Club (2007-08-01 22:44:45)  938 4  Sisterhood (2007-08-01 22:46:45)  912 5  Judaic Media Links (2007-08-01 22:43:07) …

click triangle to start movie The Consulate General of Israel filmed five fifth-grade students from New York [Bronx Middle School] reading the story that Shalit wrote when he, too, was eleven years old. “Gilad was a boy our age when he wrote this story; if only we could write something so significant at this age. Today, no one knows where he is and he probably misses his parents,” said one of the students. “If the shark and fish can make peace, why can’t people?”