Critique of Pure Boredom

May 11, 2004 Academia, Random Acts of Scholarship

From The Globe And Mail:

    This year, Germans celebrated the 200th anniversary of the death of Immanuel Kant, reports Philosophy Now magazine. “Kant has traditionally been portrayed as a dutiful ascetic moralist — in other words, as rather a bore — but according to the three new biographies, the great metaphysician was not such a square after all. He enjoyed drinking wine, playing billiards and wearing fine, colourful clothes. On occasion, Kant drank so much red wine that he was unable to find his way home, the books claim.”

What amazes me is not that Kant was a real pissant who was very rarely stable, but I still can’t believe that a magazine called “Philosophy Now” actually exists.
Maybe it’s because I’ve never seen a copy of it.



PSA – Yes, That’s Me on TV

May 11, 2004 Personal, Popular Culture

If you’re in the Chicago area (or will be within next five years or so), and you happen to watch the PBS affiliate WTTW 11, you might catch me in one of their station commercials.
A few months ago I was on a date in the Museum of Science and Industry and there was this camera crew from the station looking for people to record some of their promos. They had a list of types of people they were looking for, one of which was “young couple.” Since we were a “young couple,” I just figured this would be a cool thing to do on a date. Besides – who really watches PBS around here that could possibly have a chance of recognizing me?
Apparently, many many people at UC.
Geeks.
Incidentally, thanks to Hasidic Musician for pointing out that Eli Ata was originally a Chabad niggun, and not a Carlebach one. Correction has been made.



Merits of Modern Modesty

May 10, 2004 Culture

I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes
“Paint it Black” – The Rolling Stones

It’s about 80 degrees here in Chicago, and people on campus are already dressing accordingly.
That’s if you can call it “dressing.”
It’s not that I haven’t been exposed to this before – I mean I did live in Washington Heights for a few years – but I spent most of my time in the YU library (surprise). I’ve also heard the rantings about how women are judged by men and thus are forced to dress accordingly. Even some Orthodox women find “tzniut” rules unfair, difficult, or just really annoying.
For Jews, most people would cite legal sources, and say that certain dress is mandated by Jewish law.1 For the general society non-observant Jews, or frustrated observant Jews, we have books covering the “inspirational” merits of modesty. Still, this doesn’t seem to do it for many women.
Based on my current situation at UC, I’d like to add one more reason for modest dress. To put it as tactfully as possible, many women just don’t have the figure to be dressing in certain ways.2
It’s not a typical “Rabbi” answer and it might seem misogynistic, but it doesn’t make it any less true. Odd as it sounds, dressing modestly can make a women more attractive3 and as bad as the shidduch system is now, without the rules of tzniut, I’m sure it would be much much worse.
Like it or not, we do judge people based on how they look and carry themselves. And I also realize that society has imposed unrealistic expectations for how women (and men for that matter) are supposed to look. There are many degrees and qualities of attractiveness even beyond physical appearence. We also have our flaws. There’s no reason to emphasize them in public.4

1. Maybe I’ll get to the details in a later serious post.
2. This isn’t to suggest that women who can dress certain ways should do so. I’m sure that most if not all women think they look good the way they dress. I’m just saying that far too frequently, they’re just wrong or blind.
3. I fully acknowledge that my perception of what is or is not attractive has been conditioned by my upbringing. Even so, I’m guessing that people will agree with me on this point.
4. This would also apply to other areas such as personality.



To Do This Week

May 1, 2004 Personal
  • Submit Ethnography of cRc
  • MA Thesis Proposal due
  • Writing Seminar Essay
  • Religion, Law, and Culture Essay
  • Religion, Law, and Culture Presentation on An Introduction to Legal Reasoning
  • Continue working on plans for the summer and next year.

If you don’t hear from me this week, don’t take it personally.



Mo’adim Lesimha Legeulah Sheleima

April 27, 2004 Jewish Culture

A happy birthday to the State of Israel. (Thanks to Yair for informing me of the “official” Yom Ha’atzmaut greeting).
Speaking of Israel, I’m not sure when Chabad joined the Shas party, but apparently, the Rebbe is still politically active.
In other random news, kudos to Steve Stanzak for pulling off what I’ve been suggesting for a while: actually living in the library.
A&E home video has just released The Kids in the Hall Season 1 DVD which includes one of my favorite sketches of all time, The Dr. Seuss Bible.



Talmudic Theodicy

April 26, 2004 Jewish Thought, Theology, and Machshava, Random Acts of Scholarship

Recently, I submitted a paper for a class titled “Theology and Mythology of Evil.” The class read texts from several cultures and religions, each attempting to resolve how Evil could exist, especially in a world of an omniscient and beneficent God (or Gods as the case may be).

I noticed in the class a tendency for people to assume that there exists a particular “Jewish” attitude regarding Evil. Although this is true to some extent, the overall perception mirrors the attitude of the yeshiva – that one or two opinions believed by Jews makes the opinion “Jewish” – to the possible exclusion of everything else.

This attitude is precisely what prompted me to start the Mahshevet Hazal shiurim. With this in mind, I collected several sources from the Talmud which illustrate the plurality of opinions regarding the problem of theodicy. While retaining the multiple and often mutually exclusive positions in the Talmud, I offered my suggestions for a unified Rabbinic approach to Evil.

[Continue Reading...]



The New Frum$ter In Action

April 23, 2004 Jewish Dating

As reported in the last post, Frumster has now become a paid subscription service. I concluded that “the bottom line is that much work went into creating and maintaining Frumster, and they deserve something back.” While I still agree with that assessment, I question their choice of implementation.
Today I conducted a little experiment with the help of Shosh. Shosh is currently a paid member, although she suspended her profile, and I am not . To test the system, I sent Shosh a message (after she temporarily activated her account). Being a paid member, Shosh was able to read the message I sent her. However, I was not able to read her response unless I subscribed to the system.
So for those keeping score, paid member can send and read all messages. Basic members can still send messages, but not read ones sent to them. As implemented, this system provides little benefit to subscribing, and will serve only to annoy everyone involved.
Practically, if you’re a paid member, you can only communicate with other paid members. If you’ve paid and the other person hasn’t, that person can’t read your message. Even if you can read the message of a non-member, you still can’t respond unless the other person pays!
If anything, this system will encourage people to move conversations off of Frumster’s system. To avoid paying, a basic member will simple write in the message to respond to an outside e-mail address.
In contrast, JDate seems to have a better system. Last time I checked, anyone can post for free and read messages, but only paid member can initiate contact. The paid members have the advantage, and they do not are not penalized for the other person not paying.
If Frumster doesn’t take the JDate route, I have one possible suggestion for improvement. If a premium member contacts or responds to a basic member, then allow that conversation to continue. The advantage to being a premium member is then the ability to communicate with everyone. However, basic member would only be allowed to communicate with premium members.
I don’t know if this will provide enough incentive to attract subscribers, it would make subscribing a much better value.



The New Frum$ter

April 16, 2004 Jewish Dating

Last night I received an e-mail from the Frumster Team that effective April 23rd, the popular Jewish dating service will become a pay service.
To their credit, Frumster provides a list of reasons for the switch. For one, Frumster will be adding new features, such as an advice column and live tech support over AIM.
Of particular interest is the second reason given, “A Charge Will Actually Attract Many New and Sincere Members”

    Considerable research conducted by Frumster has revealed that a ‘lack of a membership fee’ causes many sincere Orthodox singles to hesitate in using the service. These individuals are unanimous in their critique that a free service is an indication of both an insincere service and potentially insincere members.

This is a tough call. Assuming insincere people will be scared off by the new pay system, many of the existent members only signed up because it was a free service – which is how Frumster became as popular as it is. My sense is that web communities such as this succeed when there is a large and diverse population. When the site is free, it encourages many different types of individuals to sign up – even for the simple “why not” factor. This new financial effort will probably dissuade some of these people from signing up.
Furthermore, if Frumster hasn’t worked for existing members until now, what incentive would they have to pay for the service – especially when the odds of finding someone appropriate will diminish? I’m curious as to how many existing members would be willing to pay for a service which hasn’t worked for them.
I’m not even sure how effective the new scheme will be as a filter. Some of you may remember my Frumster Rant some time ago. Of people that I’ve recently contacted, 7 have not responded – even with the automated rejection. (I’m too nice to directly link to their profiles). My point is that many people (men and women) are just clueless about basic social etiquette. Charging for use of the service isn’t going to help.
The way Frumster presents this reason, it seems that they themselves might not even believe it to be true. Rather, they are just presenting the perception of potential or existing users.
However, regardless of their reasons, I think this new system is more than justified. The team has worked hard to make the site work, and as we know, there is no “free lunch.” Whether or not any of their reasons are accurate, the bottom line is that much work went into creating and maintaining Frumster, and they deserve something back.



Where Have You Been???

April 14, 2004 Personal

*sigh*
Yeah, I’m taking liberties with “somtimes” updated to the point where I’ve been spending more time writing about why I’m not writing then actually writing. Keep in mind that I’m taking two classes this quarter which require weekly writing assignments and I’m changing thesis topics.
Short story is that I’m doing well, really busy, and really tired. In other words, your typical U of C student. Sederaim were typically fun in the Yuter household; it’s a shame we can’t record them. Of particular note, the Rabbis Yuter had a nice tag-team proving why the commandment of retelling the story of the Exodus is not in fact related to the generic “Learning Torah.”
Anyway, the point is that if there are any loyal readers still there, sit tight for hopefully another week or so while I straighten out some things, and recover from Pesach. If all goes well, it should be worth it.
In the meantime, I figured out (I think) the chords to Blue Fringe’s song Flippin’ Out and I added the chords to Carlebach’s Im Eshkachech which, ironically, I had forgotten to post.
Come to think of it, maybe that’s why I haven’t been able to blog…