In the "out with the new and in with the old" department:

Got a chance to check out the Jerusalem Post's new format this weekend. I must confess that it looks an awful lot like a bad college newspaper. Some extremely iffy layout and headline choices reinforce this perception ("Haredim Cry Fowl over Kapparot Chickens" is my personal favorite for NY Post-ism), and the complete lack of left wing voices on its staff seem to trumpet it as "The Commentator East." Come to think of it, even we had more lefties, what with Pinky on the masthead. You have to wonder, though, why "Israel's biggest Anglo Daily" has decided to change its format for the sole purpose of looking smaller and more wiedly (it's even the same size as the commie was) - is size everything? What about journalistic professionalism?

CBN News - The Spiritual Road Map to Middle East Peace:

Hess believes today’s diplomatic efforts contradict the Bible. 'They're saying if they divide up the land of Israel and establish a Palestinian state, that this will bring peace. But the Bible says in the book of Joel, it says that God will bring judgment against those who divide up the land of Israel,' he said.
Yet Hess says the covenants also hold a blessing for the Palestinians. 'The Palestinians will find blessings coming to them like they can not imagine if the God of Israel… if they embrace the Jewish people and if they bless them and if they stop violence and start blessing,' Hess said.

First Black Female Student Rabbi Leads Congregation. In most situations, I'd say "but how do they know?" But given that Reform and Conservative ordination is so tightly held by their central organizations, it's rather likely that they do know.

Stanton, who is 40, thought she was "too old and too poor," to switch careers and study to be a rabbi.

9 a.m. -- The Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace pushes for establishment of an interreligious council within the U.N. system; New Yorker Hotel, Eighth Avenue at 34th Street, Sutton Place Suite, third floor.
--2 p.m. to 4 p.m. _ March for peace and reconciliation; from Israeli Mission, Second Avenue between 43rd and 44th streets, to rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, First Avenue and 47th Street.

New York State Sen. Tom Duane gets pissed at Assmeblyman Dov Hikind for his comments about homosexuality & same-sex marriage. Hikind's semi-back-pedaling on the issue is particularly fun to watch.

New York 1 will cover live the installation of the new Brooklyn/Queens Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio beginning at 2 P.M.

Dr. Laura's in the news again. Oh dear.

7 p.m. -- Book signing with Anthony DeStefano, author of ``A Travel Guide to Heaven''; Barnes & Noble, 240 East 86th St.

was awarded the "Defender of Israel" medal from the International Jewish Center for Hope, in Jerusalem, given in recognition of his "longtime, enthusiastic, and vigorous support of the State of Israel and for Jewish causes throughout the world."

Yeah, talk about esoteric: an intruiging piece in Haaretz on Levinas' and Elie Wiesel's spiritual mentor - a bizarrely quixotic figure known only as: "Mr. Chouchani!"

Sounds like the tagline from a movie, no?

Answering my question of how R' Amnon was able to write unesaneh tokef if he had no arms or legs, Israeli scholar Hannanel Mack writes a fascinating piece in last week's Haaretz bringing up the prevalent theory among contemporary scholars of piyyut that R' Amnon did not write the poem - or even, in fact, exist. Instead, these scholars posit that the prayer dates from the 6th or 7th century Palestine - the schools of Kalir and Yannai (I identified Kalir as 8 or 9th century Byzantine) - based on geniza fragments and what Mack refers to as its "style and spirit."

Mack's own addition to the question, however, concerns the role of angels - are they judged on rosh hashana and yom kippur or not? The prayer seems to indicate that angels are judged - and Mack connects it with the appearance of an aggadic tradition at the same time as Kalir and Yannai lived that introduced the motif of angels being judged along with man on yom kippur. Consequently, he argues, kalir or someone in his cricle probably wrote the prayer.

While I'm all for shattering myths, I somewhat troubled by this argument. First off, nearly every kalir poem I've seen incorporates some form of acrostic scheme, extensive verse and midrashic citation, egregious grammar liberties for the sake of the use of these citations, and a regular rhyme scheme.

Unesanah Tokef, however, has none of these. It is limited to two or three direct citations (shofar gadol, kevakoras roeh edro, etc, and these are more allusions than citations), has an sporadic simple internal line rhyme scheme (yeichafezun/yochaizun, yitaka/yishama, etc.), a simple narrative structure, and NO detectable acrostic.

I don't see Kalir here at all, and I wonder how these (admittedly great scholars of piyyut as they are) people can argue that he wrote it.

If anything, its simple form reflects the work of a minor Ashkenaz leader (and he was minor precisely b/c he wrote no poetry - in Med. Germany, writing piyyut was the sine qua non of rabbinic reputation) who turned his hands to writing poetry after suffering a great deal. The basic, simple, gut-wrenching language and imagery reflects this era far more than it does the sophisticated and cerebral work of Kalir.

For those interested, the Food 911 episode where they make falafel with the JAP is on right now.

My post on religious pluralism and the "Judeo-Christian" tradition seems to have generated a good amount of comment and discussion. Just to add a bit more fuel to the fire, check out the 9.29.03 edition of Sightings, which also deals with Religious Pluralism:

Needless to say, the orthodox theologians in all these traditions are nervous, at best, and outraged at worst, since pluralist theology would undercut all claims that a faith, e.g., the Christian, is not only a distinctive, but an exclusive way to God. Pluralism, according to Allen, says that "all the world's great religions are valid paths of salvation." It contrasts itself both to "exclusivism" and even "inclusivism," the view that only one religion saves and followers of others can be included." (Post Vatican II Catholicism takes a measured and guarded inclusivist position.)
Questions raised at Birmingham: "Is it important to persuade religious institutions of the pluralist views, or it better to make the case from the outside, assuming that institutions will catch up?" "Are the pluralists on a frontier where the mainstream will eventually arrive, or is pluralism destined to remain on the margins?" "How far is too far?" Do pluralists want "dialogue" or do they want to "evangelize" people into pluralist views?

RavGoldvicht.com:

We are glad to announce that tapes of Rav Goldvicht's Shiurim are now available. The Torah Learning Institute is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to "Hafatzas Torah" - assisting Rav Goldvicht in his tireless efforts to make the words of Torah available to as many of us as possible.

As EphShap notes, the Dhengah Roov has a Frumster ad.

In the "I guess I'd better start dating Jews" department:

Check out this piece by Avi Shafran on intermarriage and why opposing it is not racist - it's in this week's Forward. Having written yet another article that's decent to good in content and style (and he gets extra points for referencing the N. Korean Juche religion - shows he reads the New Yorker regularly, since they did a piece on N. Korea recently, and without it, no one west of Khazakhstan would ever have heard of Juche), Shafran shows why he's a much more legitimate Haredi voice than some other propagandists whose names I'll refrain from mentioning this week. The article avoids sounding preachy or strident, instead achieving earnest argumentation.

Kudos, Rabbi Avi.

Reader Ami sends in Shwarzenegger admitting it was wrong to toast Waldheim. The unspoken story here is how significantly the Jewish protest on this issue was obviously taken seriously. Shwarzenegger could've shrugged it off forever, hiding behind the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Jews could've reasonably expected him not to address the claims against him within the context of a campaign -- in fact many, including myself, did. Of course, he didn't bring it up on his own, Sean Hannity brought it up to him, but Hannity seems to be getting clearance from the campaign before these interviews anyway. Alternatively, this could just be a pander.

The Jewish Press Letters Section for the week is up. Although there are many candidates for Stupid Letter Of the Week, I will refrain from spotlighting any of them. It is, after all, the middle of the aseret yemei teshuvah and Yom Kippur is right around the corner...

Rush defends...

All this has become the tempest that it is because I must have been right about something.

If I wasn't right there wouldn't be this cacophony of outrage that has sprung up in the sports writer community.

Rush the Racist?

While giving his commentary on ESPN this weekend, Rush Limbaugh apparently made some comments that can be interpreted as racist. In downplaying the success of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, the ever balanced Rush said,

I don't think he's been that good from the get-go… I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team.

We supposedly have freedom of speech in this country… An opinion is an opinion.

This post is somewhat out of the blue, but who do you think are the best Disney Movie Villans of all time? My votes (in order) go to The Horned King, Maleficent, and Jafar. Scar is a close runner-up. The Horned King gets extra points for being so scary that The Black Cauldron was actually rated PG.

Doug Rushkoff's newest book is online as a free PDF file. Its called "Open Source Democracy" and the first chapter is entitled "From Moses to Modems: Demystifying the Storytelling and Taking Control". Sounds familiar, no?

USATODAY.com - Church-and-state standoffs spread over USA:

Respondents were generally tolerant of other, unspecified faiths — but less so of Islam. Though most approve of Ten Commandments monuments in public areas, 64% oppose a monument to Islam's Koran.
The discrepancy is partly residue from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, says Muslim scholar Muqtedar Khan, director of international studies at Adrian College in Adrian, Mich., and a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington. But it is more attributable to evangelical Christians distorting the religion and to widespread ignorance of Islam, he says.
'Most Americans do not realize that all the Ten Commandments are in the Koran,' Khan says. 'As a Muslim, I'm offended by court orders to remove the Ten Commandments. This would be true of 98% of Muslims.'

The guy who had sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral for the Opie & Anthony radio show, which subsequently brought his arrest and their cancellation, is dead, having had a heart attack before trial. A martyr to his cause, he'll meet 72 virgins in heaven.

I just made my first stop at Out of Step Jew, to find out that Emil Fackenheim's been dead for a week. I'm surprised I haven't seen more about this -- I thought he was already dead, actually. His philosophy was crap, but he was influential anyway.

Rabbi Styx discusses the reaction to his Rosh HaShanah sermon:

That is, I am blaming my listeners for not actually listening. I imagine them sitting there, thinking of cheese, and perking up only intermittently when a strange word hits their ear (or they run out of cheese). If what I say sounds like something they already know about, they assume that I said the familiar and not actually what I said.
But can I blame them for thinking that I'm stupid when I think that they are stupid? I need to be clearer in my sermons. I had a good excuse on Rosh Hashanah - some idiots were making a commotion in the front row (and eventually left the room) which thoroughly threw me off. I had to curtail my talk and I couldn't say what I wanted to say. But when someone misunderstands my sermon, I need to blame myself first.
Bottom line is still the same: tragedy is hitting us all around, do teshuva. Gmar Tov.

Said Slichot tonite. Was not inspired. I still stand by my last post.

Tomorrow nite is Shlosh Esrei Middos. Maybe that'll be more moving.

Reader/Blogger David sends in an Ebay link appropriate to the season - Maftir Yona for Dhengah Roov Shlit"a:

I put this in for a friend that doesn't have a computer.Don't ask me what it says. Mir farkoift Maftir Yona tzu m'chabbed zein der Roov Yoim Hakodesh in Dhengah Bais Medresh. Er vos koift es ken arein kimmen far a presenlecha ba'gegenish mitten Reb'n Shlit'a erev Yoim Hakadosh far a bracha un lekach. Dee oilum zul minadav zein S'chumim hegoinim in a bakovidiga oifen un nisht areinlegin a bid the lasteh regeh (sniping bla'z) Der vos koift es muz baztalen erev Yoim Hakodesh fahr er vet treffen zich mitten Roov, uder dorch paypal, uder money order, uder cash. Fahr dey groisser mitzvah mir hubben bakommen a heter from der Rabonim Shlita vos huben ge'asart de shmutzidiga internet. Fahr mer pruttim shick an e-mail tzu der Gabbai at: gabbai@dhengah.org Shkoiach un gamar chasimah toiva. I reserve the option to cancel this auction at any time due to prior local sale.

Joe Kashnow, a former NCSYer from Baltimore and now a soldier with the US forces in Iraq, was hurt last week in an ambush on the road to Baghdad.

Reader HK sends in a link to "Jews and Christians Join to Support the Ten Commandments" a story on Toward Tradition, a group that will "oppose secular fundamentalists' attempts to ban the Ten Commandments from public display." And who's our man on the scene? Rabbi Daniel Lapin, of course, alongside neo-Confederate booster Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue.
Great.

Jason Maoz of the Jewish Press maintains a weekly item called "Media Monitor," which, not-so-curiously, is rarely about media or monitoring it. Last week he came pretty close, endorsing a number of websites. What I found cute was the fact that it is impossible he hasn't come across Protocols, given the sites he does list (which he presumably reads). So either he chooses not to read (and subsequently list) Protocols -- unlike his colleagues at the Forward and Jewish Week, among other Jewish media types and leaders -- or he reads it but doesn't want to mention it in his column. Neither would be at all surprising. Of course, our readership is more than 20 times that of sites he does list, but that's obviously not a criterion.

In the Jason Cyrulnik Doesn't Blog Department, we have Gil finding this great resemblance of a young Shimon Peres with Michael Richards:

Bush Wants to 'Know the Truth' About Iraq Leak

CHICAGO (Reuters) - President Bush called on Tuesday for anyone with information about those who disclosed the identity of a CIA official to come forward, saying: "I want to know the truth."

"If anybody's got any information inside our administration or outside our administration, it would be helpful if they came forward," Bush told reporters...

In 1992, Rove was fired as a consultant for the Bush-Quayle Texas campaign, after officials suspected that he was the source for a column by Novak and Roland Evans that portrayed the Texas presidential operation as in disarray. Rove was accused of making up the story because of a feud with the campaign's chairman, Rob Mosbacher Jr., whom the column reported, erroneously, was to be dumped.

At the time Rove denied he was the source, and he said the column was false.

"According to a confidential source at the CIA, Mrs. Wilson was an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operative. And not in charge of undercover operatives."

The FBI began a full-scale criminal investigation Tuesday into whether White House officials illegally leaked the identity of an undercover CIA officer

"I don't know of anyone in my administration who has leaked,"

"No one wants to get to the bottom of this more than the president of the United States."

Democrats say a criminal probe isn't good enough.
They want a special prosecutor named to find out who blew the cover of a CIA operative whose husband questioned a key rationale for the Iraq War.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi says the Justice Department is part of the same Bush administration that, according to published reports, was behind the leak.

Democrats demanded an independent counsel investigate the leak allegations...

They drafted a nonbinding sense of the Senate resolution on Tuesday in support of an independent probe. But Republicans who control the chamber prevented them from bringing it up for an immediate vote.

...Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said the resolution would send "a message to the president that we need a thorough, complete and fearless investigation, and that only a special counsel can do that for us."

"The prosecutors and agents who are and will be handling this investigation are career professionals with extensive experience in handling matters involving sensitive national security information,"

"The president believes that the leaking of classified information is a serious matter. He has always expressed that concern,"

Laura Bush chided U.S. parents for letting their children watch too much television... "American children, I'm afraid, are addicted to television," she told the first ladies of Russia, Armenia and Bulgaria on Tuesday.

Gawker quoting MegaStyles:

Fashion maven Meghan Stier has the lowdown from the high holy days: "Apparently temple is just one big fashion show this Rosh Hashana. A Yiddish style spy noticed an overwhelming amount of pleated skirts, mod turtlenecks, and one enterprising young woman in 'a yarmulke-sized mini.' Hey, it's New Year, not your birthday. Cover up or we'll send the nuns after you."

Noon -- Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver attends grand opening of Noah's Ark Deli, 399 Grand St., between Essex and Clinton streets.

5:30 p.m. -- The Jewish Community Relations Council of New York hosts a Memorial Tribute to Daniel Patrick Moynihan; speakers include Alfonse D'Amato, Bill Bradley, Bob Kerry and Maura Moynihan; The Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse, Hunter College, 695 Park Ave., at 68th Street.

Reader Hershel888 brought to my attention this post on hyde park regarding a new minor brouhaha (reported on in Makor Rishon) developing in the Haredi world over work being done by Rabbi Moshe Yechiel Halevi Zuriel, a Haredi resident of Bnei Brak, on the ideas and writings of the "maskil" and pal of Mendelssohn Naftali Herz Weisel. Apparently, Zuriel's publication of new editions of two of Weisel's books has drawn the ire of Haredi rabbis, including one who wrote a negative article in the Yosed Nemon. If Zuriel goes unopposed, we are told, then the next step will be the study of Mendelssohn's Biur (chas veshalom), and we all know that the Biur caused thousands of Jews to go astray.

The post on Hyde Park brings some data to light about the level of Zuriel's scholarship and torah knowledge, and attests to his good character and pedigree (though I confess to not having any idea what an "extinguishing bird" might be).

Though I'm not (by any means) a student of Haskala or Modern JHI (at least as far as it exists outside the realm of Hasidism), it seems that Mendelssohn's Biur is not the spiritual pitfall that these rabbis are making it out to be. If anything, its dry and rather uninspiring content may serve to turn people off to torah study altogether, though I personally doubt it. I've been assured (this is admittedly second hand, so take it as you will) that Mendelssohn's peirush is not all that different from Hirsch's. A prime complaint against it was its publication in German, which Hirsch was guilty of as well.

What's amusing is the knee-jerk response of the Haredim towards Haskala ideas in general. The label "maskil" is anaethema to them, despite the fact that most of the Maskilim were kicking around ideas that seem, quaint, hopelessly outdated or even completely incomprehensible to the modern reader.

This seems to be a less virulent form of the same book-banning strain that infected the Haredi world following the publication of Making of a Godol: the attack of a respectable talmid chacham for publishing a book that smacks of some kind of heresy, even though no one can really point to specific examples.

I raise a contest to Elder Avraham's entry for most immediately blogable moment of Rosh Hashanah. Mine came during I believe the Chazan's Repitition of the Morning Amidah, where the Artscroll machzor I had translated "barak" as "flashing fires." I turned the page expecting to see a translation of "eitz" as "leafy woody things." All other translations of "barak" that I took notice of translated it as "lightning." What seemed to be the difference in this one was that the passage was saying that angels are created by "barak," so I'd guess that the Artscroll folks had a problem with discussing that kind of concrete old-world cosmology, which opens up some interesting avenues for further discussion regarding this topic. Hopefully, we'll soon start our much-delayed discussion of James Kugel's The God of Old.

I've got my laptop back. More to come.

The Material Girl Gets Immaterial - The social nuances of The English Roses. By Polly Shulman:

Madonna says she drew her inspiration for The English Roses not just from her daughter's experience, but from the "spiritual wisdom" she found studying the Cabala. "My creativity was not motivated by ego or greed for the first time in my life," she writes in the book's publicity material. Royalties from those million copies will go to a foundation that teaches children spirituality, which covers the greed part of Madonna's statement. The ego part seems more complex—however you read it, the book still revolves around Madonna. If Binah is meant to represent Lourdes, then Madonna avoids taking responsibility for her daughter's trouble by making Binah's problem be the absence of a mother rather than her overwhelming presence. On the other hand, if Binah represents the author (who lost her own mother at an early age), then she's glorifying herself all over again, this time with an air of virtue instead of transgression.

WorldNetDaily: WND probe reveals worldwide explosion of anti-Semitism

"This Whistleblower issue will shock many readers who still think in terms of the 'old anti-Semitism,'" said Farah. "Writers like Phyllis Chesler and Fiamma Nirenstein will show, however, how there is now a 'new anti-Semitism' sweeping the globe, one which is fashionable and politically correct. That's why it's so prevalent on college campuses, even in the U.S."
Calling it "one of the most important issues we've published yet," Farah added, "I also truly believe we get closer to laying out the core reasons for anti-Semitism, and revealing what the real cure is, than any other news organization has up till now."

Just in case you've been wondering how I spend my time: We had our first Kavvanah meeting last night (the website's really bad, true, but I had nothing to do with it, and maybe I can do something about it over Sukkot if I can find the time). We discussed the roles of ritual and community in Hullin 109b-110a (I'll post it in English later), and then, after a break, we discussed Ram Dass' Be Here Now ("an excellent mussar sefer"). The food was good too, and all in all I had lots of fun. Most intellectual break-fast ever. I'll probably have more to say on the subject(s) later, but I have to be in the Beit Midrash in 2 minutes...
Update: check out Bryan's reaction.

So Ari Schick's comment about slichot resonated with me. As he mentioned, we had discussed the topic of "good" slichot vs. the trite and derivative ones (I'm going to hell for even making this distinction, aren't I?) a while back, but this year's recitation got me thinking about it even more.
First off, his mention of Ibn Ezra's attack on Kalir reminds me of a selection in Agnon's Yomim Noraim (this is what I do in shul on the high holy days - I read my father's little red 1973 cleverly-disguised-as-an-arcane-sefer edition of Agnon - how krum is that????) where he quotes Pinchas of Korecz (a follower of the Baal Shem Tov, and the person whom Elder Pinchas is named after) as saying that Ibn Ezra just couldn't appreciate Kalir's greatness, since having lived further away in time from the glorious radiance of the Beit Hamikdash than Kalir, his spiritual "eyes" were unable to appreciate the "spiritual glow" radiating from Kalir's words (this assumes, or at least implies, that Kalir lived in classical times in Israel, which I find less than compelling - I'm more convinced that he wrote in Byzantium in c. 10th or 11th Century).
OK. Or maybe Ibn Ezra liked grammar more than normal people.

This said, my impression of slichot thus far is that the quality of the poetry, imagery and metaphor in the Pizmons is uniformly high, while the other stuff ranges in both creativity and talent (tonight, for example, one of my favorites was a stanza in the pizmon that cleverly plays on the Aron and Aharon as symbols of the renewal of the temple service. Or there's another creative one - the arba avot nezikin one, which plays on the torts mishna in bava kama with the archetypal 4 subjugating nations.). But this begs the question of what "good" liturgical poetry is. Should it be judged on the merits of the poetry alone? Is techincally good piyut that uses fresh metaphor and tight rhyme but does not uplift or inspire the reader good piyut?

Ari is right in noting that the simple but poignant Aramaic paragraphs at the end - not poetically impressive by any stretch of the imagination - are powerful. But are there elaborate and intricate piyutim that can achieve both technical virtuosity and spiritual power?

Generally, effective prayer seems to rely on emotional - and not cerebral - response. Unesanah tokef is moving b/c it is surrounded by the pomp and ceremony of the center of the service, b/c of the associated R' Amnon story, b/c of the immediacy and personal nature of the "mi yichyeh umi yamus...etc..." parallelisms, and even due to the power of its imagery - the angels rushing, the shofar blowing a still, thin sound, the people passing before god like sheep (all unabashedly biblical and Talmudic motifs, by the way) and not b/c it is particularly technically well-written (hell, he didn't have arms or legs, how on earth could he write well??).

Most powerful prayers (especially in other ceremony-driven religions) are accompanied by grand choruses singing imposing music, or perhaps Elli Kranzler on the guitar. But most slichot (especially the everyday ones that make up the bulk of my artscroll selchot) are said, and not sung, and while the shouting of them in the Mir, the YU bais or a chassidishe shtiebel somewhere may contribute to a sense of awe, most of us have to find it on our own without the extrinsic factors helping us.

So perhaps the intricate 6-fold acrostics, triple rhyme schemes and fourfold repetitions of key words in alternating lines of 6 and 8 syllables are techincal masterpieces, or maybe they are grammatical perversions worthy of Ibn Ezra's wrath, or contrived artifices deserving of Ari's scorn.
What makes slichot worthwhile, however (aside from the unquantifiable ritual aspect - I have no idea what makes God forgive us, but I hope it's not just waking up early and saying stuff in loud voices) are the images and metaphors. The well placed "Kaleh Seir Vechosno", the repeated metaphors of persecution (perhaps more relevant this year than in the past? I think so....I definitely have people in mind when I say some of the more "god save us from the wicked" lines), the appeal to more human attributes of mercy or God himself, in all his anthropomorphic glory coming down to forgive, cleanse and save us.
They may not all be good poetry (though some might argue that the only good poetry is image and metaphor driven, and not technical but dry stuff), but they do a lot more towards getting us (or me, at least) into some kind of high holy day mindset.


Comments? Please.

Wow. More or less my first time poking my head above the med school waters into the blog air in ten days - no one warned me that this school thing would be so hard...I'm actually STUDYING (AS IF...).

First off, gmar tov to everyone out there.
I read some (a lot really) interesting stuff over yom tov (if you study on Rosh Hashana afternoon, do you have a studydik mazal all year? I didn't want to chance it, so I read some Jewish press (Not THE Jewish Press)), and I thought I'd post some of it for your reading pleasure.

Amazing piece by Avrum Burg in the Forward (originally published in Al Quds). Both powerfully written and dead-on accurate.
Of course, he has even deafer ears over there to talk to than he did with his last oped in the Forward aimed at our side, but I guess someone has to say it, even if there's no one to hear it.

More posts a little later. Gotta go do the Mincha thing.

News Brief from The Onion :

Church, State Joyfully Reunite After 230-Year Trial Separation
WASHINGTON, DC—Following a two-and-a-quarter-century-long trial separation, Church and State reunited in the U.S. Department of Justice press room Monday. 'Even through all the bad times, I knew there had to be a way to get these two old friends back together,' Attorney General John Ashcroft said. 'With a little counseling and faith-based intervention, I knew Church and State would work it out. It was meant to be.' Effective Oct. 15, prayer will be mandatory in public schools and congressional sessions will open with Holy Communion.

Most immediately bloggable moment of Rosh HaShanah: opening the Jewish Press and seeing this picture captioned:

Changing of the guard: Dr. Norman Lamm (center right) handed over the presidency of Yeshiva University on Sunday to Dr. Richard L. Joel (center left).