I’ve just about finished with the weekly pilgrimages to the cRc, which has been taking much of my time recently. They have all been incredibly helpful, especially Executive Director Rabbi Joseph Ozarowski. I’m not planning on publishing the paper, but if you’re reading this, know that they do much more than Kashrut., including (but not limited to) a new rehab program.(Free reg reqd)
I am officially plugging The Queen of Persia from Shazak Publications. Highly recommended for all ages.
Also on the Purim front, I’m working on some shticks, and typing up my shiur from last year on the real halakhot of drinking on Purim. Rav Gedalia Schwartz, the Av Beit Din of the cRc, recently gave a shiur on Purim drinking which confirmed my initial analysis of the sources.
In other news: I’m going to an AIPAC conference for university students on Sunday. I’ve never been to one of these things before, but I have a feeling I’ll have fun one way or another. I’ll try to write up some highlights from that. Also, I’m working on my take of Evil in the Talmud and a brief introduction to Jewish Law. Oh yeah, and a thesis of some sort.
I’ve realized I really missed sitting down in the library and just writing. It’s always unfortunate when school gets in the way of education. At any rate, if and when things calm down, I can get back to the good ‘ol days of semi-regular pseudo-intellectual blogging.

I’m working on a few serious posts, and I’ve been busy with school and life. Hopefully, we’ll have some good stuff coming up, but in the meantime, more snark.
Reuven first introduced me to these guys and their attempts at creation re-education. Ben Resnick shows me they’ve expanded their youth programming with Jesus 4 Kidz.
Some highlights:
The mascot “Lambuel” has a girlfriend “Ruby the lioness” and apparently they want to get married someday. Personally, I think Lambuel would do much better with a wolf.
An elephant character “Habu” is asked: “Wouldn’t you rather have just one God who loves you a bunch than a bunch of gods that don’t love you at all?” Fortunately, “Jesus loves everybody, even the unsaved like Habu!”
Oh, but stay away from Mr. Gruff the atheist:

If you find an Atheist in your neighborhood,
TELL A PARENT OR PASTOR RIGHT AWAY!
You may be moved to try and witness to
these poor lost souls yourself, however
AVOID TALKING TO THEM!
Atheists are often very grumpy and bitter and will lash out at children or they may even try to trick you into neglecting God’s Word.

And if that fails, you can always call his Scottish cousin McGruff. Click on the goat’s head and he’ll say things like, “Coffee’s the only thing that gives me solace” and “Hey Kid, wanna read some Ayn Rand?”
Also check out Hopsiah the Kanga-Jew and Professor Giraffenstein. No word yet on future marketing plans, or the release date for the animated version of The Passion.

Bobby Labonte has a new sponsor for the Daytona 500. His car will plug Mel Gibson’s movie – The Passion

No word yet if he’ll also have a plastic Jesus riding on the dashboard. I wonder if he asked himself what would Jesus drive?
As an aside, the worst pun I saw about this story was in today’s Red Eye Chicago: “Jesus Christ Supercar.”
Just so you know I’m not the worst one out there.

“It is as sport to a fool to do wickedness, and so is wisdom to a man of discernment.”(Proverbs 10:23)
Inspired by Kurt Warner’s recent accusations that he was benched because of his religion, ESPN’s Robert Lipsyte writes about Sports, God & Religion.
Nothing really new here. Some players like to invoke the name of the Lord before they go out to who knows what. On the other hand, some owners are suspicious of players who (halilah) believe in a power greater than football. Reading this article, I’m reminded how similar this community of worshipers mimics almost every religious community.
I’m sure there are plenty of professional athletes devoted to their respective faiths. Others merely pay lip-service because it sounds good to other people and they demonstrate some degree of humility. How many people do we know of sit on either side of this mehitza?
I also find interesting is the jihad aspect of football. Whoever has more faith, has God on their side, and therefore deserves to win. Dennis Miller had a great line (not quoted by Lipsyte for some reason): “the winning team always has God on their side, but no one ever says ‘Jesus made me fumble.'” It’s easy to thank God when things are going well, but how often do we see the hand of God in the bad as well?
From what I’ve seen, the Lord is invoked in football more than other sports. This could be because of shortened season, heightened intensity, or following George Carlin – baseball is just wimpy. With fewer and more intense games, football players will understandably be more emotional than after one of the many insignificant baseball games.
Of course, all athletes get emotional at the end of the season. Players thank God for a good season or for the opportunities they had. It’s a time of reflection and retrospection where players reevaluate themselves and prepare for the future season (or retirement). For intents and purposes, this is the end of their year and the off-season is a time for renewal and optimism. We shouldn’t be surprised then that athletes have their own “Rosh Hashana” rituals.
It’s easy to mock athletes for irrational, inconsistent, or insincere faiths. Just realize that underneath the pads and multi-million dollar contracts, they’re just people like everyone else. And the flaws we see in them, might very well be the flaws we refuse to see in ourselves.

In an ironic Kuro5hin article, James AC Joyce writes “Why your Movable Type blog must die.”
One complaint is, “You are all sheep:”

Whenever you discuss a subject about which you all fake your knowledge, such as “metablogging”, the lot of you tend to throw out random and completely false opinions and then temperately argue each other down to a single, unified viewpoint. Which is completely wrong.

Aside from the inherent hypocricy in posting this to a blogging type site, he does raise some interesting issues. It’s bad enough we have a new forum for idiots to easily and anonymously run off their mouths, but the blogs mess up search engines. Let’s say you’re a history major looking for something about Archduke Ferdinand. My shiur, while interesting, doesn’t exactly help you all that much.
If it’s any consolation, I’ve been slacking recently, and if things go well I might slack even more in the future.
But if the search engine thing still bothers you, you’re free to write a better one, because of course, you can never have enough search engines.

Apparently enough Hillel people liked my presentation on Egalitarian Liturgy that they’ve asked me to speak again. In honor of Tu Bishvat I will be speaking this Friday night on “Judaism, Ethics & the Environment” or anything else that would go along with that.
Will post details afterwards.

You might have noticed that on the side of the page I added a link to The Niblings – which refer to my niece and nephews. Although Ben pointed out the connection to 43-Man Squamish, I first heard the term from a friend of mine, and I thought it was cute.
At any rate, I got a great letter from Esther about the newest Eli story:

Here is another classic Eli story…
I was driving with the kids on the way to my dermatologist appointment, and I was explaining to the kids where we were going. I told them that a “skin doctor” is called a “rofeh or” in Hebrew, because “or” means “skin”. Eli said, “No, ‘or’ means light!” I told him that “or” with an “alef” means light, but that “or” with an “ayin” means skin. He replied, then you shouldn’t have said or, you should have said, ‘or – If you don’t say the “ayin” right, the words will sound the same!!
(Sorry, although my computer is rigged for Hebrew, diacritics and the international phonetic alphabet, I didn’t think any of you have e-mail readers that would accommodate).
You should hear his mapik heh!!! He WILL correct you if you mispronounce!

Oh yeah, and he’s learning how to layn.
This, loyal readers, is my nephew.