bbarer

An End

By bbarer December 30, 2010

In some ways it feels like yesterday that I walked into this apartment for the first time, toured Pardes for the first time, and met the people who turned out to make up what came to be a fantastic and interesting community of friends. In reality, however, nearly four months have passed. A few weeks…

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Time To Act

By bbarer December 23, 2010

I have spent my entire life living in the world of formal educational environments. I have learned a lot while doing so, and am immensely comfortable in such a setting. Since high school especially, much of the learning I have been exposed to — western philosophy and in-depth Jewish text study — has had a…

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A Renaissance Man of Religions

By bbarer December 17, 2010

How Jews separate themselves from the rest of the world is an interesting issue, and a hot topic this week. It so happens, at Pardes this week, we looked at issues of separatism in Judaism, from the extremely current issue of the letter banning rental of apartments to Arabs to the more theoretical ‘how should…

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Hityavnut (Hellenization)

By bbarer December 9, 2010

I’d like to focus on something I mentioned very briefly in my overview of Chanukkah which has been coming up in my mind as I consider life back home: namely, Hityavnut or Hellenization, or what would today be called assimilation. The word gives varied messages manifested in different languages. Hityavnut is an example of a…

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Adam Sandler’s Take on Why Chanukkah Happened

By bbarer December 2, 2010

This week has been a little hectic, with Chanukkah and the end of classes (next week is a well-deserved break), so before I get into relaxation mode, here are a few thoughts related to the holiday season inspired by various Chanukkah-themed classes this week. Different classes have highlighted the fact that Chanukkah is unique in…

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Religion’s Language

By bbarer November 27, 2010

I see religion (specifically Judaism) as being a specific embodiment of a set of central tenets, expressed in a subjective sense. Just like people list their most fundamental beliefs in their own language, so to is this personal religiosity is transmitted. In continuing with the theme of my last post, I will use a single…

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Texts and the Subjectivity of Language

By bbarer November 18, 2010

Being constantly surrounded by texts, and basing the vast majority of my education this term at Pardes on those texts, has made me think a lot about issues of how we understand texts. Specifically, I have reflected on just how much is lost from a traditional Jewish text (Chumash, Talmud, etc.) when it is read…

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Morals Over Politics

By bbarer November 11, 2010

After another busy few days at Pardes I have had time to review the news from the week that has past, and I am pleasantly surprised to note the tone that the prime minister of my country, Stephen Harper, took in his speech to the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism (see Canada’s national paper,…

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Tradition

By bbarer November 5, 2010

What value does tradition have? What is added to an action, ritual, or practice from it being something that has been done for 500 years as opposed to 50 years or five years, or compared to starting a new ‘tradition’ altogether? As anyone who has watched Fiddler on the Roof knows – and judging by…

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Masa Israel Opening Event

By bbarer October 28, 2010

I was invited to live-blog the event in addition to offering some thoughts afterwards, and while it was tempting for someone of my generation to withdraw from the experience that I was a part of and dispassionately describe it for those who could not be there, I felt like it was a really great opportunity…

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Land, Birthrights, and Ownership

By bbarer October 21, 2010

My post-secondary education has consisted of a couple years of this and that, followed by two years of almost exclusive (Western analytic) philosophy. Just speaking for myself, I have learned to ask pertinent questions, but articulating answers of a similar quality has not been part of my education. This is because philosophy teaches you how…

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The Limits of Acceptable Democratic Legislation

By bbarer October 14, 2010

Browsing New Voices today, I see that I am not the only one that is seriously concerned by the legislation that passed the Knesset on Sunday. Since BrandonSpringer delved into the issue already (and it’s worth a read), I will skirt the politics as much as I can, and will instead focus on a more…

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Questioning the Objectivity of Text Interpretation

By bbarer October 7, 2010

I would like to position my post as following in the footsteps of the theme outlined by another post here on New Voices, by Max Moncaster on October 5th: exploring Judaism on my own terms. Much of the new positive thinking that I have engaged in since beginning my semester at Pardes -– that, on…

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