Israel to Display the Dead Sea Scrolls on the Internet

JERUSALEM — In a crowded laboratory painted in gray and cooled like a cave, half a dozen specialists embarked this week on a historic undertaking:…

Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times
From left, three views of a fragment of one of the Dead Sea Scrolls: a plain digital image, a color scan and an infrared scan.

…digitally photographing every one of the thousands of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls with the aim of making the entire file — among the most sought-after and examined documents on earth — available to all on the Internet.

Equipped with high-powered cameras with resolution and clarity many times greater than those of conventional models, and with lights that emit neither heat nor ultraviolet rays, the scientists and technicians are uncovering previously illegible sections and letters of the scrolls, discoveries that could have significant scholarly impact.

The 2,000-year-old scrolls, found in the late 1940s in caves near the Dead Sea east of Jerusalem, contain the earliest known copies of every book of the Hebrew Bible (missing only the Book of Esther), as well as apocryphal texts and descriptions of rituals of a Jewish sect at the time of Jesus. The texts, most of them on parchment but some on papyrus, date from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D.…

This is very cool!

NY Times: Israel to Display the Dead Sea Scrolls on the Internet

Comments

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3588126,00.html

Switch the words Secular and haredim in this article and it will be in 10 different posts here. Since it is the opposite, it won't get mentioned and my comment will probably be deleted.

[jewishwhistleblower]

News articles:

Obama-Agriprocessors coverage in the JW:
1) Obama Raps Kosher Giant, But Not By Name
Remarks about Agriprocessors come a day after Iowa governor criticizes Postville meatpacking plant.
by Staff Report
http://thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a13259/News/New_York.html

Cross-Currents spin. Attack the messenger:
2) The Meat Of The Postville Matter
by Eytan Kobre
Special To The Jewish Week
http://thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c55_a13253/Editorial__Opinion/Opinion.html

Jewish Renewal keeps poor judgment alive. Lowlife Waskow still claims
3) On Gafni
by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
http://thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c53_a13186/Editorial__Opinion/Letter.html
" But I did believe (and still do) that despite unresolvable charges laid against him of sexual abuse some 20 years before, there was in 2004 no evidence that he was sexually abusive in his role as teacher and leader, so it was not reasonable to bar him from teaching."

JWB: Perhaps there was "no evidence" because you, Rabbi Saul Bermen and the rest of the Jewish Renewal lowlife membership declared Gafni innocence and condemned those brave survivors who came forward in 2007 without any basic investigation, just the claim of one despite the refusal to even take the calls or talk to some of these brave survivors.

see: http://www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/mordecai_gafni1.htm
and http://www.canonist.com/?p=785

[jewishwhistleblower]

Articles of interest:

Obama-Agriprocessors coverage in the JW:
1) Obama Raps Kosher Giant, But Not By Name
Remarks about Agriprocessors come a day after Iowa governor criticizes Postville meatpacking plant.
by Staff Report
thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a13259/News/New_York.html

Cross-Currents spin. Attack the messenger:
2) The Meat Of The Postville Matter
by Eytan Kobre
Special To The Jewish Week
thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c55_a13253/Editorial__Opinion/Opinion.html

Jewish Renewal keeps poor judgment alive. Lowlife Waskow still claims
3) On Gafni
by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c53_a13186/Editorial__Opinion/Letter.html
" But I did believe (and still do) that despite unresolvable charges laid against him of sexual abuse some 20 years before, there was in 2004 no evidence that he was sexually abusive in his role as teacher and leader, so it was not reasonable to bar him from teaching."

JWB: Perhaps there was "no evidence" because you, Rabbi Saul Bermen and the rest of the Jewish Renewal lowlife membership declared Gafni innocence and condemned those brave survivors who came forward in 2007 without any basic investigation, just the claim of one despite the refusal to even take the calls or talk to some of these brave survivors.

see: www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/mordecai_gafni1.htm
and www.canonist.com/?p=785

[jewishwhistleblower]

Agriprocessors articles:

Obama-Agriprocessors coverage in the JW:
1) Obama Raps Kosher Giant, But Not By Name
Remarks about Agriprocessors come a day after Iowa governor criticizes Postville meatpacking plant.
by Staff Report
http://thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a13259/News/New_York.html

Cross-Currents spin. Attack the messenger:
2) The Meat Of The Postville Matter
by Eytan Kobre
Special To The Jewish Week
http://thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c55_a13253/Editorial__Opinion/Opinion.html

[jewishwhistleblower]

Jewish Renewal keeps poor judgment alive. Lowlife Waskow still claims he was right in 2004.
3) On Gafni
by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
http://thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c53_a13186/Editorial__Opinion/Letter.html
" But I did believe (and still do) that despite unresolvable charges laid against him of sexual abuse some 20 years before, there was in 2004 no evidence that he was sexually abusive in his role as teacher and leader, so it was not reasonable to bar him from teaching."

JWB: Perhaps there was "no evidence" because you, Rabbi Saul Bermen and the rest of the Jewish Renewal lowlife membership declared Gafni innocence and condemned those brave survivors who came forward in 2004 without any basic investigation, just the claim of one, despite the refusal to even take the calls or talk to some of these brave survivors.

see: http://www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/mordecai_gafni1.htm
and http://www.canonist.com/?p=785

[JewishCynic]

Great to see the scolls to be so accessible to the public and in such great detail. Was ridiculous having them hidden among a small select group for so many decades. Now future generations can be assured that the information won't be lost.
Wish I could say the same for artifacts buried on the temple mount (that the muslims have been destroying as part of their AlAska construction projects).

[Maskil]

After welcoming this development, I guess the next question is why has this taken so long? Digitising ancient documents is not exactly bleeding edge anymore.

[maven]

Jewishwhistleblower-

I think you misread Rabbi Waskow's letter, and he's said similar things, directly in response to Gafni, on Jewschool. He says that nothing on Gafni's website changes his view from 2006, when he barred Gafni from teaching.
What Gafni had done cleverly, and continues to do, is shift all the attention to that case when he was younger, which drew attention away from all the nasty things he did when he was older. Of course, now, as a 48 year old man, with three famously failed marriages, a series of harrassment claims against him from every denomination of Judaism, and a website fixated on weird sexual discussions, one needn't worry too much about his becoming a threat; he's not a pedophile, he's a seducer, so as long as he's not teaching as a Rabbi he's not likely to do much harm.
As I said in an earlier conversation, its sort of a shame, he used to be so clever at resurrecting himself, this time around he's just back as himself, lashing out at everyone.

[Jake]

Recently Rabbi Gershon Winkler an ex Orthodox Rabbi who now is unaffiliated came out publically supporting Gafni in two letetrs he sent out to his e-mail list.

Waskow responded to both of Winkler's letetrs and basically gutted what winkler wrote in support of Gafni.

Today of all the circa 2004 defenders of Gafni , Waskow is the only indivifual rabbi who has come out publically against him.

Berman , Telushkin , Gold et al should learn from Waskow.

( Note the Jewish Renewal Movement has banned Gafni from its programs and they have banned Winkler from presenting at their retreat center because of his public support of Gafni's immoral behavior.)

[jewishwhistleblower]

Please re-read linked material. Waskow states: "But I did believe (and still do) that despite unresolvable charges laid against him of sexual abuse some 20 years before, there was in 2004 no evidence that he was sexually abusive in his role as teacher and leader, so it was not reasonable to bar him from teaching."

Waskow and the othe Jewish Renewal lowlifes dismissed the allegations of the brave survivors of Gafni in 2004 without any investigation (despite claims of one even today). They deadened the names of gafnis brave survivors who came forward in 2004 and continue to do so today with statements such as the one I've quoted above. They do so without any effort to investigate same allegations then or now. They refused to even speak to these brave survivors. They simply dismissed their claims of abuse. These were not "unresolvable charges" they were ignored charges.

Yes, Waskow is right about the 2006 allegations but he continues to show a lack of remorse for his treatment of those who bravely tried to prevent the abuses that were revealed in 2006. For that Waskow and the the other Jewish Renewal lowlifes should be held accountable and removed from any position of authority or honor. They are failures and they still coverup their culpability in enabling Gafni activities for many years.

[Rachel Batya]

JWB is reading Arthur's letter correctly; he is still justifying having supported Gafni in 2004.

There was certainly evidence against Gafni in 2004, evidence that came from Gafni's own words. The problem was that the leadership, including Arthur, did not have a clue as to what sexual abuse looks like, and so did not interpret what Gafni said correctly. Needless to say, they also had a big stake in Gafni (Arthur less so than others, since he pretty much goes his own way), and this blinded them, to put it mildly.

When the whole thing blew up in 2006, I was utterly outraged at the Renewal leadership--first for supporting Gafni, and then for playing the victim when they had enabled him all along. Whether they enabled him consciously or unconsciously did not not matter to me at all, and it still doesn't. They played their part, and they weren't owning up to it, and they still haven't.

Am I disappointed that Arthur is still justifying his 2004 stance? Yes, I am. He and I have exchanged a number of emails on this subject, and more than anyone else in the leadership, he seems to be listening and learning. At this point, I think it would be much better if he'd just admit that he made a mistake in 2004 and be done with it. But as Jake rightly points out, he is the only Renewal rabbi to do public teshuva--first by speaking to *and believing* the women at Bayit Chadash, then by speaking about the meeting publically, and then by blasting Gershon Winkler (and by extension, Marc Gafni) both on the OHALAH list and on Jewschool. If you haven't read his piece, go over to Jewschool and find it. It's well worth the time.

As a survivor, I very well know all the pain and anger this has caused, but I try to have some rachmones for people who are really trying to get it. Arthur is trying. Everyone else, including Reb Zalman, is eerily quiet. But I'm not issuing any blanket condemnations of any of them, and I'm not looking for perfection from anyone. I'm looking for an effort. In terms of public teshuva, Arthur's gone a lot further down the road than anyone else.

[Rachel Batya]

"Note the Jewish Renewal Movement has banned Gafni from its programs and they have banned Winkler from presenting at their retreat center because of his public support of Gafni's immoral behavior.)"

Elat Chayyim has banned him because he refuses to sign onto their ethics code, which prohibits sexual relationships between students and teachers, rabbis and congregants, and employers/employees. Have other Renewal organizations done the same?

[Sheryl]

Another advocate for children silenced:

http://hamercaz.com/hamercaz/site/news_item.php?id=1003

For all the criticism leveled against Nuchem, he accomplished some good things.

[Rachel Batya]

"Switch the words Secular and haredim in this article and it will be in 10 different posts here. Since it is the opposite, it won't get mentioned and my comment will probably be deleted."

If what the article says is true (and no one has stated that it isn't), it's terrible what happened, especially with children involved. I don't condone any kind of intimidation, by anyone, against people who are minding their own business. I don't know whether the Haredi family would speak up for *me* (unorthodox Jew that I am) were the tables turned, but if they were doing no harm and were forced to leave a public place, I'd speak up for them.

[Susan]

It was such a loss that the great library of Alexandria, Egypt was twice burned. some of the scrolls lost supposedly had been moved from the Essene community at Qumran (near the Dead Sea) before the Romans destroyed Qumran.

[Yochanan Lavie]

To those who know: Are there differences between the Septuagint and the text we have? This is not rhetorical- I really want to know.

[zanibol]

*To those who know: Are there differences between the Septuagint and the text we have? This is not rhetorical- I really want to know.*

Yochanan,

Daat Emet has a piece on exactly that. Here is the info:

http://daatemet.org.il/articles/article.cfm?article_id=132

Thanks.

[Shmarya]

To those who know: Are there differences between the Septuagint and the text we have? This is not rhetorical- I really want to know.

Yes.

See here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint#Relationship_between_the_Septuagint_and_the_Masoretic_text