Blog Schedule
The Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which primarily celebrates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, begins at sundown tonight and continues until about an hour after sundown on Thursday.
FailedMessiah.com won't be updated during this time.
You use the navigation menus posted in the middle column of this page (they look like the ones posted immediately below, but they work) to find lots of older posts of interest.
There is also a menu bar under the FailedMessiah banner at the top of this page. It will take you to index pages on the Sholom Rubashkin/Agriprocessors scandals, on Ethiopian Jewry, on Chabad, and on other topics.
Have a good holiday. Chag Samayach!
Chag sameach to the entire FM community.
Posted by: Yochanan Lavie | June 07, 2011 at 05:55 PM
Shmarya, you believe in the giving of the Torah at Sinai?
Posted by: Sam | June 07, 2011 at 06:11 PM
Shmarya, you believe in the giving of the Torah at Sinai?
Posted by: Sam | June 07, 2011 at 06:11 PM
you have witnesses
Posted by: seymour | June 07, 2011 at 06:18 PM
Sam, I don't think so, if you read here,
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2006/10/what_i_believe.html
Scotty pretty much states that..."And, indeed, if the findings of archeology, genetics, astronomy, and so many other scientific disciplines are to be believed – and they should be, in part because they independently confirm each other's work – our forbearers did quite a lot of lying. Either that, or they spoke in the language and style of their day, using myths to teach spiritual truths, never intending those myths to be taken as literal truth, And this, David, is what I believe. Those myths contain some of humankind's earliest memories, often in fragmentary form, would be remembered without writing – through myth. "
He also adds that..."I follow halakha for the most part due to simple inertia. I find little religious inspiration in Judaism."
Scott, your wishes are hypocritical to say the least.
Posted by: ergo proxy | June 07, 2011 at 06:22 PM
>Shmarya, you believe in the giving of the Torah at Sinai?
Why does he have to? The Torah says nothing about the giving of the Torah at Sinai on Shavuos.
Posted by: Reader | June 07, 2011 at 06:28 PM
Chag Samayach to Shmarya and the readers of FM !
Posted by: Adam Neira | June 07, 2011 at 06:28 PM
Scott, your wishes are hypocritical to say the least.
Posted by: ergo proxy | June 07, 2011 at 06:22 PM
Why?
It's quite evident that you're not very perceptive, but I'd think even someone like you would understand the idea of wishing people a happy holiday.
When I wish someone a happy (secular) new year, do I have to be celebrating that (secular) new year myself?
Of course not.
Now toddle off.
Posted by: Shmarya | June 07, 2011 at 06:29 PM
Wow, the guy can't even wish people a good Yom Tov without a controversy.
Posted by: Yochanan Lavie | June 07, 2011 at 06:38 PM
Wow, the guy can't even wish people a good Yom Tov without a controversy.
Posted by: Yochanan Lavie | June 07, 2011 at 06:38 PM
They can't answer the message so they attack the messenger.
It's a very common haredi behavior.
Posted by: Shmarya | June 07, 2011 at 06:48 PM
Shamarya a tzadig oh wow! what a hypocrite
Posted by: moshe | June 07, 2011 at 06:51 PM
"They can't answer the message so they attack the messenger."
answer to whom Shamarya ?
Posted by: moshe | June 07, 2011 at 06:53 PM
"They can't answer the message so they attack the messenger."
answer to whom Shamarya ?
Posted by: moshe | June 07, 2011 at 06:53 PM
Anyone who has more than a grade school education, cares about the truth and seeks the truth.
Everyone else – like you, for instance – is probably more than satisfied with their "answers."
Posted by: Shmarya | June 07, 2011 at 07:05 PM
No, I just found your message hypocritical based on your own description on what you believe. Go have an anger pill chubs.
Posted by: Ergo proxy | June 08, 2011 at 12:08 AM
I'm fine with celebrating what I think happened (the evolution, or giving, if you will, of Torah over hundreds of years until it took its final form at some point or other). What I think happened is that it started with folktales and legends and, perhaps, the occasional insight from G-d, but politics eventually intruded into the work, and so we have laws and biased accounts and commandments in there.
So what if it's a heretical belief? I grew up secular/Reform and follow secular thinking out of inertia and because I like it.
Posted by: Reuven | June 08, 2011 at 12:48 AM
Another thing also crept into the Torah and Tanakh, along with the legends and myths and laws. History. Even if it was misremembered at first (i.e., the Exodus, which archaeologists had a hard time finding evidence of, perhaps because they were looking in the Bible and not at the ground or at other records). (In the case of the Exodus, there does appear to have been Egyptian colonization of the Levant, as discovered at Megiddo, and this colonialism appears to have fallen away; there was also much ado about rampages by the "Hyksos" or "Sea Peoples". I have a hunch that we did win freedom from Egypt, but not quite in the manner that the book of Exodus suggested, and that Exodus was written down hundreds of years after the fact.)
Posted by: Reuven | June 08, 2011 at 01:00 AM
The Thera/Santorini explosion and tsunami might have made their way into the book as well, and the book of Exodus mixed that disaster into the story of escape from Egyptian rule. (Remember the splitting of the Sea of Reeds, the pillar of fire, the tower of smoke?)
Posted by: Reuven | June 08, 2011 at 01:03 AM
Perhaps you were misled by the very same disgusting "rebbes" that made up many things that were not originally in the Torah. Including this "holiday" that we for some reason must celebrate.
Pentateuch is completely different from the rest of the Tanakh. In composition, structure, in logic, in everything. To me, to a scientist, it is more than enough of a proof that the Pentateuch was "given to us by God". I feel very confident in this statement, and I do not see problems that most skeptics are so concerned about...
Posted by: Aleksandr Sigalov | June 08, 2011 at 08:58 AM
well, it's certainly more coherent than the Muslims' Quran, that's for sure.
Posted by: Reuven | June 08, 2011 at 02:39 PM
Reuvain and Shmarya are clearly not of the Orthodox persuasion, thinking as they do, that, our forefathers did a "lot of lying," that legends and myths "crept into" the Torah and Tenach. (No wonder they get no inspiration from Judaism's mandates.)
I bumped into this address by mistake and ask why those who know Torah was given by G-d at Sinai bother with this possibly shmad site? Don't bother answering me personally, because I'll never read this mess again, b'li neder.
Posted by: Andrea Eller | June 09, 2011 at 07:59 AM
given by G-d
By whom ? You mean God, right?!?
Because "G" dash "d" sounds like somewhat weird...
Posted by: Aleksandr Sigalov | June 09, 2011 at 12:12 PM
Don't bother answering me personally, because I'll never read this mess again
Of course not. Why would she? She might have to confront her doubts and perhaps even think for herself, chos v'sholem.
Posted by: Jeff | June 09, 2011 at 05:23 PM
(No wonder they get no inspiration from Judaism's mandates.)
Not true. Religion is a powerful driver of one's ethical foundation, even when said religion is diluted and mixed in with other ways of thinking and doing.
Posted by: Reuven | June 10, 2011 at 03:20 PM