Conservative Judaism recently made headlines with their reevaluation of homosexuality in Jewish law. Although Conservative Judaism rejected homosexuality in 1992 (PDF), there was a request to reconsider the issue. When we covered homosexuality from an Orthodox perspective in “Lonely Men of Faith“1 we referenced the debate between Rabbi Elliot Dorf and Rabbi Joel Roth, but there has obviously been significantly more discussion on the matter culminating in yesterday’s decision. From what limited information we have at this time, this new decision is hardly as groundbreaking as people might think.

I was at a wedding in Brooklyn last night which was an eclectic mix of hassidish, yeshivish, and bucharian sephardi. Some interesting tidbits which get their own bullet points:

• I counted at least four different dialects of Hebrew spoken under the huppa.
• It’s apparently not frum to order a “Sex on the Beach” in Brooklyn. Instead you have to ask, more appropriately, for an S.O.B.
• Incidentally, there were at least 3 gallons of vodka.
• The band was split between Ashkenazi and Sephardi musicians for a very interesting mix of musical styles.
• On that note, the hatan walked down to Stairway To Heaven, and I’m debating whether or not it merits being listed as a Weird Wedding Song. On one hand, a resonable interpretation of the lyrics might warrant its inclusion. On the other hand, Robert Plant, who has come to hate the song, refers to “Stairway” as a “bloody wedding song.” For now I’m putting it in with a footnote.

And in other news:

• I can understand people not being familiar with P.D.Q. Bach, but it doesn’t seem right that I need to compare him to Weird Al or Shlock Rock. If you’re interested, he’s playing at Avery Fischer Hall January 3rd.
• Prime Grill just opened a new store in Beverly Hills. I’m guessing business has been going well enough to justify the investment. Plus I give them credit for steadilly improving their health code records up to their most recent perfect inspection. Well done, indeed.
• On the flip side, Circa Meat just closed last week.
• There was some positive feedback from the devar torah, but I inadvertently telegraphed the Rabbi’s derasha. I went to hashkama and missed what was said exactly, but it was supposedly amusing. (It happened last time I wrote as well, but then at least it was Parashat Shelach where it’s hard to avoid talking about the meraglim). In any event, I’ll be speaking this week at seudah shelisit and I’ll have a backup drash just in case.

Thanks to everyone’s concern about the new nibling. Avi just e-mailed that everyone is home, and since the bris can be bizmano, he has 48 hours to prepare. Fortunately, my mother is en route to help out.
Of course most importantly, the most recent picture fresh off the family e-mail list:

UPDATE: We have a name! From Avi:

His name is Netanel Moshe. Netanel was a name we liked. Moshe was name after one of Esther’s Grandma’s relative (Muni Distenfeld — we decided that Muni was Moshe, but there isn’t any way of really ever knowing). He is very cute and awake right now :)

Incidentally, if Muni does mean something else it’s too late now.

One of the local Shop-Rites in NJ was giving out free Jewish calendars. Through a series of amusing connections, a relative of the Niblings from the other side thought that the picture for November looked familiar. Sure enough, it was Eli (right) and Shelomoh (left). Though I can personally attest that they would *never* say anything so insipid as the caption.

Every now and again there are a collection of stories which I find interesting, but not enough to write something substantive (not that I do anyway). Anyway I created a “quickies” section for this purpose, but I’m looking for a wittier title. Suggestions welcome, puns encouraged.
Here’s today’s list:

• This excellent editorial by Dinesh D’Souza attacks the “atheist hubris” that religions are the primary cause of evil in the world. We wrote about this a few weeks ago, demonstrating that some atheists function similarly to religious fundamentalists. SIW had something on this recently, but his site is down at the moment so I cannot provide a more detailed link.
• I doubt many of my readers were or are big fans of professional wrestling, but a not uncommon storyline was when a title match had a controversial ending and the official loser (a bad guy in this case) declared himself the “real champion,” carried around a fake belt, and generally get in the good guy champ’s way until the blowoff match on pay per view. Why does this matter? Because the exact same thing is happening in Mexico with the presidential elections. No word yet on the steel cage match.
• At the NJDC phone conference someone asked if there was a concern regarding Keith Ellison being the first Muslim elected to Congress. The NJDC said that they were encouraged by Ellison’s positions on Israel and in general were not worried. Yesterday Ellison delivered a video address to a CAIR fund raiser. His remarks were typical Democratic talking points which is to be expected, but there could be some concern based on CAIR’s track record. In fairness there were other Representative who spoke (notably all Democrats) and addressing a crowd does not indicate total agreement with its policies. Still, the political world does place a value on which organizations merit appearances. It might be something, it might be nothing, but it will probably be fodder for someone.
• I used to live in Spring Valley NY. Back then we didn’t roll this way.

Despite being a demographic minority in America, Jews seemingly wield a disproportionate influence in American politics such that the “Jewish Vote” becomes an annual topic of interest. Politicians are concerned with this minority that both Democrats and Republicans equally compete for the “pro-Israel” label, and any missteps must be swiftly addressed. There has been some recent discussion as to the nature, significance, and future of the Jewish vote specifically mostly focusing on party affiliation and voting patterns. Today on YUTOPIA we will be reconsidering if partisanship is really the ideal context for defining the Jewish vote.

In a recent Newsweek article, devout atheist Sam Harris laments religion’s influence in American politics and in shaping public policy. While we might expect such arguments to assert the seperation of church and state, Harris’ main objection is that religions are fundamentally immoral and unethical.1